How a Startup Agency Used
Videoconferencing Technology to Brand
Themselves
For a company born in the digital age, the right videoconferencing tool can replace a physical office and connect employees with clients around the country. That’s exactly what happened with Eighty6, a digital marketing agency based in New Jersey. Founder Jay Eagleson had been in the marketing world for a while and noticed a trend: small companies struggling to embrace the new mandate that every brand have a website, Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Twitter stream, and more. Without in-house marketing teams, companies tend to piece together their online and print presence ad hoc. Jay founded Eighty6 two and a half years ago for small brands that need big marketing help.
“We want to make them look good!” says Jay. “We ultimately want to make them feel like we’re leveling the playing field for them.”
— Jay Eagleson, Founder
To compete in the industry and do a good job impressing potential clients with its ability to build brands, a marketing agency first has to make a stellar impression with its own brand. To come across as professional, friendly, and tech-savvy, the right technology is a must. Jay found a perfect technology partner in PGi, whose iMeet® video-conferencing solution became one of the building blocks of the Eighty6 brand.
HOW A STARTUP AGENCY USED
VIDEOCONFERENCING TECHNOLOGY
TO BRAND THEMSELVES
A VIRTUAL OFFICE FOR A
SCATTERED TEAM
Jay always knew that iMeet would help him dazzle clients and connect with them in personal and powerful ways, but first he had to have clients to impress. He culled together a small group of talented employees across New Jersey and began to hold virtual after-hours meetings until he felt comfortable enough to quit his day job. iMeet was indispensable to this extracurricular operation.
“New Jersey might not seem that big,” says Jay, “but when you’re driving an hour to and from meetings, it seems huge. Without iMeet, the company would have spent who-knows-how-much on gas to get people together, and that was an expense we didn’t have money for yet. [...] We needed more, and a video-conferencing solution with screen-sharing capability met that need. Starting the business simply wouldn’t have been possible without iMeet.”
— Jay Eagleson
WOOING CLIENTS WITH BODY
LANGUAGE AND FACIAL
EXPRESSIONS
Jay’s next step was selling Eighty6’s services nationwide. Landing clients can be a chicken-or-the-egg sort of conundrum. You need clients to generate money, but you need money to visit potential clients in person and impress them. Because Eighty6 was a small company, it didn’t have the resources to send the team all over the country to woo clients. Using iMeet to conduct virtual visual introductions helped Eighty6 solve this paradox.
One of its very first clients was a restaurant chain based in New Jersey. From there, that client introduced them to their sister companies in Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia & Oklahoma. iMeet allowed Eighty6 to share presentations with the client and showcase friendly faces. This aspect of the technology was especially useful when Web conferencing calls were held not just between three people in three different states, but between three groups of people. As a result of seeing one another in addition to hearing the conversation, the disparate groups got friendly fast. “The owner in Virginia felt so comfortable that he started telling jokes right away.” Muses Jay. “And you want video when that happens because you never want to laugh at a client’s sarcasm unless you can see his body language. That’s the only way to know if he’s truly joking!”
So much of communication is about body language. iMeet lets Jay and his employees share positive body language with their clients, and that gets relationships off to a good start.
THE COMFORT FACTOR OF
FACE-TO-FACE
Eighty6 continues to use iMeet to stay closely connected to clients throughout the life of a project. For one client in Florida, weekly check-ins are held using iMeet. “There’s no way we can fly down there every week, or every month, for that matter,” says Jay. “But with iMeet, we’re able to keep costs down and still give our clients a sense of our personality. It’s helped us not only get clients, but also keep them.”
The professional look of each iMeet user’s profile goes a long way in establishing credibility for Eighty6. Providing crisp photos of employees, along with some personal information, helps clients get to know
Eighty6’s players before they get on a video call. Links to social media in the profiles further that personal element.
“If you had told me a few years ago that a small company in New Jersey would be doing business with clients in Virginia and Florida, without ever having visited them face-to-face, I wouldn’t have believed you. iMeet has helped us get the attention and satisfy the needs of clients all over the country, who would never have taken us seriously without the face-to-face comfort factor.”
— Jay Eagleson, Founder
Client comfort is something that Eighty6 takes very seriously. Because iMeet enables face-to-face meetings, a much friendlier dynamic develops, helping to smooth the edges when projects inevitably hit snags. Being able to look a client in the eye builds trust, and that’s an invaluable boost to any relationship.
SHORTER, RICHER, EASIER
MEETINGS
The video-conferencing software Jay had used in his previous job wasn’t very reliable, and the time he spent troubleshooting irritated him. He’d upload a file into the void and never know if his team would see it. But with iMeet, files can be uploaded prior to a meeting and stored securely in the cloud, ensuring confidence that the file will appear instantly as a crisp PDF.
iMeet also helps Eighty6 keep meetings on-target and participants focused. “Ninety-nine percent of the time you can tell when people aren’t paying attention during a video conference,” says Jay. When participants start to get distracted, he and his team know that it’s time to wrap up. For Eighty6, iMeet is synonymous with efficiency.
Eighty6 Success
Challenge
A small, underfunded startup with a big vision needed a tool to engage potential clients around the country, and then keep those clients focused, all without ever leaving New Jersey. Solution
iMeet was the perfect tool to help Eighty6 organize internally and sell themselves
nationally, providing the invaluable face-to-face comfort factor that clients need to put their faith in a marketing agency.
Results
In just a few years, Eighty6 has grown from an after-hours side project to a full-time company with satisfied clients around the country, all thanks in big part to iMeet.
