As featured on Voyage Minnesota:
Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Hilscher and Scott Mills.
Hi Natalie Hilscher and Scott Mills, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
De Lu Studios, our marketing/creative company, began in what might be considered a non-typical way. Scott Mills and I met during a study abroad internship in Shanghai, China. I think we connected so well because neither of us wanted to work a 9-5 for another firm; we were ambitious and wanted the ability to build our lives the way we wanted, including being our boss.
Several years later, when we decided to create De Lu and work for ourselves, we did not set out to create a marketing studio but a beauty brand. We created sugar scrubs, which in hindsight, were very professional-looking, considering I had just quit my corporate marketing job to work for myself, and we were broke and doing this on a budget. However, we quickly realized we both had a passion for marketing far more than creating beauty products.
We completely shifted gears and De Lu Studios was born!
We started with just 2 clients doing website design, graphics, and email marketing. Word spread quickly, it was amazing, and within 2 years, we had enough clients to sustain ourselves and drag ourselves out of debt. We started by working in the wellness industry and have since expanded to FinTech, hospitality, music, HR, architecture, non-profits, and more.
We love working with companies and seeing their brands gain momentum. Seeing our design and marketing tactics help them grow is a cool and rewarding experience. We’ve even watched companies we’ve helped grow to fulfill their goal of being bought out by a larger company.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As with most entrepreneurs, there have been ups and downs, periods where things seem to work out wonderfully, and other times where the road feels bumpy.
One of the biggest struggles, especially at the beginning, has been balancing our time. When you start a company, there is no work-life balance. It’s all work. And not only is there no work-life balance, but that’s the only way you can start these kinds of businesses; living and breathing your work. Work blended with all other aspects of our life. It isn’t easy to get enough separation from work so we don’t burn out, especially since we have home offices. This is something we’ve learned slowly to overcome. We sometimes work 10-12 hour days, but now it’s typically only when a big deadline is approaching.
Another struggle we deal with, as I think most entrepreneurs also do, is working with disrespectful clients that propagate an unhealthy environment. Continuing to assist them and overlooking their actions isn’t easy, but sometimes you have to make the income and deal with it. It’s taken a while to get to where we can choose which people/companies we’ll work with. This is one of the things I look forward to as we keep growing.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work and what you are especially proud of?
Our specialties are producing videos, designing and creating websites, graphic design, branding, and strategy. We also create email and paid ad campaigns, market research, and help companies create successful lead funnels.
We are incredibly proud of several videos we did for a FinTech client we especially loved working with. Spending days in the Utah mountains near Salt Lake City, filming in a 1980s Cadillac with some amazing people, was a highlight we will not forget.
The videos we produced, one of which was a comedy around the shorted stock GME, went viral within an award company and helped our client get industry attention and win 2 awards that fall. The CEO and CMO of that company are now long-term friends and mentors.
What changes in the industry are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Gone are the days of traditional, boring marketing campaigns. Banks and insurance are switching to more fun and creative marketing, which is a sign that the rest of us must follow. Getting to know the audience, segmenting, and personalizing are all becoming increasingly important.
All companies are comprised of real people with real personalities, and we feel that is a huge asset to use to your advantage, not something to hide. And that means that as a marketing team, we need to get to know our clients and the personality behind their company and discover ways to share their unique stories.
An excellent way to do this, partly why we specialize in it, is through video marketing. In the grand scheme of things, the internet is relatively new. It’s easier to trust someone you meet face-to-face; that’s how we’re wired. Video marketing such as interviews, podcasts, and webinars are the best way to get close to the “in person” feeling while still being online.
Companies that are achieving growth are incorporating this concept into their marketing.
