New Products in the New Year

Happy 2018 — we're in a brand new year. And as we transition into January and set our sites on the new year, we've been reflecting on what we want next and where we've come from.

I'm sharing this today because I'm thinking you're probably in the midst of your own reflection and goal setting. And I've had some thoughts about how we resist some of the pressures we can feel in January (keep reading!).

SHARE BIG WINS WITH THOSE YOU LOVE

OUR 2017 WAS ONE FOR THE BOOKS!

At the end of the year I always run an analysis, then give a short presentation to our husbands at our annual Christmas Dinner. It's a great way to see how much we've actually accomplished in a year.

If you're running a smaller shop like ours, it can be easy to miss having co-workers, Christmas parties, or officially celebrating milestones with a bigger team.

Here are a few of our highlights:

• Launched a new product this past year: Web Ready Kit (more on that below)
• Grew our core team to 5 people!
• Increased revenue by 35%
• Worked with over 44 clients last year. Half of those were in our Golden Hours, and the other 20 or so were Brand Plans, Branding and Web Ready Kits.

If you haven't yet, consider grabbing a few of your fellow brand-friends, partners, advisors or spouse and give them a little run down of everything you did this last year. It's super rewarding.

SOME THOUGHTS FOR 2018

My word for 2018 is GENTLE. That's edgy for me. Usually I'm like "achieve!" "Grow!" "How do we double it? How do we triple it!!?"

But this year I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of how business works. It's not about launching every new thing. It's not about sending newsletters every week or posting to Instagram in a way that beats their newest algorithm.

For us at Prim'd, I'm learning that building a great business is about getting quiet and listening. It's about pouring through the data to see what's working. It's about seeing what helps you guys the most. And then doubling down on that.

So this year we're taking a really gentle approach. We're not launching anything new. We're focusing on our "big three." I want to refine, polish, and knock any rough edges off. I want working with us to be even more clear and even simpler to understand. I want our new team of five to be in lock step, faster, and in-sync in creating great results for you guys.

STEPPING INTO A SWEET SPOT

the big three

So what are these things we want to focus on?

One of the really interesting things that happened last year is that we launched a "new" product, Web Ready Kit. This offering seemed to click the rest of our packages into place. I say "new" because all of these services are things we've been doing for clients for years. But it's just been the last 12 — 18 months or so that we've started to formalize this process into even more clear cut steps:

NUMBER ONE: THE BRAND PLAN

We've been making Brand Plans for 3+ years. This is our keystone offer — the starting point, the foundation.

This brand strategy takes confused or evolving business owners and teams and helps them get really clear and confident around what exactly it is they're doing, who they are and how to talk about themselves. It's strategy, messaging, positioning, and voice which we believe is the core stuff of a brand.

NUMBER TWO: BRANDING

We've been doing logos, fonts and color palettes since the inception of Prim'd Marketing.

And for the last few years we've made sure it always comes AFTER The Brand Plan, because we believe its the best way to take a brand vision and put some skin on it.

 

NUMBER THREE: WEB READY KIT

This is the "new" offering. I have new in quotes, because all of the components are things we've been offering clients for years. It's the packaging that's new.

Web Ready Kit gives clients an SEO report, complete web content based on The Brand Plan, and three check-ins with the Prim'd Team across a website build to make sure that the online home you're building for your brand matches your strategy.

WHAT DID WE LEARN IN 2017?

After working with SCORES of clients over the years we see a clear path. Most of you need 1-2-3: Strategy, Branding, Website Content.

Some of you need slightly different things, so we built our sweet spot to have flexibility (AKA, the client who has a great logo and needs just The Brand Plan and Web Ready Kit).

We've spent 2017 furiously listening to your needs, trying things out, putting together packages, and seeing how you like them. We'd watch what worked, what didn't, and refine. We've basically spent 2017, well, DOING THE WORK.

Currently you don't see all of these 1-2-3 Packages on our website (yet!) because I'm learning that we're just a bit more organic here at Prim'd. We like to be still. We like to listen. We like to make our packages based on what you are asking for and what we know you NEED. And then we like to sell it for 18 months or so before we do the official stuff — build sales pages, photograph the offering, etc.

THE INVITATION FOR YOU

In closing, I'm sharing my business goals and thoughts because I know January can be a time that feels pressured.

I want to put it out there that it's OK if your goals for the new year don't involve taking over the world. January tends to be a converstation about dreaming huge and making miracles happen this coming year.

That may not be what you need this year. It's ok to be methodical. It's ok if your big dreams are simple, or don't involve hockey stick graphs.

That's the way we've built our business. We got our first client before we had a website. We were selling The Brand Plan for over a year before I built a sexy sales deck. We've been selling the Web Ready Kit for a while, and it doesn't have a sales page.

Looking back I'm pretty proud of where we are, and I'm really excited about how we'll evolve in 2018.