When Roland Reinhart took the leap and launched his own marketing and advertising business in Bridgewater in the middle of 2008, he had no idea that the economy was about to take a nosedive.
But despite the challenges, Reinhart has blazed a new path for himself and his company, Reinhart Marketing Group, by following his passion—to help small- and medium-sized businesses enjoy the same marketing and branding tools available to Fortune 500 companies at an affordable price.
Reinhart, who enjoyed a stable and enjoyable career working for a number of advertising and marketing companies since 1988, yearned to have his own business. He wanted to fill what he saw as a growing need—to offer sophisticated branding, marketing and advertising methods and tools that could be scaled for newly-formed and smaller businesses.
“I was very lucky throughout my career to work with some of the biggest brands in the world, and therefore was able to spend millions of dollars on groundbreaking marketing tools,” said Reinhart. “But I wanted to take what I had learned and make it available to the little guy.”
“For most clients, I develop a whole new custom website, search engine and advertising plan,” he added. “I begin with getting to the heart of what they are trying to accomplish. Then we can layer on marketing tactics that make sense, including search engine marketing, email marketing, audio/video content, social media marketing, direct mail and more.”
Reinhart also has a passion for what he calls “demystifying technology.”
“A lot of small business owners say, well we have a website,” he said. “But beyond that, they don’t know what to do next.”
Reinhart said he works with small business owners by first assessing what they are really trying to accomplish and what they can afford, and then coming up with the best solutions.
The technology has changed, giving smaller businesses access to sophisticated tools, he said.
“A website that years ago would cost $70,000 to build can be built now for under $5,000,” he said.
Reinhart gives small business owners the tools to manage their own websites if that makes sense for them. As much as possible, he said, he tries to equip them with whatever they need so they can be as independent as possible when managing their own communications plans.
In addition to running his company, Reinhart teaches several classes and serves as a business counselor for the Small Business Development Center at Raritan Valley Community College.
“I love helping entrepreneurs identify specifically what they want to offer and the best way to do it,” he said.
One of his success stories involves ATA Martial Arts, in Branchburg.
“The owner, Cory McNallan, is a young man who had a website up and running, but it just wasn’t generating enough new business,” Reinhart said.
Reinhart, who teaches a class in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), worked with McNallan to identify his target audience, and then designed the website for it to become highly visible in the major search engines for the keywords his desired audience most frequently used. The result is that the website receives a steady stream of ideal visitors, allowing McNallan to use his marketing dollars on other tactics to promote his business.
“This is now one of the best performing small business websites I’ve ever worked on,” Reinhart said. “And McNallan has often told me that he’s very happy with the traffic that it has generated.”
“It’s such a good feeling to help a small business owner,” Reinhart added. “After all, it’s the small business that’s going to revive this economy and make it strong.”
For more information visit Reinhart Marketing Group at reinhartmarketing.com.
March 4, 2009
By MaryLynn Schiavi
Staff Writer
Bridgewater Patch
