You’ll find that we often talk about meaningful relationships in our work, whether it’s creating a strong connection between a brand and its target audience or between a product and the people who might benefit from using it. However, we don’t write often enough about the relationships that mean the most to us: our clients.
As the Director of Client Services, a significant part of my role is helping those relationships turn into new or returning business. It’s typical in the marketing industry for the second quarter of the year to be met with a tremendous amount of anticipation following the first quarter rush of business proposals. However, this year brought a bit of a refreshing twist. Two clients, whom we adore, reached back out with work for our team.
San Bernardino Community College District (SBCCD)
Back in February 2022, we poured our hearts into a proposal for SBCCD. Education is an industry that we take pride in knowing quite a bit about at JP, specifically in terms of enrollment and branding. Although we lost that initial bid by one point, we kept in touch with their team via email over the following year. That connection proved to be valuable for both parties when things didn’t work out as expected with the initial contracting partner. Fast forward to today, we’re in full swing working on a spring enrollment campaign. In fact, it was even requested that we center our creative assets around the spec work we submitted as part of our original proposal.
Fresno Ag Hardware
Next up is a client that we always spring at the opportunity to work with on creative campaigns: Fresno Ag Hardware. This local hardware store is well-known for their excellent customer service and extensive inventory. We’ve worked closely with their management team to drive sales and traffic to their store back previously in 2017, producing everything from TV commercials to e-blasts, digital, and social ads. The relationship we forged at that time was so enjoyable for us that we kept in touch well after our work with them wrapped up. I would see their team at the Fresno Home Shows and take a minute to chat, reached out about sponsoring local events I was involved with, and kept up to date on social posts that I knew the management team was pushing out. This isn’t because we were desperate to get more business, but really because our clients become like family. We care about their success after our work is done and we’re constantly rooting for them to succeed.
Flash forward to 2023, six years after we initially worked with Fresno Ag Hardware, and I texted their General Manager about something trivial. That conversation stemmed into talking about their recent business growth and two big milestones that they needed to help marketing to the public: a renovation of their flagship store in Fresno and an entirely new location opening in Clovis. We were ecstatic to hear of these developments, as any friend would, but even more excited that they wanted us to come along for the ride.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, here at JP we value creating wins just as much as we do cultivating relationships. It’s written on our walls and it is ingrained in our DNA. We may not be perfect, whether it’s losing a proposal by one point or contracts coming to an end because of an unfavorable ROI, but we’re always standing by to be reliable and trustworthy counterparts on any project that comes our way. As one LinkedIn user summarizes, “Strong relationships help you build trust. And when it comes to business, trust is everything.”
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Michele Meisch | Client Services Director
