Evolving with artistry: Our 5-year Nella-versary.
Well, it’s official… Nella Marketing turned 5 this month!!
How did this happen?!
One minute we’re quitting part-time jobs to take a leap of faith into the world of business ownership. Now, here we are 5 years later, with the lessons, leaps and love for our work to prove it.
It’s been such an unexpected ride, and honestly, it’s been a little unconventional. There is so much information out there about how to begin, grow, scale, and run a business. But we’ve gone against the grain and leaned into different ways to evolve as a company.
Long-Term, Integrative Business
One of the things we value most about our time in business is our long-term partnerships. We’ve learned that we prefer to function, not simply as a contractor, but as a full-stack marketing partner, integrating into our client’s companies as a remote marketing department. We are so proud that 75% of our clients have been with us for more than 3 years, and our role evolves with their stories. Things have not been perfect, but we’ve learned so much along the way. We’ve learned that growth should be sustainable, that time doesn’t equal value, and that having the right people in the right places can make or break the client experience. But we’ve been so lucky to work with clients who have ridden the waves with us, given us grace, co-created processes, and learned alongside us. This is why it works. This is why our growth has been 100% client referrals. This is why curiosity is one of our highest values. And we are so grateful.
Multi-Passionate Goals
This is one of our favorite lessons. We LOVE the world of real estate and property management. We have worked with clients in these industries longer than we’ve officially been in business. Maddie’s first job in the US was with a real estate company, and the mortgage lenders she worked with from day one are still our clients today. And while leaning into industry changes is what we live and breathe, we’ve learned that learning new industries also feels like play for us. We work with nonprofits, puzzle creators, CPAs, retail businesses… the list goes on. We adore this process. Diving into new trends. Creating different kinds of content. Creating new systems. This mindset suits our people, too. Our team is made up of multi-passionate humans. They are motivated, often with multiple jobs and multiple streams of income. Maddie herself has just gone back to school to fulfill a lifelong dream of getting her master’s… studying terrorism! We are whole humans, and we know that we are so much more than what we do. And that means that our business relationships also go beyond what we do.
Maddie’s Journey
Starting this business has given us the freedom to live life on our own terms. For example, Maddie is originally from England, and owning her own business allowed her to spend long periods there, up to 6 weeks at a time. She was able to be there for the birth of her nephew, celebrate birthdays with her family for the first time in years, explore the Derbyshire countryside, and show up for loved ones who didn’t have the means to get to the US. It’s also given her space and flexibility to journey with her mental health and find so much healing in listening to her body. This is what living life fully means to us. We bring this whole-hearted knowing to our business philosophy, encouraging well-being in the creative process at all levels. We champion leaps of faith, and we give our clients their time back so THEY can live fully, too. There’s so much that owning a business can give you, but it’s really up to you to cultivate something that actually feels good. And it’s harder than it looks!
Embracing Artistry
We adore the power that art has to evoke every human emotion. Art can heal. It can awaken. It can inspire. It can cause pain. It can make you feel safe. It can make you feel unsafe. We coined the term “Content Artists” because we realize that our job isn’t just about data. It’s rooted in creativity. Yes, we design graphics, create websites, and write copy. But we also cultivate processes, nourish stories, and tie everything together with who our clients are as people. We discovered the concept of aesthetic marketing, and it fit who we are (learn more here). We take pride in what we create in the way an artist pours themselves into their craft. And we love that it’s about so much more than how something looks. It’s also about how something feels.
Our Own Marketing
As a marketing company, we haven’t had to do a lot of external marketing to be successful. What the marketing world doesn’t talk about much is that behind-the-scenes matters just as much as what you choose to put out there. Marketing is so much deeper than what it says on the tin. It’s about keeping promises and showing up. It’s about your internal processes reflecting the things you say. It’s about building instead of selling. It’s that one conversation with a dreamy client in the DM’s. It’s about choosing thought-out responses over urgency. It’s about your reputation.
After a lot of growth, we’re ready to continue to grow our offerings and continue to evolve the way we do business. Driven by all we’ve learned over the past 5 years, it’s time for us to step into the next phase. That means strengthening our promises, showing up in the public more, and sharing what we’ve learned. But we’re not married to one way of doing it. And that totally fits who we are.
So we just want to end by saying thank you to everyone who has trusted us and given our name to someone they know. Thank you to everyone who has given us understanding, kindness, and support along the way. Thank you to every single member of our team who put in extra hours, owned mistakes, and ridden the waves. We wouldn’t be here without any of you.
Let’s go get the next 5!
With gratitude,
The NM Team