
The marketing landscape has changed. The business of partnerships has not.
If you have access to electricity you are already aware of the change that is occurring in today’s marketing landscape.
There are more ways than ever to attract the right audience and engage them with your solutions. At the same time much is still the same. Business partnerships are still built on timeless truths like listening, trust and collaboration. Thus, we offer you these five reasons Redbarn might be a good fit for you:
1. Be Real Be Good
In our book, people really do matter most, so if you have a product or service that can benefit people, we’re with you. As always, authentic marketing works for realistic companies who have a legitimately good product for the value; If people want what you’re producing without needing a bright, yellow starburst on a the package to convince them, you’re our kind of company. Why be star-bursty if you don’t have to be?
On our end, being real and good means we will be honest and straightforward with you — if your logo is calling from the early 80’s, we will gently let you know. Or, if the strategy you want is financially impossible, we can help you prioritize a plan for a gradual ramp up. We’re also not going to recommend anything that really isn’t going to work for you just so we can take a cut off of it.
We will speak in language you can understand instead of industry cliches — we’re not going to “drill down into your corporate story-telling so we can surprise and delight your customers,” because that would make us sound like scary clowns with power tools. Instead, we will talk with you about your goals, research your customer personas, and encourage them to buy from (and continue to buy from) you.
2. Redbarn vs. an InHouse team
Let’s be honest: an in-house agency is a convenient, easier to control option, but when you’re adding up the costs of hiring permanent personnel, especially truly talented people, you’re not going to get a bargain. Hiring an agency is the less expensive route, and hiring a mobile agency with low overhead is even smarter (that’s us)!
Also, as a mobile agency, we will hire in the best people to do the specific tasks your project requires. Need an illustrator? A high end photographer? An ecommerce programmer? Got one!… and you don’t have to pay them benefits… just for the work they do during the season you need them.
3. Listening and Collaboration
It doesn’t help you to look exactly like every other business that does what you do, so offering a box solution is counter productive. Because we understand it is YOUR unique attributes that make your company special, we will listen carefully for what you need, research the options, craft a plan to fit that need, and execute the plan efficiently and creatively.
When we make things happen for you, things happen for us, too!
4. Strategy & Planning
We find it frustrating how many clients come to us battle-scarred with a story about how their last agency clammed up, or flaked out, or dropped the ball in some other unacceptable fashion. We shouldn’t have to say this, but we will promise not to do that.
Our process is simple: We will start small with the aim to grow your marketing strategy and improve it based on measurable results. We will build scaleable solutions so when you realize you actually have 6 widgets you want to feature instead of 5, we’re good to go. Unless the project takes a drastic turn, we will stay on budget and on schedule. And, at completion, we will still be here, making sure everything is accurate and works (and continues to be accurate and work).
5. Lastly, we take the long approach with your business
We promise to be slow. Of course, that’s not what you want to hear from your marketing expert, especially when you’re finally realizing that you’ve fallen behind in today’s swift marketing currents. But, we’re not gonna lie, these things take some time: Planning, strategy, researching your buyers and the competition, determining what will actually work versus what we hope will work.
Yes, you can get super cheap, super fast logo designs from agencies who allow hundreds of designers compete for your work!
[Key word: compete. Starving designers all over the world do all the work to create and submit their design, which will most likely not be selected, and then don’t get paid a dime. Also, will that person, several times removed from you, your personas, and your business, have any idea what you’re trying to convey?]
Yes, you can hire an agency that will promise to have your fabulous new website up and running in six weeks!
[Unless they have a team of 20 or more, this is pure fiction. No one is going to come up with a decent strategy, let alone a decent website that does what the strategy says it should, in just a few weeks. Buyer beware!]
Yes, you will find folks who will guarantee X number or new leads in two months.
[Right. That trend. It’s pretty easy to throw out a lot of numbers, but when the rubber hits the road, most smaller to medium businesses don’t realize just how much work is involved in creating content that will actually produce leads… and how long it can take to get that ball rolling.]
Our promise is this: we’re not going to promise anything until we really get under the hood and see what your company is made of. We will educate you on the process. We will help you find the right balance between your marketing expectations, and your marketing budget. We will offer resources to help you make these difficult decisions.