We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andrew Persaud a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Andrew, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

In the digital marketing space, traditional strategies often come as one-size-fits-all solutions, that disregard the unique needs of businesses in the SMB Market. I realized that what the landscape actually calls for is a more holistic and integrative approach, one that customizes marketing solutions to match the specific requirements of each business – meeting them where they’re at, and scaling with them as they grow.

This tailored approach ensures that the marketing strategy and deliverables are not only effective but also budget-friendly, aligning with the financial capabilities of the business at the time of engagement. By focusing on things like the business’s core values, brand voice, and culture, the strategy resonates with the target audience on a deeper level, creating and solidifying brand loyalty and trust – which in turn boots engagement and conversion rates.

This approach is supported by a solid foundation of strategic planning. It doesn’t rely on guesswork but instead employs data-driven insights to make informed decisions. Metrics play a pivotal role, allowing for constant optimization and fine-tuning to achieve the best results. It’s easy to get so distracted by positioning the brand relative to it’s culture and where they want to be, that you forget about metrics – just as it’s easy to get so in the weeds optimizing based on metrics that you get away from who the brand truly is. There’s a balance that can be found, and when you do, the results are gratifying, exciting, and rewarding for everyone involved.

In a world where businesses are striving for a competitive edge, delivering the best experience possible, and building their presence in their local community, the value of this integrative, personalized approach to digital marketing cannot be overstated. It empowers businesses to stand out, connect with their audience authentically, and achieve sustainable growth in an ever-evolving landscape.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Andrew Persaud, and I have worked in the Media, Marketing, and Website space for over 15 years. I have worked all types of businesses, including large corporations and government organizations, but our passion is small and mid-sized businesses. My experience includes helping to scale Web Development teams, build client brands, form and/or reform their Digital Presence, and increase audience interaction and conversion. I am passionate about building brands, marketing, and videography, and all things marketing. I enjoy spending time with my wife and son, family, and friends. I can frequently be found cooking on my grill, working on a car, or working on a home renovation project.

AE2 Creative is a full-service creative company that specializes in developing brands and giving businesses momentum in the digital space.

We do this through services in Digital Marketing, Media Production, and Website Design. We take a unique integrative approach to marketing and spend time learning about your business, how it works, and how it should be perceived. This helps us match our creativity with your values, vision, and brand, and ensures that those things are clearly reflected in everything we produce.

We love working with and supporting the community around us. Our goal is to be your creative partner as you grow, rather than simply being a service provider.

Think of us as the marketing arm of your business, especially if you don’t have the resources to have an in-house marketing department.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

We chose to launch AE2 at the beginning of 2020, which ended up being an extremely eventful year, given the long-lasting impacts of COVID-19. It required a unique blend of resilience, adaptability, and vision. It seemed like the word everybody was using was “PIVOT”, which certainly described the transition in the digital landscape that year, and shaped the years to come. Businesses were cutting budgets, while at the same time realizing that they needed to invest in a more solid and established digital presence as face-to-face interactions rapidly declined – two things that typically don’t coincide!

In the face of these unprecedented challenges, entrepreneurs and business owners in the SMB space had to figure things out – and quickly. AE2 was able to bring on clients, help those clients get into the digital space, or continue to carve out their existing space, and increase retention, conversions, and become more efficient – all while building a trustworthy brand. We found more budget-friendly solutions for businesses that didn’t have the capital for traditional platforms, and created packages to fit the needs of businesses that needed creatives, but didn’t have the budget for conventional photo/video shoots and deliverables. It required us to tap into our own creativity and determination to find innovative solutions that addressed the unique needs of clients in a budget-friendly way, while still keeping our own doors open.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

AE2 prides itself on the fact that over 90% of our clients are referrals. As much as a marketing company can and should do it’s own marketing and advertising, we’ve found that traditional digital mediums aren’t where we find the majority of our clients! We tend to work extremely closely with our clients – we’re more like an embedded marketing team, rather than an outsourced service provider, so a referral really helps create a bond necessary for us to produce the best deliverables for our clients.

We’re big on networking, and making sure that we have relationships with other local businesses, chambers of commerce, and always strive to provide the most value possible, even to those who may not be our ideal client. No call is just a face-value call – everybody knows someone who we might be able to help at some point. The more value we provide and trust that we build, the better the chances are that we’ll continue to be introduced to more clients, be able to help them and provide value, etc.

When a client refers you, it solidifies a special bond – it’s a mutual understanding that you’ve exceeded their expectations, and because of this, they’re willing to put their stamp of approval on your business and how you’ll treat other people that they have built relationships with. In the business world, trust is the main currency of success, and referrals are the gold standard of trust. They showcase not only the value you bring but also the trust you’ve earned.

Contact Info:

• Website: ae2creative.com