7 Brilliant Business Steps We Made This Year
At IBA, we’re always focused on what’s next and what’s best for our clients and their marketing. Unfortunately, we haven’t always followed our own advice. In 2021 we made a commitment to change that. Using ourselves as test subjects, we implemented several new strategies that led us down a rabbit hole of changes that we’re excited to recap with you. Maybe “brilliant” is a bit of an oversell, but here are 7 steps we took this year at IBA that have really propelled us forward.
1) Defining Our StoryBrand
Last Spring Angie embarked on a 6 month journey to become fully certified in StoryBrand marketing. The process makes you consider your customers, their needs, and what services you provide. It’s amazing the synergy that comes when your company goals and values align with your customers. We’ve been through this brand exploration process now with a few of our clients and received all positive feedback. We’re super excited to do more in 2022!
2) Updating the Logo
From this brand defining experience, we decided a new logo and color scheme was in order: a fresh start to launch this new chapter for IBA with StoryBrand as our guide.
3) Developing a New Website
Through the StoryBrand process, it became apparent that “IBA Design” was about so much more than design. Good design is a given. Marketing strategy has become a much more prominent focus of what we do. It’s the marketing expertise we’ve developed over the past 2 decades that provides the real value to you, our clients, so we made that message front and center on our website and throughout our marketing materials.
4) Finally! A Lead Generator … and more
We’ve been telling our clients for years that it’s critical to capture leads everywhere you can. This is even more true as use of 3rd party data is becoming more restricted. And yet, IBA has not had a lead generator of our own until now. Word-of-mouth, of course, is a great source for business growth, but you can amplify that with the right lead generator on your website. Accompany that with a sales funnel that guides customers through their questions on the way to purchase, and a method for capturing reviews from happy customers, and you have the makings of a powerful marketing system.
5) Rethinking the WorkSpace
In 2020 we added a second location (The Upstairs) that has served as our photo studio and meeting space. In 2021 we moved to partially renting this location as a co-working space, between training and meeting sessions. At our main space at 193 S. Main St. in Roanoke, we gave the walls a whitewash, new layout, and modern decor. We also implemented a flexible, hybrid work-from-home/office schedule to accommodate more employees in the same area with plenty of room for our creative minds!
6) Evaluating Processes
This year, we’ve made several changes internally to improve efficiencies and communication from anywhere. We moved to a new system (Monday.com) to streamline our project tracking, and we added Slack as a better way to stay in touch as we work from remote locations. We’ve also expanded our network of contractors so we can give you a more complete offering of marketing services led by experts in every field from online advertising, video and PR to content writing and more. You can think of us as the general marketing contractor for your company who puts all the pieces together, consistently and on brand, everywhere.
7) A Place to Play
Going back to 2020, at the height of lockdown, Angie had an idea called Simple Daily Drawing. Originally a side hobby, it quickly grew into its own entity and became the perfect playground for IBA to try out new marketing strategies. We’ve experimented with different advertising, social media, and marketing channels to see what works … and what doesn’t. In 2021 alone, Simple Daily Drawing added 20,771 new Facebook followers to its page, not to mention the group and other social networks.
It’s you, our clients, who are benefitting from all this testing. Through our exploration, we have more insights on campaign strategy, new ideas for promotion, and a better understanding of consumer psychology.
We’d love to chat about all these new resources we have to help your company grow in 2022. Schedule a marketing planning session with us to kickstart the New Year!
