About

Tom Shipley (founder & principal) honed his marketing talents, working his way up the ranks at Anheuser-Busch (A-B), the world’s largest brewer. His roles there included Director of Marketing Operations, Senior Director of Marketing for Budweiser, and Senior Director of Digital Media for the entire 144+ brand portfolio.

In 2010, Tom left A-B and leapt into the “startup” world to build his own marketing consultancy. He has helped clients in a wide variety of industries including automotive, real estate, manufacturing, politics, construction, and software-as-a-service (SaaS).

By combining the strategic marketing acumen he gained at A-B with the startup attitude to “do it yourself” whenever possible, CDMS has become a valuable “turnkey” solution for small to mid-size business clients. In-house services include strategic planning, website development, SEO, CRM, content strategy, and video production.

In 2014, Tom read John Jantsch’s best selling book, “The Duct Tape Marketing System” (DTM). Strategically, the DTM system has helped thousands of small and mid-sized businesses grow revenue and profits by getting their ideal target clients to Know, Like and Trust them. From there the objective is to get them to Try and Buy; and then move to Repeat buys and Referrals. From a tactical standpoint, DTM emphasizes the necessity of a Total Online Presence over a one-off website and arbitrary dips in and out of social media.

The book helped Tom realize that he could better serve clients by shifting CDMS from an ad hoc project and hourly practice to the formal DTM marketing system. After a rigorous vetting and training process, Cole-Dalton Marketing Services officially joined the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network as a certified DTM Consultant in 2016. In 2018, Tom became a “Master Certified” Duct Tape Marketing Consultant and now serves as a mentor to new consultants in the network.

The network leverages the talent, insight, and professional development of hundreds of other consultants across the US and around the world to help small and mid-sized business clients grow revenue and profits.

CDMS has a full-time internal project management team as well as a network of trusted US-based vendors to deliver customized marketing services to over 20 clients across the St. Louis Region.