Corey Quinn is the Chief Marketing Officer at Scorpion. This rapidly growing digital marketing agency works with small business owners primarily, including attorneys, dentists, and home services businesses.
From 100 Employees to 750 in Four Years
In 2015, Corey began as the sole marketing professional in Scorpion’s marketing department. He wrote all of the marketing copy, executed every strategy, and ran events. Today, he oversees a team of 19+ people while coaching, leading, and guiding strategy.
Corey’s entrepreneurial mindset and top performance in sales drove his early career. He founded a successful streaming business and worked for the likes of Morgan Stanley and Science, an incubator for startups. During this time he also got his MBA at USC in finance and entrepreneurship.
When he was recruited by Scorpion and learned that their customer retention rate was 95% (much higher than the typical 50% in their industry), Corey knew he had to take the job. The founder-led business was ready to scale, and he took the lead in formalizing their corporate marketing strategy. He improved and expanded their inbound marketing process and added outbound marketing and experiential marketing to their strategy.
Growth Drivers
Over the last four years of steady scaling, Corey has seen three critical factors drive their growth.
#1: Investing in their own marketing.
In the last two quarters, Scorpion has spent nearly $1 million on gourmet cookies as part of its “Uniquely Striking Impression” concept. This is the idea that good marketing should give customers a pause, an experience that they will remember. This investment in their own marketing did not happen overnight. They put serious time and resources into understanding their ideal customer and perfecting the quality of their list. While this kind of spending may not feasible for every business, this concept can still drive your marketing.
#2: Know your retention rate.
When you have a strong retention rate, the value of your client increases and you are able to out-market your competition. For example, Corey says if he knows that every new customer is going to spend $10,000, he can then decide what percentage of that number he is willing to spend on marketing to acquire that customer. The cost of acquisition in each vertical you focus on will go down over time as you create a presence and become known as a leader in the space.
#3: Your customer is the hero. You are the guide.
Corey shares how Donald Miller’s StoryBrand formula transformed the way they market themselves. The client is their own hero, and they are looking to Scorpion as a guide in their journey to success.
“I recommend any business owner to consider how they’re speaking about themselves and whether or not they’re positioning themselves or their client as the hero.”
Finding Your Niche
When companies focus on a niche they can serve customers on a deeper level. Corey shares how Scorpion does serious work to understand who their target customers are.
- Identify their primary objections. Create copy and collateral that answers their questions and objections before they have even called you.
- Know their demographic details like age, city, education, etc.
- Know their psychographic details like the motivation behind their buying decision and why they want to make a change.
- Study your competition in that niche to inform your marketing and help you stand out.
- Go straight to your clients and ask them what motivated their decisions, how they found you, and why they decided to work with you.
- Visit chat rooms, comment sections, and research reviews on the internet to look at what your customers are saying, the language they’re using and the struggles they are facing. This idea from Joanna Wiebe reaps great results.
All of these details will help inform the effectiveness of your marketing and the quality of your list, which Corey emphasizes is a top priority.
“If the list is wrong, if you don’t have a good list, then all of that downstream activity is not going to be as powerful as if you have a great list. Many people just don’t spend enough time on the list.”
Corey’s Advice
Double-down on your list. Spend more time and resources to curate a quality list of clients you are going to go after.
Contact:
- LinkedIn: Corey Quinn
- Instagram: @coreyquinncmo
- The Sharpest Tool: scorpion.co/thesharpesttool
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