Running up that (marketing) hill
Dear design enthusiasts and marketing mavens,
Running a design studio (since 2019) has been an exhilarating journey, filled with groundbreaking projects for esteemed companies like Chase, J.P. Morgan, Ogilvy & Mather, and innovative startups. As demand surged, I assembled a team of stellar designers, delivering exceptional user experiences and captivating designs.
However, as my studio expands, I've come to a realization—I lack marketing expertise. We are all die-hard creatives, and none of us are savvy marketers. Now, we aim to establish a strong social media presence and generate leads, but we need guidance from experienced individuals.
It's been said that "A designer without marketing is like a brush without paint."
If you've encountered a similar conundrum, I invite you to share your insights. How did you bridge the gap between creative brilliance and effective marketing? How did you navigate the world of marketing to achieve success?
Do you know why you want to 'market'?
I think you really need to understand that first.
Sometimes people want to market when they could focus on selling.
In your specific case - you have dropped some impressive brand and client names. On that basis you are 10 steps ahead of many people starting out.
You could focus on selling yourself or finding someone in your business with the tenacious qualities to do so. A charm offensive could get more projects with existing clients, you could ask for referrals, some of those companies would have multiple divisions etc.
Marketing cold is tough.
In my mind, marketing is equivalent to selling, at least in my business. Marketing will help bring about brand awareness and leads, which will lead to sales.
But yes, it's a good point about selling myself and that has occurred to me. I think finding someone with expertise to do that would be great.
I guess my point is: marketing is, as you say, a process to bring about leads and create awareness. It is a longer process that LEADS to the selling process.
Eventually, most companies have to market to generate more leads as they grow - but some do not.
As you are a service business and presumably can't scale and scale - then potentially you could focus purely on sales activity i.e. go hunting for opportunity vs. marketing which is where you hope the people will come to you.
Perhaps that is the case here. Thanks.
I've just started on that hill myself - hello friend!
The only insight I can give you is there is no magic answer, no shortcuts, just hard work and constant pivots.
I'm sure you've consumed the same resources as me, blog posts/YouTube videos, indie hacker posts etc. Feels like it's just about picking 1 thing and doing it for a few months until you figure out something that works.
Having said that, I'm curious. Why don't you pay someone with marketing expertise and learn from them? You have several thousand in MRR, write down a couple thousand as a business expense and learn 1-on-1 from someone you respect. Why grind it out with the rest of us with no revs.
Thanks for your insight. I have a design team, so a good chunk of that MRR goes to paying them. But in any case, yes I've been considering that. The only thing is, before hiring someone one I need to have an idea of where it's effective to market, unless the person I get knows exactly what's needed for my business. Otherwise, it could be money not well spent. Is indiehackers a good place to look for a marketer?
No doubt there are great marketers here, but I don't think IH is the place to find one - there isn't really a community element here to find one.
I think the Twitter ecosystem (indie hackers, solopreneurs, creators etc.) will be able to find you a great marketer.
Good point on knowing where to market - I think it's important to understand the basics so someone can't pull the wool over your eyes. However, I'd expect the person you hire to work with you so you figure out together where to market, how to market, what to market etc. It's basically like skipping the line. So, rather than learning everything yourself, you learn from a successful person whose been there and done it.
All good points.
Shoot me an email. I run a B2B lead gen firm, would love to hear more about your projects and see if we'd be a good fit. ryan@yourspicyleads.com
Hi Ryan, I'll be in touch by email.
Hey congrats on the success!
I myself recently launched a design studio ~3 weeks ago. Would love to connect and network with others who are ahead of me on this journey.
How did you land deals with the Entreprise clients? Was it cold outreach or did you know somebody on the inside?
Congrats on starting your own agency! I used to work with some of them on staff before I started my agency. A lot of other clients I landed via Upwork, who eventually became long-term clients.
You can start from what you are good at, such as sharing the difficulties you encountered in marketing in the form of vignettes. I am sure this will be very helpful for people who also encounter similar problems
Interesting idea. Where would you share those vignettes?
I'm not very experienced either, I'm trying things like this one I posted on twitter👇
https://twitter.com/2x2_happy/status/1680754539526520837
in my opinion, there is no way around it without a marketing consultant or agency to develop a marketing plan and help you utilize your creativity
Perhaps you're right.
Just 10 mins ago I tried to find you, maybe a twitter account is where you can start
Got that already.
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