October 28th, 2019
And just like that, it has been five years since we took the leap. While they (who exactly are they?) do say it takes a village to raise a child and they’re quite right on that, it certainly also applies to building a business. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the relationships we had going into this, the new ones we built, and all of them that we continue to nourish – thank you for your part in this.
Did you know? Before we incorporated, we freelanced for some time. Take a trip back into memory lane with us and learn how taking the leap in 2014 helped establish a foundation for where we are today. I’ll give you a hint. It all started with a long term desire to build something to call my own, to help other business owners, and a very good friend by the name of Pamela Lund.
With the ebbs and flows like many businesses experience, we are excited to be celebrating such a big milestone today because we’ve survived the setbacks, grew, learned, and celebrated the wins, big and small alike. It’s been a wild ride and we wouldn’t change anything about it because every experience, every client, every conversation, has taught invaluable lessons that brought to light the many ways we can test, optimize, and improve our own business while simultaneously giving us the ability to share these experiences to help others.
It’s been nothing short of a wild ride but that’s what keeps us on our toes and keeps it fun, right? It does for us. With that, we want to share some highlights that transpired over the last five years that we’re proud to share with you.
Highlights
- We had the honor and the pleasure of sharing our knowledge, experiences, and strategies while speaking at a number of conferences, including Pubcon Florida, Zenith in Duluth, HeroConf in London and Philadelphia, Swivel in Bend, keynoting SLCSEM (now Utah DMC), Women Who Mean Business, Wake Up Paso, and other in-person and online marketing and business events.
- We had the opportunity to sponsor an event for the first time. It was such a great experience that we sponsored Advanced Search Summit in Napa for two consecutive years.
- Our team was published in AdAge, USA Today, DigiDay, eMarketer, Wordstream, Marketing Land, SEMrush, Search Engine Journal, HubSpot, Bing Ads, Swydo, KoMarketing, Clix Marketing, socialbakers, and other news sites and industry blogs.
- Joined the Business of Digital, Tech Demand, MarTech, PPC Rockstars, Marketing O’Clock, WireBuzz, Beyond Influential, Edge of the Web, PermissionLESS, CredoCast, AdStage, and other podcasts as guests to talk marketing, advertising, business, career, and life.
- Co-hosted LemonLight, SEMrush, and Stukent webinars.
- Worked with a number of incredible and innovative clients such as Rothy’s, Headspace, Thermos, Indow Windows, Postmates, Dansko, Grammy Nominated Artist, Jewel, The Mobile Oil Changers, and more.
- Wrote our first ebook, “The Small Business Guide to Facebook Ads” with our editor, Alison Clancy and published it on Amazon.
- We joined the Paso Robles Chamber of Commerce and the Templeton Chamber of Commerce to fully immerse ourselves into the community and to contribute in the propulsion of the economic growth in the area.
- We joined the committees for Paso Robles Women In Business, Templeton Women In Business, and became one of the founding members of the Rogue Business Group.
- We became members of Toastmasters International to improve our public speaking skills and inspire others to do so as well which eventually led our President to be voted in as club President of the North County Toast ‘N Talk club.
- We partnered with a number of amazing marketing agencies as an extension of their teams. Whether they offered complementary marketing services and we would provide the paid social component to their clients, they offered the same social media advertising services like us but needed additional resources, or consulted their team members using our agency training services, it was a delight working with them and we look forward to further growing these relationships in the coming years. Shout-out to That Pam Chick, UpBuild, ROIworks, KoMarketing, Blue Light Media, Verde PR, PixelGrip, and Schleicher Marketing.
- Referred over 200 leads to talented freelancers and agencies in our network where we thought they would have been a better fit for the client with their expertise or that we did not have the bandwidth for at times.
What’s Next?
As we head into the new year, we look forward to furthering our growth, taking on additional new clients, sharing exciting things we have been working on, continuing to collaborate with the many talented marketers in our industry, giving back to the community via education and opportunities, and partnering with other agencies to provide a more holistic array of services.
If you’re interested in learning from us and connecting in the new year, you can find us speaking at SEMpdx’s Engage Conference in Portland, Oregon, March 12-13 and Pubcon Florida in Miami, March 24-26, 2020.
Lastly, if you may have noticed something new while reading this post, we refreshed the website and are pleased to share the new and improved version with you today. It’s cleaner, faster, and easier to navigate among the many content and design improvements. A huge thank you to our talented web developer, Zane DeFazio for his work on it this year!
Thank You
Einstein said it best. “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” And that, we aim to do and hope that we have provided value to you, as friends, marketers, and business owners.
With a bottomless bowl of gratitude for the help, support, conversations, opportunities, and relationships you’ve shared with us over the years, we thank you and look forward to the future!
Cheers,
Akvile DeFazio
President, AKvertise
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