Branding and marketing work is a living, breathing process. As long as your business continues to grow, your brand needs to evolve, too. But just because there’s no ultimate peak to reach or finish line to cross with that work doesn’t mean there aren’t lots of moments to celebrate along the way.
And honestly, at Map & Fire, we haven’t always done as much as we could to celebrate moments of internal success. Maybe it’s some of those midwest roots of not wanting to make a big show of things. Or maybe it’s getting wrapped up in the work with our clients and forgetting that not everyone can see what’s happening behind the scenes.
But this was an important one to share as we were named one of the best agencies in both Los Angeles and California for branding and strategy work in 2021 by Clutch.
We always emphasize the importance of social proof with our clients. In order for people to trust and switch to using your brand, they often rely on the experiences and opinions of others. Sometimes that comes in the form of referrals. But testimonials from people who’ve had success with your brand are valuable as well.
And if social proof is important for our clients, it’s important for us, too.
This is where a site like Clutch comes in. Their whole model centers around capturing and validating reviews from agency clients. That third-party validation adds a key component of trust building for new clients. It also makes agency research much easier because you can compare and contrast services and results with lots of potential partners.
At Map & Fire, we’ve always been mindful to capture kind words from our clients. But we’d never taken that extra step to build up a profile on a site like Clutch until this year.
It’s extremely rewarding that in the few months since we started building that profile and collecting reviews on Clutch we have a perfect five star rating average.
And while we couldn’t be more proud to get that recognition, what feels the best is reading the actual words that our clients use when talking about their experience working with us.
“It was important to us that we bring in outside expertise to help us shape our new program offering differently and more imaginatively. We quickly landed on Map & Fire as the ideal partner for us. The groundwork they laid and the insights they were able to glean from the research were excellent. Most of all their willingness to work in partnership and their obvious interest in us as a client was refreshing.”
Nicola Barrett
Chief Corporate Learning Officer, Emory Executive Education at the Goizueta Business School
“As we’ve expanded, we realized that we needed Map & Fire to help us get down on paper what we’d been carrying around in our heads. We’ve been able to use the Brand Guidebook to better train our team and help with raising money for our growth. They are guides but also collaborators. Their commitment to getting it right for us was truly impressive.”
Talmadge Lowe
Co-Founder, Hi–Lo Liquor
“Map & Fire is very full-service with regards to our branding needs. They started by working with analytics of our existing customer base to see what our most successful customers are like. We had a significant boost in conversion rates from our new landing pages. We also constantly use the Brand Guidelines documents they created. When working with Map & Fire, we feel like they’re a part of our company. They regularly reach out with new ideas for us even when we’re not in the middle of a project, and it’s awesome to know they’re thinking about us.”
Louis DeMenthon
Founder, CEO, Eat This Much
“We’ve been working with Map & Fire since 2015. They clarified our overarching brand strategy and helped us manage all the extensions of our brand including the websites for all our verticals. They’ve assisted with all elements of the businesses from initial concepting to launch — including the foundational positioning, customer research, to the written and visual communication. Map & Fire is the most thoughtful, organized vendor I have. They’ve been a great partner to help navigate and clarify the direction and execution of some very complex concepts. In addition to everything I expect from them professionally, I also find them great company off the clock – and welcome their perspectives on issues outside core missions.”
Stu Pollard
Founder, CEO, Lunacy Productions & Reunacy
This is definitely the shortest article on our blog (again, those midwest roots kicking in) but it’s one of the most important.
It’s a reminder to celebrate moments. Share that success. Let folks know what you’ve been doing so you can connect with and support even more people.
It feels good and it’s good for your business.
If you want to chat and see how we can help grow your brand, reach out for a free consultation!
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If you’re ready to build stronger connections with your customers, reach out for a free consultation. We’ll help you transform your best business thinking into an actionable, shareable, growth-oriented guide. Click below to learn more about the Brand Guidebook process.
