Back in 2004, two Oakville residents were both attending a weekend sales and marketing seminar. A chance meeting over a couple of drinks led them to quickly realize they had a common vision for a new approach to marketing. They mapped it out on a napkin. Independent businesses needed marketing that produced sales results: that focused not as much on branding as on business development; and they needed a strategy they could implement.
The two men decided to leave their careers, Aby Alameddine in Corporate Finance, and Ben Molfetta a Marketing and Sales Executive. Together, they founded Core Marketing, committed to a financially ROI based approach to helping independent businesses to grow.
They built a planning methodology that drew on their deep experience of designing and costing out marketing plans in the corporate world. This allowed them to work with the business owner and build an implementable strategy to drive sales and give them a return on their investment. Independent business owners liked the concept, and they quickly signed up customers.
Sounds like a great success story doesn’t it? Have an idea, take it to market, execute, and be proven right with early sales.
But of course, it is rarely that easy, and Core was no different. Customers just weren’t coming back for more. Aby and Ben did what all good marketers do. They went to their customers to find out why. The business owners told them they just hadn’t had the time or the people in-house to actually execute the plans, so they weren’t about to sign another contract. Undaunted, they made a major strategic pivot: they offered to handle the implementation of the strategy they had developed, in effect to become a full-service outsourced marketing department. And that was the accelerant that built a company that now employs 20 people and is one of largest business of its kind in Canada.
By 2010, 80% of Core’s activities were on-line, because the results-oriented approach they took to marketing was a great fit with the measurability of internet campaigns. After another weekend chat over a couple of drinks—and another napkin—they settled on a true transformation for the business. They renamed it Core Online Marketing and went to work completely redesigning the company. This meant roles that had never existed before and skillsets that were barely even embryonic in the marketing world at the time. It meant building “CORE” competencies in the analysis of metrics, in the specialized writing demanded by online campaigns, in email marketing, social marketing, search engine optimization, online advertising, analytics, and a host of other capabilities.
Of course, as they had moved into the online space, they had acquired some of these abilities ad hoc. This was different. Online marketing was now CORE to their mission, and they built an offering designed for independent business: priced so that they could do enough marketing for long enough to make a difference, but at a cost a small business could handle. Putting their team at the disposal of their customers, they offered all the skills needed for an online marketing programme at the cost of a single employee.
Of course, small and medium businesses ate it up, right? Well, not so much. As so often with a creative inspiration aiming to help make the future, Aby and Ben were ahead of the curve. Customers who only four years later would be panicking because they weren’t in the online marketing game saw it as a techie fad to begin with.
Undaunted, they decided to double down. Realizing it was an awareness and understanding problem, they decided to sell their capabilities by education. They ran monthly two-hour seminars at the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. 15 to 20 people would show up. Very few responded at first, but when they were ready, Core would get the call. he company really took off, from 2 employees in 2010 to 20 in less than 5 years.
CORE Online Marketing now has 6 clearly defined roles in the business, each with its own onboarding and training system. Online marketing has exploded, and as industry leaders, CORE is committed to staying ahead of the curve. “Staying current is really challenging,” says Ben, “What works and what is available evolves in every practice area of online marketing. We need to do hours of training and skills upgrading with our employees, constantly.”
To be effective at CORE Online Marketing, employees must be immersed in the industry. Only a company committed solely to the online space could do this. “Graduates come in with basic skills, but need specific training to be effective with our clients,” says Ben. Core invests heavily in its own in-house proprietary technology to manage planning, content, and reporting and multiple other modules: it is now such a powerful platform that they intend to market it to other agencies and companies with in-house marketing teams.
They have already launched two commercial software offerings. One, privatefootprint.com, a joint venture with one of their long-term legal clients, helps protect the value of a law firm’s client’s file by allowing lawyers to monitor their clients’ social media…so they won’t be surprised when an insurance company, for example, with huge resources, pulls out a Facebook post that, taken out of context, might undermine a personal injury case the lawyer has taken on contingency and invested two years in. The other offering is designed to support email marketers. “Everything we do is all about metrics, measurability and accountability,” says Aby. “We can see huge potential to leverage our software development into tools both for our own industry and for client verticals.”
Ben Molfetta grew up in Oakville and Aby Alameddine has been here since 1999. Their children attended Oakville schools, and CORE Online Marketing has supported Big Brothers and Big Sisters, from well before it became successful. Aby has served as Chair of the Oakville Chamber of Commerce, and Ben is now on the board. Philosophically, they embody and believe in a diverse team, and value respect to their team, clients, and suppliers. Clients do not sign contracts: they stay with CORE Online Marketing because they want to, because they are getting value.
CORE Online Marketing is located in the Oakville downtown CORE in the old O’Finns Pub building, and the beautiful downtown and lakeside setting have helped them attract and keep the kind of employees whose skills have become integral to their offering. “We make a big investment in our people, so that really matters,” says Aby. Some employees got their first exposure to online marketing at a course given at Sheridan College: the first online marketing course in Canada, developed and written by CORE Online Marketing in 2013, and delivered for the first two semesters by Ben Molfetta.
In the CORE of Oakville, powered by CORE values, and CORE to the growth of businesses across Canada, the United States, and Internationally, CORE Online Marketing can be found at https://coreonlinemarketing.com or 905-844-0011.