I recently sat down with Capsulink and they interviewed me about my experiences and advice in the field of digital marketing and as an entrepreneur. Here is the original full interview:
1. What Was The Big Breakthrough Moment In Your Career?
I initially started digital marketing (blogging, email marketing, social media, SEO, etc) over 10 years ago to promote my own service business. I ended up growing more interested in digital marketing every month and less interested in running my actual service business. I began to do marketing consulting for small businesses as well as executing online campaigns for global corporations, all while building my own brand. I'd say that getting my first blogging / social media contract from a multi-billion dollar corporation in 2010 was validation of my new digital marketing career as well as a big confidence boost in future negotiations.
2. Biggest Digital Marketing Fail & Lesson Learned?
Well there are a lot to mention to I'll focus on 2 experiences.
The first one was 7+ years ago making the mistake of creating a blogging partnership with a good friend. While it was a crucial part of my business at the time in 2010, he didn't take it seriously (he already had a lucrative full-time career) and purchased traffic and clicks to our websites. My AdSense account (which we shared) was terminated (along with our earnings), along with my valuable YouTube Partnership linking my channel with nearly 200 videos and thousands of subscribers. I spend hundreds of hours building a new YouTube Channel from scratch and promoting those videos but it never fully recovered. Millions of views and tens of thousands of dollars (not including countless lost lucrative opportunities) were gone overnight. To illustrate that point, I kept 1 video (non-monetized) from the old YouTube channel and uploaded a nearly duplicate copy in 2011. The original one from 2009 has over 600,000 views and the one on my new channel in 2011 has only 3,000 views.
I learned that you should be wary of forming business partnerships with friends and that you and your partner need to be on the same page when it comes to the priority of the business in your lives.
I'd say another big digital marketing fail is failing to convince a former employer that they needed a strong digital marketing strategy. I learned that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Since then that company has lost significant market share to rivals that have adopted a comprehensive digital program. If a person or company doesn't believe that digital marketing is valuable, then you need to move on to others with a more enlightened view of marketing.
Trust me, I have many other marketing fails but each one has made me stronger and wiser from lessons learned.
What Is Your TOP Advice For Other Marketers?
I'd remind other marketers that digital marketing and advertising are always evolving and to never to rest on your laurels. Keep educating yourself and stay on top of new trends. Platforms are always changing and there are plenty of marketing experts hungry to fill that job, clinch that campaign, or sign those clients. Don't take your foot off the gas.
What Are Your Future Plans In Marketing?
I am always planning and modifying those plans as platforms change. I plan to continue building my websites, growing my social media network, and helping businesses improve their marketing performance on a budget. I also plan to increase my video content production and write another book. The beauty of digital marketing and entrepreneurship is that you never know what opportunities will come your way. Whatever they may be, I'll be ready.
I hope you enjoyed this interview about my entrepreneurship journey including struggles and successes.
Interested in more entrepreneurial interviews?
Read My Posts:
- Google & Moz Interview With Clickz
- Small Business Management Interview With Zig Marketing
- Frugal Entrepreneurship Interview With Startup League
Published by Michael J Schiemer
Owner of the Bootstrap Business Blog
Media - Money - Marketing - Motivation
Digital Marketing | SEO | Social Media
Mike Schiemer Builds Better Business
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