Absolute Marketing Solutions

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our organization is Hyde Park United Methodist Church. We have a downtown location called the Portico, which is a community gathering space. We also had a full-service cafe called Portico Cafe, where we were hiring people transitioning out of homelessness, which recently closed down and moved to have an online presence

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Absolute Marketing Solutions?

We worked with Absolute Marketing Solutions to help us transition.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team has done a range of services. First, they helped us strategize how we connect to potential customers through social media. They’ve provided social media services and strategy sessions for us. They also provided postings when we were open and helped us get our focus back on track. 

When the pandemic hit, they did some crisis management and crafted our message for foreclosure and how we’re moving forward. 

We pivoted from being an open cafe to making sales online. During the pandemic, they did some emergency support to redo our website, content, and landing page. They also helped us work with the website’s UI through Squarespace. 

They worked with one of our staff to develop a three-month strategy and got pictures of food and people, which they posted on different sites that weren’t Facebook and Instagram. 

What is the team composition?

I primarily worked with two people, Alfred (President) and Anna (Account Manager). There was a third person, but I didn’t get to know that person that much.

How did you come to work with Absolute Marketing Solutions?

We came to Absolute Marketing Solutions through a referral by Metropolitan Ministries, for whom they’ve done some good work. Their social enterprise officer introduced us to Absolute Marketing Solutions, and that was how the relationship started. 

How much have you invested with them?

Absolute Marketing Solutions helped us for free during that time.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around May 2019, and we wrapped up the main work in March 2020. We’re still using them as a resource, but it hasn’t been a weekly relationship. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Absolute Marketing Solutions engaged our team and supported us at a time of need for all the right reasons. Everybody has a profit motive, but that wasn’t theirs. They truly wanted to give back and helped us design a digital strategy and think through important questions as we tried to reach our target customer base. 

Alfred really saw this as a way to give back. We were going to get into a fiscal relationship with them at a not-for-profit rate. However, he said he didn’t want to charge me, and he wanted to do it for us until we were in a good place. That was really generous and helpful for us.

How did Absolute Marketing Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

I didn’t communicate with them very often, but during the pandemic and the website redo, they turned on a dime. One person from my team worked directly with them. They were responsive and met deadlines while doing it for free. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I don’t have a multitude of experiences, but I can say that our experience with them was very positive, professional, and focused. They helped us really get the word out about our cafe. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t know because I didn’t oversee all of the tasks daily. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I think our situation was slightly different, but the more content you give them, the better and more effective they can be. Giving them the strategy of where you want to go helps them share it with the world.