Tim Fitzpatrick, Back-to-Basics Marketing and Owning Your Audience

Tim Fitzpatrick is President of Rialto Marketing, a marketing agency based in Denver, Colorado, that’s hyper-focused on back-to-basics marketing. Rather than the spray-and-pray, experiment with every tactic out there method, Tim’s group narrows in on marketing fundamentals, laying strong foundations off of which their clients can build in the long run. With this narrow focus, Rialto eliminates distractions and helps businesses grow with less stress. Listen in on our conversation to hear what marketing wisdom Tim has acquired along the way. Enjoy!

Tim and CJ Discuss the Importance of Marketing Foundations, Owning Your Audience and Creating the Job You Want

Connect with Tim

• Rialtomarketing.com/the-fling/

Episode Overview

• In an effort to stay in front of his target market during these “socially distant” times, Tim is guest speaking on as many podcasts as he can, hence our conversation today. His advice for anyone aspiring to start a podcast or to become a podcast interviewee is not to try to be everything to everyone. If you’re going to try something new, you’re going to have to suck at it at first. There’s a growing period that’s hard to overcome, especially if the process is public, but you have to make mistakes to really get good at something. 
• Tim started his career managing all aspects of a wholesale business that sold home theater equipment. The company’s rapid growth accelerated his hands-on work experience, and he believes he learned more in the six months he ran that business than he did all through his Berkeley college experience. 
• His career journey led him into residential real estate next--and back out of it after realizing his dissatisfaction with his day to day work. This led Tim to evaluate what he loved most from all his favorite roles up to this point.
• Rialto Marketing is a sum of all of Tim’s favorite parts of working in the distribution industry: dynamic work that helps business owners grow their businesses. Rialto is a marketing agency that helps businesses simplify marketing so they can grow with less stress. 
• Tim’s experience building apps for Google and Apple through Rialto Marketing taught him the value of building audiences in channels that you own. Rather than being under the constraints of a third-party platform, developing something like an email list warrants you complete control over your interactions with your followers. 
• You’ll see the difference in Rialto Marketing’s processes and offerings right away if you work with them. They emphasize the importance of marketing foundations: understanding your target audience, developing clear and effective messaging, and honing in on the right channels.
• Tim and CJ discuss the importance of developing a marketing strategy before diving into execution, comparing it to running a marathon, for which a person trains and equips themselves with the proper footwear, clothing and diet, focusing on the long win. 
• Emphasizing marketing foundations has its challenges, no matter how essential it is. For example, CJ grapples with finding the right time to transition from strategy into execution. A plan could be endlessly iterated, holding you back from diving into production. On the other hand, some clients don’t have the patience for strategy and planning; they just want leads and sales as soon as possible. 
• Tim is happy to lose business due to his focus on marketing fundamentals. That’s how confident he is that a marketing plan must be built on the basics to last. He makes the point that you could waste money on a poorly targeted/thought out campaign, or you can “waste” a month or two on strategy that will pay back in dividends later on when your marketing becomes more effective thanks to said strategy. 
• A lot of small business owners don’t have one single person overseeing marketing efforts. They may have a handful of service providers operating separately, such as social media, website development, and SEO agencies. That’s a lot to manage, and with little coordination across disciplines, the marketing overall loses cohesivity. That’s why Tim’s team offers to manage marketing programs for his clients, becoming that single point of contact with a pulse on all marketing activity. 
• How is Tim looking ahead to 2021? He doesn’t foresee much change to the way business is being done early on in the new year, and so his advice to business owners is: if you’re not thriving, now’s the time to find a way to thrive in your existing circumstances. There’s still business going on in this climate, it just looks a little different. And content is so, so important for businesses that service other businesses at this time. Podcasts, live video, blogging to add value to our market and stay top of mind... these are tactics that will keep on giving long after the pandemic has abated.