In this episode of High Velocity Radio, host Lee Kantor interviews Madison Holliman, founder of Mad Marketing House, a digital marketing agency specializing in authentic social media content. Madison shares insights on crafting tailored marketing strategies for businesses of all sizes, balancing organic and paid efforts, and the importance of genuine branding. She discusses educating clients on metrics, focusing on effective platforms, and leveraging AI for content creation. Madison highlights client success stories and explains how investing in a specialized agency can help businesses overcome marketing challenges and achieve sustainable growth through strategic branding and positioning.
Madison Hollimon is the Owner and Founder of Mad Marketing House, a marketing firm that specializes in authentic content creation and branding for businesses, particularly in the luxury and personal brand space. With over a decade of experience in marketing, including five years as an agency owner, Madison has worked with over 1,000 businesses to transform their digital presence.
Her expertise in visual storytelling and social media content has helped countless brands grow their digital footprint and generate significant returns on advertising spend. Madison’s agency has successfully managed over $1M in ad spend, yielding more than $50M in revenue for her clients.
As a third-generation entrepreneur and the oldest of five girls, she values family above all else, and her approach to business reflects this. She graduated with a BBA in Marketing from Augusta University Business School, is married to her high school sweetheart, with three children of her own, and she prides herself on being the “family manager.”
When she’s not building brands and empowering business owners, she can be found enjoying the ocean, traveling to tropical destinations, or spending quality time with her family on their farm. her personal story of entrepreneurship is deeply intertwined with her desire to help others succeed, particularly women entrepreneurs.
Madison’s agency is built on a framework that blends strategy, creativity, and authenticity to create impactful, results-driven campaigns. Her process starts with understanding where the business is now, where they want to go, and who their audience is. From there, her team creates custom content that resonates with the target market, ensuring that every piece of content tells a compelling story.
Her expertise extends beyond organic content creation to the strategic use of paid ads, maximizing ad spend and ensuring fast results. She believes that social media doesn’t have to be a mystery and that the key to success is in consistent, high-quality content and genuine storytelling.
Connect with Madison on LinkedIn and Instagram.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- Empowering women entrepreneurs through authentic branding
- Building digital footprints: The importance of consistent content creation
- From merchandise to marketing: The evolution of Mad Marketing House
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.
Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor hear another episode of High Velocity Radio in. This is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Madison Holliman, who is the Owner and Founder of Mad Marketing House. Welcome.
Madison Hollimon: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here.
Lee Kantor: Well, I am excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Mad Marketing House. How are you serving folks?
Madison Hollimon: So we are a full service digital marketing agency that specializes in authentic content creation for social media.
Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? Have you always been involved in this line of work?
Madison Hollimon: So I have over a decade of experience in social media marketing, and I’ve only had the agency for five years. But prior to that, I did marketing for high end boutique luxury companies. I worked for Plastic Surgeon. I’ve had several different marketing roles in all industries, so I’ve I’ve been able to be very well versed in marketing and just have a true fashion, you know, true fashion and interest in being creative and being creative on social media.
Lee Kantor: So is your work primarily working with big brands like plastic surgeons, or is it like who is the ideal client for you?
Madison Hollimon: So we work across the board. We have small businesses, people that just got started, whether they’re in real estate or they own a med spa or they have like a, you know, a pet groomer, or we work with some very large brands that, you know, have half 1 million to 1 million followers on social media. So we’re able to work on both ends of the spectrum, and our team really enjoys it.
Lee Kantor: So is the strategy and the fundamentals kind of the same? It doesn’t matter what your budget is. It’s just like who’s doing the work? Like how does it work? You know, when you’re working with a small brand versus a very large enterprise brand.
Madison Hollimon: So typically when somebody is interested in working with us, we’ll put together a strategy that’s custom to their business and their industry. So initially they’ll come to us and say, hey, this is where my business is at. This is my goal and where I want my business to be. And then we will put that strategy together and put it in place with their current budget. And a lot of our smaller businesses will do a growth strategy. So we’ll say, okay, we’re going to start at X, but in 12 months we’re going to be spending X. So it allows us to grow with their business.
Lee Kantor: Now doing social media right in today’s world does it require a combination of kind of organic posting from the brand in addition to paid posting as well? Or can you just do organic nowadays.
Madison Hollimon: Yeah. So we have clients to do both. I have some that only do organic social media. So they hire us to create high quality content, photo and video and put it together into a content plan. So our team will post consistently for them every week. And then we also have clients that not only hire us to do that content creation, but take that content and put paid advertising dollars behind it. So we’ll say, okay, who is your ideal client or your avatar? What is their age group? Where do they live? You know what kind of, you know, buyer behavior do they have? And they will create an ad and target that person so that they can kind of expedite their growth and kind of hit those goals faster than if they were to just do it organically.
Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working with the smaller brands and you use the word authentic a lot, can you talk about what that authentic branding looks like for an entrepreneur?
Madison Hollimon: So it’s typically content that’s true to them. So it’s photo and video of them their team, their space. So that when somebody sees you online, they already feel like they know you. They feel like they know your team and they know what to expect before they walk in the door, or they have that first phone call with you. So you’re able to find that there’s a higher conversion value when they see you and your true form and your true space first.
Lee Kantor: So how do you help the client kind of craft the messaging that doesn’t come across as to, you know, maybe look at me, look how great I am versus more kind of, I can solve your problem. Like how do you kind of work through developing that personality in a way that’s going to drive business rather than maybe just drive attention?
Madison Hollimon: So we always try to go into a content day or content shoot and just set up a camera and have conversation. So we’re having conversation with that business owner or that key person that’s in the business. And we want it to feel natural. And typically after the first, you know, ten, 20 minutes, you’ll kind of sit there. You’ll get more comfortable with the conversation. And at that point it just kind of flows. So then we’re able to take, you know, kind of their experience, their storytelling and put it together into a piece of content that then tells a story through social media.
Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working with the clients, um, how do you protect them from maybe the shiny object, uh, problem a lot of people have if they see a new platform where they see a new way of doing something, and all of a sudden they want to do that, too. Um, instead of maybe just focusing in on a couple of platforms or a couple of strategies that are geared to maybe the majority of their potential clients.
Madison Hollimon: So it’s really important upfront when we create that strategy to understand who their audience or their target audience is, and then we’ll say, okay, if your, you know, demographic is ages 35 to 50 female, we know to put you on this platform. So we’ll say, okay, I understand that you maybe want to go over here because it’s new and fun and exciting, but what kind of real back then back in and explain to them, okay, but your target audience is on this platform. So once they’re able to kind of understand and we’re able to educate them, then they’ll kind of feel comfortable and have more trust with our agency to understand why we want them to be on a specific platform.
Lee Kantor: Now, what is the what are those initial conversations look like when you’re talking to a potential client? Is it a lot of education? Because I would think that a client who has never used your firm or has never used any marketing firm, an outside marketing firm before, may have some misconceptions of what you know, what is possible and what you know, what, what can be done and what they have to do versus what you have to do and how you work together.
Madison Hollimon: Yeah, I’m a big advocate for educating our clients. The more they understand I’ve learned, the more they’ll spend and the higher yield and results they’ll have. So, you know, we are all about taking the time to teach them and to learn their business. We typically find that when we partner with a new client, it takes three months to learn their style and for them to start seeing results. So we’re able to really take those first 90 days and dive in and learn each other. And as we go, we do a lot of reporting. We watch a lot of the analytics so that we can directly, you know, understand how it’s going to impact the business and the pages. And when we’re able to do that and have a more hands on approach, we have more success. And the more success the client has, the more excited they are and the more money they want to invest in marketing.
Lee Kantor: Now, how do you go about explaining maybe the difference between the different metrics? Because some metrics are important and they are the ones that are driving their business. But in social media especially, there might be some metrics that might look good on the surface, but may actually not be a really good gauge of of whether something is being effective or not.
Madison Hollimon: So a lot of times we will look at if we’re getting a lot of new followers, we want to make sure we are retaining people. So we want to look at followers and unfollow and make sure there’s only a very small percentage of, you know, people that are unfollowing. And then we want to look at the quality of those followers. Are they real people or are they people in line with your target audience? And what is the engagement rates for your content. Are you getting a lot of shares, a lot of saves? You know, Instagram specifically, the really hot metric right now is shares and saves. So we want to make sure that we’re really hitting those, you know, goals for the for the page.
Lee Kantor: Now when you’re working with them. So at the beginning stages they may not have a huge following. They might have, you know, minimal just based on whatever they’ve been able to acquire. Do you dig into. It sounds like every post you’re kind of digging into. Okay, you’re looking at each profile to see, okay, who are these people? I want to kind of really understand who the people are that are engaging.
Madison Hollimon: Yeah. Um, it’s definitely important to understand who their current following is. But we also want to make sure that as we’re the page is growing, we’re attaining followers that are in line with their target audience. So typically that’s creating content that speaks to that avatar. And as long as you’re creating content that speaks to that person, you’re able to capture and retain the type of clients you want to follow the page.
Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share that illustrates how the impact that your firm can make with a client? Like, don’t name the name, but maybe explain how they came to you and how you were able to help them get to a new level.
Madison Hollimon: Yeah, so we have a client that was one of our first clients, and they were new to the TikTok platform, and they produced a product that’s, uh, it was a $1.8 million product. And we just started blasting that platform with video content. Really cool video content. And at the time, this was, I would say three, two, three years ago, you know, TikTok was kind of everybody was really skeptical about it, but it was a new platform. So their algorithm was really, really great. And we were able to capture a sale from TikTok. So that person actually message them on Instagram. But they found them through TikTok’s algorithm and ended up purchasing that product. So that ended up being in almost $2 million. Once he was done with, you know, building out the spec, it was a $2.1 million sale off of posting on TikTok.
Lee Kantor: Now, are there some do’s and don’ts for TikTok in business versus TikTok for personal?
Madison Hollimon: I would say, you know, you always want to keep it as professional as you can. But you know, sometimes I like ask myself, does this feel okay to post? Is it controversial? And surprisingly enough, if it is a little controversial, it will, you know, engage. It will engage people in the comments. And the more comments that you’re getting, the faster your videos reaching other pages and other people that are commenting on it. So we always like to be a little controversial on TikTok.
Lee Kantor: What about like a business platform like LinkedIn? Are there some do’s and don’ts to get more engagement on LinkedIn posts?
Madison Hollimon: Linkedin is a lot of, you know, storytelling through, you know, carousels and a carousel is several photos in one post. So if you can tell like a real, authentic story of your experience, whether you’re an employee or employer or an employee, you would typically get more engagement if it feels more raw and unfiltered.
Lee Kantor: Now, what about, um, kind of the rhythm of these platforms is there? How often should people be posting? It seems like, you know, the feed is never ending, right? So how do you kind of stay top of mind with the feed that is constantly changing? And there’s, you know, gazillion posts on each, each feed?
Madison Hollimon: We always suggest and tell our clients to post quality over quantity, and that doesn’t mean you have to post every single day. It just means that whatever you are posting is of, you know, high quality, high value for your client and your message is very clear and concise. I always love to tell people, you know, utilize your stories every day if you would like, but let’s leave the in feed content to be very planned and curated.
Lee Kantor: So there’s different kind of strategies for each one of those things.
Madison Hollimon: Yes. Um, you know, your story content is more in real time, daily uploading a little bit more unfiltered while you’re in feed content is more, you know, strategy behind it. Let’s plan it out and let’s make sure that we’re what we’re posting makes sense and is going to capture the right audience.
Lee Kantor: Now, how has artificial intelligence AI? How has that affected what you do and how you do it?
Madison Hollimon: I think it’s been great. Um, it’s definitely helped. On the copywriting side. We have found that you’re able to train your AI tool now. So a lot of what our team does is we will upload our own, um, email threads or communications so that our AI tool will learn our voice so that our clients voices that when we’re writing for a client or writing for ourselves, it is writing in their tone, and it’s been able to streamline a lot of our content and preplanning operations.
Lee Kantor: So from that standpoint now, is there any recommendations how a client should be using AI when it comes to, uh, you know, kind of the day to day marketing that they’re doing?
Madison Hollimon: Yeah, I mean, I always recommend that our clients utilize, you know, ChatGPT and utilize a paid version so that it stores all of the data for them and to train it so, you know, spend some time engaging with the tool, letting it learn your tone, letting it learn your voice, so that when there is a time that you need help writing a more extensive email or a story, it will give you something that’s, you know, more in line with how you speak.
Lee Kantor: So you’re using a primarily as kind of a thought starters for creating content, but not maybe analyzing or seeing where there’s opportunities.
Madison Hollimon: When you use it as both. Um, it’s definitely like a, a great tool to use as an outline to get to get our thoughts flowing. But it’s also great to use for, you know, plugging in data and saying, okay, how can we make this better? How do we optimize it? And it’s basically become like a Google search engine that just spits out answers. So and it’s as we continue to evolve in this Industry. It’s just going to become smarter and more efficient.
Lee Kantor: Now, what is kind of on the roadmap for your firm, like what’s next for mad marketing? How’s how how are you evolving in this kind of constant changing landscape that we’re living in when it comes to marketing and and branding and things like that?
Madison Hollimon: We are just continuing to focus on growing our current, um, roster of clients and helping them expand their businesses and become more successful. And we’ve kind of transitioned to a referral only firm, so we don’t really do a lot of marketing for ourselves. We just make sure that we’re doing the absolute best we can for our clients, and the right clientele will come to us as we continue to succeed for our clients.
Lee Kantor: So when you lean into kind of a referral first growth strategy, what are some of the things that you’re doing in-house to encourage those kind of referrals to come.
Madison Hollimon: We are just investing a lot of time and resources in our current team and staff, and making sure that they’re able to produce the very best. And when we do that, in turn, creates the very best for our clients pages and their data and their sales. And when you have a happy client, they’re going to tell everybody how happy they are. So you don’t even have to incentivize our clients to send us potentials. Um, they just do it on their own.
Lee Kantor: Sounds like you got a lot going on. It sounds like you have tremendous momentum. Um, that story that you shared about, you know, generating, you know, a multi-million dollar sale from social media is. I mean, I’m sure that’s all over your website because that is very difficult to achieve. So congratulations on all the positive momentum you have going on. Thank you. So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or the team. What is the website? What is the best way to connect?
Madison Hollimon: So follow us on Instagram mad marketing house. Um, we have we built a really great community of businesses and creatives that want to learn. We have we create a lot of educational content for you to grow your own page. And if you’re interested in becoming a potential client, you can always go to our website marketing. Com and fill out our contact form. And we would love to set up a call and learn more about your business.
Lee Kantor: And you are still a big believer in the branding and positioning. So you it’s important for companies to lean into that. And that’s kind of a longer play, right. Like that is in a transactional buy my stuff now strategy.
Madison Hollimon: Yes. Um, we believe that a lot of clients are curated over time, and they come to us when they’ve made the decision that they need help. And typically, once they come to us with that decision and they see the strategy you put together for them, 90% of them end up working with us.
Lee Kantor: So what is that pain they’re having right before they contact you? They’re just frustrated or they’re in a plateau.
Madison Hollimon: We’re either frustrated with the current agency or marketing person they’re working with. We see a lot of that. Um, or they want to have some significant growth, or they’re frustrated with some of the competitors that are out there that are over, you know, saturating their market or have taken maybe some of their clients or they have a new offer that they’re wanting to push out and sell. So it’s kind of a multitude of things when we see people come to us. Um, and a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners, we are always just looking for the next best thing. So they say, okay, I’ve grown out of, you know, this one person that’s been helping me with marketing? I would really love to have an entire team of creators that are part of an agency to work on my business. And a lot of people have found that the investment is similar to having like one full time person on their team or one part time person on their team, and then they’re able to have an entire agency of specialists.
Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Well, Madison, congratulations on all the success and the the website one more time.
Madison Hollimon: Mag marketing house.com.
Lee Kantor: All right. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.
Madison Hollimon: Thank you.
Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.
