Greetings from VSG Marketing,
Well… what a year.
While we’re sure everyone is sick of hearing about “unprecedented times,” we thought it was time to pen an update as we close out 2020.
Reflections on a wild year
In what we acknowledge as a rough business season for many, VSG Marketing has been fortunate to find ourselves bursting at the seams with work. We attribute that in large part to the market’s need to go completely digital in the blink of an eye.
In the last 3 years or so, our digital and web departments have grown significantly in expertise and head count. This allowed us to support our partners with key initiatives like:
- Virtual Fundraisers and events
- Improved web presence infrastructure and performance
- Nurturing online customers
- Capturing and gleaning insights from digital data so that each crucial business decision is based on fact.
We empathize with many in business leadership who were faced with very difficult decisions this year and needed to work with leaner, more agile teams. This made the case for agency support even stronger as we can provide a full team of expertise and capacity for the price of a single FTE.
In addition to diving into a new world of business challenges across the globe with our partners, VSG was also able to focus on supporting businesses in our own backyard. This year, we were thrilled to bring a much needed new website to Parkland Light and Water in collaboration with PLU grad students, be the marketing and web partner for the Pierce County Restaurant Rally alongside the Tacoma Chamber, WA Hospitality and Travel Tacoma, and offer pro bono branding and strategy services to local entrepreneurs of color.
Lessons Learned
Through the chaos, we learned a lot. As you ramp up for a new year full of uncertainty, we hope there’s something in here that resonates with you and saves you some trouble along the way.
- Put yourself in your customers shoes and determine your value from their perspective. Your value should always exceed the price. If it doesn’t then your partners won’t stick around during the tough times.
- Identify your super powers and those of your team, then take action so that you all operate in them. This year has forced many to re-evaluate the reasons why they do what they do. Spend some time on that exercise for yourself. Are you doing what you’re best at each day? Is your team?
- The culture of your team matters now more than ever. Your team will rise to the occasion when you ask them to be a part of the solution to your challenges. Pull your team into the challenge and ask for their help. Give them opportunities to think like “owners” instead of “renters”.
- You have to do the work! Adversity brought out the best in our team as we met the challenges head on and worked tirelessly to overcome them.
- You have to be humble. The challenges of 2020 revealed some areas that we needed to improve on as an organization. Great teams are “real” about areas where improvement is needed and take action to make those improvements.
Looking ahead for VSG Marketing
Expanded Martech Stack
VSG was founded 18 years ago with a strong belief in the power and efficiency of Marketing Technology. That belief only grows stronger year after year as new tools and technologies are created. In 2021, we will be pressing into a Martech stack offering that gives our clients a comprehensive suite to execute their marketing more effectively and efficiently than ever. This includes solutions for brand management, marketing automation, data management, sales enablement, custom web development and next level reporting and analytics that bring it all together.
Consulting Services
The more companies we get the privilege to work with, the more we see the need for consulting services at an organizational level. Too often sales, marketing and C-Suite teams operate in silos when working closely together can often lead to 10x growth. Taking our years of experience in hundreds of markets, businesses and teams, we’ll be expanding our services to include Consulting to help our partners maximize efforts and create extraordinary teams. Read more about our consulting arm, Road Nine, here.
We’d like to thank and encourage all of our wonderful clients and business partners for a… let’s call it “interesting” 2020 and wish you all the best in the coming season, whatever it may bring us.
Here We Go…
Doug Burton | President & Head Coach
Alex Devine | Vice President
