Active Voice: Putting Our Favorite Marketing Quotes to Good Use

Written by Kyle McCarthy

Simplicity

“Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end, because once you get there, you can move mountains.” — Steve Jobs

Sometimes the simplest idea is the most effective. In marketing, this is true more often than not, but many agencies are quick to develop complicated campaigns that don’t make sense for their clients or end users.

Our approach is to identify need, create an actionable plan with the input from key stakeholders and decision makers, and then develop and launch campaigns that are scalable and fit within a sensible budget. From there, we continue to interpret relevant data and let each strategy’s respective key performance indicators dictate the pace at which we increase or temper our efforts.

If a campaign is struggling to make an impact, we don’t continue to run it mindlessly. We hit pause, re-examine whether the strategy fits the client’s needs and industry, reconsider our approach, and either change or suspend the campaign depending on what we find.

We believe brand strategies and their affiliated marketing tactics should be well-planned, direct, and streamlined. This means we develop campaigns that are easy to understand, actionable, and automated, and that resonate with your clients and consumers. We develop content using concise copy that aligns with established brand and style guides, and we make sure that all paid, social, and email campaigns are highly targeted so they reach the right people in the most effective setting at the ideal time. We focus on creating designs that are engaging but tasteful, and we develop websites, landing pages, and other web properties using proven tools and platforms.

Perception

“People spend money when and where they feel good.” — Walt Disney

Creating a welcoming environment in which your potential clients and customers feel comfortable, relaxed, and optimistic is a hallmark of quality marketing. In digital marketing, this means designing and developing web properties and assets that complement one another and provide easy-to-find information that doesn’t overwhelm the user.

As we build a digital environment that highlights your business by accentuating your brand, our primary goal is to put your clients in a position where they feel safe, informed, and entertained — regardless of your industry. This means placing a heavy focus on user experience and user interface design (UX/UI) by incorporating known best practices and leveraging our talented design and development team. A stable and established brand that is inviting and consistent across platforms and settings is the key to brand recognition and loyalty.

To achieve this, we meet with each client so we can better understand their brand and interpret their vision of success. In some instances, we recommend rebranding exercises or even a brand overhaul. However, we also take seriously the expense relative to such a drastic undertaking, so if the brand is viable, we are flexible enough to make it work across all channels and mediums — including social media, paid display ads, landing pages, monthly newsletters, and even new or revamped webpages on your company’s primary site.

Whether we’re dealing with an established brand or something entirely new, we believe that consistency is paramount in branding. That’s why we make sure that all assets, advertisements, and web properties are closely aligned to ensure a seamless user journey at every touchpoint.

Honesty

“If dogs don’t like your dog food, the packaging doesn’t matter.” — Stephen Denny

Great marketing campaigns can help sell a poor product — once. In most instances, it’s difficult to bring customers back if they didn’t get their money’s worth the first time around. That’s why we rely on open and honest communication with our clients to ensure we are both doing our best work.

In some cases, this has placed our agency in more of a consulting role, especially in service-based industries such as the healthcare and legal fields. We’ve never experienced a case where our clients were unwilling or unable to provide excellent, reliable service for their consumers (if that had ever been the case, we would not be working with that client anymore — see below). But sometimes certain businesses are too close to their operations to understand where they’re falling short or missing the mark, which is why an experienced, talented, and objective marketing agency can provide a major benefit.

When invited, we have held strategy sessions to help our clients understand the roles they occupy within their industries, the unique value propositions they offer, and how they can best serve their customers. Through these SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analyses, we can determine exactly where a business and brand are now as well as where they need to go.

Sometimes this means improving internal processes to conserve resources or revamping operational practices that are holding the business back. Other times it means focusing on customer advocacy and incentivizing potential customers. Regardless of our recommendation, we act in the best interests of our clients and their end users to ensure customer retention and brand loyalty.

Integrity

“Advertising is only evil when it advertises evil things.” — David Ogilvy

Selling a product or service you don’t believe in is a recipe for discontent and eventual disaster. That’s why we only work with firms, organizations, and companies who do and create good things with honest intentions. We refuse to partner with anyone (client or vendor) who knowingly uses unethical, immoral, or criminal practices, and we’re committed to the highest level of integrity in every project we undertake — even in cases where this means suppressing our revenue stream.

In the rare instance any of our team members have an ethical, moral, or religious objection to any aspect of an account or task, they have a direct line of communication to our management team and are free to voice their concerns and opt out of those client-specific responsibilities without fear of punishment or retribution of any kind. This policy is based on our core values of transparency, family, education, and community involvement — values that we take seriously and discuss regularly.

Our general philosophy is that if we do not believe in a company or what they represent, we are not interested in representing them in their marketing efforts, even if it means passing up a lucrative opportunity. We want to feel good about the work we do for our clients and their consumers, and this policy ensures we never compromise our integrity.

Importance

“Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.” — Henry Ford

We hear it all the time: “Advertising doesn’t work on me.” It’s been repeatedly proven untrue by psychology-based consumer behavior studies, but many consumers continue to believe they’re immune to marketing messages from brands and business. We don’t perpetuate this fiction, but we’re not shy about taking advantage of its benefits either.

When consumers are too naïve or too proud to believe they’re susceptible to marketing and advertising, that’s when messaging has the best potential to succeed. The only problem occurs when business owners and decision-makers begin to believe the same fallacy.

Effectively marketing a company can be expensive, and there is always financial risk involved. This is precisely why we go to great lengths at the outset of every new business relationship to understand the clients’ objectives and goals. When we know what our partners hope to achieve from the very beginning, we can conduct the research required to develop sound strategy recommendations that are likely to deliver a strong ROI.

Every strategy, tactic, and campaign we develop, create, and launch is designed to produce positive outcomes in a cost-effective manner. Our rates are highly competitive compared to other agencies, and we often provide discounted rates on out-of-scope work for loyal and trusted clients.

We love working with businesses of all sizes, and we carefully consider your available budget before recommending any marketing campaign. For instance, paid digital advertising can be an exceptionally lucrative strategy for many businesses, but it also requires a sizable investment, especially in certain fields and industries. That’s why we sometimes recommend paid social campaigns or email remarketing in lieu of paid search advertising through Google AdWords.

The strategies that provide the best fit for your brand and budget are the ones we want to develop on your behalf. And if at any time you want to revisit your package of services or wish to limit or redistribute your spend, we’re always ready to find alternative campaigns that satisfy your goals and budget.

Get Inspired With Help From LaFleur!

The words and wisdom of those who paved the way inform our everyday actions — in marketing, as in life. The pioneers in our industry continue to inspire us, and we always seek new and creative ways to best serve our clients and their customers. Actions speak louder than words, but the sentiments above echo throughout everything we strive for here at LaFleur.

If you’re looking for some inspiration and a breath of fresh air for your business, we would love to speak with you about developing holistic, forward-thinking digital marketing strategies for your firm, organization, or business. Please complete this brief online form or give us a call at (888) 222-1512 to learn more about LaFleur and find out what we can do for you.

Even if you choose not to pursue a partnership with us at this time, perhaps we can pass on a few pearls of wisdom that might help you improve your current marketing practices!

Reference

Markman, A. (2010, August 31). What does advertising do? Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ulterior-motives/201008/what-does-advertising-do

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