Many consultants are very comfortable giving out much of the same advice over and over. Every problem is a nail waiting on their hammer.
But what if you have a screw or a bolt, not a nail? Maybe you need to reach people working in Cool Springs, where there are few billboards. Maybe you have a product that people need to feel and touch to understand and you need a mobile demonstration unit. Maybe you need to reach truckers or workers at a particular manufacturing facility or you want to reach travelers going through the Nashville Airport.
Because Eric Hutton, the owner of the Hutton Advertising in Nashville, has a unique career listening to people and crafting different messages for different situations, you can be assured he is not looking at everything as a nail.
Career Summary
Eric Hutton started his professional career as an environmental engineer working for Tennessee’s Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Awareness. Sometimes he analyzed data so policymakers could talk intelligently to the press. Sometimes he made financial arguments to business owners about some methods to save money and protect the environment. Sometimes he talked to Tennessee residents and other times he designed training seminars. In his next jobs he focused on air pollution permits as a state engineer and as a consultant, where he crafted letters that succinctly explained the technical options in a particular situation or why a facility violated a particular regulation.
Throuhout that time he also wrote databases to collect and report on environmental data as well as to make it accessible to average people. So in 2003, Eric started Practical Programs Inc and began programming websites.
While attending networking events to gain website clients, he noticed just how few business owners could express what they did better than their competition. Their websites were just as bland. Likewise, he also learned that selling programming services was not nearly as successful as selling a website that would attract customers. One solved a customer’s problem and one did not. As a result, Eric Hutton re-branded Practical Programs as www.ASiteThatWorks.com and devoted far more time to helping clients figure out what their web content needs to convey.
In 2011 he wanted to expand the marketing options for his clients and he opened the Nashville office of Billboard Connection, which is now Hutton Advertising, LLC.
What Does It Mean?
Eric Hutton has learned to listen actively to the concerns you bring him. Even if he has not worked with your type of business before, he very quickly gets up-to-speed on who your customers are and where you need to be to reach them. It is the same skill he used to learn about numerous different industries while working as an environmental engineer.
He also has a strong creative streak for figuring out a succinct message with a unique image to maximize your message’s effect. While in the Division of Pollution Prevention he developed a presentation to convince industry leaders to help promote pollution prevention, created a seminar that received media attention, wrote pamphlets and brochures to educate the public. Much of the original text he writes for websites often survives when the owner redesigns the visual look.
He pays attention to the important details. Getting a campaign executed on time requires several steps and coordinating various vendors. It requires attention to detail in much the same way that, as a website programmer, he is sensitive to the placement of visual elements to pixel level and creates simple scripts to makes sites work more effectively.
What Are the Results?
When you ask Eric Hutton to help you, he is going to find the best solution that will
- Communicate your idea or message to your audience
- Be in your budget, and
- Reach the people you want to reach.
Where you need help, he will ask a few probing questions to see what your situation is and come up with a solution. If the idea or concept will work, Eric Hutton will make it work.