A Look at Why Awards are Great for Small Business and Mojo Marketing’s Latest Win!

Entering to win a local or industry award is one of the many ways your business can distinguish itself among competition. Taking a targeted approach to how you apply for awards is important since you’ll want the award you win to highlight an important aspect of your business and reach your target audience. A win can be a great way to be recognized for the amazing work you are doing as a company, helps to increase awareness of your brand and company, provides an easy press release and allows you to stand out among competitors. One of our clients, Mojo Marketing, has done just that!

Mojo Marketing has been a client of ours for about 2 years and we were excited to learn about their recent award win. We spoke with Angela Leavitt, Mojo Marketing founder and CEO, to learn more about their company and what has helped lead to their success. Mojo Marketing was founded in 2010 and specializes in the telecom and IT industry. The company has served close to 200 telecom and IT companies and was recently recognized as one of the 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies by the San Diego Business Journal.

Tell us about your company and professional journey to this point.

“Mojo Marketing is the first and only full-service telecom marketing agency. Full-service means we can do everything that a typical marketing department would handle, and our focus in the industry allows us to better help our clients and get them results faster. We’ve worked with some very large clients like Comcast, Spectrum Business and Time Warner Cable, as well as regional carriers, managed services providers (MSPs), value added resellers (VARs), master agents and telecom agents.

My entire career has been in sales and marketing in one form or another, and I’ve also dabbled in other entrepreneurial ventures in the past like real estate and running my own dance organization. I consider myself very lucky to work in marketing, since it combines so many things that I love and is the perfect blend of science and art.”

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How did you decide to focus on telecom and IT?

“My last full time job was the head of marketing for a hosted VoIP company called Telesphere, which sold to Vonage Business in 2015. I had a lot of free reign to be creative, and since we were nicely funded, my ideas got a lot of exposure. The company grew quickly and gained a lot of attention in a short amount of time. That helped to put me on the map in the telecom world, so after about three years of being there, I began to get requests for freelance projects on the side.

Since my experience with marketing agencies up to that point had been mostly frustrating, I felt I could create something that would solve that pain for other companies. Telecom and IT are intricate industries with their own nuances and languages. By having this focus, we save our clients months of ramp time they would have with other agencies. This translates into better results with less hassle for our clients.”

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Tell us more about your services. It looks like you work with small teams to provide help when needed or can deliver everything a full-service marketing agency would for small business owners doing everything alone. Is that right?

“For companies without any marketing staff, we can act as their entire marketing department.  This usually includes some foundational work like branding and messaging, followed by website builds or tune-ups, and finally ongoing strategies to help them reach their goals. That usually includes lead generation campaigns that incorporate content, social media, PR and digital advertising strategies.

For companies with marketing teams in place, we can simply fill in the gaps wherever they need the most help. Usually we are helping them create content and manage their leaders’ social media accounts.”

You have seen tremendous growth, as highlighted by this award! What do you attribute to this success?

“Thanks! It’s a combination of few things.

First, I believe we’ve reached a tipping point in the lifecycle of our brand. Most people in the telecom industry have heard of us now, and even better, they’re hearing great things. Our goal is to become the household name in the industry for high-quality marketing, and we are getting closer to that goal every day.

Second, I’ve put a lot of focus on building a high-performance team and culture. Up until three years ago, the entire team was remote and many of our staff had never met each other. I realized that wasn’t working for us, so in January of 2015 I decided we’d only hire locally from now on. The impact has been immense, and I can honestly say that every member of our team is an over-achieving A player. As the quality of our work has increased, so has the demand for our services.

Lastly, we’ve put a lot more focus on our own sales and marketing efforts over the last couple of years. Prior to that time we were like the landscapers who had a terrible yard – our own marketing took a backseat to that of our clients. Now we treat ourselves as a client and, combined with full-time sales staff, the results have been 35-40% growth YOY for the last three years.”

Is there anything new your company is working on? What’s next for Mojo Marketing?

“We’ve been working on updating our brand and website, and expect to officially launch both by early July. We also have some new services we’ll be announcing shortly thereafter, including a new telecom lead generation program and monthly LinkedIn management.

And even though we do have a telecom and IT focus, the content we publish to our marketing tips blog contains great advice for anyone, especially B2B marketers. Feel free to subscribe if you’d like to stay up to date with the latest marketing tips.”

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Congratulations, Mojo Marketing, on your award win! We look forward to following your continued success!

This is a great leverageable asset for small businesses to consider. Researching awards in your industry or local area and taking the time to apply could be well worth the effort and can improve your company’s credibility in the eyes of your clients and prospects. You may get free press, a badge or logo you can add to your site and, of course, bragging rights. Put together a list of awards you’re interested in winning, add the deadlines to your calendar and start completing those applications!