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BlueTreeDigital |
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July 18, 2016 Issue |
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CEOCFO MAGAZINE |
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Digital Marketing Providing Lead Generation, Branding Awareness, SEO, Website Design and Social Media Campaigns for Tech Companies, Government Sector and Local Businesses |
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Founder & CEO
BlueTreeDigital
Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – July 18, 2016
CEOCFO: Ms. Skuba, what is the focus for BlueTreeDigital today? Ms. Skuba: BlueTreeDigital exists to help business owners and business executives sleep at night. Our digital marketing agency plans and creates marketing campaigns that include everything from strategy to branding, from website design to social media, from search engine optimization to email marketing and drip campaigns. In short, we do everything necessary for businesses to generate leads and build brand awareness.
CEOCFO: When a company comes to you, do they typically know what they want or are they looking to you for an overall strategy? Ms. Skuba: It’s both. For example, we have companies come to us and say they have been trying to improve their SEO, but it hasn’t been working. They know they need SEO services, but they do not know exactly how to achieve and track results, so we help them develop a plan to make it work. We have also had companies come to us and say they need leads or more customers. We will build an entire marketing strategy that includes all the right components, run it by them, and then tweak it until everything works in terms of both budget and resources before we begin to implement the strategy.
CEOCFO: On a very basic level, what do you understand about digital marketing that perhaps others have not quite figured out yet? Ms. Skuba: I have been working in digital marketing for about fourteen years now. I started with email marketing for a major non-profit. After all my experience with non-profits, technology startups, and major corporations, I have learned that it really comes down to constant change. When you think you are an expert, watch out—that is actually the time when you really do not know everything that there is to know. There is always room to learn something else. There is always room to consult an expert on one facet of marketing that is going to push your business in the right direction. There is always someone that can do a little bit more and push the bar a little bit higher. Digital marketing always keeps changing. Think about all the different social media networks out there, and then think about how they keep growing every single year. Hiring an agency is probably the best way to make sure that your marketing is at the top level that it can be.
Ms. Skuba: It depends on the target. Whether you are going after millennial women or middle-aged men, the approach is going to be different. It means understanding who the target is, and what channels or social networks they really use. We are a digital marketing agency, but we have placed ads in newspapers because they reached the right target. We have millennial staff members, but I am Generation X, so that means I listen to my staff when it comes to reaching that target. We are constantly doing more research to find out where people are going to be.
CEOCFO: How do you work collaboratively with your clients to come up with the best solution? Ms. Skuba: We will typically look into what our client’s idea is, if they have one. We research it thoroughly, and provide an idea of the costs and the benefits. Then, if tasked to do a full marketing strategy, we look into what we think makes the most sense. We tell them what is going to be the most beneficial to them, and we back it up with data. We do case studies based on their industry and their competitors, for example. I know marketing has a reputation for being somewhat fluffy, but that is not how we operate. That is part of why we are in digital marketing, because we can look at data and statistics to back up our decisions. We will look at data that helps prove the strategies that we recommend.
CEOCFO: What types of industries tend to turn to you? Ms. Skuba: Because we are based in the Northern Virginia and DC area, we work with government contractors and technology often. Northern Virginia is a hotbed of innovation and startups. Besides technology firms and government contractors, we work with a wide variety of local businesses as well. We have worked with fertility clinics, apartment complexes, a chain of childcare centers, among others.
CEOCFO: How do you navigate some of the challenges working with the government? Ms. Skuba: We do a lot more with marketing for government contractors than directly with government, although we are very excited about our new client, a city government in the Northern Virginia area seeking to redesign its website. There can be certain challenges in terms of making sure that all of your T’s are crossed and your I’s are dotted in everything you do. We have writers on staff that are very meticulous about making sure that everything is done properly.
CEOCFO: Would you give us an example of a somewhat typical engagement? Ms. Skuba: We have a current client that is looking to reach female millennials. When they came to us, they were lagging behind their competition. We created a full-scale marketing strategy. From that, we developed a plan with different channels to advertise on. We also developed social media strategies and search engine optimization recommendations. We also ended up creating a new website to be more oriented towards their target, because their existing website was not focused towards the Millennial market with the right colors, language, and imagery. We got to the point where everything that they did was focused on delivering that consistent message to their target. We accomplished this through paid advertising, advertising on social media, and advertising through online radio such as Pandora to really boost their numbers. We were able to shoot past their goals to the point where they had to hire extra staff to be able to deal with the leads coming in. It was a very successful campaign and we are still running it. What is interesting about this is that after seven or eight months of running this campaign, we see that there becomes a point of saturation in social media and so we have to figure out other approaches. We are currently in the process of revamping the strategy so that we can go after additional ways of reaching the target audience. Nothing is ever a “said it and forget it.” Whether it is advertising on search engines using Google Adwords, utilizing Ad networks, or implementing social media advertising, you have to keep evolving with the marketplace at all times.
CEOCFO: What do you look for in your people? Ms. Skuba: They need to have a sense of responsibility. Accountability is one of our core values. We are a virtual company, so right now I am speaking from Bellevue, Washington, where I live. I have staff in Northern Virginia and Maryland. We have a designer in Pennsylvania. We have a developer in Richmond. Everyone else is on the East Coast, but we are all virtual. We get together in person about every two months when I fly out there. All of them need to be able to evolve and be at the top of their game in their chosen field. They need to be able to take responsibility for getting their work done. I am not the kind of person who needs to see someone in an office from nine to five just to be able to see them. We have many dedicated parents and we have people who, for health reasons, cannot commute to an office every day. We need people to be able to do their jobs, do them well, and be able to collaborate nicely.
CEOCFO: What is ahead for BlueTreeDigital? Ms. Skuba: We are going to be doing more business development for ourselves. We are the proverbial cobbler’s children where we focus all of our efforts on our clients, and forget to do some of those things for ourselves. We are going to be doing more of that effort for our own business. I am looking for more clients that are along the same line in terms of technology and government contracting. We are probably going to be expanding in staff as we grow as well.
CEOCFO: Why choose BlueTreeDigital? Ms. Skuba: BlueTreeDigital is different than most agencies in that we go the extra mile. We are constantly making sure that our clients are getting what they need regardless of whether or not that is exactly what they are paying us to do. We look for opportunities for our clients. We do a lot of SEO and PR, for example. Sometimes we will mention to our clients that we found someone on Help a Reporter Out that is looking for someone in their industry, so they should go ahead and respond; maybe we will do that for them, or we will give them a heads-up so they can get it done. We have arranged it so our clients are getting a full team of people who are experts, constantly thinking about helping them succeed. We are going the extra mile and we really do care about our clients. |
“There is always room to learn something else. There is always room to consult an expert on one facet of marketing that is going to push your business in the right direction. There is always someone that can do a little bit more and push the button a little bit further.”- Nicole Skuba
BlueTreeDigital
Nicole Skuba
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