Meet Gainesville marketing powerhouse Olga Sinnreich

I recently had the chance to meet local marketing powerhouse Olga Sinnreich. Olga works with Gainesville businesses that want to position themselves for growth. I first heard of her when she was presenting at a local digital marketing meetup on persuasive copywriting. When I couldn’t attend, I reached out to see if she could meet me for lunch. Besides being a lovely person in general, she brings a lot of passion and knowledge in branding. I decided I just had to introduce her here on my site! She took a few minutes to answer a few questions for me below.

Tell us about your realm of expertise – how do you help businesses?

I help businesses unlearn bad, undifferentiated marketing. I teach business owners, entrepreneurs, sales people and marketing professionals advanced marketing skills – positioning, creativity and persuasive copywriting.

Brand is one of those words that feels intangible to many. Can you make it real for us?

Many people think that they can create a brand by putting together a string of beautiful and impressive words. They forget that brand also means ‘reputation’. And reputation is created by reality – the product. Products create brands. Brands don’t create products.

How would you go about getting a company on the right track when it comes to marketing? What are the first, second and third things you look at?

There are three steps in good marketing:

1. Diagnostics (market research);
2. Strategy (segmentation and positioning);
3. Tactical execution.

All these three are equally important. Many businesses worry too much about tactics and digital presence. They completely skip a part about building a strategy. Lacking a solid strategy leads to cluttering marketing channels with undifferentiated messages. This clutter undermines a company’s differentiation and the brand itself.

What are some of the mistakes you see businesses make when it comes to positioning?

Many people believe that basic issue in marketing is convincing prospects that you have a better product or service.

Not true.

Marketing is not a battle of products. It’s a battle of perceptions. Businesses need to position themselves to be first in the category, not to be better. Trying to be better is a constant uphill battle.

Have you followed this process for another business/yourself? Tell us a little about that!

The best way to position yourself is by repositioning your competition. My marketing agency The Underdog provides consulting services, like a dozen of other marketing agencies in Gainesville. Yet, I differentiated myself by running workshops where I teach my clients how to become their own marketers so they don’t have to hire a marketing agency again.

How will you know your workshops are working?

I will get feedback and keep in touch with people who attended. I want to host free speaking presentations for them in the future where they will be able to learn more about advanced marketing concepts.

Is there a particular resource you’d recommend those interested in copywriting read?

I embrace all concepts. I read everything on marketing, copywriting and branding. I believe in solid fundamentals. Every person who does marketing for their business should read Claude Hopkins ‘Scientific Advertising’ and ‘Triggers’ by Joseph Sugarman.

Any local resources you recommend?

A local resource that I like is “Frank” and, obviously, my blog.

Where can we learn more about you?

Visit my website or email me at olga@theunderdog.marketing. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for updates on my free speaking presentations. I will be very happy to meet anybody interested in becoming their own marketer in person.

Thanks so much, Olga!