Structure

Archives: Tips

  • Why Inviting Digital Marketing Beats Being Impressive Every Time

    Welcome to Digital Discovery Daily Tip #4. This is our newsletter designed to help you unlock new growth—and new ways of thinking—through inviting digital marketing, so you can strengthen your career and your business.

    Today, we will discuss being impressive vs. inviting with your digital marketing.

    Many companies have come to us wanting an impressive website.

    They typically want to make their company look bigger, better, and more successful than the competition (or just more successful than it is).

    Their thinking is this: If I’m impressive and I look better than my competitors, then more customers will buy from us.”

    Good logic. Bad idea.

    If you’ve ever tried to be impressive in any area of your life, you know it works for a little. A few people get on board or play along. But you eventually notice, as we all have, that being impressive doesn’t help you connect better or more deeply with the ones you’re trying to impress.

    You eventually notice, as we all have, that being impressive doesn’t help you connect better or more deeply with the ones you’re trying to impress.

    Simon Villeneuve

    They don’t feel connected to you because you’re bigger, better, and more awesome than them.

    Let’s be honest… nobody likes feeling small.

    The better way is inviting digital marketing.

    Use your website and all your digital channels to talk directly to your customers about their struggles and how you can uniquely help them.

    The lesson is this:

    • The more impressive you are, the less well-known you are.
    • The less impressive you are, the more well-known you are.

    We all know that people prefer doing business with people they know and trust.

    And when you sacrifice trust, you sacrifice sales.

    In summary, the temptation to be impressive to your customers is strong. But don’t let it overtake the opportunity to invite your customers to know you and trust you to the extent that they want to buy from you.

    Invite some folks into your company’s story today!

    Simon Villeneuve

    Founder & CEO, Structure

    Simon Villeneuve
    CEO, Structure

    At ​Structure​, we believe value-based, family-owned businesses carry the power to shape the future and leave a lasting impact. This is because business isn’t just business; it’s personal.

    So, we help them quickly establish lasting digital growth to support their physical expansion.

    If you’re part of a mid-market family-owned business like this and care deeply about making a lasting impact, I invite you to keep following along!​

    When you’re ready, ​schedule an introduction call​ so we can get to know one another. ​

    If you got this email from a friend, you can ​subscribe to future emails here​!

  • Scale Without “Selling Out”: How to Keep Core Values at the Heart of Your Marketing

    Welcome to Digital Discovery Daily Tip #3!

    This is our newsletter designed to help you ​unlock new growth—and new ways of thinking—so you can strengthen your career and your business.

    Let’s discuss what it means to Scale Without “Selling Out” and how to keep core values at the heart of your marketing.

    So how can you help your company “Scale without Selling Out?”

    And by selling out, I don’t mean selling to a Private Equity firm. I mean, abandoning your long-term vision and values for short-term gain.

    Well, I’ve learned through my own company that the trick is to make it your priority to daily communicate three things in your marketing and sales:

    1. Your company’s values, 
    2. Your unique approach, and 
    3. Your commitment to people.

    These are your core messages.

    Incorporate them regularly to yourself, your team, and your customers to remind everyone of who you are.

    Here’s the backstory…

    When I started Structure, I set out to prove that business isn’t just business; it’s personal. 

    I wanted to create something challenging, if not impossible, to find in our space: long-term, highly valuable relationships.

    If I was the hammer and that phrase, “business is personal,” was the nail, I pounded it in during all my conversations, on our website, and in my demeanor.

    And it worked.

    Immediately, I attracted highly relational clients in various industries who wanted to work with a digital growth expert who cared about the same things they cared about. 

    A partner who was as invested in their values as they were in ours. 

    These clients felt a personal touch and could trust me to support their vision and values. 

    Structure went from, ‘I need a client today’ to ‘How do I help all these people’ very quickly.

    But as the business grew and we started to scale our operation, I began focusing more on the ‘what’ than the ‘why.’

    We invested in efficiency over empathy, resulting in a noticeable drift towards transactional relationships—precisely the opposite of what we originally intended.

    Not surprisingly, we started gaining transactional clients who wanted ‘what’ we did but didn’t care ‘why’ we did it.

    We were getting good at the work we did. But it wasn’t as meaningful. And the relationships weren’t as great. Then, the business started to decline.

    It became clear that we were at risk of “selling out.”

    So what did we do? We refocused on why we started— that business isn’t just business; it’s personal.

    I don’t think we’re alone in this experience.

    Every values-based, privately-owned business gets to the same junction at some point. They have to learn how to scale without diluting the values that brought success in the first place.

    I know this because we work with successful values-based companies doing 7 and 8 figures in revenue yearly who constantly struggle to scale without selling out.

    So how do you scale without selling out?

    Never lose sight of your core messages. They are your digital compass. Communicate your company’s values, unique approach, and commitment to people through various digital channels daily.

    Don’t forget it!

    See you tomorrow,

    Simon Villeneuve
    CEO, Structure

    At ​Structure​, we believe value-based, family-owned businesses carry the power to shape the future and leave a lasting impact. This is because business isn’t just business; it’s personal.

    So, we help them quickly establish lasting digital growth to support their physical expansion.

    If you’re part of a mid-market family-owned business like this and care deeply about making a lasting impact, I invite you to keep following along!​

    When you’re ready, ​schedule an introduction call​ so we can get to know one another. ​

    If you got this email from a friend, you can ​subscribe to future emails here​!

  • Day Trading vs. Compound Interest Marketing

    It’s Simon from Structure with Digital Discovery Daily Tip #2. Let’s discuss Day Trading vs. Compound Interest Marketing and which approach to use for your business.

    If you’re a marketing leader in a values-focused & family-owned business, you’re probably feeling pressure to capitalize on growth.

    It might be healthy, strategic pressure. Or it might be unhealthy, drive-by-delegation pressure.

    Either way, it’s your job to develop an impactful digital presence that aligns with your company’s expansion.

    But it’s not just about expansion; it’s also about integrating your deeply-rooted family values into every aspect of your digital presence.

    And you need a plan, quickly.

    You can adopt one of two approaches to marketing investments:

    1. Day Trading: Immediate, short-term returns.
    2. Compound Interest: Strategies that take time but offer exponential growth.

    “Play long-term games, with long-term people. All returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.”

    Naval Ravikant

    If you’re in a rush to collect short-term gains for a tech start-up, day trading might be your go-to approach.

    But if you’re helping build a company that values longevity, authenticity, and sustained growth, building compound interest is your best bet.

    So, how can you build compound interest in your marketing efforts starting today?

    • Create Helpful Content: Like a YouTube video that helps customers understand or use your product or service better.
    • Develop a Lead Generator: Attracts high-quality leads to your brand until you take it down.
    • Gather Authentic & Actionable Feedback: Invite trusted customers to record themselves reviewing your website and providing feedback so you can connect better with them in the future.

    Building compound interest marketing is about taking meaningful action today that aligns with your long-term goals of preserving the integrity and values of your company.

    I hope this tip gives you some real ways to take quick action today to capitalize on long-term growth.

    Always here to help,

    Simon Villeneuve

    Founder & CEO, Structure

    At ​Structure​, we believe value-based, family-owned businesses carry the power to shape the future and leave a lasting impact. This is because business isn’t just business; it’s personal.

    So, we help them quickly establish lasting digital growth to support their physical expansion.

    If you’re part of a mid-market family-owned business like this and care deeply about making a lasting impact, I invite you to keep following along!​

    When you’re ready, ​schedule an introduction call​ so we can get to know one another. ​

    If you got this email from a friend, you can ​subscribe to future emails here​!

  • The “3-Legged Stool” Digital Marketing Framework

    This is our Digital Discovery Daily Tip #1. Glad you’re here to learn about the “3-Legged Stool” digital marketing framework!

    You’ve probably watched Simon Sinek’s famous Ted Talk: Start with Why.

    One of the simple ideas from the talk is that “People prefer doing business with people they connect with.”

    Sometimes, your business might not click with customers online (no pun intended). If that’s happening, they may need to know why they should feel connected to your business in the first place.

    Even the most innovative, successful people I know forget to do this. If they do, and I do, you probably do too.

    We recently took a step back to think about our WHY at Structure.

    It goes something like this: “We believe value-based, family-owned businesses carry the power to shape the future and leave a lasting impact. This is because business isn’t just business; it’s personal.”

    Not too bad? It certainly motivates me!

    However, there are a lot of shiny opportunities in any given day, and I want to focus on the ones that work. The trick is often not wasting effort on the ones that aren’t likely to pan out.

    So while we learned from the “Golden Circle” illustration in Simon’s talk, I created something else to help us evaluate if our marketing ideas would support our WHY and have a high potential to connect.

    I call it the “3-Legged Stool” of Successful Digital Marketing Framework. It’s like this:

    Does our idea:

    • Show WHY we exist?
    • Share WHAT we do?
    • Reach the right PEOPLE?

    When your marketing consistently reflects your why, what, and who, it becomes a powerful digital marketing framework that builds trust and drives engagement.

    Whether we’re launching a podcast or sending an email, we check if it ticks these three boxes. If it does, it’s likely to connect on a deeper level.

    Try this with whatever you’re working on today!

    Always here to help,

    Simon Villeneuve
    CEO, Structure