Wes and Karen Altom didn’t set out to start a family business, but it worked out that way.
Wes, a long-time police officer, had exposure to marketing and communications in his report-writing and also in emergency management, when crisp and quick communications were necessary.
Karen graduated with a Radio, Television, and Film degree, so marketing was always part of her career objectives.
And Marshall Altom graduated most recently with a degree in Business Administration.
Together, they make up a marketing hat-trick in East and Southeast Texas that does much good for the communities in the region.
In that spirit, the Altoms reassembled their team to present to anyone from the community who is interested in learning more about marketing. This was a sequel of sorts to a similar event they did for the Small Business Development Center, and this time, with full control over the event, they offered it for free and even provided the lunch!
The Altoms went beyond normal marketing discussions to discuss ways businesses, governments, or non-profits should cater to their objectives, their target audiences, and their budget. This was helpful for us at the LEAP Center, because we learned ways we can spread our reach for free, even if we weren’t ready to get into targeted ad buys or geofencing or other in-depth marketing.
And we weren’t the only government or non-profit entities there; we saw Stacy Loll from The Senior Center; Shannon Hollis from HISD; and Kim Weiser and Laura Green from CASA of Walker County. In short marketing isn’t only for the business community–although we did sit next to our friend, Ken Holland!
The program was compelling. We learned the difference between branding and targeted marketing; the difference between Search Engine Messaging and Search Engine Optimization; and how a company can assess which efforts have paid off and which were misfires.
We also learned a lot about how Google produces results. Your search engine results are based on two broad factors: you as the searcher; and the actions of the places for which you are searching. Internally, Google will consider your location, your prior searches, where you visit, how you rate similar items, and a whole host of items related to you and your behavior and preferences. But the search engine results will also depend on the behavior of the companies for which you search? How are they evaluated by others? Are they active on their website and in social media? Do they respond to their evaluations?
We don’t know exactly how all this may impact LEAP, but we are pretty confident that the community services and responsiveness provided by the Altom family will earn them some high evaluations–all well deserved!
Center for Law, Engagement, and Politics 