About Us - Who's this Raphael Craig guy?

*Raphael Craig is the client acquisitions specialist, business builder professional and creative advertising source behind Business-Up Strategies. He is a U.S. Veteran with a Honorable Discharge from the U.S. Air Force and has decades of experience successfully obtaining new clients through direct response online and social media sources, direct response snail mail campaigns, direct response radio campaigns and other methods.

   Business-Up Strategies produces ads that get attention and a 2nd look. That's where the creative insight of Raphael Craig‘s brain comes into play and sets Business-Up Strategies apart from the other digital marketing agencies is that he always comes up with something new and fresh in his ads that consumers can directly relate to and are surprised that the advertising piece knows that about them. Such as in his Invisalign ad for straighter teeth: 

(In a slight comedic voice) “We know what you were doing all night last night. We know. It’s ok, everybody does it. You were doing it again, all night in front of the mirror…you were practicing how to smile without showing your crooked teeth., again! Weren’t cha? Why do you keep doing that to yourself? Just get the braces!”. That’s why ads like that work because that’s what people with crooked teeth really do in secret that need braces. 

Video ads like this is why Raphael Craig is the master at insight and direct response marketing that produces results.

   He was raised with five older sisters in Southern California and was a young gatekeeper. When dad was home the girls were not allowed to answer the front door when boys came over, so they sent him to answer the door instead. When boys would come by with a new Triumph 750 motorcycle or GTO to impress his older sisters, the girls were not allowed to come outside, so instead they would show it to young Raphael to impress him hoping he would tell the girls. Most weekends there were 10+ girls at the house. Five sisters and at least one friend with each sister. He remembers everything from the girls going every Tuesday and Thursday to Fred Astaire tap dancing school and coming back each week with little plastic trophies, to the girls practicing trying to walk while balancing a book on their head for Dorothy Shreve Charm School and going to Beatles themed birthday and slumber parties. His dad added a sewing room to the house so the girls could make their own clothes. So mom would take his sisters and their girlfriends to the fabric store and buy very nice fabrics and the latest fashion style patterns and the girls would have sewing parties on the weekends and make their own clothes with better fabrics than you could ever buy in a clothing store. All those experiences of watching the girls grow up and participating in the community are part of what he credits as his ability to understand all facets of the American consumer and the phases they still go through today and that is what he uses along with his intuition he inherited from his mom to forecast consumer behavior and family buying trends throughout the year. Raphael has a strong intuition and does his homework and stays up-to-date and that's reflective in the new clients he will always bring to your business. In a slow economy or recession he has always been successful.  He has been self-employed most of his life and knows what it takes to get new clients to grow an established business, open a 2nd location or start a new business from scratch. 

Raphael was a natural in knowing how to market to get new clients for his dad's company as well as his own small companies. From famous celebrity clients to the average family, he's the pro that knows how to get their attention. Hollywood movie producers and writers etc that his father worked for through the years would always pick his brain for ideas and advice since he was a teenager.

   Raphael's first marketing campaign brainstorm came to him when he was only 18 years old while he was watching a local CBS news story on TV by then local reporter Connie Chung. Her story was about how a recent wave of homes in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley were being broken into because they did not have a deadbolt lock on their front door. Back then homes only had a keyed entry lock that could easily be jimmied open by slipping a credit card between the door and door jamb. Two years prior Raphael learned how to hang doors and drill for entry and deadbolt locks working as a carpenter for his father who was a Beverly Hills general contractor to the stars. So Raphael came up with the idea of printing up a flyer notice on bright Goldenrod paper that at the top read "Notice!" then in huge big black bold letters said 'THIS LOCK IS UNSAFE' with a big arrow --> pointing to the single entry lock. He called his company Gibraltar Lock (taken from Gibraltar Rock) and recruited his childhood friend Arthur and they both went around scotch taping this notice on homeowner's front door next to the door's entry lock. After they placed the first batch of notices, by the time they got back home, his answering machine was full of messages. All of them wanting Gibraltar Lock to come out right away to install deadbolt locks and keep them safe. So here the first GUERRILLA MARKETING campaign was born by an Italian/British 18 year old teenage kid from Northridge, California in 1974, 10 years before writer Jay Conrad Levinson wrote his best seller book Guerilla Marketing in 1984.

   Raphael knows what consumers are thinking from years of talking to them and hearing what they go through when they go looking for a dentist, a plastic surgeon, a home improvement contractor, and other services families and single adults are in need of in 2023.

When he takes you on as a client the first thing he does is make sure your company is set up and organized with a key person to properly handle the leads and new client appointments he will bring to you. Then he will become your partner in helping you grow your existing business with new clients tailored to your business and specialties.

   Raphael got his first guitar lesson from family friend, the late great "Wrecking Crew" guitarist Tommy Tedesco, when his mom asked Tommy for advice on whether to buy Raphael a new acoustic guitar or an electric guitar for Christmas. Tommy advised her to buy Raphael an electric and even told her where to get a good deal on a student electric model. At that time Raphael was trying to play a little 4-string acoustic and on that day that Tommy recommended an electric guitar to his mom, Annabelle, he begged Tommy to show him how to play something. Generous Tommy took the time to show Raphael how to play an easy little 2-string blues/rock riff, the same riff ZZ Top later used in their hit La Grange. I'm so grateful Tommy convinced my mom to buy me an electric guitar, Raphael says, and after Tommy showed me that guitar riff I was hooked! Raphael says he thinks and feels and still plays guitar and writes like a 19 year old teenager, still curious and excited to learn what the latest popular 'thing' is out there in the USA. 

   When people meet him in person they notice he looks young for his age. And when he's asked his age he always quips back "Age? Ha! Einstein proved time is an illusion, it doesn't exist! It's only relative to space! So that means age does not exist either, its an illusion in your mind." 

   Raphael attributes his youthful looks and mindset to staying connected to Rock 'n' Roll and calls rock music the Fountain-of-Youth for our generation. "Just look at Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones" he says, "He still rocks and boogies better than young performers today because he still thinks and feels like a teenager Rock 'n' Roller. Its all about spirit!"

NOTE: Add Raphael Craig's great advertising with Business-Up Strategies exclusive automated marketing tracker, conversion tool and ratings builder software and you will get a higher ROI on your marketing investment to grow your business faster.

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