I had never heard of them before but when I looked at their site and requested a demo I knew I'd be making the move. At the time I was using Infusionsoft (and have used Aweber, 1Shopping Cart and Mailchimp) and was tired of being frustrated. Frustrated that even the simplest of tasks felt like a re-education every time I logged in (side note: Infusionsoft is an amazing tool and great company, it simply wasn't a good fit for me).
Enter Hatchbuck.
Hatchbuck doesn't have ecommerce or an affiliate program, but they have tagging and segmenting, beautiful responsive email templates and a true drag & drop builder and amazing customer service.
I fell in love, became an advocate, started spreading the word and a true relationship was formed.
That's where this recent customer came from.
Hatchbuck.
Yes, my email company referred a client to me.
Why?
Because we've gotten to know each other and have built a relationship. I've created posts, videos, tweeted them (I'm working on getting a hashtag trending #hatchbuckhappiness) and have made connections for them where I saw opportunities (beyond referring customers as an affiliate).
As an example, another favorite tool I use and adore is Click Funnels. As a user of both Hatchbuck and Click Funnels I want there to be a seemless integration with both tools. I made a video showing how to grab the raw html code from Hatchbuck and integrate it with Click Funnels. Someone from Click Funnels reached out to me on Facebook (where I posted the video directly) and we started a direct conversation about the integration. I reached out to Hatchbuck, was given the CEO's direct contact and now the two companies are working on an API integration that will utilize the tagging and segmenting in Hatchbuck with the magic that is Click Funnels (I know, I'm hardly objective here).
What's my point?
I consider myself a marketer / business owner, not a WordPress developer (which I've never been nor claimed to be). I don't believe in cookie cutter website solutions which is one of the reasons this potential client reached out to me. They felt like they were going to get swallowed up with a couple of the ‘agencies' that they talked to and wanted to be able to establish a relationship with the person or company they hire.
I spent an hour with these guys on the phone understanding their goal and discussing how they could accomplish it. WordPress is just the beginning (and foundation) of all of this.
What happens after the site is up and running?
– How do you drive traffic?
– Generate leads?
– Get more shares & comments?
– Launch a product? Service?
– What about podcasting? Video?
– Measure what's working?
– Find trusted partners?
I get that there are plenty of successful web development agencies out there who provide a fantastic WordPress site for their clients without all of the things I've mentioned here. And that's fine. But how do you set your customer up to manage all this? If you don't want to provide it, no problem.
 Even for the DIY'ers… whether it's a partner you work with or a site you can recommend. Set them up for success with their business, not just their website.
So this all comes back to my post last month about “Your Business or Your Clients Business”.
If you're generating leads for your own business it makes it much easier to help your clients generate leads.
The same is true for creating content, social media, podcasting and videos (to name a few exmaples). When you do more than ‘just WordPress' you can serve your clients better.
Your value also goes up, along with your prices.
