No business is too small to compete. PERIOD.
That’s the founding principle of The Marketing Plant, or TMP as it’s called by co-founders Mariah Lynne and Abby Murray. That principle has borne out not only for their own business since they hung their shingle in Albert Lea, Minn. in 2013, but also for those of their clients, mostly small to midsize companies now numbering in the hundreds. TMP has helped those clients boost their brands, establish a more sophisticated presence and get noticed.
As the modest, boutique firm rapidly grew their portfolio to a packed client list that covers not only Albert Lea but the entire nation, there was no time to build IT infrastructure. Nor, Mariah and Abby discovered, was there a need. TMP made the decision early that they would build every part of their business – including video – in the cloud.
“We use Google Business for our files; a cloud based accounting system; Adobe Creative Cloud for our design software, and Mediasite Cloud for all of our video content,” Abby said.
“It stemmed from the core of our culture and who we are as a business. For a business of our size with a high-tech offering, we need to be nimble,” Mariah said. “We don’t have the resources to invest in internal servers, internal networks, and really we don’t have the desire to do that. It’s not the future.”
“The future” is a fundamental shift in how small businesses use technology. According to a Wall Street Journal article, Small Firms Shift Toward Cloud-Based Software, 78% of U.S. small businesses will have fully adopted cloud computing by 2020. Part of the shift, according to the article, is that small businesses are beginning “to understand that their business data in the end may be safer on the cloud-based servers of a technology vendor, than “on a hard drive in the back of your store.””
Abby agrees. “Mediasite Cloud is a scalable solution. It allows us to be able to offer to our clients what they need without worrying about storage space, the management of the content, or the IT behind the scenes managing and supporting the Mediasite practice. We would much rather have someone supporting us who is near and dear to the system like a Mediasite guru,” Abby said.
Video is a must-have for a boutique marketing firm that specializes in creating websites, managing social media presences and creating and managing content. Mediasite Cloud for video communications is one of the key differentiators TMP brings to their clients.
“Mediasite allows our clients to communicate nationwide from whatever region they’re in, and really create awareness and understanding of the complex services they offer,” said Mariah. “It’s personal, high touch communication. That’s really what drove us to Mediasite. We had looked at all these other alternatives and they could do screen capture and voice over. But we were missing that personalization that you get by being able to actually view your presenter. That’s how we landed on Mediasite Cloud.”
TMP has done everything from human resources and industrial-safety videos that are either uploaded or created in Mediasite, and then hosted in the cloud and available through a link. But often, they encourage their clients to communicate with video in creative ways they hadn’t thought of before, including holiday greetings and quick product tips.
According to Mariah: “It comes down to convenience, culture and cost. Mediasite Cloud fits perfectly in the culture of a small, full-service firm. We don’t have to worry about having an internal server. The initial investment of Mediasite Cloud makes sense for us, we don’t have increased costs to pass on to our clients. It’s an enterprise-grade solution at a startup price.”
Watch the video to find out more about why TMP chose Mediasite Cloud.