Meet Martina Brugnoni | Owner & CEO, Uptown Marketing

We had the good fortune of connecting with Martina Brugnoni and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Martina, what do you attribute your success to?
Quality Over Quantity! Often times in business we are pushed so hard to sell, sell, sell! While sales is crucial, I believe that a steady stream of quality business is more valuable than taking on clients in large quantity. With a smaller number of clients, we can focus more on nurturing relationships and providing the best service possible to each agent. Plus, this mantra results in a happier, healthier team!

What should our readers know about your business?
My company is Uptown Marketing, and we specialize in digital marketing for insurance agents. I started the company after 5 years in the insurance field, and 5 years in the digital marketing field. What sets us apart from others is our industry experience and our “quality over quantity” commitment. We prefer to maintain quality relationships with a smaller quantity of clients than some of our competition to ensure long-lasting satisfaction. I’m extremely proud of my team and their ability to sustainably grow the business with me over the past two years. It makes me really excited to know that I have a team full of close friends and family, which helps us support each other on a higher level. My employees care for this business and our clients as if it’s their own. We got to where we are today by nurturing relationships with clients and working hard to provide results in a very competitive space. We offer complete transparency, something often lacking in the digital marketing world. It is absolutely not easy! The biggest lesson I’ve learned along the way is that not every agent should be our client. We are not the best fit for a transactional shopper, because we do not offer “quick fixes” or “guarantees” of success like other companies do in online marketing. My team and I are most valuable to a client looking for a marketing partner long-term, which is great because a huge portion of our book of business is full of happy clients we’ve had for years. We look forward to steadily acquiring more clients that align with our value proposition.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I LOVE horseback riding, so definitely a day in Fort Worth to ride the trails and of course some drinks around the Stockyards. We’d also do Sixty Vines in Uptown, which is is a favorite spot of mine, they have the best wine list! I would bring them to Legacy West, because we can either go to a cute dinner somewhere like Toulouse or Del Frisco’s, or do happy hour drinks at Kai and hit some stores. My best friend and I love to shop. I live in Allen which I believe to be the best shopping suburb in the US…between Watter’s Creek, Fairview, The Village, and the Allen Outlets, we could literally spend days shopping here! I also love bringing out of town visitors to Nebraska Furniture Mart because I think it’s one of the coolest places ever. We’d also hit West Village to day drink, shop, maybe a little bit of both?? 🙂

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
This was really hard to answer – there’s the obvious, my amazing better- half who supports me every day, my rockstar team, great friends, etc. But when I think back on my career and how I started, I have to dedicate a shoutout to Steve Pavone. Steve was the CEO of a company in NY called YPC Media, where I was hired back in 2014. Steve quickly promoted me as a 24 year old to Assistant Sales Manager of his $15+ million/year sales floor and was always cheering me on when I moved from management into a sales role. I remember in my interview with him, he told me I had “moxie”. After having to look it up I figured if he saw that in me, I had to prove him right. Steve had endless confidence in my sales ability before I even realized I had any. He had a larger than life personality and the biggest laugh ever. He could yell loud enough to terrify grown men, but he also had a huge heart and gave the best hugs. I consider myself lucky to have been one of his favorites. Steve passed away from cancer in 2016 and his departure really changed the course of the company. Although a lot of us went in different directions, I know everyone comes together in the fact that we all miss Steve and are so grateful to have had him in our lives. I think he would be really, really proud of how far I’ve come and how I did it “my way.”

Website: www.uptownmarketing.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/uptown_marketing

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uptownmarketing/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uptownmarketingllc

Image Credits
Monika Normand Photography