As chief bean counter at adWhite, I get a slightly different view of the work and effort that goes into the many tasks that drive successful inbound marketing results for our clients. I’m a little bit on the outside looking in, hearing the dialogue about strategy and objectives and then seeing the results that culminate from all the tasks that were executed. It’s exciting and rewarding to see the success stories, and I often give thought to the key ingredients that help us achieve these positive outcomes.
Obviously, our knowledge and experience in inbound marketing is a huge driver. But, I also believe that our company culture has an impact on not only getting the work done, but getting it done most effectively. Our clients put their trust in our entire team when they engage with us and we strive to exceed their expectations at every turn. Although we appreciate the individuality of each one of our employees, we know that it’s vitally important that the whole group is unified in the way we work.
With the help of the book Traction, we discovered that having a set of core values is a critical component of defining our culture and who we are as people. Although we know who we are, having a set of core values to live by helps to clearly define the way we approach our work. Our leadership team came together and dug into the things that we believe describe our culture and how we want to continue to operate.
adWhite’s 7 core values are:
- Do things the right way: Our clients trust us to take the best approach for them, and we believe shortcuts will not provide desired results. Plus, it takes a lot more work to undo things done the wrong way than to just spend the time needed to do things the right way!
- Continually learn and improve: Education is key to any field but especially the ever-changing, fast-paced internet world that inbound marketing is tied to. We can provide the most value by being up-to-date and a better version of ourselves each day. We encourage our employees to read pertinent material to help them stay abreast of changes. We also have quarterly certification days to increase our knowledge of the software we utilize, HubSpot.
- Exhibit a positive attitude: No one likes to be around negativity, not our fellow employees and certainly not our clients. We feel that a positive, can-do attitude is not only contagious but also helps us to accomplish more.
- Be creative and passionate: Aside from me, the resident accountant, we are a creative bunch at adWhite! Marketing demands this and it keeps things fresh and fun. Passion is key as well, we know that the more invested we are, the better the work will be. We are extremely passionate about inbound marketing and the fact that it is THE solution for all business types.
- Work as a team: You know the saying, “teamwork makes the dream work.” Well, it’s TRUE! We love the specific strengths each of our team members brings to the table but we know that we are at our best when we are all working together.
- Communicate effectively: One of the first steps to great teamwork is effective communication. When people clearly understand the work to be done, it is much easier to execute. We know that effective communication with our clients is also super-important to make sure we are all on the same page with the work to be done and what the expected results should be.
- Go the extra mile: Whatever it takes! We are here to serve our clients and help our fellow employees in every situation.
I have the privilege of seeing these core values in action at adWhite. We try to continue to instill them in our employees by having shoutouts in our weekly staff meetings for noticeable achievements in these areas.
In addition to the internal benefits, we feel that our core values are very important externally. Our clients and prospective clients can gain a better understanding of our identity and how we are set apart from our competitors.
If you want to learn more about us or explore working together in the future, please reach out.