One Entrepreneur On Marketing: Brennan White

This is part of a series called "The Entrepreneurs on Marketing."  This interview is with Brennan White.

Regarding your approach to marketing, push or pull?

Very much pull. Not only is our entire company built around the idea that pull marketing is the future of all marketing, but our entire business has been launched on less than $3,000 in marketing/advertising/pr expenditure. Our entire marketing model is based on creating the Black Hole of Service (an internal term), whereby our clients are so pleased with our work and so likely to recommend us that every single new deal comes to us, warmly. It all comes from the Pareto Principle and the obvious answer to the question, "why waste time and money getting cold leads?".

What do you think about branding? 

Besides actual delivery to your clients of whatever you're selling, branding is the #2 consideration. Assuming you provide an actually valuable product or service that is priced to add value to your clients/customers, creating a targeted brand is the single most important thing you can focus on.

What are your top three ways to promote your business? 

1. Focusing on improving your deliverables
2. Client Referrals
3. Successful examples of your work

What have been your keys to success when it comes to growing your on-line audience? 

We've chosen to almost completely ignore our online audience (which for a social media marketing agency seems odd at first glance). Very early on, we realized that the standard social media channels were going to become a turf war for "experts" even though the majority of the target market will not be looking at those channels for solutions. Our promotion and branding were based around this realization and the additional thought that our competitors will waste time/money/focus on owning social media channels (the obvious first thought in our space) and that the wasted resources on their end will allow us to provide better service at a better price point. Our branding reflects the reality that, when you've found us, you've found the Wunderkindt that have done nothing but focus on winning for our clients since Day One. These simple choices have led to massive success without focusing on an online audience.

Any final thoughts on marketing a business? 

• Never underestimate word of mouth (good and bad).
• Find your target market and ignore best practices that don't apply to them
• Invest in long term solutions to all problems

Brennan White is the Founder and Managing Director of Pandemic Labs, the most established dedicated social media marketing agency in the United States. Pandemic Labs works with international brands to help them drive awareness, demand, and revenue via online social channels. Brennan is personally interested in the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship, and philosophy and strongly believes in the Business Unification Theory.