This marketing agency has much to be thankful for

This Marketing Agency is Still Thankful…

It’s November, so it’s time for my annual Thankfulness blog! What does that have to with a marketing agency? Well, we can all use to take a moment away from the daily ground to notice our gratitude, right?

A rare holiday blog, we decided to postpone publishing Thanksgiving blog until today, Thanksgiving. We doubt that’s when you’ll read it, but we hope you enjoy it whenever you do. 

I’ve said it to everyone who’ll listen -November is my favorite month. It’s my anniversary month, the weather is cool, fall flavors are everywhere, and, of course, it has Thanksgiving, arguably the least controversial holiday of the year.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I do a big to-do every year where I make turkey, stuffing, all the Thanksgiving foods, and anything else I’m given the green light to feature. As a kid, we sometimes had Italian food beside American food, with a plate of ziti, manicotti, or lasagna next to the turkey. 

It’s a beautiful way to celebrate because it honors two traditions, which is something we hopefully do with our own families and businesses – celebrate what makes everyone unique and bring it all together. 

So for this year, I will celebrate some of the people who’ve made POP, and by extension, me, successful by honoring them and some of the other things I’m thankful for in my life in Roanoke.

The POP Stars

When I started your friendly neighborhood marketing agency, it was pretty much me doing all the work clients saw with my wife Felicia working with me on all the work they didn’t. When you start a business, there’s a lot to figure out! 

Felicia has been there from the beginning doing the thankless stuff, so the least I could do is get her her hero cartoon! She continues to be support that I lean on in business and out. 

Aaron Baldwin is the next POPstar to get his own cartoon. Aaron does a little bit of everything except sales, which he does a LOT of. He’s done a lot to build up this company so that we could add other POPstars like…

Bryce Barton. Once I could, I started contracting with Bryce to do most of our back-end work. Now, instead of struggling to figure out why something technical doesn’t work, I just ask him to fix it! Bryce was recently joined on the back end time by Kheenan Terry. 

Like Aaron, Bryce, and I, Kheenan is a graduate of Roanoke College. The place makes good marketers, what can I say? Khenan hasn’t been with us long, but we’re excited to have him on the team. A smart guy indeed, Khenan was –  in a rare feat! –  paid for his undergraduate physics research!

Finally, Caity Read is a remote worker out of Florida. We met while both working for another marketing company. It’s nice to have someone else on the team I can trust to write blogs and social media posts! 

This is a SUPER team, and I’m so thankful to have them all on board. 

Business Growth

It’s been an excellent year for business growth! We’ve been able to more than double the number of customers we assisted last year, and that’s in no small part due to referrals. 

Other Clients

We can’t go into detail about every one of our clients, but I want to highlight a few. (Hey free SEO help!)

This year, we onboarded several clients, including restaurants (Due South & Tacos Rojas), Community Groups (BNI Southwest Virginia & the Greater Williamson Road Area Business Association), Home Service professionals (Magnolia Fencing, Mayday Plumbing), Construction (Frame to Finish and T & H Home Improvement) and much more!

Thanks to all those clients who trust us! We love being your marketing agency! And special thanks to the ones who leave reviews! 

Finally, I met Josh Morris with Detail View Home Inspections while I was going through the Gauntlet small business development competition. He was my mentor and helped me sharpen my business plan. 

Later, he became a client. Now we write his blogs! But that’s not all. Josh also introduced me to a community of other entrepreneurs, the BNI Premiere Chapter. 

Networking

The BNI Premiere group is one of the Roanoke Chapters of Business Networking International, a leads passing group for local professionals. But leads passing makes it sound overly mercenary, which it isn’t. 

BNI’s motto is giver’s gain. The idea is we focus on helping other businesses grow. Like Zig Ziegfirled’s famous quote, “Help enough people get what they want, and you’ll get what you want,” it focuses on helping others. Then your gains are all but guaranteed. 

My chapter helped me grow my business by 30% this year, even while assisting other members to develop theirs. I’m also proud to say we did a lot for the community, such as through Roanoke McDonald House Charities of Southwest Virginia. 

I found the group so helpful that I helped launch another one so Aaron could have similar success. 

Building Community

In addition to BNI, POP is a member of the Greater Williamson Road Business Association, which is also a client. We appreciate everything this excellent chamber/networking/advocacy hybrid organization does to support the community!

I’ve continued to write for local publications like the Roanoker (which had its 50th Anniversary this year!) Cave Spring and Hidden Valley Neighbors. I love being able to write about community members and the good they do, like in my July article on Foster Families! This month, see my article on the Ronald McDonald House!

Ronald McDonald House helps families stay close to their sick children, and we’re proud to support them.

Finally, we’re part of the community in general, too. Roanoke has grown so much in the past two decades, and it’s such a joy to see the many international foods we can now access without leaving the city. 

Thanks, From Your Friendly Neighborhood Marketing Agency!

Thank you, Roanoke, for giving your friendly neighborhood marketing agency, and all of us, a place to thrive!

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