Shout Media is a full-service agency that focuses on performance marketing and helping businesses achieve their marketing goals through innovative strategies and creative solutions. Our mission is to empower our clients with the tools they need to succeed in today’s digital landscape. We believe in building strong relationships with our clients and providing them with the highest level of service and support. Our values are rooted in transparency, integrity, and collaboration, and we pride ourselves on delivering measurable results that exceed our clients’ expectations. Our niche is recruitment marketing for universities and colleges and first-responder recruitment. At Shout, we’re passionate about what we do, and we’re committed to helping our clients achieve their marketing goals.
Tell us about yourself?
I have a Business Administration degree, majoring in marketing, and I have always loved the creative component associated with marketing projects. I consider myself highly creative and result driven, so owning a marketing agency feeds the creative fire. I started a digital agency when no one had any idea what digital marketing was. Facebook had only been around for two years. I remember leaving my “day job” and my father shaking his head because no one knew what I did. I guess I was an innovator, though, because I saw that Google, email, and social media were going to be the biggest market drivers in advertising and look where we are now. I loved that you could create advertising that moved instead of static ads that were published for a month or longer. Social and digital – you could create moving, changing ads and design for your client as many times as you wanted, and that fascinated me. I still love the design, creative direction, messaging, and data.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Think bigger and know your worth. Even though we’ve grown substantially over the past two years, it’s taken time to realize that what we offer is extensive, requires talent, and takes time, and we deserve to be compensated accordingly. We’ve shifted to charging for our worth, and I think two years ago, we were still providing hours of non-billable time to prove our value. Those days are over now. Our long-term value clients understand how much time and effort we put into projects, and we’ll never sell ourselves short again. So I guess to summarize, I’d tell myself to charge what we are worth, and if organizations don’t see the value, they can go elsewhere.
What problem does your business solve?
We solve the problem that our clients have of not being able to be seen and heard in a sea of competitors and noise. We provide strategic planning and direction that differentiates our clients from their competitors, whether they are looking for new employees, need more student applications, have a new product they need to launch, or just want awareness and lead generation for the services they provide. We do this with a highly skilled group of team members that are talented, knowledgeable, brilliant, and understand the industry.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
The inspiration behind Shout was to create an agency that was different from the traditional agencies. Not going to lie, but being an innovator in the digital space was a lot sexier than being an agency that was only booking newspaper ads and yawn-worthy radio and T.V. commercials. I was inspired by the speed, the possibilities, and the data. I’d tell people that 100 people read an email, and of those 100, 22 shared it, and they thought I was a hero. I knew I could provide better marketing alternatives that were backed with data, and I wanted to show the world that.
What is your magic sauce?
Our team. I know that a lot of companies say that, but it’s the truth. This team can run on auto-pilot. They all know what is expected, give 1,000 per cent, and obtain results that other agencies can’t achieve. The corporate culture is the main ingredient in the team’s success, and everyone looks out for everyone else. Clients are the bread, and the team knows that. They work just as hard for the smaller client that is launching a new product versus the larger client that is launching a new division. Without the talent and the team dynamics, this company would be just like every other company. That’s the magic sauce, and I say it every day.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We want to grow in the space of recruitment. We see recruitment – whether for students or employees – to be a large space for growth. There are so many more variables that can be applied to maximize the student or candidate journey. This can be achieved with performance marketing, specifically perfecting the student or candidate experience to encourage application. We’d also like to continue to grow in Web and software development and providing SEO services. I see myself still leading the ship. For the time being, I still love this job and think the next five years have so much potential.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
The biggest challenge I faced was having to restructure the entire company about five years ago. We were in a holding pattern, and it was difficult to pay our bills. Restructuring meant difficult choices. Staff choices and changes in how we billed, and I stopped working in the business and started working on the business. I took some huge risks, and they paid off tenfold, but at the time, those risks were terrifying and hiring more staff and raising prices when sales were low, and costs were high was a daunting task, but it paid off. The other piece that made me change, of course, was hiring consultants and coaches. If you think you know everything, you’ll never succeed. Listening to experts changed the course.
How can people get involved?
If you’re a university or college that struggles with recruiting enough domestic or international students, reach out. Or if you are a Police Department that can’t get a strong pool of applicants, contact me. We’ve been working successfully with both markets, and the results we’ve obtained could change your organization. Visit www.shout-media.ca, call 807-285-3404, email suzanne@shout-media.ca or shoot me a DM on Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook.