Woody conceived a strategic plan to position, BETCO a metal storage building manufacturer as a single-source self-storage resource. The results have been dramatic. In the two years the company has worked with Gotham for strategic marketing planning and execution, BETCO sales increased 60 percent in the first year and are on pace to grow another 40 percent in the second (current) year. Due to increased demand, BETCO added a second shift and is presently at 100 percent of manufacturing capacity.
Precision Drive Systems (PDS) hired Woody to virtually direct their marketing program in mid-2017. Woody helped with marketing management, as well as, helping PDS to establish an annual marketing budget and executed the creative and management of all the inbound/outbound content and deadlines. Due to longevity and a woodworking focus, PDS is well known and had saturated the industry. In 2019, an aggressive push was enacted to recruit the much larger and lucrative metalworking industry. Through customer surveys, analytical data and market research, Gotham significantly helped the profitability of PDS, while raising brand awareness and inbound sales opportunities.
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Southern Glove, is a personal protection equipment (PPE) manufacturer that has been family-owned since 1945. Woody has helped the company with marketing deliverables for over 10 years and has managed the comprehensive marketing program as marketing director for four years. One highlight of the Southern Glove marketing program was the deployment of a new responsive website and inbound tactics such as a blog, Pay-per-click, email campaigns, and social media content distribution. Within a year, the company realized a 90 percent increase in monthly visits to the site, 50 percent more pages viewed, and nine times the mobile visits.
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Woody helped launch Applachian State University’s new Hickory, NC campus, called the Hickory Metro Higher Education Center (HMHEC). A strategic marketing plan was created and executed which enhanced brand awareness to the point that the Center experienced a tripling of enrollment within the first four years of its existence.
After 20 years in business, Cline Associates saw the need for a refresh on their branding efforts and brought Woody in to take the lead. Providing the creative impetus for the complete re-branding, including logo, business cards, website, and more, Woody left Cline Associates with “something that any large corporation would be proud of,” according to President, Dean Cline.
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BENZ is an established brand in European markets, but despite a great reputation for advanced engineering and tooling performance, the company’s North American presence, BENZ, Inc. lacked brand awareness in its target markets of wood, metal, and composites. Woody developed a strategic plan that encompassed a new web presence, print and online marketing, trade shows, direct marketing, both paid and organic search, and social media.
Since launching BENZ, Inc.’s brand strategy, the company has experienced growth in name awareness, brand recognition, leads, and sales. Revenue has grown an average of 28% over the three years Woody has managed the marketing program.
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As virtual CMO for Beech Mountain Club, Woody built a strategic plan to recruit new and retain existing members. From this plan, new messaging and tactics were launched within a newly rebranded public-facing website. Additionally, Woody participated in and evaluated the tour that prospective members took and offered suggestions to improve the overall experience. Existing paid search accounts were reviewed and revamped, and a local billboard campaign was implemented. Results included heightened brand awareness both locally and regionally, increased web traffic, and lead generation. Within the year, Beech Mountain Club increased retention over previous years and is far ahead of the plan for adding new members.
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In 2010, Woody stepped into the role of Virtual Marketing Director for the Japanese-based machine tools manufacturing leader, which did not have an in-house marketing department. As a result, Murata’s approach to marketing was reactive. Applying proactive, strategic marketing concepts, the company has seen tremendous results during Woody’s tenure. In 2013, under Woody’s leadership, the Turning business unit experienced its best sales year in the company’s 40-year history.
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In a down economy, Woody developed a fundraising strategy to raise $3.6 million in capital for the expansion of the Science Center to include a water touch tank and a digital planetarium. The strategy included name creation, branding, a campaign plan, and successful execution.
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Woody conceived strategic marketing concepts and executed plans to rent vacant buildings, raise property values, and stimulate retail sales. Since the strategy was prepared in 2000, many recommendations are still in place – the street flags that mark downtown, outdoor dining, Art Crawls, Farmer’s Market, and a beer festival- Hickory Hops, among others.
Beech Mountain Tourism Development Authority promotes Eastern America’s Highest Town – Beech Mountain, NC at 5,506 feet above sea level. Filled with charm and hospitality, this all-season destination offers community festivals and events, shopping, skiing, hiking, biking, and much more.
NC Granite is one of the nation’s premier suppliers of granite for domestic and international use. Located in Mt Airy, NC, the company operates from the world’s largest open-faced quarry. Its products include granite curbing and landscaping, granite slabs and blocks, architectural stone, and crushed stone.
My company just finished a rebranding for our 20th anniversary. Woody provided the creative influence for all facets of our re-launch, including our logo, business card creation, and website design. As a small company with limited knowledge of marketing, it was great to have Woody take our ideas and turn them into something that any large corporation would be proud of. Woody is knowledgeable in his field, he is to be trusted and he will deliver a product that will exceed your expectations. I would recommend his team and would gladly use him again for our next project.
I have worked with Woody on two different occasions and have been pleased with the results both times. Woody is easy to work with and listens to ideas you bring to the table with an open mind. His creativity and his ability to think of effective solutions have impressed me each time we have worked together. I will use him again when the opportunity arises.
As a marketing director for a nonprofit, I have had the privilege to work with Woody on several projects, including a capital campaign, logo re-design, and complete website upgrade. His creative and collaborative skills are top-notch. He took time to become familiar with the organization’s immediate needs, as well as the greater story we wanted to tell while keeping to our mission. If you want polished and professional, creative and consistent, then I would recommend Woody.
Gotham LLC did an outstanding job creating our new Website www.grasche.com the final result exceeded our expectations, and Woody took our initial concept and ran with it. Woody and his staff were very easy to work and communicate with, they handled our many last-minute changes very professionally and promptly.
In the two years we worked together, Woody’s experience and leadership were valuable. He helped add sophistication to our overall marketing effort including annual budget planning and execution, branding consistency, social media engagement growth, and increased brand awareness in our core vertical markets.
This message is an expression of my appreciation and gratitude for your professional contribution in reversing our stagnation in top-line sales. Your creative marketing strategies and inputs have become synchronized with our field sales activities. This has produced a significant uptick in new customers and increased sales opportunities. Many new contacts, when visiting PDS, have remarked favorably on our revamped website. Our website is giving the impression that PDS is much larger than we actually are. As a result, we are pleased with the value received from our marketing budget and our reduced previous spending waste on lackluster trade show results.
Hiring Woody as a virtual CMO for Beech Mountain Club has helped organize and strengthen our strategic marketing approach to retaining and adding new members. Woody oversaw our successful marketing rebrand including, a new search-optimized website, and introduced new tactical ideas that helped us exceed our planned membership goals. He is a single point of contact for our entire marketing team and manages the program throughout the year. We find Woody easy to work with and an asset to our leadership team.
As a marketing director for a nonprofit, I have had the privilege to work with Woody on a number of projects, including a capital campaign, logo re-design and complete website upgrade. His creative and collaborative skills are top notch. He took time to become familiar with the organization’s immediate needs, as well as the greater story we wanted to tell, while keeping to our mission. If you want polished and professional, creative and consistent, then I would recommend Woody.
We have always had a great reputation for building our line of reliable, HASKO heavy-built machines within the hardwood flooring industry. However, most of our marketing efforts were minimal and didn’t reflect the quality of the machines we built. Woody helped elevate our branding in one year with a logo, business card rebrand, overview video, product videos, press releases, trade advertising, social media, inbound marketing, and a new trade show booth. He invested the time to understand our business, our culture, and our overall goals to craft a strategic marketing plan to help us reach additional woodworking markets that had been previously untapped. Woody was easy to work with and we are extremely pleased with the results.
When Woody first approached BETCO about his month-to-month, virtual Marketing Director service. BETCO was just emerging from the “Great Recession”, which had effectively ended new self-storage building products for a few years. We liked the concept of hiring a 30-year marketing veteran on a part-time basis. The first year we worked together, Woody was able to build a cohesive marketing strategy, rebrand the company, and create and implement inbound/outbound marketing that helped grow our first-year sales by 60%. Our second-year sales grew by 40% and enabled us to add a second production shift. Our marketing program is now highly organized and a CRM is used to measure leads and keep our internal sales team organized. Although Woody requires no contracts and is month-to-month, he has led our marketing program for four years at the fraction of the cost of a full-time Marketing Director. Woody is trustworthy, knowledgeable and he understands how to take companies to the next level.