From the onset, AIMG was doing a lot of things right. Few web / digital firm’s cared for their clients like this team. They took performance personally and their client retention rate was off the charts, with some of the same client relationships in place for twenty years. In order to level-up, Kelly’s work addressed three critical challenges for AIMG:

• Inefficiencies ate into overall profitability:
Proposals, task management, time estimates and staff utilization were all being done manually by upper management. Without a centralized project management system and reporting tool to automate most of the manual labor, the entire team felt the weight of the work each day.

• Lack of defined industry niche, mission or vision:
Without a unique position, it’s incredibly difficult for any digital firm to scale—as they become another generalist service provider or commodity. The mission and vision of any organization must be lived and breathed by each and every team member. Therefore, core strengths and passion should be the underpinning—and the leader’s role is to inspire and motivate values into action.

• Name, identity, website and messaging no longer aligned:
When the firm started, imaging and print services were core offerings. Nearly twenty-five years later, the firm focuses on website design, development, digital marketing and software applications—so the printer’s registration mark no longer served its purpose as part of the brand identity. Further, the name and aesthetic of the firm caused confusion among vendors, prospects and clients.

Kelly first helped increase efficiency by implementing a web-based proposal system and a centralized project management system to improve internal communications and estimating, as well as tools to automate performance reporting. She worked with leadership on a formula-based worksheet that took direct cost per employee (DCE) and created a multiplier for the purposes of estimating projects and retainers, determining projected profit margin and calculations based on actuals.

Then, she listened to each team member during intake sessions in order to uncover patterns—and the cross-section of service expertise and industry passion that would lead to the development of the mission and vision for the firm.

Working very closely with the CEO, she helped rename the firm to Amplify—with the tagline, Industrial Marketing + Guidance. Keeping the twenty-five year old domain intact was key to maintaining it’s credibility with the search engines for inbound lead generation.

She developed the new brand identity and designed the new iteration of the website, which was then produced in-house by the Amplify development team.