Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Grijalva.
Aaron, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Marketing has intrigued and excited me since my first marketing class in college, and I haven’t looked back. When I couldn’t find a marketing job out of college, I found a couple sales jobs that sold marketing products and packages.
Looking back, this was the best thing that could have happened to me right out of school. Instead of working in an office all day with a marketing team, I was visiting with actual business owners, building relationships with them, learning about their businesses, their biggest struggles and biggest needs. Not only did I get to learn the ins-and-outs of marketing and advertising, I got to see what these small business owners really needed.
What they needed most was someone they could trust, someone that could educate them, and help them make good marketing decisions. That experience is what planted the seed to eventually start AG Marketing Collective.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has been relatively smooth so far. The hard part is not always knowing where the road is going! Digital marketing is always changing. Sure, every business needs a mobile-friendly website and a social media presence, but besides that, not every small business and non-profit fit nicely into the same box. Just this week, I am working with a client and we are navigating a completely new road together.
It’s a strategy that I haven’t done before, but after researching it and discussing it with him, we were BOTH excited to try it out. This could open up a whole new expertise and niche for AG Marketing Collective. It can be tempting to rest on your successes, to stick with the same old products and strategies that have worked in the past, but in this industry, you simply can’t do that.
AG Marketing Collective – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We’re a digital marketing agency that focuses on educating and simplifying the marketing process. There is a big market for that, especially with small businesses, start-ups, and non-profits. These small business owners wear a lot of hats and don’t have the biggest marketing budgets.
Empowering them to manage their own websites, social media, and email marketing, while being there in the background to help when needed, has been a very successful strategy for us. Most of the time they end up wanting the ongoing help to manage it all, but they like knowing that they can log into their website, post a blog or add an employee to their team page without hiring a developer to do it.
As I stated earlier, the biggest need I saw from business owners was a need for a trusted source to educate them and help them make good decisions about their marketing, specifically their digital marketing. We really haven’t strayed from that.
Our biggest niche thus far has been re-designing websites that just weren’t built and designed very well. Not mobile-friendly, not visible at all in Google searches, or sites that required a developer to make even the most simple change. Our web design projects have been our most enjoyable projects by far, mainly because websites can be the biggest cause of headaches for these businesses! Hearing our clients reaction when they see their new site gives us renewed motivation every time.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
When I first decided to launch AG Marketing Collective, the first step was to let my own social network know about it. I didn’t expect the response I received!
I had people from all over the country reach out to me, some that I hadn’t spoken to in over a decade, wanting to book a call, talk about their business, talk about marketing ideas. Friends from high school, old employers and customers, extended family… Many of them turned into paying jobs which really helped the company get on its feet.
I think there is a lesson learned in that. My proudest moment by far was booking those first few jobs from people in my network that didn’t need to see a portfolio, didn’t need to see my work that generated great ROI. They simply trusted me enough based on our interactions from years ago, interactions that had nothing to do with me designing a website or building a marketing strategy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.agmcollective.com/
- Phone: 434-382-8899
- Email: aaron@agmcollective.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/agmcollective
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/agmcollective/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ag-marketing-collective-johns-creek
Image Credit:
Calista Rain Photography
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