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Montana Branding Agencies: Finding ‘The One’ Without the Awkward Dates

Your marketing campaign helps define your brand. The success of your business depends on attracting customers. It’s critical to gain your customers’ trust. Effective branding will help you accomplish this important task. Branding isn’t just about getting your name out to the masses. It’s about attracting the right audience at the right time. Whether you are just starting out or have been in business for years, strategic branding can help you see the results you want. Here are some tips for choosing the right branding agency. Know What You Need Before choosing an agency, you should have an idea about what you want. You should know the goals for your business and have a rough idea about how to achieve those goals. The right agency can help you refine those goals to put you on a path toward success. If you understand what you want, it’s easier to find an agency that’s a good fit for your needs. Finding Branding Agencies Start by asking for referrals. Talk to your friends and tap into your LinkedIn connections. This is a good way to get information about agencies others have used and had success with. A Google search can lead to a wealth of information about branding agencies. Be sure to look at online client reviews. This is a great way to determine the level of client satisfaction with the agency’s work. Look for Quality Quality is the key to any successful product or service. You want an agency who can present your business in the best possible light. It’s not hard to assess high-quality work. Before choosing an agency look at samples of their work. Their designs should be intuitive and catch your attention. If any of their work seems questionable, look for another agency. Look for Style Every business owner wants a dynamic brand image. You want a great looking website that’s also mobile friendly. If a customer can’t find you on their smartphone, you’re missing potential business. Before you choose a branding firm, make sure the websites they create are intuitive, easy to navigate, and mobile friendly. Their official website represents their true style. Look at their site and note if there’s a natural flow between their design, graphics, and content. Narrow Your Choices If this is the first time you will work with a branding firm, be sure to shop around. You should consider at least three agencies before making a final choice. Branding agencies are not all alike. They offer different services, quality standards, and artistic styles. Speak to them face-to-face. You may want to ask for a short presentation. They should show you their ideas for working with you, their approach to similar projects, and an estimate of the costs and timing for the project. You don’t have to be an expert to understand what appeals to you. Trust your instincts to choose the best fit for you and your business. Be Realistic About Costs Have a realistic idea about the money you need to invest and how long the project will last from start to finish. Find agencies with good reputations who are upfront about their fees. If you are a start-up, a smaller agency may be your best bet. You may get more individualized attention than you would with a larger firm. Assess the Vibe Although you hire a branding firm to help you build a stellar brand, they should still value your input. During your face-to-face meeting take note of their behavior and how they interact with you. They should listen to your ideas and be open to your suggestions as they explain their strategy for your brand. If they seem indifferent and don’t engage with you, it’s not the right fit. Trust Your Instincts Choosing the right branding firm is a big decision. After all, a strong, dynamic brand is critical to the success of your business. Choose the agency that’s the right fit. Choose the agency you believe can manage the project and deliver a brand strategy that will work for the future of your business. Make sure you have a good rapport with the branding team. Consider whether you will be comfortable working beside them for weeks to months. Customization Matters You want a branding firm that understands what’s unique about your business. They must be able to translate your message into a dynamic design. You don’t want a generic website that looks like your competitors. You want to stand out from the others. Branding is about differentiation, but some agencies stick with the same style for their clients. This is what you don’t want. They need to see what makes you unique and capitalize on your company’s unique voice. Make sure they are willing to customize the design to fit your requirements. They should ask questions and appear interested in your vision for your brand while they help you create a winning design. The Branding Process Branding is more than a cool logo and color scheme. You need a seamless intersection of design and strategy. This can make or break your brand. Once they work with you to develop your brand, it has to be timeless and translate to the real world. Some agencies are strong on strategy but fall short on design. Other agencies are great designers but are weak on strategy. You want to choose an agency that delivers on both strategy and design. Your business depends on it. Choosing the Right Branding Agency The success of any product depends on the quality of the product and the way you promote in the marketplace. This requires a high level of skill and brand awareness. Above all, you want your customers’ trust, and effective branding can help you accomplish this goal. If you are looking for a branding agency, we would love to talk with you about your vision for your business and how we can help. Schedule a free web consultation to find out how.

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March 2, 2025
Digital Marketing
Cassia Spurlock

MSP Marketing Report 2025

ConnectWise recently surveyed 1000 MSPs about their marketing strategies, and the insights might surprise you. It’s also possible that you’ll have an “oh, thank goodness I’m not alone” moment. MSPs are not unique from other industries in that their core marketing struggles are often mirrored. Do any of these sound familiar? Are these numbers surprising? We didn’t think they were. We’ve had this conversation many times before with c-suite executives at MSPs across the country. With most MSPs only allotting about $10k or less per year toward their marketing, they’re typically putting that toward standard and simple marketing systems like SEO, social media, event attendance, and referral outreach. The issue with relying on the same-old tactics is that the majority of your competitors are applying the same strategies and likely seeing the same results. You may be trading places competitively because neither is stretching those marketing muscles to get beyond the starting line. If you’re still stuck at start, here’s some things to consider when trying to market your MSP on a tight budget. Marketing Your MSP on a Budget If you are an MSP looking to optimize your current strategies, here’s some tactics that may help stretch your marketing budget: Moving Past the Starting Gun – MSP Marketing Momentum Most MSPs operating on a lower budget rely on internal capabilities to make the most of their marketing. Marketing pain is felt as MSPs strive to grow without: Ideally, for IT companies looking to extend their marketing services and fulfill these marketing gaps, they can find a partnership that provides custom pricing to suit the higher priority needs. Start with an assessment of your marketing gaps and a competitive overview to determine what your baseline campaigns would need to be to compete. As an example, if none of your competitors are running complex social media campaigns, then you can likely get away with a lower-tier delivery and still find success. We recommend that you seek out a marketing agency with custom pricing that can work with your business development team to align sales and marketing options. Ideally, you can source a vendor that offers a one-stop marketing solution and some sort of quarterly strategic planning sessions to keep your team in the loop. Most MSPs are familiar with a quarterly tech audit or check-in process. Marketing agencies should also offer a similar steering meeting to align and report on successes or changes. Better Sales Enablement – Where to Start Better sales enablement starts with open dialogue between your sales and marketing teams. Even if your “marketing team” currently comprises a front desk staff member and web developer, communicating BizDev’s needs is vital to improving sales structure. Example: Improving Sales Flow to Onboarding with Marketing This is one instance of how a simple web page can streamline the sales process to hand off and create a better client experience. You want to ensure that your clients become Raving Fans, starting with clear onboarding. More supporting marketing materials Supporting marketing materials is a broad term and could include: Here’s another example of how you should Think Outside the Box with how marketing can help your company. Example: Reduce Phishing Service Tickets with Marketing Ironically, one way to combat malicious email threats is by sending out educational emails. A monthly newsletter not only builds better relationships with your existing clients, but it should also be a platform to further their education. Identifying and sharing the latest cybersecurity threats and phishing scam types can provide value, increase customer awareness, and reduce phishing events. Additionally, this type of marketing outreach can be a platform for Upselling your services. Especially if your Cybersecurity or Advanced Cybersecurity services are a separate cost than your Managed or Co-Managed services. Improved vendor support & understanding We stress the importance of good team alignment both internally and externally. In years of working with owners to help transform their businesses, we not only focus on their marketing but also the alignment they have internally with C-Suite to Sales to Delivery to Marketing. One way to improve the understanding of support and how the departments can work together is high-quality meetings. Meetings should include a repeatable format that establishes: The departments’ goals should not be ambiguous. They should be aligned to support one another. If BizDev needs 12 MQLs from the Construction industry to make 3 closes, marketing needs to understand and agree to that objective. All departments should be held accountable for their part in the campaigns. No finger-pointing. This is a team effort. Risks should be addressed quickly and thoroughly. And creative thinking should be welcomed at every stage. These types of meetings don’t have to be long but they create a very helpful habit of quality collaboration and success. Better education on the marketing process, buyers, and campaigns Marketing is complicated. There’s no real getting around it. The concept sounds simple, but the execution is complex. Marketing has a million metrics it can measure at all stages of the buyer’s journey. You can be running 3 different social media campaigns simultaneously, and they will all have different ideas of what success looks like. A good marketing company should be able to explain things simply. To narrow the focus and get clarity. And also set realistic objectives. One thing we’ve learned is that CEOs are dreamers. They have lofty goals, big ideas, and a vision that’s nearly out of this world. The realistic slog to get there is one that’s not nearly as fun. Don’t fall for lofty promises. Marketing takes time. It’s a marathon not a sprint. There’s no secret sauce to this. All marketing agencies are going to offer a somewhat similar product in much the same way that MSPs mostly have the same offering. The key difference here is between Tactics and Strategy. Most agencies will utilize the same tactics. The difference between an effective company and an ineffective one is the Strategy they use to implement those Tactics. Bonus: Recruitment as a Targeted Campaign According

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February 26, 2025
Marketing Website
Cassia Spurlock

Why Website Security Matters – More Than Ever

At this point in time it is safe to say that we all know and understand the importance of internet security. After all, cybercriminals are constantly looking for new ways to hack into your system and steal important data and files. Successful business owners understand that they need to purchase anti-virus and malware software to protect their businesses from such attacks.   A lesser-known but equally important business practice is the need for website security. Any time a user browses through your website or submits a form online, your website is vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Anti-virus and malware software’s do not protect against these sorts of attacks on your website. Security Steps You’ve Probably Already Taken SSLs Most people, at this point, are familiar with an SSL. It’s the little pop-up you see warning you that a site isn’t secure if they’ve haven’t bothered to shell out the nomial cost for one. SSL certificates transform your http domain name to https (the S stands for Secure) domain. Https domains encrypt data that is entering or leaving your site making it difficult for cybercriminals to see personal data or information that would otherwise be exposed. SSLs add a layer of protection, safeguaring both users and your domain from potential hackers. As an added bonus, an SSL can also contribute to your SEO performance on Google. (old news, back in 2018, Google announced that it would start favoring all https websites over http websites – and that never changed).  Why it’s not enough:  Limited scope. It only covers some data and doesn’t fully protect a site from all avenues of security threats. It’s just a corner piece on a bigger puzzle. Captcha If you collect any information on your website then you have likely implemented a captcha (or your web person has…hopefully). Captchas are those funny little guys that pop up asking you how many bikes are pictured in the square of images. They can also prompt you to add up a math equation, yada yada. These are the classic, “I am not a robot” tactic to reduce overall bot attacks on a web form. But….they’re not foolproof. Why it’s not enough: Machine learning and click farming means that captchas are becoming less and less effective at preventing spam, phishing or other threats from coming through your forms. Other Avenues for Boosted Website Security Blocking Non-US Traffic – this can prevent bot attacks and block countries that are the most common culprits for cyber attacks. Obviously, this is only a good option for local businesses. Security Monitoring Plugins – there are a lot available. Research the one that works best for your needs. They typically come with a cost but it’s worth it to know when, how, and why a cyber attack occurred. Daily Backups – if your web host doesn’t already provide this then GET IT NOW. Daily backups allow you to easily restore your site to undo any modifications a bad actor may have applied. Automated Theme & Plugin Updates – plugins are one of the worst vulnerabilities for a site. They become dated and are the target of injectable spam and malware. It’s a huge pain to do manual updates. Invest in automatic updates coupled with backups to ensure that you can restore to a previous point if a plugin conflict occurs. HIPPA Compliant Forms – you can apply this whether you’re in the medical industry or not. HIPPA Compliant forms deliver your information in an encrypted email and lock up the data in your website from being accessed. This helps add a double layer of security if you’re collecting private information.

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February 22, 2025
Digital Marketing
Cassia Spurlock

How Your Rapid Growth Plan for Your MSP is Actually Hurting You

You are ready for growth! You can’t wait to start drawing in fresh leads and making some sales! In fact, you’ve set a pretty ambitious sales quota for your bizdev team and they are scrambling to meet it. You know if you can just get them in the door, then you can make the sale. And that’s all there is, right?… Wrong! Let’s talk about a few ways that your plan for 25-50% growth over the next year is going to come back and bite you hard. Scaling Your IT Company Intentionally: Don’t Outpace Your Capacity You want to grow carefully. Growth should never come at the cost of service quality. When new clients pour in, but your hiring and training can’t keep up, it puts long-time clients at risk. The very people who trusted you first suddenly feel neglected, leading to attrition. Even if your rate of sale can cover the higher attrition, you’ve got angry clients leaving bad reviews. You’ve got new clients experiencing lousy onboarding. And you’ve got current clients creating a tense environment for your employees by constantly coming at them with complaints. How to Avoid This Trap: Define What You’re Selling: Avoid Unnecessary Tension Is your sales team still selling the same “Managed IT Package” they were two years ago? Meanwhile, your service delivery keeps evolving, and nobody’s sure what’s actually included anymore. Misalignment between what’s promised and what’s delivered creates friction—and frustrated clients. Not only that, but ill-defined service offerings can delay projects, create a poor quoting process, and ultimately cost you that new contract. If you’re going to add on several new clients per month, you need to make sure that what’s being sold matches what your employees can deliver. What to Do: Use That Feedback: Because Honesty May Steer You Differently MSP business owners tend to be big thinkers—visionaries with a “just make it happen” mentality. While that’s inspiring, it can create internal friction if teams feel overwhelmed or clients experience inconsistent service. The key? Create a culture where honest feedback is not just encouraged but acted upon. A lot of MSPs implement something like CrewHu or other service ticket-level feedback processes, but they don’t always use it to create actionable changes. Discover key training gaps, common client questions/complaints, or opportunities for service level improvement. Work this into your system and see satisfaction improve as you grow. You may find that the service offering you’ve defined actually needs some refinement before you start pulling in new logos. Tips for Building Honest Communication: Your Marketing & Biz Dev Teams Are Mad At Each Other: Align for Success If your marketing team is pushing one message while sales is pitching another, you’re wasting time and money. Campaign alignment between marketing and business development ensures prospects get a consistent message at every touchpoint. If you want marketing pulling in tons of leads and they don’t have a clear understanding of what an actual target lead is then you may have your BizDev team wasting loads of time on unqualified prospects and small potatoes. This creates tension between your two departments. BizDev feels like marketing is just wasting their time. In reality, they’re just not aligned on what an SQL looks like. How to Create Alignment: Stop Chasing New Clients When You Can Upsell to Existing Ones Growth doesn’t always mean landing shiny new clients—it can also mean getting more value from the ones you already have. Many MSPs overlook the goldmine sitting right under their noses: their current customer base. When you’re laser-focused on bringing in new business, existing clients can feel like an afterthought. That’s a dangerous game. Neglecting them opens the door for competitors to swoop in and steal your hard-earned relationships. How to Keep Existing Clients Happy and Growing: Want more insights like this? We are full of ’em. Just shoot us a message on LinkedIn or email us here.

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February 18, 2025
Digital Marketing
Cassia Spurlock

Why Your MSP Isn’t Closing Enough Deals (And How a Simple Checklist Will Fix It) 

Hey there, MSP business owners! Let’s be real—if you’re reading this, you’re the question “how do I grow my business in 2025?” has probably been keeping you up at night. You’re not alone. Every MSP out there is asking the same question. The catch? The answer might be sitting right in front of your face: a massive friction between your sales and marketing teams. Time to take out the olive branches because these two departments are meant to work together. Unfortunately, it’s more like a bad office sitcom where the two teams barely speak, let alone work together. But what if I told you there’s a really simple way to fix it, and it starts with a checklist? Let’s break this down, because if you don’t fix this now, you might as well be trying to close deals with one hand tied behind your back. The Sales and Marketing Divide is A Recipe for Disaster Here’s the deal. I’ve spoken to dozens of MSPs who have one thing in common: they can’t convert prospects into leads. They’ve got the right traffic coming in, but somehow, they’re not closing the deals. And guess what? It’s usually because their sales and marketing teams are operating in two completely different worlds. Take, for example, a scenario we see all the time: your marketing team is happily targeting big financial institutions, like “mega banks” and generic financial businesses, with big campaigns, while your sales team is out there trying to land smaller, niche clients like credit unions. These two efforts aren’t even in the same ballpark, and guess what happens? They don’t talk about it. They don’t meet to align their goals, and they certainly don’t figure out how their efforts are supposed to intersect. Big problem. When your sales team is targeting a specific niche and your marketing team is casting a super wide net, you’re just wasting everyone’s time. Those “big bank” leads aren’t going to be viewed as qualified prospects by your sales team because they’re not actually after those leads. This misalignment? Can cause a real rift in the galaxy (Aka your sales process). Is Your Team Even Talking? Probably Not. So, here’s another thing that’s likely happening: your marketing team and sales team aren’t even meeting. Seriously. They’re out there doing their own thing, but they aren’t getting together for strategy sessions. It’s like trying to run a two-person race with only one person showing up. I can hear the excuses now: “Oh, we’re too busy.” “We don’t need to meet every week.” Yeah, I get it, but guess what? Without regular check-ins, your sales team has no idea what new campaigns are running, and your marketing team doesn’t know what sales events are coming up. This leads to missed opportunities—especially if your sales team is out there attending chamber meetings, industry conferences, or speaking engagements, and marketing doesn’t even know about it until the last minute. This lack of communication creates chaos in your business development process, and it’s no surprise when leads don’t convert. Without a rhythm of communication between your teams, you’ll always be playing catch-up. The Fix: Simple Goals, Clear Communication, and a Checklist Ok ok, I promise I am done trying to scare you. Let’s talk about how to fix this. You are going to start smacking that easy button on your desk once you hear the solution. First, your marketing team needs to know exactly what your sales team is even trying to achieve. This means having common goals and agreeing on what a “qualified lead” actually looks like. It’s imperative that your marketing team is aligned with the specific industries your sales team is targeting. And this can’t just be a vague concept—it needs to be granular. Are you targeting credit unions? Banks? Insurance companies? Each team needs to have a precise understanding of the target. Next, both teams should hold regular meetings to make sure everything is running smoothly. I’m talking about syncing up on campaigns, progress, and even upcoming events. These meetings should be structured, and both sides need to come to the table with a game plan. If the marketing team has new campaigns or content to share, your sales team should know about it in advance so they can capitalize on it. Ok so now that we have explained the problem, pull our your thinking cap because it’s time……that’s right….test time. Well, it’s more of a checklist….but its still going to really help you understand where you and your team sit. This checklist asks a few key questions that will have you thinking, “Wait, do we even know each other’s names?” Seriously, it can highlight everything from whether your teams are aligned on industry targeting to if they’re actually meeting regularly. The goal here isn’t to make you feel bad; it’s to get you thinking and, more importantly, take action to fix the gaps. Here are a few example questions you’ll find in the checklist: -Are marketing and sales targeting the same industries or accounts? -Are your team members meeting on a regular basis? -Do your sales team members know the specifics of upcoming marketing campaigns? -Do both sides agree on what a quality lead is? By answering these questions, you’ll get a clear picture of where the friction lies and where you need to improve. It’s like a personal check-up for your business development processes. Closing the Deal: Get Your Teams On the Same Page If you’ve gone through the checklist and realized things aren’t as aligned as they should be, don’t stress. You’re not alone. This is very common, and with the right fixes in place, it’s totally solvable. The first step is getting your marketing and sales teams on the same page. From there, setting up regular meetings and aligning on campaign goals will create a smooth handoff process. When your marketing team knows exactly what kind of leads your sales team is after, and your sales team knows how to nurture those leads,

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February 12, 2025
Marketing Strategy
Cassia Spurlock

Why Every Montana Business Needs a Professional Website

Marketing a business in Montana has changed a lot over the last few years. You can’t slap your business name on a new site and call it a day. If your online presence isn’t up to par, your competition will happily take the customers you’re missing out on. Even if you’ve laucnhed with a base site via a web building tool, we encourage all business owners wanting to develop a growth mindset to revisit their website with a web professional. No matter how you cut it, you need a website strategy that makes search engines and customers (and employees) fall in love with your business. Here are five reasons why your Montana business needs a new, professionally built website ASAP. You Didn’t Build with SEO in Mind A beautiful website is worthless if no one can find it. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ensures your site shows up when people search for what you offer. Many young buck businesses understand SEO basics, such as: But, SEO can be tricky (Google’s rules change constantly). What business owners often miss is that SEO doesn’t stop there. We often say, SEO is a million things done right, not one big thing. SEO should be revisited at least once a year. The way people search, the phrases they use, the methods they approach change all the time. You can’t rest on old news when it comes to your site’s performance. You Haven’t Revisited Your Buyer Personas Who were you targeting when you first built your website? Are they still your ideal customers? Businesses evolve, and so do their audiences. You may have narrowed your niche, changed who your Point of Contact is, or identified key details that drive their decision making. If you haven’t updated your buyer personas in years, your messaging might be missing the mark. A new website allows you to tailor content, visuals, and navigation to better match your current audience’s needs. Your Employees Don’t Jive with the Branding Your website isn’t just for customers—it’s also a reflection of your company culture. If your employees cringe when they see the site, that’s a red flag. If you haven’t chatted with your team about how they feel about your branding, you should take a poll. You might be surprised by the answers. While your team shouldn’t have final say in every little detail, you may find their feedback inspiring to improve your overall image. Most business owners in Montana don’t realize how influential their website is in recruitment. Potential new hires scour your site to understand who your company is and what type of culture they’ll be joining. Your branding should be: A new website can align branding with both your customers, future hires, and your internal team. You Have Old, Unvisited Content Driving Down Your Engagement Rate Outdated blog posts, irrelevant service pages, and low-quality content can actually hurt your website’s performance. Older websites collect information over time. Blogs age, landing pages become obsolete. When we revisit web builds for Montana businesses, we always start with a complete content audit. We are often surprised at the gold mines waiting to be leveraged by sales teams that they didn’t even know existed. Don’t let bad content drive down your site. And don’t let good content go to waste. Your Website is Ancient from a Design Perspective If your site looks like it belongs in the early 2000s, visitors will assume your business is outdated, too. The fact of the matter is, websites are considered old news ever 3 years. We know that isn’t great news for business owners but it’s the nature of the industry. Web is always changing, shifting, improving, and turning on its heel to stay competitive. A rebuild (or at least a revisit) every few years should be a non-negotiable in your budget. Get Help from Website Experts Who Know Their Stuff Implementing these updates can make a huge difference for your business. But if all of this still feels overwhelming, you don’t have to go it alone. Before you roll with a new web build, check out our article on How to Grill a Web Design Agency. Ask the right questions and make an educated choice before choosing your new web vendor and getting rolling on a more effective website. Best of luck!

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February 11, 2025

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