When tSunela was founded in 2006, the world of digital marketing looked a little bit differently than it does now. Facebook was just opening its doors to the general public, podcasting was in its infancy, and mobile marketing was barely a thought. In fact, when we launched, we were the first woman-owned digital marketing agency in the St. Louis area and one of the first digital marketing agencies in the region. Now, as we celebrate our tenth year in business, we reflect on not only how our industry has advanced so drastically, but also on the many valuable business lessons we’ve learned along the way.
For more information, contact us online or call 314-721-8813 today.
Below are the ten biggest lessons we’ve learned throughout our ten years in the digital marketing industry:
- Remember why you started. Because we made our mark on the digital marketing industry so early in the game, we’ve received multiple buyout offers over the past decade. And, as you can imagine, they were pretty tempting at times. It’s during times like these, however, that it’s so important to remember why you started your business in the first place. We founded tSunela with the goal of providing top-tier service by educating our clients about the industry. In order to continue to accomplish that goal, we had to remain involved—and we’re so glad we
- Invest in great employees. This one may seem obvious, but when you’re a young company struggling to fill your pipeline, it’s not always the easiest decision. It’s like the old “chicken or the egg” dilemma—do great employees bring in clients, or do clients bring in the stream of income that enables you to hire great employees? For us, investing in talent even when funds were unpredictable proved to be the best business development strategy we could have chosen.
- People won’t pay for what they don’t understand. In a continually changing industry such as ours, it didn’t take long to learn that client education must be a priority. Algorithms are constantly changing, technology is always advancing, and clients are often left confused by it all. As digital marketers, it’s our job to sift through the influx of “expert articles” and translate only what’s important into business terms, so that they truly understand the value that our team brings.
- Treat employees as you want to be treated. The golden rule is always applicable in business, but rings especially true in a competitive industry where technically skilled talent comes at a premium. Though we can’t always offer the most competitive wages in town, we can create a culture that attracts and retains top talent—and we have. Our culture is one of transparency and employee involvement, and as such, we’re able to offer unique benefits such as remote work locations and a healthy work-life
- Become a partner, not a vendor. From the moment a client engages you, they can either be pushed toward a single transaction or toward a loyal partnership. And as more and more businesses are treating their marketing needs as projects rather than ongoing relationships, achieving partner-level status has become increasingly difficult. That’s why we prioritize communication with clients; openness lends itself to a long-term advisory relationship.
- Quality customer service never goes out of style. If there’s one thing that has not changed over the past decade, that’s it. Great customer service is a competitive advantage that should never be put on the back burner. Love it or hate it, the internet is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and people expect your response time to reflect that. We really believe that our consistent dedication to providing quality service, including unparalleled responsiveness, to our clients has been a major factor in our continued
- Your clients’ success is your success. Point-blank, if you want your digital marketing firm to grow, you must be customer focused. This means rather than going into work each day thinking, “How can I make my company more successful?” go in with an attitude of “What can I do to help my clients succeed?” Take the time to truly get to know their business and their goals, and be transparent about your strategies for them. We obsessively track our clients’ progress because their success really is our success. And their referrals have become one of our greatest marketing
- Strong business partnerships are essential. Many of the most successful businesses are led by partners—but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. In fact, research has found that four out of five business partnerships fail. Fortunately, over the course of our decade-long partnership, we’ve identified multiple factors that have kept us going strong. Our skill sets complement each other, and we’ve learned how to communicate openly and honestly, without becoming defensive. Without an open and honest partner- relationship, even the best business plan won’t hold up.
- You must be committed to education. If we would have lost our desire to learn once our business became “successful,” we would never have made it this far. It’s not only important for you, as a business owner, to continually gain knowledge in your field, but also for your employees. This is especially true in the ever-changing digital landscape. When it comes to our team’s ongoing education, we encourage our employees to stay abreast of the latest trends and assist in every way that we can—by funding continuing education, bringing in speakers, and more. We also commit time to present at industry conferences to share our knowledge and learn from peers.
- Don’t box yourself in. If you’ve been in business for more than a millisecond, you know that things very rarely go according to plan. There’s a good chance that the services you specialize in when your business launches will shift over the course of time—and that’s okay. Instead of throwing in the towel—or blindly rolling with the punches—we’ve learned that it’s best to be very intentional about planning for contingencies. For instance, the reason we chose the name tSunela rather than something very specific like “St. Louis SEO Services” is because we anticipated the need to adapt as the industry evolves.
We certainly don’t claim to have all of the answers. After a decade in business, however, we have gathered a good bit of invaluable knowledge, and hope these tidbits provide some value. We also want to extend our enormous appreciation to our clients, partners, employees, and community for sticking by our side and helping us achieve this milestone. The last ten years have been one incredible ride. Here’s to the next ten!
For more information, contact us online or call 314-721-8813 today.