1909 DIGITAL Launches TrustEngine to Share the Love

As the world re-opens, more organizations find themselves in need of digital marketing—and we find ourselves wishing we could support everyone with our transparent, authentic approach. At 1909 DIGITAL we don’t want to see anyone left behind as large agencies prey on small, family-owned companies. We’ve made a habit of surrounding ourselves with brilliant marketers who are simply great humans. Out of this need, TrustEngine was born.

What is TrustEngine?

TrustEngine is a brain trust of vetted marketers, developers, and creatives who we know, love, and trust to deliver on project goals without breaking the bank.

Yeah, I said “trust” twice (three times?) in that sentence. That’s because trust is at the center of this new venture.

• We’ve gathered a brain trust of smart freelancers who have deep know-how in their areas of expertise
• We trust the experts we’re calling on to support our clients’ goals
• Our clients trust us as we manage projects and ensure success

But why are we creating a whole new company?

1909 DIGITAL will celebrate our second birthday in November. The past 18 months have shown us that everyone—from for-profit businesses to small non-profit organizations—needs support implementing their marketing. We define implementing as “clicking the publish button” on those social posts, digital ads, emails, or web updates. More often than not, someone comes to us just wanting the button-clicking and results, not the strategy behind it.

While we always prefer to produce a digital marketing strategy for the projects we work on, sometimes we just have to focus on implementation and outcomes. Whether it’s optimizing a website, a brand refresh, getting digital advertising out the door, or any other one-off need, TrustEngine is the tool you need to get the job done.

We also learned how our core team at 1909 DIGITAL best functions. Jarred, Chris, and I first envisioned our extended 1909 “work fam” as a group of freelancers. We realized we’re strongest when our whole team can participate fully in our Agile process. To succeed at Agile, we have daily virtual or video-meeting scrums, a weekly retrospective to support a healthy work capacity and balance with family life, and many working calls to maintain camaraderie. As one could imagine, a part-time, freelancer lifestyle isn’t necessarily conducive to this structure. Our core team is now all full-time or nearly full-time to accommodate the remote but tight-knit workplace culture we’ve grown into.

But where does that leave all of the insanely brilliant, passionate, dedicated freelancers that we respect and adore? We still want to work with them! So we do. They are our braintrust—our TrustEngine. Some are former 1909 team members, while others are longtime friends and colleagues we’ve worked with on past projects. Everyone in TrustEngine is an expert we’re excited to work alongside.

Why is This Different? 

TrustEngine is designed to streamline the freelancer-client process, with 1909 managing the project so the experts can focus on the task at hand. We discover the client’s needs and then handpick the perfect person from our vetted brain trust. Rather than the client coordinating directly with the freelancer, we coordinate the goals, tasks, approvals, invoicing, and follow up. This makes the process easy for the client and the freelancer!

TrustEngine is way more than simply subcontracting, where the client doesn’t know who is working on their project or may not even know that a task is handed off at all. We ensure that the client knows who is behind the work. Attribution is important to us, and we’re proud of our network of experts. Freelancers shouldn’t have to hide behind the curtain. They deserve acknowledgement for their work. (No one could be the “Great and Powerful Oz” without the machinery behind the curtain!)

What’s Next? 

If this all sounds exciting to you, good. It should! The idea for TrustEngine isn’t new, but it’s hard to make work. We’re absolutely confident in the people we work with and clients we work for, and we’ve never been more ready to tackle the needs of the many and provide amazing digital marketing services.

I invite you, from the bottom of my heart, to join in the TrustEngine journey if your organization, business, or boards needs digital marketing services today or if you’re planning your campaigns right now. And if you’re a strategic digital marketing freelancer looking to fill your bucket with awesome, mission-driven work and interesting clients, shoot us an email or give us a call and let’s chat. We’d love to grow the roster with people who are the best at what they do.

I can’t wait for the journey ahead and I hope to share my excitement with each and every one of you!