Episode 84 – How to build authority and credibility in the marketplace

My guest on the show today is Jeff Hilimire. Jeff is the CEO of Dragon Army, a mobile experience company and...

The post Episode 84 – How to build authority and credibility in the marketplace appeared first on Sideways8.

My guest on the show today is Jeff Hilimire. Jeff is the CEO of Dragon Army, a mobile experience company and game studio. He is also the co-founder of 48in48. He also originally founded Spunlogic, which later became Engauge, where Jeff continued to serve as President and Chief Digital Officer until Engauge was sold to the Publicis Groupe in August of 2013. Jeff is passionate about his family and about making an outsized impact in the world and he does that through his volunteerism, through the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and the Central Outreach and Advocacy Center.

Adam: [00:09] Hi and welcome to the Good People, Good Marketing podcast, a podcast about digital marketing and how to make it better so that  good people and good organizations can have good marketing as well. I’m your host, Adam Walker, co-founder of Sideways Eight, a digital marketing agency; and 48in48, a nonprofit dedicated to hosting events to build forty eight websites for forty eight nonprofits in forty eight hours.

[00:29] I’m excited to have on the show today, my co-founder of 48in48 and good friend, Jeff Hilimire. Jeff is the CEO of Dragon Army, a mobile experience company and game studio. He also originally founded Spunlogic, which later became Engauge, where Jeff continued to serve as President and Chief Digital Officer until Engauge was sold to the Publicis Groupe in August of 2013. Jeff is passionate about his family and about making an outsized impact in the world and he does that through his volunteerism, through the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Central Outreach and Advocacy Center and, of course, through 48in48. Jeff, thanks for being on the show.

Jeff: [01:12] Yeah, thanks for having me, Adam.

Adam: [01:14] Man, this is going to be super fun. So we talk all the time but we never record it. So now we get to record it and other people can benefit. Right?

Jeff: [01:22] You don’t know. I could be recording all our conversations.

Adam: [01:24] Oh, that’s true, man, that’s super awkward. Okay, well, now I’ll have to be careful what I say. Alright, well, let’s dive on in. So related to digital marketing, can you tell us something that’s working well for you?

Jeff: [01:38] In terms of using digital marketing to grow our business?

Adam: [01:41] Well, grow your business, grow your brand, grow your personal brand, really kind of whatever angle you want to take on it. I just want to know sort of what trend you’re seeing that’s working in the market right now.

Jeff: [01:53] Yeah. I think that thought leadership is still a strong place for companies to start and then using digital means to share that. I specifically use my personal blog to help move Dragon Army forward on areas like new clients and business development. So when we have news to share, I’ll share it and then friends of mine that work at large corporations, which is who we focus on working with, they’ll see that because I’ve blogged about it. And then recruiting as well, it’s a big thing for us. So writing about our culture, sharing some of our experiences, we always see an uptake in people signing up. So I would say for me and for Dragon Army, the blog and thought leadership around that has helped tremendously.

Adam: [02:45] Absolutely. As you know, I’m a huge fan of that as well. I’ve got my own personal blog and I try to write about such things as well in addition to whatever craziness is going on in my head. So, that’s great. Are there any other types of thought leadership you’re involved in as well or is it just primarily on the personal blog right now?

Jeff: [03:05] Yeah, I mean I still will do some speaking events, less digital but I’ll have an opportunity to speak in a couple of events coming up. So that and then certainly podcasts like this. I think podcasts are awesome. I think it’s a great way to connect with people. There’s been a resurgent in people listening to not just podcasts but also audio books, so things like this I think help tremendously.

Adam: [03:32] Yeah, absolutely. As you know, I’m a huge fan of podcasts, both listening and creating. It’s a really fun way to create content and I enjoy it. It’s relatively easy, which is great. So kind of a win-win for me, so that’s great. Okay, so next question related to digital marketing, what are you seeing that is not working well that we can learn from?

Jeff: [03:54] Yeah, I think that each company will have digital marketing strategies and tactics that work well for them and maybe not for others. I think the thing that I see that doesn’t work is when a company tries to go all in on one medium that they haven’t tested. One of the things I’ve appreciated about your podcast is you did several of them, you stepped back, you re-evaluated, you’ve come back strong and you’ve seen that this is a medium that works really well for you. I think that some people get caught up and they say, “We’re going to do a podcast.” And then they do it and then months and months later, they are still getting eight people that download it and they’re not realizing that they need to adjust. So whether it’s email, whether it’s podcasting, even lead gen through LinkedIn, these things, I think it just all depends on the company, but it’s the mindset of, “We’re going to test several different things, we’re going to see which works, which connects us with our customers the best, and then we’re going to go all in.” And not the opposite way.

Adam: [05:07] Yeah, absolutely and that’s really my favorite part of digital marketing is the ability to test things quickly, figure out does this work, is this not working, is this having a direct impact on my business or not? It’s a really simple question. And then if it is, then great, ramp it up, do more of it, expand dramatically, double down even. And if it’s not, then scrap it and move to the next thing very quickly because otherwise you’re just completely wasting your time.

Jeff: [05:33] Yeah, exactly.

Adam: [05:35] I love that. Okay. And last question related to digital marketing. Can you tell me something you’re excited about?

Jeff: [05:45] Yeah, we are about four months into — Dragon Army. So Dragon Army is a web mobile and innovation agency. We target large Fortune 500, Fortune 1000 companies and I’ve been in this world for call it twenty years and I’ve never really experimented with what you might call marketing automation, account based marketing, really targeting in on prospect in using digital marketing to find ways to get their attention, to get a call, to get an in-person meeting. And so we have a brilliant young person at our company that is now four months in, I think, to full time just focusing on that and we’re already starting to see some nice results. But I certainly expect it to take a while to really build the process, but I’m really excited to see if, and I’m not certain it is, but if that can be something that helps an agency grow its business. I don’t know many agencies that do it. Usually you have salespeople and you’re doing the big thought leadership, but that really tactical, micro-experiences, reaching out to your top prospects through digital and, I would say, mostly email. I think it’s going to be really interesting. So I’m excited to see how that plays out.

Adam: [07:08] Yeah, I love that. I’m experiencing the same thing in my own agency. As you know, I’m working on bringing on an SDR, sales development rep, and you know it’s going to be — actually an outsource company is going to both [inaudible 07:24] the list for me and is going to call and email potential prospects and I’m working through how that’s going to work. What the angle is? How we’re going to approach them, what the messaging is going to be? But I think, as you said, most agencies are not doing that. Most agencies really work based off the networking sort of basis and I’m doing that as well, but why not go after this other angle also. If I can bring in five projects from it, it will more than pay for itself by double, so I don’t see any reason not to give it a shot.

Jeff: [07:47] Totally agree.

Adam: [07:48] Yeah, that’s great. That’s great. Well, Jeff, let me see if I can recap our conversation so far and then I’ll just ask if you have any final thoughts for the listeners. As far as what’s working well for you, you said thought leadership is still working well and you use your blog for that personally, so you use that to both inform new clients. That also works as a business development tactic and, specifically, to build culture among your company so that people that are coming on board can read your blog, really understand where your head is at and then, of course, guides the company and so it begins to guide their culture and how they interact with their peers. Also, you’re doing speaking at events which is a great way to build authority and credibility in the marketplace and it’s great. Always great thought leadership for that.

[08:31] For number two, what has not worked well that we can learn from, you said each company has its own specific tactics that work for them, but it may not work for others and so we need to be careful when we look at a company that’s doing well and we just kind of copy their tactics. That may or may not go well for us. And what we do need to do is we should not go all in on one medium that’s untested, but instead what we need to do is we need to test, we need to validate, did that test work, and then we need to ramp up quickly if it did; and if not, we need to scrap it and move on to the next thing because that’s how we grow. We iterate very quickly and we can grow more quickly by doing that.

[09:03] And for question number three: What are you excited about? You mentioned that Dragon Army is starting to do more marketing automation and other types of marketing efforts that are more unusual for agencies. You’re starting to do kind of more of that SDR work as well, creating micro-experiences for potential clients, doing more direct outreach and you’re excited to see how that’s going to work. Did I miss anything kind of in summing up our conversation here?

Jeff: [09:28] No, no, I think you nailed it and I would just say one other thing. What I see happen a lot is agencies, in particular small businesses, try something for a little while then try something else then try something else and they don’t really have a good reason to bail on the first strategy or go deeper into it. It’s sort of they heard about a new way, so to me consistently focusing on your strategy once you feel like it is the right strategy and waiting until that plays out. So as I said, I’m excited about working at marketing automation and more of the account based marketing side of things. I’m only doing that now because the first part of my plan worked, which was network aggressively, meet lots of people, continue relationships, focus on organic growth.

[10:24] So all that’s working to create what right now is the fastest growing agency in Atlanta, but I know that there’s a limit to how much we can grow with that strategy so I’m starting to think ahead. But I’m only doing that because the first thing worked. So I think there’s a lesson there and I’ve certainly, in the past, been more impatient and said, “Oh, I’m going to try this, I’m going to try this.” But I think that’s something I would like people to think about is you have to do the hard work, there’s no easy strategy. There’s no, “I’m going to do this,” and then two weeks later I’m gonna get all these leads. You got to —

Adam: [10:58] You got to build the engine, right? Then add some rockets to it after the fact. I think that’s what you’re describing. The engine is working great, but what can you do to then continue to fast track growth by adding additional components?

Jeff: [11:12] Right. You got It.

Adam: [11:15] That’s fantastic. Well, Jeff, man, this was great. Definitely want to do it again. Thanks for joining the show.

Jeff: [11:21] Yeah, thanks for having me and keep it up. I love your podcast.

Adam: [11:25] Oh, man, it’s a blast. I’m thankful to get to do it. So we’ll see you soon.

Jeff: [11:28] Alright, brother.

Adam: [11:34] Thanks for listening to the Good People, Good Marketing podcast. To get more resources about digital marketing, make sure to go to goodpeoplegoodmarketing.com where you can find more podcasts, blogs, and other fun resources. Also, if you want to find me, your host, you can find me on Twitter, @AJWalker, and on my blog at adamjwalker.com where I blog about leadership, productivity, habit-building and the craziness of having five kids. Thanks and tune in next time.

The post Episode 84 – How to build authority and credibility in the marketplace appeared first on Sideways8.