We had the good fortune of connecting with Martin Kier and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Martin, what principle do you value most?
Two – fold: Communication and honesty. Nothing really happens from a marketing perspective without communication. That applies for both the marketing agency and the client. Honesty is huge too because the more integrity and transparency any kind of relationship has, the better the outcome.

What should our readers know about your business?
I founded Brand Buddy in 2018. It’s a digital marketing agency that mostly focuses on local Colorado businesses. The primary services we provide are SEO, Google ads, social media ads, social media posts, website design, email marketing, and SMS marketing. However, we can often assist in other ways. Brand Buddy is separate from the competition because we want to provide high quality, honest, and fast marketing services. If something isn’t working, we’ll be frank and straight up say “Hey, you should try one of our other services, or go with a completely different approach other than Brand Buddy”. Many other agencies will try to keep you hooked on their services for as long as possible. Communication is huge for us, so typically our clients expect a reply within 24 business hours, but it’s often within minutes. Implementation time is another differentiator for us because we can get items crossed off the to-do list way faster than our competition. This is because we have really focused in on our own processes and made them efficient. Other than that, I guess our pricing is attractive from what I have heard. Small, local or startup businesses can easily get started with us for $300 per month for certain services.

I’m most excited about how each day there are more and more tools coming out to further optimize marketing efforts. Whether it’s AI, new social platforms, a new method to advertise online, and much more. This just keeps my job interesting. This has also let us decrease our prices in many cases to help small, local businesses.

I used to have a full time team of 6 and the original plan was to scale this business to sell it, but it started to really go against my grain. I listened to myself, self analyzed, and decided to scale back the business to where I can have more of a 1:1 experience for my clients. I think I’m proud that I sat down and listened to myself!

I got to where I am today because I was flexible, was willing to learn from others (standing on the shoulders of giants), and didn’t let things affect me personally. When I first started, it was tough because I was waking up early, working on Brand Buddy, going to my day job, then getting home and working on Brand Buddy. It was long hours, but the work never truly felt like a normal job to me. Even on my days “off” I could easily find myself happy operating Brand Buddy. So it was tough at first, but quickly became smooth sailing.

As for the lessons learned along the way? Too many to list. Off the top of my head, I’d say be flexible, keep your expectations completely bottomed, work hard but not too hard, give yourself time to breathe and reflect, be kind, and be willing to listen to others even if their views are polar opposite of yours.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Oh that’s easy.

If they want to check out the mountains, I’d take them to Fairplay for the Ghost Town experience, go to a few lakes in the area such as 11 mile and Tarryall, and go to the Snitching Lady Distilling after.

Another option for mountains would be the Blue Lake trail at Berthoud Pass or Lake Urad nearby. Or deer creek canyon trails near Ken Caryl.

Cencalli Taqueria in Littleton for Birria Tacos. Lazy Greyhound for drinks.

Blind Tiger for hard kombucha along with the abundance of food and drink options in RiNo surrounded by beautiful murels.

Other than that, I would certainly take them to a variety of car shows!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Too many to list, but most of all my Mother who has always been an entrepreneur since I was a kid. Other than that, I think Andrew (Andy) Knutson with Peak2Peak Performance Coaching was a massive positive influence on me with some of my earlier business ventures.

Website: https://brandbuddyllc.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandbuddyco/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandbuddyco?locale=tl_PH

Other: I have a YouTube channel where I create videos about cars and being co editor of SHIFT Colorado Magazine: https://www.youtube.com/@mrkieriosity it’s mostly a creative relief for me and the videos are fun to edit 🙂

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutColorado is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.