June 29, 2018

The good kind of growing pains

We know. It’s been a while.

The past six months have been some of the most transformative since Crux launched two years ago. It’s been a time of extreme growth for our company, both internally and externally. We’ve added desks to our office, client folders to our computers and milestones to our memories.

And we’ve done a terrible job documenting it.

We sometimes think of ourselves as the cobbler’s children without shoes, working hard to deliver high-quality content for our clients and neglecting our own in the process. In an industry where content is king, we broke the cardinal rule.

Exponential growth

But we had a good reason to break that rule! The Crux team ballooned almost overnight, expanding from four employees to 11 in our small office quarters. Since the start of the year, we’ve added an operations manager, two client chief marketing officers, a marketing manager and three seasonal interns to better serve our ever-expanding client base.

Throughout the summer, our interns are conducting a marketing research audit of Crux, evaluating our company, our methods and our branding to strengthen our own messaging. There’s something both thrilling and daunting about being in the passenger seat of our own proven process. It’s great to experience our practices from the other side to see exactly how our methods excel and where we can tweak them for better results. Turning our business model on its head is eye-opening, and our interns have become an invaluable resource of fresh perspectives.

And our growth doesn’t stop there. We added talent to our team because we’ve nearly doubled our clients. From legacy small businesses to startup tech companies, our client list has broadened to be as wide as it is long. As an entrepreneur myself, it’s inspiring to be the marketing arm for so many startups growing their companies to serve the Kansas City community and beyond.

Expanding your reach

Of course, to grow your company, you need original content. A study of 2,300 HubSpot customers found businesses that blog will see their monthly leads raise by 126 percent more than counterparts who don’t. HubSpot also reports that businesses that blog generate two times more email traffic than those who don’t.

Your blog is one of the most effective ways to create original content that drives traffic, increases SEO, and fuels social media and email campaigns. That content builds brand awareness, connects with and grows your audience, and demonstrates your expertise.

Your blog is the most cost- and time-effective way to create marketing content that resonates with your audience and positions you as a thought leader in your industry. That fine line between strategy and content marketing is one we walk every day for our clients, and we have it down to a science.

The last two years have been an incredible ride. I’m proud of the immensely talented team we have built, and it’s an honor that our clients trust us to “Cruxify” their marketing strategy.

Stay tuned for more regular blog posts to see what Crux conjures up next!

Melea McRae is proud to be involved in the Kansas City marketing community, building Kansas City’s first “un-agency.” Connect with Melea on LinkedIn and share your thoughts on our Facebook page or on Twitter @FindYourCrux.

About the author: Melea McRae is a marketing strategist with 25+ years of B2B and B2C experience leading client-facing marketing departments, where she earned the reputation as an insightful brand strategist. As SVP and CMO at the Greater KC Chamber of Commerce, she led the organization’s marketing and business development efforts. In July 2016, Melea launched Crux KC, providing an in-house marketing team, outsourced – the “un-agency” – for her small-to-mid-sized clients. As founder and CEO, she builds marketing, communication and business development strategies for her clients, while positioning them for sustainable growth.

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