Charting New Directions.

The Difference is You.™

April 2024 | Brand & Database Marketing | Background & Current Services

I am currently offering marketing and writing services including permission e-mail/database marketing and e-commence support in tandem to building out ZENECIST.

Your call/inquiry is welcome. Thanks, Tom Lanen (508) 951-0130 | Email

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OVERVIEW OF QUALIFICATIONS: THOMAS MARKETING SERVICES CORPORATION ERA (1989-2023)

(Edit: April 2024) If you’re a business owner ready to generate more revenue there’s no time better than now to kick-start your marketing to make it happen. It’s also absolutely the right moment to get out front and build revenue, momentum and brand equity–with more projectable results you can see, count and manage. Even if marketing isn’t your thing.

Why hire a fixed-cost marketing staffer or pricey agency, when I can be your go-to, get-it-done resource for a fraction of the cost? The only reason might be if you wait too long to engage my limited bandwidth, only now available after a 5-year contract as Director of Marketing for what became a 5-location retailer plus 4500+ product online store during my watch — and which netted my principal a nice endgame payday.

You see, I work especially well with business owners who don’t love marketing but get they need it to grow, regardless of the economy. Those who want do-able options to sustain and expand their revenue streams. Well, I’m all about options. Because there is always an answer to the challenge at hand. Always. Even if you sometimes feel reluctant to gain more attention for yourself, and your business. That’s just natural.

“It’s not easy to run a business.
Not everyone can do it.”

Ted Lanen (1926-2008) , Sales Engineer (Tufts EE),
Owner, Leo C. Pelkus Inc., Wellesley, MA
New England Manufacturer’s Rep, Emerson Electric/Wiegand

Just give me, Tom Lanen, a call and let’s have a confidential chat. Right now if you want. It costs you nothing — unlike inaction, which can cost you opportunity. 508 951-0130

If we’re of like mind and it makes sense to you, I can help get revenue-generating programs off your ‘to-do when I have time list’ and into the ‘done and kicking it column’ — fast. Because I’ve never been accused of lacking enthusiasm — and nothing gets me more fired up than working with good people ready to make a difference. And I’ve been told, more than once, my positive intensity is infectious — you know, in a good way.

A disciple of the P&G school of strategic brand marketing, my core strengths are in retail, consumer package goods (CPG), and technology sectors, including medical and healthcare. I also have a strong sense of the entertainment & hospitality categories having worked in customer-facing roles.

Projects have run the gamut of marketing strategies and tactics including branded content & writing, e-mail marketing, merchandising, and advertising & creative services for digital and analog channels.

I am well-versed in creating lead generation websites, and e-Comm shopping sites (Big Commerce, Shopify, Squarespace, WP, etc.) including user interface (UI/UX) strategies, design, imaging & content — even crunch-time posting and website population.

Recent documented e-mail marketing strategies and tactics have tripled the industry average Open Rate (45%+ versus the 17.1% category Open Rate average).

A Brand Is A Story & Its People, Products & Services–And Customers–Are Its Chapters.

A brand is anything but static. But if its core story–your vision–is tied to a strategic communications platform and a defined position, its tactics can be managed, measured, and executed to create revenue, momentum and equity, the sum of its parts greater than the whole.

Tom Lanen, principal, during the summer of 2022 at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, MA where he fully enjoyed the Season Pass his 20-something sons gave to him for his birthday – 34 shows!

My mission, in partnership with my principals, is to tell the Brand Story through process-driven and compelling content that engages and informs, while addressing the real issues of customers and constituents. And those who would be.

The story, and how it’s presented, create ‘comfort levels’ needed to make a purchase decision be it as small as clicking through to a sale or as large as a capital equipment acquisition. It also helps people believe what they know, which can be a real issue, and affirms and validates their comfort.

And it’s about helping people build the confidence needed to make your brand part of their own personal and professional brands. This creates loyalty, goodwill, and salable equity, a real valuation metric – and a significant element of any brand owner’s endgame.

Samples of Recent Work 1 | Samples of Recent Work 2

You’re the director. The Difference Is You.™

Tell Me Your Goals & I’ll Give You Options.
Affordable, Do-Able Options.

Permission-Based E-mail – Brand Communication Strategy/Platform, Copy, Email Formatting (via your Email Service Provider – MailChimp, Constant Contact, EMMA, etc.) Recent documented Open Rates averaging over 40% (industry average is 17% according to SpringBot ESP)

• Point-Of Sale – Art & Copy; also Large Format Printing

Blogs – Research & Write/Post, create imaging and/or video, SEO: WordPress, Medium, etc.

Website/Commerce Pages/SEO Copy – also populating and imaging via most CMS & Shopping Platforms: Big Commerce, Shopify, Squarespace, etc.

• Thought-Leadership Articles – Writing & editing based upon executive input

Presentations – Video, Powerpoint, Speeches, etc.

• Trade Show Booths – Semi-Custom & Custom – Strategy, Concept & Design

• Sales & Marketing Literature, Sales Decks – Copy & Art, also Printing

Technical Writing & User Manuals

Advertising – Online, Print, Broadcast, Cable; Direct Mail, E-mail

Strategic Brand (Marketing & HR) Creation and Development: Identity/Logo, Brand Standards, Positioning, Culture/Human Resources, Coaching

My rate is moderate. Our first discussion is always on me. And I work to budgets – at the speed of retail. And, I take direction well.

If you engage me beyond a single project I can offer significant volume discounts, assuming available bandwidth. The longer we work together, the more efficient it gets. Cash discounts also considered.

Art and/or imaging will be quoted in advance or you can provide your own. I’m happy to work with your existing creative and marketing relationships and resources.

Need it done well and fast? You got it. I provide real value and measurable results. And, I can demonstrate it with metrics and documentation to prove it.

It’s really easy to work with me. I’m here to give you do-able and affordable options that can help make you more successful. Simple.

I’m Tom Lanen, and I welcome your call. Let’s talk a few moments on my nickel.

All credit cards and bank transfer (ACH/EFT) are accepted.

508 951-0130 | Email

On Being: Creative Muscle Memory

Check out a short video of my first ever creation – beyond hundreds of ads brochures, websites, blogs, and permission emails.

Straight From The Heart

I might not have guessed it would come to this, and maybe the concept is more “evolved to this,” but as an older dual-brained adult I find myself at a funny crossroads of my life.

My metric/analytical side pushes me to make money, a pragmatic goal given my 401k kept us in home and college tuitions during back-to-back health challenges now a decade past.

And my creative side refuses to stop creating, albeit very differently than in the days of my agency roles.

Not that I’ve wanted to stop creating in an agency or brand function; I’d love to make money writing copy or blogs or even tech writing for clients as I have most all my career.

Here’s the thing. The cosmos says …

Read More on Deflector: this is a FREE READ on Medium.com’s paid blog portal

A Mid-Summer Night’s Report: Why Yes, Someone is Home at Thomas Marketing Services

Tom Lanen, here (with the blue Maui Jims) at the Snoop Dog/Whiz Kalifa show at the Xfinity Center outdoor amphitheater in Mansfield, MA (my 20-something sons gave me another season pass this summer–went to 34 shows last season); at this show with my pals from the hydroponics store chain where I was Marketing Director (Contract) for 5 years prior to its acquisition by a multi-state operator/holding company in a cash/stock deal.

You’d think our 34th anniversary on July 3rd, The Feast of St. Thomas, would prompt at least a mention here. But noooo, I’ve just been too busy living my best (semi-retired) life thanks to the fact my sons are killing it with their careers and life paths so I don’t worry about them. And my clear and unabating need to create has found a new focus.

First to the business. I’ve decided my workday is now from 7AM – Noon, give or take, when I will focus on helping small businesses create brand brand equity and momentum–a salable brand story and marketing strategy–with an endgame goal driven by the brand owner’s timing and aspirations.

Of course, if you have a really freaking cool project that demands more time, well, bring it on and let’s see what it will take. You see, I still REALLY love this brand marketing stuff– my wife calls it my ‘sickness.’

And now the fun new creative direction. On one of my ongoing 3-4 day camping trips this spring/summer, I was at a campground, on the southern shore of Massachusetts, and as I looked back at the beach in about an 150′ stretch I found some washed up and surf-rounded bricks, simply beautiful in the orange and red hues. I asked the staff if I could take them and determining them refuse and below the high water mark, they gave me permission to bring them home–just enough to fill my back seat floor.

Now my dad always had a fascination for water fountains, and had bought one he couldn’t fix when the pump blew out. I’d worked at a co-working space that had a lovely zen fountain, so fabricating one from these bricks, with an easily replaceable pump (and bowls/cistern) became my goal.

The first thing I’ve ever created, driven only by my muse. Its pump and Japanese tea bowls are easily replaced, as is the large cistern. And it may not be done yet!

I built and rebuilt my fountain a dozen times, finding working with mortar with my hands as satisfying a medium as any with which I’ve ever worked. And, I found myself almost euphoric with each little victory.

You see, while I’ve written and designed websites, blogs, print, radio, TV & digital ads, permission e-mails for database marketing, brochures, you name it, all that was with a professional objective and a brand-building and revenue-generating strategy.

But I’ve finally created something, driven only by my muse and curiosity. My goal was not symmetry (which one of my brilliant creative mentors calls “the hobgoblin of small minds”); it was balance, which along with connection and timeliness, is an inherent element in the definition of design–versus decoration, which may be pretty but is fleeting.

So that’s the plan. Within days I’ll be starting my next one, this made of stones I’ve collected over the 34 years we’ve owned our log home and land in the deep burbs of Boston. And in the 120+ hours I worked on my first creation I learned a lot.

Too, if it happens you have a collection of rocks and/or refuse from favorite beach, lake, land or stream, I’d be happy to come and help you design and fabricate it for or with you. We’d have fun.

And if you’d like some help focusing and balancing your brand for better outcomes (and income) well, after 30 years I’m starting to get good at it. Let’s chat on my nickel: (508) 951-0130.

Thanks, Tom-

Thomas Marketing Services Corporation Principal, Tom Lanen, Now a Professional Member of The International Association of Professional Writers & Editors (IAPWE)

(March 23, 2023) After a qualifying process requiring writing samples, references and other credentials, Thomas Marketing Services Corporation principal, Tom Lanen, has become a Professional Member of The International Association of Writers & Editors (IAPWE).

This is all in an effort to reposition Tom from a full service advertising and marketing agency brand strategist and creative director, to a role now focused on providing freelance writing services to retail, hospitality, healthcare, entertainment, & technology sectors. He will also continue as a digital and brand marketing tactician, including website creation, social media, and permission email marketing.

From the IAPWE website:

The IAPWE or International Association of Professional Writers & Editors is an organization dedicated to providing helpful resources to writers and editors and disseminating helpful ideas and resources across the greater professional community in the form of outreach, blogging, networking and thought leadership.

In addition to providing free resources for our members, we are always seeking talented writers and editors to help create engaging, locally relevant, educational and inspirational content to help support our outreach efforts. We believe in paying our writers and editors a competitive wage, unlike many of the “content mills” and comparable low-paying clients and/or companies.

The IAPWE is also dedicated to bringing the most updated, legitimate and vetted writing and editing job opportunities to its members.

Currently, there are many different websites containing both legitimate as well as illegitimate writing and editing job opportunities and we make available, in one place, all of the opportunities that have been determined to be legitimate across over 100 different websites.

In addition to this, the IAPWE provides helpful tools, resources and networking opportunities for professional writers and editors, as well as making all members aware of potential writing job scams.

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Please contact Tom at 508 951-0130 if you have writing or marketing project you’d like off your desk; I’ll get it into the done column fast and on budget. T-

The Quest for Simplicity: My Endgame

I’ve always had way more energy than was probably good for me. Too, I’ve aways felt compelled to do what some people characterize as “doing too much.” Part for it was simply to keep me interested. Though a lot of it was I was the first-born son of a successful Finnish business owner, and that’s how I was brought up. Isät & pojat! (Fathers & sons!)

Along with freelance assignments, I’ll be refocusing Deflector™, my Medium publication on The Art of Style & Well-Being for Men of Age™

A dual-brained analytical marketer and creative, I ate strategic brand and lead generation programs for lunch my entire career. And with long-term client relationships ranging upwards of 17 years, I was pretty good at executing to plan. In fact, I recently did a count, and over my career I directly helped ah, more than one client become island living comfortable. I did my job and loved most of it.

Now 33+ years into Thomas Marketing Services Corporation, including nearly a decade we stayed afloat when two health challenges almost took me out, my desire to do too much has remained, nearly unabated.

Until another of my BGOs* whacked me upside the head. 

As much as I enjoy a great marketing plan, and working with a fabulous team to create some success for us all, at age 70 it’s more than I need to live my best life. Frankly, I’d just as soon let someone smarter than me call the shots– and incur the inevitable angst.

My mission too, is to help you reap the glory. I’m surprisingly well content.

Today, and with whatever time on this earth the Divine graces me, my simple strategy is to lead with my love with family and friends. They’re all I need. And with writing, it seems I can maintain the income we need to cover the retirement funds raided when I was sick.

Tom Lanen, January 2023

With aforethought and a sense of joy, going forward my sole professional focus will be writing services. Plain and simple.

Fact is, I can’t imagine a life on the beach or golf course. To me retirement doesn’t mean not working; it just means working on something you love – though maybe not 60 hours week as was once my norm.

Too, I’ve no designs on rusting out like some of my ‘retired’ pals. Not when I can actively rock my life.

Yes, I’m still here, looking forward to what’s next, positive and grateful to the core.

If you’re ready make a difference, the ball’s in your court. Because when it comes to your brand story, position, and share, the difference is you.™ Do it right, and it’s line item equity.

I encourage you to take an easy first step. Let’s talk a bit on my nickel – 508 951-0130

Peace, T-

* Blinding Glimpse(s) of the Obvious