Today we’d like to introduce you to Caitlin Drown.
Caitlin, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Growing up on Cape Cod, I quickly realized the important role that small businesses and nonprofits played in supporting the local economy, building strong communities, fostering culture, and protecting the natural environment. During my teenage years, I worked in local restaurants and retail stores and saw how marketing often fell to the bottom of the owners’ to-do lists; they have a hundred other things to do on a summer busy day, and promoting their business may not be a priority.
While studying at Northeastern University in Boston, I learned the ins and outs of business and picked up some amazing real-world experience in their co-op program. But, it was in my entrepreneurship classes that I really began to realize that the entrepreneurial path was calling my name; I wrote a half a dozen fictional business plans for my classes and was hooked to the feeling of developing a business idea, validating the market potential through research, and devising a launch and growth plan.
I started thinking about what kind of business I would want to start, and one day when I was creating a small business marketing plan at my co-op, it hit me: I wanted to help small businesses reach new customers and grow their revenue. One day, I decided, I would be the go-to resource for small businesses and I would give them the tools they needed to grow and execute their marketing programs.
After graduating in 2015, I put my entrepreneurial dreams on hold and continued working on both in-house teams and at agencies. But, my mind kept wandering back to all of the small business owners I had met over the years and the rush I had gotten from my fictional jaunts in entrepreneurship.
I reached an inflection point this past winter; I was ready for a new challenge and could either begin my job search or dive head first into entrepreneurship. I chose the latter and Leg Up Marketing + Communications was born.
Has it been a smooth road?
I doubt any entrepreneur has ever been blessed with a smooth road! But, I am fortunate to have a service-based business with low overhead and simple expenses, so my bookkeeping is fairly straightforward. However, accounting and finance were never my strong suit, so Google has been a trusted advisor throughout the process.
Another struggle is one that has shocked me – finding the time to market my own business! I spend most of the day on projects to promote my clients, so it is easy to forget to practice what I preach and carve out time to market Leg Up. So, I am using the tools that I suggest to my clients (set up Google Alerts, create a content calendar, schedule out posts) to make sure my social media channels are fresh and up-to-date.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Leg Up Marketing + Communications story. Tell us more about the business.
Leg Up Marketing + Communications exists to raise awareness to and elevate the work of small businesses and nonprofit organizations so they can continue to grow and have a positive impact on their local communities. We work closely with our clients to develop, execute, and grow marketing and public relations programs in both full-service management and coaching capacities.
We help our clients develop the foundation of their brands, streamline their marketing efforts, better understand their customers and their wants and needs, determine the ROI of their promotional work, and craft engaging and effective campaigns and strategies to take their business to the next level. Our services include social media, email marketing, website development, copywriting, advertising, media outreach, photography, reporting, event promotion, and strategy creation.
I am most proud of the fact that we are able to listen to and help small business owners that have largely been ignored by other agencies in the past. Many larger agencies have monthly retainer minimums of $5,000 or more, which can exceed the revenue of a small business in its off-season. I have met with a multitude of business owners that have worked with agencies in the past that did not truly listen to them, they solely saw them as another stream of revenue each month and provided them with a one-size-fits-all marketing package.
I joke that 50% of my job is being a counselor, but it is true. In my initial meetings with clients, I work to identify all of the pain points around marketing, and those conversations often unearth frustrations that have never been vocalized before. It seems like it is a cathartic experience for my clients; they spend all day keeping their business running, that they never have time to stop and think about what is going on and how it is impacting them. These conversations energize me and strengthen my bond with my clients because I feel personally invested in their success and I want to play my role in helping them reach their goals.
I think this is what sets Leg Up apart from other agencies. Not only do we genuinely care about our clients, but we know how important these small businesses are to the owners (which often refer to them as their baby) and the community at large. They are providing much-needed jobs and have the power to knit together connections in the community.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Data has given companies enormous insight into who their customers are and what their behavior is. But, it has made marketing impersonal. Attend a big marketing conference and you will hear presenters talk about personalization and how their product will let you customize your campaign to each individual customer, but that is limited to their demographic and behavioral data. We have forgotten that we are speaking to actual people, not data points contained to a spreadsheet. For marketing to succeed, we need to remember that we are talking to individuals who have families, jobs, hobbies, interests, fears. We cannot continue to group them into large groups that all think and feel the same. I think that marketing needs to cater to this and create campaigns and strategies that listen to their customers and treat them as the individuals that they are.
Transparency is only going to grow in importance for consumers. Many consumers, especially millennials, are looking for companies to make a difference in the world, whether that is lessening their environmental impact or helping to solve a public health crisis. But, consumers are smart enough to see through deceptive marketing messages, like greenwashing. The companies that are hopping on the bandwagon solely in hopes of seeing a bump to sales will not succeed.
I also always encourage my clients to consider partnering with other like-minded brands on marketing campaigns like giveaways and contests. Cross-promotion is huge on social media and benefits everyone involved. It also gives companies the opportunity to shine a light on their brand; who, not what, the company is.
Contact Info:
- Address: 732 E Broadway
South Boston, MA 02127 - Website: www.legupcommunications.com
- Phone: 5082379326
- Email: caitlin@legupcommunications.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/legupmarketing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LegUpMarketingCommunications/
- Twitter: twitter.com/LegUpMarketing
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