Inspiring Conversations with Julie Dion of Dion Marketing Company
Today we’d like to introduce you to Julie Dion.
Hi Julie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
My story begins as a child watching Mikey try Life Cereal. Without even realizing it, I was curious about how Mikey’s older brother persuaded him to try a new cereal. All he did was scoot the bowl in front of Mikey to see if he would try it, and not only did he try it, “He likes it! Mikey likes it!”
I can still hear his voice proclaim in surprise how Mikey liked Life Cereal. If Mikey liked the cereal, then maybe I would, too. Fast forward over forty years later, and I am still eating Life cereal. I’m one of those geeks who watch the Superbowl for the ads.
For as long as I can remember, I have actually enjoyed commercial breaks during TV shows, looking at highway billboards, and checking out how businesses brand themselves online and off. I also remember checking out and critiquing the ads in my dad’s Time Magazines also when I was very young!
Like a lot of us who grew up in the ’70s and ’80s, television was our main source of entertainment, with only a handful of TV stations to choose from. While TV commercials are still a relevant medium for advertising, it was even more valuable back then with less segmentation and sophistication on how TV was consumed.
I knew from an early age that the power of influence, along with creative liberties that are allowed to be taken in the advertising industry, fascinated me since the first commercial I remember viewing, and I have always known that I wanted to work in advertising.
While attending college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for a degree in Journalism and concentration in advertising, I interned at an ad agency and a magazine in order to get some experience, and since graduating, I have gained valuable experience by working for a few companies in various advertising roles.
For many years, I was the VP of marketing for Adventure Landing, a group of 17 family entertainment centers throughout the US, and that is when I fell in love with marketing and advertising amusement parks, waterparks, and attractions.
I was so enthralled in all things marketing related to the industry, that I would self-fund trips to trade shows, symposiums, and marketing conferences to learn everything there was to learn about marketing in this industry.
After a decade flew by, I began to realize that I had more experience and more insights than many of the marketing speakers I would listen to. However, public speaking was one of the most frightening things I could think of doing. I decided to take the ultimate personal challenge and apply to be a speaker.
I was accepted to be a marketing speaker at an international waterpark conference on the subject of the importance of promotions. I was so nervous that I heavily prepared and even memorized my entire 90-minute presentation to help overcome my fears of messing up. Days before the presentation, no one could even talk to me.
You would have thought I was preparing for the MET or a major film, While it was, and still is, a personal challenge to speak in front of large audiences, it was a pivotal moment in my life.
I wasn’t necessarily a great presenter, but from the content of my presentation, it was obvious that I knew what I was talking about and speaking from experience. After the conference, I was approached by multiple brands about my availability to market their parks. Fortunately for me, my boss at the time was fine with me doing a “side hustle” as long as the quality of work I provided them was maintained.
As my side work grew, so did my love for helping businesses grow through marketing tactics. Ten years ago, I took the plunge and left my corporate position to devote 100% of my professional work to building and growing my company, Dion Marketing, and have never looked back.
I still speak on marketing subjects at conferences and did some virtual presentations during the pandemic, which is the best form of marketing I have done for the business. Being a speaker means you have a captive audience of potential, future clients on who you are making an impression on without being salesy.
Not only have speaking engagements provided credibility as well as self-confidence from all the positive feedback from attendees and current clients, but it has also been a great source for gaining new clients.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Being a small business owner who is self-funded has had its challenges. In the very beginning, I knew I had about 3 months to get a client before the money ran out. Once that was achieved, it has been a steady build year over year, until the pandemic forced several of our clients in the attractions industry to close.
Many of them never recouped and closed permanently. In 2020, we lost over 50% of our business because of it. However, it caused me to focus on becoming more diverse in the types of clients we work with.
Now, not only do we work with some of the best attraction brands in the country, but we also work with global nonprofits, manufacturing and technology companies, colleges, schools, health care providers, and local nonprofits, too. And, in 2021 we were able to grow the business back to pre-pandemic levels, and we are on track for having the best year yet in 2022!
Staffing is also an ongoing challenge! Being a small business, I struggle with being able to offer the same benefits packages and perks that large organizations can offer. That is something I am always focusing on as far as employee retention. Additionally, staffing needs are contingent on client needs.
So, finding the right balance to offer staff while needing them to be somewhat flexible has helped us secure and retain some great individuals.
As you know, we’re big fans of Dion Marketing Company. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Dion Marketing Company is an award-winning, strategic marketing firm that helps businesses grow. We specialize in marketing plan development and execution, advertising, public relations, social media, and graphic design.
Dion Marketing is located in Jacksonville, FL, but has a nationwide presence working with dozens of large and small family entertainment centers, waterparks, seasonal attractions, theme parks, and destination icons in tourist markets throughout the United States.
Clients also include global nonprofit organizations, government entities, education, healthcare, manufacturers, b2b businesses, and retailers.
A lot of businesses spend lots of money and effort on advertising and promotion to try to get customers. What we do is sit down with those businesses, help them define their marketing objectives, and then Dion Marketing Company executes the marketing strategy for them so they can generate more business with less marketing expense.
What matters most to you? Why?
Our company vision is to provide focused and targeted marketing efforts, which will produce measurable, positive results while being cost-effective and most efficient in spending.
While that is true, pleasing our clients is most important and rewarding. It truly matters to us that we provide our clients with excellent service and measurable results. Nothing pleases us more than knowing when our clients are satisfied and overly satisfied with our efforts.
Our company culture says it all and is an acronym for DION:
D -Driven, Dedicated, and Dynamic.
Being driven means that we strive for excellence and focused results. We are dedicated to our responsibilities, our clients, and the team. Dynamic means that we are positive in attitude and full of energy and new ideas.
I -Integrity-minded, Innovative, and Interactive.
Integrity is when we do the right thing when no one is watching, being honest and forthright. Being innovative means that we introduce new ideas, we are original and creative in thinking. We interact with each other, bringing out the best ideas and strategies through collaboration.
O – Original, Open-minded, and Optimistic.
We offer new, fresh, inventive, and original ideas and campaigns. We are open-minded to trying new strategies that are backed with facts and insights. Optimism is required at Dion Marketing. Being optimistic is not being unrealistic but it is setting our vision in front of us and moving towards it with enthusiasm.
N – Nice, Nimble, and Now.
We believe in the power of nice. We are nice to each other, our clients, and to anyone that calls or walks in the
door. Nimble is intelligence as revealed by quickness and alertness of mind. Now is being ON the ball and delivering excellence in a timely manner to our clients. It is not putting anything off.