When we first meet a client, we analyze their overall business model. We look for areas of strength, areas for improvement, and areas that are completely missing. Whether you hire us or not, we strongly suggest that you enter a mutual non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with any company that wants to transform your message. An NDA is a simple legal document that protects both parties; think of it as our handshake. Once we agree to work together, the Vimaginations team goes through three distinct phases: discovery, development, and distribution. It takes time to develop trust, so the first step is like taking a long look in the mirror together.
1. Discovery
During the discovery phase, our close-knit team plunges headlong into your business. We dig deep to uncover the soul of your message, and we digest your content with a voracious appetite. Passion is often heaviest in the heart of the beholder, and so if Vimaginations is to bear the burden with you, we want you to know that we care. During early discussions, we crawl the internet for any presence that gives us even an inkling of your vision. We interview you and look at webpages, social profiles, shopping platforms, partner pages, accredited registries, and sometimes government regulatory listings. We sniff out color schemes, shapes, fonts, and language. We prod and pressure-test automations, user interfaces, customer experiences, and funnels. Once we have quaffed the essence of your business, we prepare different plans for the development phase and continue to prowl for feedback.
2. Development
After we’ve invested ourselves in your message and everyone is on the same page, Vimaginations sweats out some serious development. We review any images or examples that speak to you so we can create that same feeling through your own brand. Our creatives ask unfiltered questions and provide options during our consultations. We salivate for feedback during key decision-making points of review. We treat you as the CEO and serve what we think your ghost would do. Throughout the process, we collaborate with you to ensure our work aligns with what resonates deep within you. We always try to minimize client responsibilities, but your contributions are valuable and necessary to keep the pulse of your business beating. Once all the dominoes are aligned, we tip the first one together to put all our hard work into practice with the distribution phase.
3. Distribution
Sharing your message with the world is why we work so hard together in the first place, so we want to give it exposure just as much as you do. The distribution phase is really the most important step in your business development. We suggest best practices for applying the tools we’ve manufactured, but honestly, much of the responsibility falls on you. We encourage clients to swim around in their industry for a bit before hiring us for a deeper relationship. You should test the waters to know you’re truly passionate about your idea rather than just “having an idea.” A deeper relationship requires more commitment from both of us. Go peddle your wares, knock on doors, hit the phones, share the resources we created, ask friends for testimonials, and then ask yourself, “Am I really enjoying this?” If the answer is yes, let’s grow together.
Hopefully, reading this article helped you discover something about your approach to business. The three phases are quite fluid. We can spend more time in one over the other. We tend to tackle pieces of each one while working on others, and we often start the discovery phase before even working together. The discovery phase goes both ways, the heavy lifting is on us during the development phase, and it’s largely up to you to distribute your message when it’s ready. As an aside, just know that we refuse to take someone’s money (and run) just to crank out “work.” We also refuse to enter relationships based on, “I say jump, you ask how high.” We won’t work with someone just for the money. You probably noticed that our copy is geared away from the cliché, buzzy, lead-capture language you’ll see when shopping around. We pursue the value of relationships with a ferocity the likes of which you’ve never seen. We stand behind everything we say; do you?
Talk to you soon,
-Tim Schulz