We recently connected with Angela Arnold and have shared our conversation below.

Angela, 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.

I started Arnold Marketing out of frustrations with two areas – how agencies treated their clients, and how businesses treated their people.

Most agencies view clients as money machines, a game to play to get as much cash out of them as possible. Clients have no clear understanding of what the agency is even doing on a day-to-day basis or how to measure and track the success of their efforts. Agencies want to create cool or interesting work to put in a portfolio, versus focusing on what will actually move the needle for their clients’ business.

We have complete transparency into what we’re doing, and even share a live dashboard of our project management system with clients. The goal is not to do work WE can brag about, but to help our clients achieve their goals and grow their business.

On the people side, we also do things differently. I personally review everyone’s timecards to ensure they are not working over 40-45 hours per week. If they are getting too busy, we shuffle things around to take things off their plate. Work/life balance is a huge priority. While we have a handful of full-time employees, we really shine with some of our contractors. They are women who have incredible experience and are great at what they do, but they don’t want a full-time job – they want to be available and present with their kids in the afternoons. We offer the kind of challenging and growth-producing work most full-time jobs do, with the flexibility to be there for their young families. It’s the best of both worlds!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Our clients customers are our customers. What does that mean? It means we aren’t just here to serve our clients, it’s to make them successful by serving their customers. A happy customer means more sales, more repeat purchases, more evangelism.

Arnold Marketing offers marketing strategy that translates into action, then we make that action happen. We offer the full gamut of digital marketing – from websites, to advertising, to ecommerce, to email marketing, social media, and retention programs.

We work with growing businesses who need people who can “just handle it” without a lot of babysitting or time on the owners’ part. Our entire focus is what is right for their business, not what is right for our bottom line.

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

Ironically for a marketing agency, we’ve done no marketing. We’ve grown entirely from word-of-mouth and referral, which is very humbling.

I give credit to my career days for the kickstart we had – I worked hard, made a lot of connections, and so I wasn’t starting out from scratch.

I see a lot of younger people want to start a marketing agency, or even freelance, with little to no professional experience. This is very difficult, and not advantageous. It’s important to get good experience in a multitude of companies, and see how they work, how they operate, and what kind of people are drawn to different organizations. Making connections and friends along the way will only help you go further later on.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

What motivates and inspires each person?

Every employee is motivated by something different. It could be public recognition, or the opportunity to learn something new, or simple cash bonuses.

Allowing a culture of complete honesty and openness is paramount. And that starts at the top. I am the first to tell the team when I’ve made a mistake or when I’m procrastinating on something I need to get done. I ask their opinions and input on all kinds of things related to the business, not just related to their job. They are a true part of how this company is being built, and they know that – so they participate even more fully.

Contact Info:

• Website: arnoldmarketing.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-arnold-94308016/