When Ugly Mug Marketing founder Wayne Mullins first started his business, he didn't have an office. He worked at the Hastings Hardback Cafe, located in the former Hastings Entertainment Superstore on MacArthur Drive.
“I go there to work. We had young children. We didn't have an office. We couldn't afford an office,” Mullins said on Ugly Mags 15.th The anniversary ceremony was held last Friday.
When possible, he rented a small space in the building behind the Tump and Grind Coffee House.
Ugly Mug now occupies a larger space on the corner of DeSoto Avenue and 4th Street in downtown Alexandria. It's a colorful building depicting Ugly Mug's mascot, a bright pink octopus with extended tentacles and an umbrella and megaphone.
Initially, Mullins had no employees. Ugly Mug was exactly what he was. About two years later, he hired his first employee. Since then, the staff has grown to 12 full-time employees and 3 to 4 part-time employees depending on the season.
“Right now we also have four interns,” Mullins said.
While the fundamentals of marketing haven't changed, the tools available have changed dramatically over the past 15 years, Mullins says.
“The key for us was how do we attract people with expertise who can or want to become experts in that particular field or that particular tool,” he said. Told.
Ugly Mug came about because of another business he owned and operated, a lawn and landscaping business. He didn't originally set out to start a media marketing services business.
“In three years, we grew rapidly, and we went from just me to multiple crews, multiple trucks. Many of our customers were primarily commercial,” he says. said. “And a lot of my clients started asking me, 'How is it growing?' What do you do to make your lawn or landscape grow faster?”
His answer to them was the way they marketed themselves.
“I started consulting for free on the side,” Mullins says. Most of the people he consulted were friends. “It’s basically helping them with their marketing.”
Three years later, he sold his lawn and landscaping business.
“At that point, I didn't know exactly what I was going to do. I was still doing consulting and marketing consulting on the side,” Mullins said. Thinking maybe that was a viable option, I decided to give it a try. ”
According to their website, the Ugly Mug name derives from the belief that “even “good” design should never compromise on results. We'd rather have an “ugly” design that delivers results than a “beautiful” design that doesn't. ”
How Ugly Mug helps clients varies by client, but Mullins said it tends to help business owners who understand the importance of marketing and advertising but don't have the time to do it. Masu.
“They are so busy trying to survive. In such cases, they bring us in for time,” he said.
We also help companies that are doing their own marketing but recognize that they have limited knowledge or ability.
“When they're ready to scale, they'll bring us in because we specialize in different areas,” he said.
Ugly Mug has customers in Central Louisiana as well as other parts of the state.
Meredith Waguespack, owner of T-shirt company Sweet Baton Rouge in Louisiana, has been one of Ugly Mag's customers for about a year and a half.
“We're working with Ugly Mug for our Pinterest strategy. We're focused on our online business, so we want to find other channels to help drive sales,” says Waguespack. he said, adding that they also have a store on Perkins Row in Baton Rouge. “We reached out to them to see if they could help us drive even more sales from Pinterest to our online business.”
She said it created “a whole new funnel for that customer experience if they first found us on Pinterest and came into our scope of work through an email campaign or whatever.” said.
Wagspack said she personally follows Mullins on social media and feels she has learned a lot from Mullins, especially gaining a deeper understanding of customer experience, which Mullins writes about in her book. He said he is doing so.
“You see that flowing through our company Ugly Mug and the Pinterest strategy work that we do in our business, because at the end of the day, it's all about how your customers experience their purchase from you. Because it comes back to the question of whether to do it,” she said. “The more you know and understand that, the better you will be at making sure the customer experience is all positive.”
What does the future hold for Ugly Mag Marketing?
“People often ask me, 'What's your big goal?' What's important to you?” Mullins said.
He is a strong believer in gradual growth.
“What I’m most passionate about is who we are as a team and how we as individuals are getting a little bit better every day.”
He envisions a future where members of the Ugly Mug team are individually successful in their professional and personal lives.
“As a result of those things, Ugly Mug was a success,” he said.
