John Kraft on London, Ink LLC

We talked to several larger, well-established marketing firms before electing to go with London, Ink. The first thing that struck me about Bob's approach were the following questions he asked me and our team during our first "get to know you" meeting:

• "Why do you think you're ready to invest in marketing?"
• "Do you already have a marketing strategy (i.e. do you know what you don't know?)"
• "If you hire a traditional agency, who internally is going to manage them?"

So here's someone who makes a living helping companies develop marketing strategy and manage marketing execution, but rather than focusing on tactics like radio, print, web, Bob started by getting us to look at our motives. In other words, spending a dollar on traditional marketing meant not investing that dollar on, say product development, support, or an additional sales person.

That approach helped build trust right from the start of our relationship. And the question about who within ServerVault would manage a traditional agency, if we went in that direction, was poignant. We needed a resource that could span marketing strategy to planning to execution, including program development and management and creative services.

A year later we remain convinced we made the right choice with London, Ink. Bob's "virtual vp of marketing" model plus London, Ink's agency-style capabilities, is the right combination for a growth-stage company like ServerVault.