The Why
Throughout my career in both the digital and full service agency spaces, I’ve felt my capabilities have been confined by a generic “big business” way of operating.
Why couldn’t my role in marketing be more about the intricacies of my craft and creativity? As my expertise in this field continued to expand, so did a growing need to customize the very important work of search engine optimization to each of my unique clients. I’ve always longed to be a part of a movement - a collective push to create inspiring and sustainable business; to dedicate my time to empowering and reinforcing brands that are aligned with this vision. I wanted the freedom to engage my clients in innovative ways that serve their best interests.
In the full service marketing agency model I rarely felt I had enough resources or time to build a custom strategy that I believed would warrant long-term results for my clients. Full service agencies love to say they do it ALL. Understandably so as it can give the client flexibility when they have only one vendor for all of their digital marketing needs. But as a strategist focused on SEO and marketing planning I felt like my most valuable skills were underemphasized. The main challenge in this environment was not being able to control the the product because I wasn’t an “experienced specialist” in each role within the organization; instead I had to “make it work” without the proper cross-organization coordination.
Talking with people and working towards a common ground through genuine curiosity is a natural ability of mine. What if everyone stopped trying to be better at something they’re not good at and just focused on being exceptional at one thing? Yes, I know that’s old school. Nowadays it’s all about being a hybrid, knowing a lot about a lot of things. Well I’ve found out that in trying to do that I was forcing growth rather than naturally moving forward and I definitely wasn’t pushing the real potential of my clients. You know why we don’t go all in on a specialized skill? We’re afraid to fail, which is the worst reason to not do anything.
New challenges each day help to define a business, but what if you could control their outcome and could honestly say you have access to the most strategic answer as opposed to the most readily accomplishable? But that is the thing…... strategic answers take time, deep analysis, robust research and calculated testing to be truly reliable.
My goal of building a specialized firm focused on growing businesses in Western North Carolina is to create the platform to apply a differentiated depth to my clients’ marketing strategies. People don’t typically think of SEO as being creative and edgy, but it can be. I like the challenge of repositioning technical marketing as a creative targeting strategy to my clients. The industry’s jargony perception of SEO that involves lists upon lists of everything websites are doing wrong technically is no longer a viable and effective methodology. Instead I believe a focus on how my clients and I as a collaborative team prioritize what is going to provide the most value to their SEO and web performance.
Ultimately, my passion lies in educating clients on the importance of connecting the human intent behind every online search to their business growth potential. That is the why. So, join Mountain Laurel Digital as we go all in to create exceptional growth experiences for businesses around our community.