As the end of the year approaches, Chirp Media made the decision to differentiate ourselves as a Growth-Driven Design Agency.
We define a Growth-Driven Design as the way we work with sales and marketing in tandem to create lasting results for our clients.
We provide hyper focus on realistic goal setting and tangible marketing execution to nurture their customer relationships throughout their entire Customer Journey from Interest to Decision. Growth-Driven Design is ultimately a balance of sorts between website design and marketing, where goals work synchronously.
There were many moments throughout 2019 where Chirp Media made discoveries to refine our positioning in the marketplace and gain clarity on what it really means to perform as Growth-Driven Design Agency.
From scaling to the next tier as HubSpot Agency Partner, to facing a failure as a team together, and determining how to take our agency to the next level, we took the time to reflect on what we learned.
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We compiled our top 3 discoveries on our journey in 2019 and we wanted the chance to share our takeaways with business owners, entrepreneurs, and organizations alike looking for direction on where to focus in 2020.
Fail Fast and Evolve Faster
Without the ability to acknowledge and accept failure, you inherently stunt the opportunity to grow and learn from your mistakes.
In 2019, there were some losses that had Chirp Media confront failure and evaluate the way we worked as a team to figure out what wasn’t working.
We discovered by doing a postpartum project review on our projects provided us with the insights we needed to evolve our processes. Owning where we fell short operationally and culturally were key to identifying the underlying unworkability in our organization.
Reframing Failure As An Opportunity to Educate Ourselves
When we committed to our postpartum project reviews, we would evaluate a number of factors and the drivers behind our success or failures:
- What were our roadblocks?
- Where did we have the most success?
- What did we learn as individuals? As a team?
- How can we make this better next time?
Our founder and CEO, Richard, stepped into ownership and accountability for himself this year when he realized the missing pieces in a workflow with our web design team.
“You need to be willing to take risks, and be okay with failing. Trying new things is the best way to start the growth engine for yourself and your business.”
- Richard Walsh, CEO
Leaders Work For Their Team
When leaders operate in a confidant and coach, employees and team members experience a more empowered way of working together.
The distinction between boss vs. leader has to be defined in order for your organization to scale successfully, especially when you have a tight-knit team that operates remotely most of the time.
Defining the dynamic of a boss versus a leader in the relationship to their employees clarified the way choose to work together in our agency.
Boss Versus Leader Distinctions
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Telling you what to do Makes commands Micromanages and ignites fear Uses people Takes credit |
Teaching you why and how to do it Makes requests Supports and creates enthusiasm Develops people Gives credit |
As our Chief Growth Officer, Queenie, took on the action to work closely with our team to determine ways to work better together.
Harbouring a keen sense for timelines and driving deliverables, Queenie discovered that in order to keep things on track, we needed to ask the right questions to maximize each team member’s idea of success and empower them to do so.
Asking our team members the right questions was key to crafting workability in our organization:
- How can we support you?
- What would make the most difference for you right now?
- Where do you want to expand your expertise?
- What isn’t working for you right now?
“When growing a team in a leadership role, you have to be willing to make sacrifices. We discovered that we work for the team. We grow together with you, you don't "work" for us.”
- Queenie Wei, CGO
Treat Your Business Like A Client
The common denominator we found in the marketing industry was that many marketers and agency operators were serving themselves last, or not at all.
What happens when the funnel becomes full and your run out of recent material to provide your prospect? In a perfect world, you would likely have someone in your organization dedicated solely to your sales and marketing so this wouldn’t be the case.
But for a small-business like Chirp Media, we work as an agile Growth-Driven Design Agency to retain costs and maintain momentum while working one-on-one with our clients.
The discovery we made was that we needed to start treating our business like a client to optimize our own company’s brand awareness and customer retention.
Start Serving Your Organization Internal Solutions
We know that treating a business like a client goes beyond just delivering a product or service, but providing an overall experience of what it looks like to have someone invested in your best interest.
When treating your business like a client, somewhere you can start is to look at:
- What is something only I can contribute to move our organization forward?
- What is an area I can be effective in enhancing my skill set?
- How would I want my own client experience to go?
- What is a task I can take today to provide value to us?
Taking on your business as a client is much more than simply doing the ‘work’ - it is taking the time to evaluate the opportunities inside your organization where you can help craft a better company culture and improve your customer experience.
As our Chief Marketing Officer, Alison is always looking for ways to enhance our level of excellence not only for our agency, but for our clients as well.
“When your sole focus is on serving clients or customers, you often find yourself putting your business’ needs on the backburner. The reality is if you don’t treat your business like a client, you tend to fall behind when things really start to scale.”
- Alison Masniuk, CMO
What Discoveries Have You Made in 2019?
At Chirp Media, we have learned so much since the start of the year and we know there’s only more to come.
Each day, we are working to evolve our offering and improve the way we work with our clients to maximize their results as we operate as a Growth-Driven Design Agency.
Failing faster, learning to lead, and setting our own standards has provided us with invaluable experience to take on 2020 with our eyes wide open, eager to push our performance to the next tier.
What is a discovery you or your organization made in 2019? We’d love to hear from you.
Article by Alison Masniuk
Alison Masniuk is a Digital Content and Communications specialist based in Calgary, Alberta. Alison is passionate about social media and technology, always looking how to communicate a brand's story through original content and strategy right from ideation to execution. She has a professional background in Human Resource Management, Public Relations, and Digital Marketing.
