Digital Marketing for growing businesses

I wasn’t born with a digital marketing spoon in my mouth. I was born a storyteller. I remember when I was 10 I begged my father to let me film a sequel to Star Wars on his 8mm home movie camera. I got so involved with the script, the costumes, the sets, that my friends lost interest in the project. Alas, it never got made, but I certainly had the bug for storytelling. Fast forward 30 odd years, and I work with organizations, large and small, who need to reach and engage their target audience with their brand story.
For over a decade, I was the managing partner of a “Creative Video Agency.” We believed that good creative would win the day. But over the years, I came to realize that a single tactic like video, despite its emerging importance, was ineffective if it wasn’t part of a strategic framework. I grew frustrated at not being part of that conversation, especially when I saw projects fail because they were not part of a strategic approach. The videos were truly creative, and I loved production, but I wasn’t satisfied with the results.

Time to change course

Covering the 2000 Presidential Election was a marathon, but one of the highlights of my career in journalism

7 years ago I got out my own personal road map and changed course. I was going to provide emerging organizations with insight-driven digital marketing strategies that reached, engaged and converted their target audience. I knew very well how to write and produce great content. Now I would provide that within a strategic framework, using powerful marketing automation tools.

Well, let’s just say it was easier said than done. It’s one thing to understand – theoretically – how to achieve that end. It’s another thing altogether to stay abreast of the emerging tools to communicate smarter, faster and better. There are many of them out there, and I had some learning to do. But if I was going to be part of the new solution in digital marketing, I needed to retool as a marketer.

I studied digital marketing, intent on providing the right solutions for organizations to reach and engage their target audience. I wanted to ensure that the whole was greater than the sum of the parts.

I’m going big with digital marketing

Video projects took to far away locations… though not galaxies far, far away

At the time, I began working with a SaaS company that provides business intelligence and data analytics for emerging organizations. It was a perfect fit. We both saw the world from the perspective of analytics. They provided growing businesses with a platform to use financial data to better run their organization. I was intent on using data to help marketers improve their marketing communications. I was excited.

I was also enrolled in a fantastic Digital Analytics program through the University of British Columbia. I was trying a wide range of digital marketing tools, many of which were quite good in their own right. But at one point, I became overwhelmed by it all. I was just scratching the surface the  “insight-driven marketing” approach. Understanding sophisticated analytics and pay-per-click campaigns, implementing a marketing automation stack, researching and using the right SEO tools, let alone zeroing in on the right KPIs was a lot.

“How can growing businesses get in front of all of this and make it work for them if I’m struggling?” I asked myself.

I was tempted to just go back to what I knew and focus on video production. After all, that’s what people really knew me for. But deep down, I knew that sophisticated, data-driven digital marketing was something that all growing companies would need. And they wouldn’t be able to do it alone.

The help we needed

It was about that time I began talking with the folks at SharpSpring. I had used and demoed a variety of marketing automation solutions before. But after speaking with Max, I immediately realized two very important things:

1. They had a marketing automation and CRM package that was simple to use and extremely powerful.
2. SharpSpring was priced so that I could offer it to my clients with confidence that they were getting the right marketing automation solution.

I was not alone – they were in it to help me and my clients use powerful marketing automation tools to work smarter, faster and better.
I continued working with analytic and marketing automation software, providing insight-driven marketing solutions to my clients. Finally, in January 2017, Turnpike Digital forged a SharpSpring agency partnership. It has opened up doors and solved the nagging problems I had been facing about what tools to learn and implement for the emerging businesses that I serve.

One growing company helping another

As a small business owner, I take great pride in partnering with other growing businesses. I understand their struggle because I’ve been there. I am especially happy that Turnpike Digital helps them do one thing they can’t do alone – work smarter, faster and better. With the Turnpike Digital, emerging businesses can do more with the resources they have. Let us help you reach and convert more clients, so you can get back to what you do best: growing your business.

THE TEAM