Bulbul Hooda, CMO of Vella Bio – How to Hire the Right Agency for Your Business

Working with an agency is a huge time-saver as it allows you to focus on your expertise instead of jumping through hoops to do everything by yourself. But it takes patience to find the right agency to join forces with. In this episode of the YouShouldTalkTo podcast, our host Daniel Weiner welcomes Bulbul Hooda, the CMO of Vella Bio, to discuss the benefits of working with an external partner. They talk about the importance of trust, why you should always prepare project briefs, and what not to do at your first client meeting. Guest-at-a-Glance 💡 Name: Bulbul Hooda 💡 Title: CMO 💡 Company: Vella Bio 💡 Noteworthy: As a Chief Marketing Officer, Bulbul is in charge of driving multimillion-dollar top-line growth for beauty and wellness startups by championing brand identity development, global product launches, and strategic channel partnerships. She also expands the scope of marketing operations by fostering customer-focused brand cultures. 💡 Where to find Bulbul: LinkedIn Key Insights ⚡Never compromise on your brand DNA. Every brand is unique, and so is yours. Your brand identity is how you position yourself in the market. And if you want to go far, you can't ever compromise on your branding. Bulbul talks about the importance of staying true to your brand DNA. She explains, "What we do is that we find methods to sort of go around all the restrictions. What we will not do and did not do is compromise on the language and the aesthetic of the brand because there has been so much misinformation about the category. So many nicknames given to anatomy that shouldn't have been, and we realized that, ‘Guys, we are in 2021, this is no way to talk about it.’ If we can't talk about it, how are we going to sell this?" ⚡An agency is the backbone of a brand's success. Working with an external agency can skyrocket your business and allow you to focus on what you do best. Instead of taking on too much responsibility, you can find a skilled agency to support you. Bulbul says, "I like this analogy a lot. Think about medicine. So if your stomach is upset, you're going to go to a gastro. If you have a heart problem, you're going to go to the cardiologist. If your mental health is not good, you're going to see a psychiatrist. And that, to me, is the specific job of agencies in the brand and marketing side of things. They are experts in their specialties." ⚡No two customers are the same. It's safe to say that your customers are your top priority. Your business wouldn't exist without them; it’s as simple as that. So, it's important to treat every single one of them the same. As Bulbul points out, it's all about personalization in business. Give every customer a personalized experience. She says, "For us, as marketers, no two customers are the same. It's the world we live in. It's customization and personalization. And I feel it's the same from an agency's perspective. No two companies are the same. They're definitely not looking for the same solutions."