Yesterday, 8THIRTYFOUR officially celebrated 11 years with our community, clients and staff. While our anniversary gave us an excuse to throw a party, our intent was much more powerful than that. Our message for the evening was the “Power of Small Business,” which we highlighted with a superhero theme. To me, small business owners are superheroes. They tackle challenges and failures on a daily basis while continuing to push forward. We have a vision in our head of what we want our business to be and who we want to help and we refuse to give up.

As a member of the Small Business Association of Michigan (SBAM), I am surrounded by super heroes every day. Associating with these badass business owners has lead 8THIRTYFOUR to truly embrace what makes us a great company. Our dedication to our community, clients and culture are what separates us from the rest. It is hard for me to embrace kudos and show pride for 8THIRTYFOUR and all we have accomplished in the last 11 years, however, it is necessary.

When we choose our clients, we do so knowing we can help them meet the integrated communication goals they have for their company. We won’t work with businesses we don’t believe in and we won’t take you on if we can’t help you. Our clients trust us and recognize our value and for that I am damn grateful.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for trusting 8THIRTYFOUR with your brand and for believing in the power of small business. We didn’t just throw a party, we threw a message and I hope it resonated with those that attended.

There is a lot in the works at 834 right now, it is exciting, thrilling, unknown and scary. But so what. Everything in life is terrifying if you think about it long enough. You can literally talk yourself out of anything. Stop it.

What is life without risk? If we quit exploring new tools, strategies and business ideas then 834 will no longer be the brand I created 10 years ago – a brand that is about pushing the envelope, finding new and better ways of doing things and then implementing the shit out of it.

Some of the most successful individuals failed before they ever ‘made it’. Great shit comes out of failure:

1. Failure is important. As long as you are learning from mistakes, you are continually growing your knowledge and experience. Don’t wonder ‘what if?’
2. It gets easier. Eventually failure will get easier. Once you have done it 15 to 20 times, you know how to get up and move on.
3. Success is born from failure. Failures help us define what success looks like, which is something you will constantly be moving towards.

You are not alone. Take Thomas Edison for example, his first thousand or more attempts at getting the light bulb to work were failures. In spite of all of his failures, Edison was a prolific inventor who had amassed several patents by the time he died, including the light bulb and the movie projector.

If you don’t fail, you’re not trying and if you’re not trying then you’re not really living, are you?

Source: Business.com, Entrepreneur.com

This time of year, a lot of companies will reach out to us in an effort to incorporate marketing into their strategy for the new year. Prior to forming a relationship or hiring a communications agency, work to define your needs.

Pull together your team for a quick brainstorm and map out the below:

What were the biggest marketing challenges we faced in 2016? This could be anything from creative, content generation and email marketing to media relations and more.

Read the full article at GRBJ.com.

834 was set up to be an integrated communications agency, which means we can manage all your needs under one roof. We build a strategy, we implement the strategy and we measure the strategy. All of this takes time. We like to think we are magical unicorns, but alas we are merely human.

When hiring an agency you, as a company, are also investing in a relationship. We work for you, but it is also a collaboration. As hard as we may try, we will never know your business as intimately as you will.

Success is being transparent, offering constructive feedback and taking the time to educate.

Here are a few tips for getting the most out of your agency relationship:

1. Invite them to team meetings where they can experience firsthand the company dynamic. By observing the culture and day-to-day operations they will get a sense for the personality of the company. This will assist them in translating your company’s culture to the accurate voice in all generated content.
2. Meet regularly to check-in and update on upcoming events, tradeshows, meetings, industry happenings, etc. If you see something in the news or are out at a networking event send your agency contact an email or text. By keeping them apprised of up-to-the-minute happenings, they can post appropriate information to your social channels.
3. Give feedback. Everything an agency creates is sent for client approval. Take the time to review and give direction. The more time you spend with the agency of upfront the quicker they will familiarize themselves with company voice and tone.
4. Establish a point person. By having one person in the company supplying the agency with information you will cut down on confusion and misdirection. Empower that person to lead and instruct the rest of your team to follow.
5. Invest in the relationship. If you truly want to see results then you need to be realistic and understand it takes time. Your marketing program is not going to be built in a day and it sure as heck isn’t going to show a return in a week, two weeks or even a month.

Having a qualified team of professionals working on behalf of you is worth the investment, but the investment goes both ways.

I have been waiting for 10 YEARS for an article that accurately depicts integrated communications (thank Brian) and why it is the ONLY way agencies should function.

This past week, I read this article on PR Daily that addressed integrated communications and categorized agencies in 3 categories: Traditional, Integrated and Lipstick.

The below diagram from the PR Daily article outlines what those terms mean.

Photo credit: Brian Hart, PR Daily

More and more, agencies are promoting the fact that they can provide the full range of services that companies are looking for, but it isn’t just the services it is the strategy and measurement behind them.

I started 834, almost 10 years ago because I couldn’t hire an agency that could provide the wide range of services, strategy and measurement that my organization needed. When all else fails, do it yourself.

An integrated communications approach takes all disciplines – creative, digital, public relations, advertising, marketing and meshes them all together to deliver your desired results. Everything works together to form a cohesive strategy that outlines goals, measurement and ultimate results for you, the business owner.

Still struggling to understand? I stole the below info from a blog I wrote back in January 2015.

All disciplines support each other. For example, you launch a recruitment campaign:

1. Design/Creative: Develop collateral for social, website, print and advertising. Coordinate efforts with all disciplines
2. Advertising: Review audiences, determine media buys – segmented by target audiences.
3. Marketing: Outline strategy to get the message out, plan special events throughout target area, work with creative and PR to outline messaging.
4. Public relations: Develop a press release on campaign, recruiting events, company growth. Plan out storylines throughout the length of the campaign.
5. Social: Work with PR to outline messaging for all networks, work with creative to develop images and infographics to be shared.
6. Digital: Set up online ads, create a landing page specific to recruitment that all advertising and campaign efforts will direct to.
7. Implement and measure

Drop the old-timer, put down the lipstick and hire an agency, demand an agency, that will provide the strategy and implementation that you need. Also, shit takes time, so don’t expect magic in 3 months.