Website Kickoff — Brand Repositioning & Website Rebuild

Overview

Kickoff meeting to align the full Asymmetric team on a comprehensive website rebuild and brand repositioning. The scope extends beyond a website refresh — it covers a fundamental shift in how Asymmetric presents itself to the market: from a generalist "execution for hire" digital agency to a strategy-first growth consultancy that builds competitive edges for smaller companies competing against better-resourced rivals.

Mark Hope characterized this project as the company's top priority, describing it as "existential" for revenue growth and client acquisition.

Attendees: Mark Hope, Karly Oykhman, Isalia Ramirez, Avokerie Onorimuo, Andrzej Filipiak, Łukasz Bugajski, Michał Bielerzewski, Melissa Cusumano

Key Decisions

Strategic Repositioning

• From: Full-service digital agency, "Chinese menu" of execution services
• To: Strategy-first growth consultancy that "builds your competitive edge and then executes it"
• Core narrative: David vs. Goliath — helping smaller, smarter companies outmaneuver better-capitalized rivals. Framed as a business story, not a conflict story.
• Military language (e.g., "asymmetric warfare," "battle-tested") to be toned down given the current global environment; "war games" retained as it is industry-standard terminology used by Harvard, McKinsey, and BCG.

Website: Build from Scratch on Elementor

• The existing Beaver Builder site will not be adapted — a completely new site will be built on Elementor to avoid technical debt and PHP compatibility issues.
• Staging environment will be wiped and rebuilt. Production site will be backed up to dev before the new build begins.
• Developer: Eshock (preferred over Jeff for speed and willingness to collaborate as a team).
• Total scope: 26 pages, fully specced with SEO metadata, copy direction, design notes, and dev technical requirements.

Brand Identity Refresh

• Logo symbol remains unchanged.
• Text treatment updated to darker red (as proposed by Łukasz Bugajski).
• New color palette adds teal and amber, replacing the existing bright blue.
• Design team (not Roy) will handle Asymmetric's social assets to maintain brand quality.

Initial Marketing Vertical Focus

• Two verticals selected for initial campaigns: Environmental Services and Food & Beverage.
• Environmental Services scoped as: hazardous waste collection, environmental remediation, regulated materials disposal, and environmental consultants/training companies — not broader energy companies.
• Vertical-specific landing pages needed before the full site build completes (ad campaigns launching sooner).

New Website Architecture

Primary Navigation (5 sections)

Seven Service Pages

1. Strategy Consulting
2. Digital Asset Development (websites, brand assets, sales collateral)
3. Content Development (blogs, thought leadership, AI-enhanced content)
4. SEO & AEO (Answer Engine Optimization — visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini)
5. Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
6. Digital Marketing (paid search, email, out-of-home)
7. Asymmetric E-Commerce

Note: "Content Development" vs. "Content Marketing" naming left open — Karly flagged that users may search for "content marketing" specifically. Decision deferred.

Messaging Framework

Language to Use

• Edge-based: Edge, Advantage, Asymmetric, Outmaneuver, Outthink, Outgrow
• Outcome-based: Exponential Growth, Category Leadership, Market Position, 10X Results
• Intelligence-based: Precision, Insight, Competitive Intelligence, Data-Driven

Brand Voice Principles

• Confident without arrogance ("we know this works because we've done it")
• Direct — no marketing speak, no padding
• Strategic — every claim connects to an outcome, not an activity
• Unconventional — never sound typical

What to Avoid

• "Contact Us" as primary CTA (too passive, frames engagement as transactional)
• Local award badges (e.g., "Best Web Agency in Madison") — replace with more globally credible proof
• Service names as execution outputs (e.g., "Digital Marketing") rather than strategic advantages

Marketing Strategy

Three ICPs

Core problem being solved: Stagnating growth — companies that grew for years and have plateaued, where the root cause is a strategy that wasn't designed to get them beyond their current ceiling.

Five Marketing Channels

1. Social Media — Organic and paid (Facebook)
2. Content Marketing — Blogs and thought leadership aligned to buyer journey
3. Ads — Google, Bing, Quora, Reddit
4. ABM — 100 personalized target accounts with deep research and coordinated outreach; HubSpot ABM infrastructure
5. Cold Outreach — 37,000 validated contacts

Every campaign will target a specific ICP with a specific value proposition.

HubSpot

Mark has been rebuilding HubSpot so contacts are clean, segmented, and ready for campaign launch.

Action Items

Source Documents Referenced in Meeting

Mark shared four documents (in Slack at time of meeting; to be moved to Google Drive strategy folder):

1. Brand Guide (draft) — refreshed color palette, updated logo text treatment
2. Website Overhaul Sitemap — new IA, nav structure, service framing
3. 26-Page Site Spec — page-by-page design, dev, copy, and SEO specs (color-coded: blue = dev, green = design)
4. Value Proposition Canvas — gain creators and pain relievers for all three ICPs
5. Initial Marketing Strategy (in progress at time of meeting) — 5-channel plan, vertical briefs for Environmental Services and Food & Beverage

Related

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