Marketing Service Provider or Growth Partner?

What’s the difference and which one do you need? The answer is, one provides you with hands, kind of like a part time employee. The other provides you with direction, creativity, and helps you capture opportunities. As far as which one you need, it depends on how you want to grow your company. Some business owners want to reach a certain point and maintain. Other business owners want to grow and keep growing, shattering records along the way. Which one are you?

Running a well-functioning, growing business is a hefty endeavor. There are more than a few puzzle pieces that need to be put in place. And once you grow past start-up size these pieces turn into departments, each requiring more attention, strategy and investment.

When you get to the end of yourself, where do you turn? When your growth plateaus, do you have a plan? How much of your business can you outsource and still keep it true to your brand? How many different freelancers can you contract for marketing materials and creatives before the style and brand fall apart and you have to take steps to untangle the mess? (Oh, the horror stories we’ve heard…and helped clean up)

Many business owners turn to marketing providers with an “á la carte” mentality. What’s your solution, especially when you don’t have an in-house marketing team?

Find someone to create a logo. Someone to write content. Someone for ads. Someone to build the website. Someone to do email marketing or social media. Outsourcing like this leads to a disconnect of brand cohesion and ultimately, less than stellar results.

So what’s a better strategy? You need a Marketing Growth Partner.

What is a Growth Partner?

In short, a marketing growth partner is a person or team that comes alongside you, allowing you to utilize their experience, expertise, and skills, with the goal of helping you grow your company. They offer the technical know-how to develop and execute marketing strategies paired with authentic relationship that brings honest feedback and creative solutions.

How does a Growth Partner Differ From a Service Provider?

A marketing service provider offers more of a task-based relationship, contracted to perform certain services but not venturing deeper into your business. Of course, your company can benefit from contracted services - a new skin for your website, some ads on social media or other content creation. We often hear from business owners they’ve felt like they were just a box to be checked off and only a number in a vast pool when taking the service provider approach.

A growth partner on the other hand makes it personal, going beyond just the services they provide. Primarily, they care about you and your company. A growth partner offers relationship that service providers don’t have the capacity for. They stay connected, with routine check-ins that go deeper than, “Hey, here’s your report.” There are questions: “Are you getting the store traffic you want?”, “Are your sales increasing - by how much?”, “How was your manager training session last week?”, “How else can we better support you right now?”

Your growth partner will give direction and advice in their areas of expertise. They help you strategize your marketing rather than letting you feel you’re all alone steering the ship of your company in unpredictable waters. A growth partner joins you in the boat as first mate, giving insight on the obstacles ahead, pointing out what they can see from their unique vantage point, and counseling you based on their experience.

You’re the captain, but you don’t have to do it alone.

Additionally, a growth partner does more than just watching the data to track progress and aim for better results. They proactively offer creative solutions for how they can help you get better results and how you can expand and capture new opportunities. Team meetings involve talking about your company and stretching creative muscles, “Hey, what if we tried ‘this’? Have you thought about 'that'?" There’s a flow of ideas because your growth partner is thinking about your business, even when you’re not with them.

Is it time to connect with a Growth Partner?

We exist to help raise the ceiling of your current growth. Your company is unique and you’re the captain of the ship, remember? As your growth partner, we're your first mate. You provide the vision and we help you plot a course and get there. We’ll add the skills and industry knowledge of all things marketing and bring our individual talents too. Compassion, authenticity, and humor all come as a part of the package.

Are you ready to take your company to the next level?