Reflecting on 5 years in business with Yakkety Yak founder and CEO Ashley Logan.
When I founded Yakkety Yak more than five years ago, it was at a time when content marketing was untested and unproven. Content strategies were more focused on SEO-stuffing and obsessing over long-tail keywords. But I knew there was a better way—through higher-quality, journalistic articles and blog posts. It wasn’t easy to convince companies to get on board. But I knew that if I wanted to achieve the best results for my clients, I had to be willing to swim upstream and adopt new best practices.
What Yakkety Yak has accomplished in the last five years has been extraordinary to me, both as a business owner and an advocate for our clients. We have come a long way from serving one or two clients exclusively in the Chicago area to forming partnerships with brands and companies around the world. Our shared successes are the result of the years we have spent refining our methods, building out our service line, assembling a top-notch team with common values, and expanding offerings rooted in transparency.
We aren’t afraid to show our clients, and ourselves, what is working and what isn’t. We hope to continue to stake our reputation on this mission for decades to come. Our business decisions are always based on serving our clients, and it’s earned us the trust of major brands and clients across the globe. Since founding Yakkety Yak, we have grown entirely via word-of-mouth—a fact I am incredibly proud of.
We’ve also accomplished some pretty amazing things for our clients, such as:
- Getting their message up in Times Square. We helped our client, the American Migraine Foundation, reach an international level and elevate the understanding of migraine’s impact through its Move Against Migraine campaign in Times Square. The new series aims to raise awareness that migraine is the most common neurological disease and one of the leading causes of disability in the world through bold imagery and personal stories.
- Our ongoing commitment to give back to communities and other business owners, especially with the Yakkety Yak Gives Back program. In 2018, we formally launched this nonprofit arm specifically to leverage our resources on behalf of an organization that is working for the betterment of the people of Chicago. From helping small companies and start-ups lay a foundation for success, to raising more than $175,000 for a local charity, giving back is more than talk to us—it’s real action. Stay tuned for our next big announcement here.
- Helping our clients to reach important milestones. One of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of the last 5 years has been ushering our clients toward key benchmarks and goals. We’ve been able to keep brands competitive—with half the marketing team and at half the cost—by finding our special sauce: a combination of content creation and paid advertising. For example, we helped long-time client The Lactation Network gain market share, launch new products and work on their new website.
We’ve also done some great things in-house, like:
- Stayed adaptable and ahead of the curve to best meet our clients’ needs. We’ve also been able to do it all in-house—using what’s been tested and proven to work, leaning on our expertise and never taking short-cuts. This formula has maximized clients’ budgets, mutually eliminated inefficiency and allowed us to be more collaborative and strategic in real-time.
- Assembled a killer team of professionals who have heart, passion and the talent to back it up. By utilizing a diverse, dynamic group of people with creativity and skill, we can thrive as a full-service firm even with a small team because we equally share an obsession with our clients’ success. Check out all our amazing pros on our brand new website here.
- Brought a dream to life, on our own terms. I founded Yakkety Yak on a dream. It took years of persistence and hard work building the company from the ground-up without the help of investors, but I could not be more proud to be the founder and CEO of a woman-owned company. As a mom and wife, too, I have had to lay a lot on the line personally—a fact I am comfortable with because I believe so strongly in the work we’re doing.
Looking forward, my goal for Yakkety Yak is ambitious, yet simple: continuing to lead the way in content marketing by expanding into new markets around the world. We’ll do this by showcasing our agency’s transparency, culture and reputation, and by building a team that upholds the same core values and high standards that I founded this company on.
One thing that won’t change at Yakkety Yak? Our commitment to fight for and advocate on behalf of our clients. We’ll always go the extra mile because, well, that’s just who we are.
Thank you for being a part of this incredible journey. It’s our supporters who have helped us navigate this crazy world of content marketing.
Cheers to the past 5 years—we can’t wait to see what we can accomplish next!
Sincerely,
Ashley Logan
CEO/Founder, Yakkety Yak
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