Tell us a bit about your business.
We relieve the pain of online advertising for small businesses by creating successful marketing campaigns on the most powerful and relevant platforms for their businesses. We serve small-business owners who are great at business and have an amazing product, but just don’t feel comfortable with the online marketing world.
We were inspired by going to a weekly meeting with a group of business owners where we learned that there were 10 businesses or so that had recently taken the dive into social media and digital marketing. They ended up getting charged either way too much or way too little. And, ended with the person not completing the work and the business owner being left with a bitter taste about digital marketing. At this point, I had been working with a client part-time over the past two years and learning a lot about the industry, and I saw an opportunity to help these business owners accomplish their goals while creating a business out of the thing I love doing most.
So began The Social Otter. We are a digital marketing company that helps business owners get noticed online without breaking the bank. We help you develop every aspect of your business online and then help you target the most valuable customers for your business.
How has your business progressed recently and what do you attribute that to? Where do you see your business in one year?
Reflecting back on the first six months, our business has evolved a lot! We have found what works for businesses, what doesn’t and where their money is best spent to get the highest ROI. We attribute our success to two primary factors: personal relationships and hard work. We grow our business by building relationships with people face to face. A lot of marketing companies focus on finding their customers online and through phone calls. We want to get to know each of our clients personally and understand their goals, dreams and brands in-depth. This allows us to create digital campaigns that both the client and us are proud to display.
In the next year, financially I see our business going from the high five-figure mark to the mid to high six-figure mark. I believe this will be due to new innovations we are bringing to our company that will allow us to get ahead of our competition. However, in that growth we will still pride ourselves on human-to-human connection and want to maintain that reputation. We believe it’s valued by a lot of our older clients who prefer traditional ways of business.
What are your favorite tools or resources that help you do business smarter, and how have they made a difference?
Our success has been attributed to the use of different digital marketing tools such as Fiverr, where we have been able to “grow a team” without ever hiring any staff. They have a great selection of talented individuals to help us complete client projects. We also use a variety of analytics tools that allow us to find the best return for our clients, such as Google Analytics, Facebook Analytics and more.
What advice would you offer to businesses like yours just starting up?
I would suggest that any business starting out in the digital marketing world really focus on one niche aspect of digital marketing and be the best at it. For example, we focus on advertising and PPC. Maybe you focus on one specific platform, or maybe you focus on social media management. Overall, pick one thing and be the best at it. Also, don’t try to do everything on your own. Build a team using online resources like Fiverr and focus on your strengths. This will help you grow exponentially faster and focus on working on the business, not in it.
Where can customers find and connect with your business?
Submitted January 2018
