Brad Post, Create the Movement, host
Dominick Montgomery, Create the Movement
David Martin, Create the Movement
Brad Post, Create the Movement, host: Welcome back to this edition of Create the Movement podcast. This is Brad Post, and I’m sitting with two amazing, awesome guys, that are a part of the Create the Movement team – Dominick Montgomery, our Chief Marketing Officer. Dominick, how are you today?
Dominick Montgomery, Create the Movement: Doing well, Brad. How about you?
BP: Doing good, doing good. And also David, our Digital Marketing manager. How are you, David?
David Martin, Create the Movement: I am doing fantastic. Glad to be here.
Create the Movement: Reviewing 2016 and New Changes in 2017
BP: Glad to have you guys. A lot of times we’ve been interviewing people, and I just thought, “You know, we are coming up against some exciting times here at Create the Movement.” Right? It’s February. February is always exciting for us. Last February we launched our new website. Launched new branding. And this February, we’re launching a new website. Right? And launching new branding. Dominick, if you could talk a little bit about the strategy behind it, and the different tone look.
Dominick: Yeah. So, we thought about this a lot. Last year was a growing year for us. A lot of new clients. A lot new industries. And as we grew, we realized that we were transitioning from more of a community-driven, down-home type company to more of a professional, industrial company. And we wanted to appeal to those types of clients. So, this is a rebranding on the psychological side of things.
When we’re going after certain types of clients, or if any brand’s going after certain types of clients, you have to be able to appeal to those clients. So, that’s kind of what we’ve done with our new branding, and with our new website. We’ve gone a for more slick, sleek professional feel. And design that’s done a lot of different ways. It’s done with they typeface, the type of fonts used, the type of color scheme used.
So, we’re doing away with our blue and green and yellows that we used last year. Which did attract a lot of great clients. We’re so happy to have them. But we’re going more for a tonal-gold, black, silver type of feel. That’s represented more in the corporate world.
BP: We’re looking at launching the new website, as well.
Dominick: We are. February 15th.
BP: 2-15-17. Right? David, tell me you’re overall involvement in the process.
DavM: There’s been a lot of collaboration on the design side and moving forward. We’re really just look, like Dominick said, to attract a different type of client. And so, we’re just all most entirely redoing the way that we go about things. From our internal strategies to the processes that we use to handle it. Even our actual marketing efforts for ourselves. We’re really starting to kick that up. And we have some serious plans moving forward to try and put out some serious and good content.
Dominick: Yeah. And speaking to the content. We look back and we realize that we’ve got over 200 pages of great, unique content that was all written in-house by the Create the Movement team. So, we’re going to actually repurpose that content on the new site. Which we’re excited about and we really want see how that affects our rankings with certain keywords.
Also, we’re looking at creating new ebooks and creating downloadable content that we can actually give to our potential clients. Because it’s all about giving value in order to gain trust from someone. So, we want to create those value offers. Get them indoctrinated in our email workflow, and nurture them. So we know when the time comes to have the discussion about possibly bringing them on as a client, that they’re a viable client. And that our relationship will actually work.
BP: That’s awesome. One thing I was going to mention, so our vision is ‘Efficient Marketing Solutions, Effective Results, Excellent Customer Care.’ One thing that I noticed is most marketing companies, most marketing firms, if you look at their website, if you look at their marketing. Correct me if I’m wrong guys, but sometimes it sucks. Right? And they’re just like, “Oh, we’re just doing stuff [].”
Dominick: They don’t practice what they preach.
BP: And that’s one thing that I wanted to mention on this podcast. Yes, we have a ton of work, and we kick butt for our clients, but we also have the hustle to make sure that our marketing efforts on our end are moving forward, too. And we don’t look back a year from now and go, “Oh, well. We meant to redesign the website.” Or, “We meant to develop an ebook.” Or, “We meant to do that. We just got tied up with our clients.”
So, we’re basically, what’s the term? We’re drinking the Kool-Aid that we’re selling as well. We’re also drinking it, if that’s a term.
Dominick: Just to hit on that. One thing that you do really well, Brad. Is you treat Create the Movement as a client. And I think that’s what, going back to your point a lot companies don’t do. They have the clients and they take care of them. And they know they should be doing things. But they suggest all those things to their clients in order to keep that business.
BP: Right!
The Importance of Frequent Website Redesign
Dominick: In order to stay as a business you have to practice what you preach. And I think that’s what we’re doing now. We have some clients, we try to tell them every year, or so, you need to look at redesign for you website. Just because we say, “A year in the real word is like two and a half years on the internet.” The way things change. So, we we’re coming up on that year, and we kind of got antsy. We felt it. And we felt the need to change. And we’ve had a lot of changes, like David said, internally. And we want when people site, we want them to immediately be blown away with our design, as well as the testimonials we have, as well as the content that we’re providing to them.
That’s our big push and I think it’s really going to work this year.
DavM: Yeah. Just to touch on that, I think a lot of in the redesign we want to immediately instill that confidence in us. In that you’re blown away, like you said, by the design. And you’re just like, “Wow! So, what can these guys do for me? What can they do for my marketing efforts? Because they clearly have their stuff handled.”
BP: A lot of the sales team will say, “Hey, what are some of our best websites that we can share with our clients?” We give them some. But we’re like, “Man, have they checked out our website?” You know? That’s a perfect example.
Dominick: It’s a huge point.
BP: One thing I was going to mention, too. I remember our first year in business. We were unable to market. Like, social media was me. You know? I was like, “Hey, shout out to our president, Brad Post!” I even had clients going, “So, are you guys doing SEO on your website as well?” I’m an honest guy. Part of our core values is authenticity and honesty. Right?
So, I was like, “Well, no. We haven’t been able to yet. We’re more focused on our clients.” But yeah, I think it was about a year ago, a little bit over a year ago, we decided to combine and work together. And I remember going to Dominick and going, “Hey, do you think we should be doing link building and this type of stuff for Create the Movement?” And you’re like, “Yeah.”I remember to talking to David and going, “Yeah, we can definitely add that to our list of accounts that we’re doing SEO for.”
It’s helped a ton. Our rankings have gone up. We rank well in a lot of the search terms.
Dominick: Nationally.
BP: Nationally, yes. Also, our domain authority is up. It’s awesome.
David, I’ll ask you this question, and then Dominick I’ll ask you the same question. How do you see this new redesign affecting the future, or the next six months?
DavM: I really think it’s going to help us grow. We have a serious plan to bring in the types of clients that we can be effective for. Because that’s a big part of it – taking on clients that we, not that we don’t know how to handle them, but if it’s a brand new industry it’s a little more difficult. Especially, in terms of SEO. To know what is both profitable and worth targeting in terms of competition. And so, by really niche-ing down and trying to find that area that we can just excel, we can just be absolutely incredible for the clients that we bring on, and that we have. I think that, in and of itself, when our work just speaks for itself and there are no questions to be asked because you rank well and you’re making money. Because that’s our goal. We want to make our clients money. When that’s happening that’s just phenomenal. That’s what we’re looking for. And I really see that growing as we move through this year.
BP: Absolutely. That’s good. What about you Dominick?
Dominick: That’s a good question. Seth Goodin said it best. He said, “You are direct reflection of your clients.” So, I think the way that we’re positioning ourselves this year, with our style, our design, our marketing efforts. I think that we’re going to attract the clients that suit us best and that we know best, and that will reflect us as a company best.
BP: That’s good. I think it will help us to strategic. This last year, like you said, we took on a lot of different clients. We had to learn a lot of new, different industries. Right guys? What keywords are we going to rank for this company? It’s just exciting.
Dominick, what has been the most exciting thing about this redesign? So Dominick’s probably spent a lot of late hours, right? Working on it after hours. Even though we have balance, just because you’re passionate about it. What’s been the most exciting thing to you about this? What keeps you here at night working on that?
Dominick: I think that our site, opposed to our client’s site, it gives us that room to think outside the box and break some design rules. I think a big portion of this was, that was most exciting to me, was looking at the clients that we have now, and thinking, “What type of site will make our clients proud of us?” If I could say that. That’s kind of personal, but I want our clients now to look at the site and want to share it and be proud. “That’s our marketing company. They are amazing! Look at their new stuff.” And share it. That’s been exciting.
And also, when we do build sites for our clients, a lot the sites we build are for SEO purposes. To get them the rank and bring them leads. Right? But with ours it’s more of a showcase, as well as marketing. So it’s been fun to reach out to our clients and get those testimonials. And make each page a new experience for the visitor, and just revamp all the content that we had. And we’re even looking at content. Brad, you did this. You looked at the content and said, “We have enough to make 10 books.” We could package it and give it to our clients.
Overall, it’s all been exciting. And I can’t wait for people to see it.
BP: That’s exciting. What about you Dave? What’s been the most exciting thing about this?
DavM: I think it falls into the same thing that he was saying. Having our clients be excited to have us working for them. Getting on a call and it being 10 minutes because everything we’re doing is just phenomenal. And all the numbers show that. That’s just awesome. It feels good. It validates me and the work that we do. As a team, I think that’s great. I also think putting that stuff together, in terms of those ebooks, I think educating our clients is just awesome because we’re just giving them extra value. An educated client is a great client, I think.
BP: I agree.
Dominick: Just to speak to that point. We talk about validation. I just want to mention, for a lot of creatives, validation is the thing that we strive for. Whether it be from our clients, the people you work with, your spouse, kids, whatever. But we strive for validation. We want the work that we do to be seen by someone.
DavM: Absolutely.
Dominick: And appreciated by someone. And that’s why we pull these late hours sometimes. Because we want to make sure we get it done so that the person we’re doing it for is pleased.
And I think, also, to this new design, represents our growth from last year and it represents the new process that we worked so hard to create internally. A lot of times in business, teams fail on the process side of things because they want to get the deal. They want to do something great. But, they don’t interact with the client enough. They’re aren’t enough touch points. And we worked really hard in 2016 to solidify our process so that our client’s more comfortable when they’re on board, that they feel comfortable throughout the entirety of our relationship with us. And I think that’s what our design reflects now – a comfortable confidence that we have as a company.
BP: Absolutely. I agree. I’ll end on this last, kind of funny note. So, Dominick, I don’t know, it was probably in November that you started working on it, a little bit. Right? I don’t think I even, he wouldn’t even let me see the website.
Dominick: A secret Slack channel.
BP: That’s right guys. A secret Slack channel. And you wouldn’t let me see the website. We had a meeting. It was you and Stacey and I, and you’re like, “Stacey, want to see the website?” I was like, “What? No, man! I haven’t even seen the website!” Finally, when I saw it, I think you probably knew my reaction was going to be, “Make the logo bigger.” No, I’m just kidding. Didn’t say that. Sorry, inside joke.
I was like, “That’s phenomenal man. It looks great.” I don’t think I had any constructive criticism. I think sometimes presidents, or CEO’s, want to give constructive feedback just to be heard, and just to make sure that their voice was a part it. Both our website now, and the new one that we’re redesigning. I think you bounced some ideas off me, I never said, “Hey, let’s make the logo bigger. Let’s change this. Hopefully, right?
Dominick: No. You thought it. I know you thought it.
BP: It’s exciting. Thank you guys.
Dominick: Absolutely.
