Communication. Curiosity. Integrity.
We work together to create effective, straight-forward strategic business and marketing plans that are built with grit and keep your team ahead of the curve.
Who We Are
The Free State Marketing team works with clients to create well-crafted strategic business and marketing plans, combining digital and traditional marketing elements, in order to maximize a client's return on investment and improve the overall work flow for the client's team. We never simply offer the same pre-packaged solution to each customer, but we immerse ourselves into the client’s business flow to better understand what their specific needs are and how the Free State Marketing team can best help the client reach their overall business goals.
We are firm believers that marketing is not sales. Marketing is the important work of piquing your customer’s interest, creating messages that are received by the customer as friendly conversations between two people, and then guiding that customer through the buying process. The entire function of marketing is to build trust and demonstrate your team’s expertise in the industry. At the end of the day, marketing should make the customer regard the brand with the thought “why would I use anything else.”
Erin Younkin | CEO
Erin has been working in the marketing industry for over 15 years. She was drawn to the heavy equipment industry and immersed herself in the marketing world of heavy equipment and the trucking industry for the first few years of her career. During that time, she supported everything from trade show booth design to successful multi-million dollar sales proposals to collateral creation.
In 2015, Erin opened her own marketing business that morphed from a one-man marketing shop to what became a small virtual marketing company in less than three years. Her original business supported military-focused nonprofit organizations and other small businesses. Erin’s years of diverse experience and her team-oriented mindset have allowed her to build trust with clients in order to use creative solutions that maximize tight budgets and produce results.
After a move to Kansas, Erin rebranded her business and is now the CEO of Free State Marketing. This small virtual marketing agency provides full-service marketing support to the industrial equipment and construction industry, as well as military-focused nonprofits and other growing businesses. Erin continues to dip her hands into all parts of the business, but she has a special passion for helping industrial and construction equipment business owners better understand how to maximize their digital presence to reach their potential customers where they are: online.
Erin currently resides outside Wichita, Kansas. She has a B.A. in Mass Media: Advertising from Washburn University in Topeka, KS and a Master of Human Relations with an emphasis in Nonprofit Organization Management from the University of Oklahoma. She has two daughters, Rylie (12) and Emmersyn (9). In her spare time, you can find her coaching her daughters’ volleyball and basketball teams. She also loves traveling, fitness, and hosting friends for dinner.
Our team operates on a solid foundation.
Marketing = Education
Marketing is not salesmanship. Marketing and advertising is simply an extension of the business climate and culture that is currently established - it can not establish a climate or culture. We seek to clearly understand how people receive and process information and then creatively match their behaviors with the messaging they need and want.
Clear Communication
We fully embrace the concept of developing close relationships with our clients at the earliest stage of the project life cycle. With an emphasis on communication, attention to detail and cost management, we believe in creating a plan with clear, measurable, and realistic goals. We don’t dangle shiny objects.
Intrinsic Curiosity
We make it our business to keep up to date with the latest trends, developments and changes in our clients’ world. Having industry evolution not only optimizes our performance, but allows our team think more creatively and remain honest in our efforts. We understand the importance of innovation to develop optimum marketing solutions.
InteGRITy
We believe that hard work, honesty, and integrity build long-term trust. This is grunt work. We roll up our sleeves, get in the trenches and get dirt under our nails because our clients deserve reliability, respect, and dedication. We take pride in customer satisfaction and a job well done.
Giving Back
We believe in giving back to our community; the community of small business owners with whom we freely share our knowledge; the community of those in our industry so they can better understand the importance of integrity in advertising; and the community of individuals looking to lean on our expertise to help prepare them for success in this line of business.