Nathan Kelsey Of Make Me Local On How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
The ability to listen. Actively listen to really understand so you can tailor a strategy based on the businesses exact needs and wants.
Marketing a product or service today is easier than ever before in history. Using platforms like Facebook ads or Google ads, a company can market their product directly to people who perfectly fit the ideal client demographic, at a very low cost. Digital Marketing tools, Pay per Click ads, and email marketing can help a company dramatically increase sales. At the same time, many companies that just start exploring with digital marketing tools often see disappointing results.
In this interview series called “How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales”, we are talking to marketers, advertisers, brand consultants, & digital marketing gurus who can share practical ideas from their experience about how to effectively leverage the power of digital marketing, PPC, & email.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nathan Kelsey, Managing Director and Founder of Make Me Local.
Nathan began his own full service digital marketing agency, Make Me Local, in 2013 after years of working for larger corporations that focused solely on their internal goals rather than meeting the needs of the business in question. Nathan’s passion for helping businesses expand their online presence via effective digital marketing strategies has seen him grow his own business from a team of 1 to 26 in the last eight years and just recently he hit his first milestone revenue achievement. His web design and web marketing services ensure businesses are equipped with everything they need to achieve continued business success. His services help establish well-regarded local businesses that can attract their ideal customers in areas relevant to them. Nathan’s enthusiasm radiates throughout our interview as he shares with us his insight and experience on the power of digital marketing.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I have always been a ‘people person,’ even as a child I can remember being just as comfortable spending time with friends my own age or chatting with my grandparents and their friends. Establishing connections and empathizing with others are traits that sit comfortably with me, and I knew from a young age that I would need to incorporate them into my world of work if I were to have a shot at a career that I both loved and thrived in at the same time. Over the years, I’ve honed my ability to relate to people and I think it has been a key factor to the outstanding customer service that Make Me Local provides.
For many years, I worked within large corporations but became tired of the rinse and repeat approach to customer service. Customers were treated like a number and often the focus would be on the inward goals of the company rather than how they could best help the customer in question. I felt that I could do something better. I wanted to offer businesses the technical knowhow that would give them the opportunity to make the most of online marketing, something that larger companies and other local competitors were not offering at the time
My previous role as a Regional Manager for a global internet marketing company gave me a thorough insight into how website design and SEO can be leveraged to help local business, and I was fortunate enough to be trained via experts from one of the world’s best-known online search organisations. I knew I had the expertise and confidence to start out on my own, and when I inherited some money from my (always supportive) grandmother, I had the financial means too. Before I launched Make Me Local in 2013, I researched and developed my business plan for 16 months which helped me identify a gap in the market to help SMEs benefit from business growth that targeted digital marketing can bring. I had everything I needed, and the rest as they say, is history.
Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
I’m sure there were many mistakes in those early days, but my most common were copywriting, punctuation and grammar fails that often spelled disaster! I’m still prone to a slip up or two and I’m particularly prone to mis-typing company names, which sounds harmless but trust me, a misplaced ‘i’ can have very rude consequences!
The lesson I learned very quick was to always get someone else to proofread for me!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Way back when, I had a Line Manager called Martin Sheldon who really helped me in making sure that I was the best people manager that I could be. Martin led by example. He was an approachable man that always valued what I had to say and had a positive influence within our office environment. He was fantastic at providing honest and direct feedback, and he taught me the importance of coaching and nurturing others rather than just telling them. Martin definitely helped engage and nourish my raw talent for relating to people.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
The people. Definitely the people in the Make Me Local team. Each team member is an expert in their own vertical and is committed to living our company values. It is something that I’ve always known, but in the last few years it has really become apparent that the level of customer service and skill that we offer our customers is above and beyond. During the peak of Covid, many of our customers (like so many others) were having to diversify in order to survive, but for some clients this just wasn’t possible. Every member of our team invested as much time as they could to helping clients during this particularly hard time.
One of our customers specialise in crafting and building bespoke timber buildings and we have worked with them for several years now. They are a premium client of ours that really started to struggle during the peak of the Coronavirus pandemic. During this time, we managed to cut their bill by 75% and double their lead volume. The work we conducted for them really made a difference between them having to shut their doors and being a viable business during the lockdown of 2020.
The team shares the same passion for growing a client’s business and they understand that in doing so they are enriching the life of that business owner and their wider family.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
As I have already mentioned, the ability to relate to people and actively listen to them is critical for developing long-lasting, effective relationships and delivering outstanding customer service.
I always do the right thing and put the customer needs before our own. We turn away more work than we take on because we want to have a relationship with a client based on what we can do to help them rather than just chasing new business. I’d rather have one client for life than ten clients for three months.
I am also a firm believer that generosity goes a long way. I always try to give my time and expertise to help anyone that needs it, unconditionally. To be a successful business leader, it is vital to develop trust amongst colleagues both internal and external.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
One of the challenges that our social media team have is obtaining content from clients. Our clients are such busy business owners that it can be a struggle to get the images and information needed to create their social posts and engage with followers. It can be frustrating for the social team because they want to deliver a fantastic job and withhold their company values but, they are sometimes held back because they can’t access what they need to do it. To try and combat this, we have selected eight clients to partake in a 3-month pilot to help us develop a market leading social media offering. We plan to regularly embed our social media team into that client’s organisation to help them with their social content. The aim is to gain social content in bulk which will save the client time and hassle, as well as educate the client on the type of content that will gain their business the most engagement and growth on their social channels.
Ok super. Now let’s jump to the main questions of our interview. As we mentioned in the beginning, sometimes companies that just start exploring with digital marketing tools like PPC campaigns often see disappointing results. In your opinion, what are a few of the biggest mistakes companies make when they first start out with digital marketing? If you can, please share an example for each.
We all have phones in our pockets and use them more for scrolling social media and searching the internet than we do for talking to each other. However, you’d be surprised how many companies do not think about optimising their website for mobile customers. If customers have a bad mobile experience they will be easily turned away from a business. Think about how many times you’ve ended your experience with a website because it is slow to load and hard to navigate — if your site is mobile friendly, it is half the battle.
I would say the other mistake companies make when they first start out is not having a blog for their website. Businesses with blogs will have greater traffic. Plus, blogs can build relationships with prospective customers and allow businesses to integrate blogs with their social media channels, to reach an even wider audience and encourage interaction and engagement with even more potential customers.
Videos are becoming increasingly popular too. Again, videos are engaging and help capture the attention of potential customers, they are a great tactic to get people to check out your business website.
If you could break down a very successful digital marketing campaign into a “blueprint”, what would that blueprint look like? Please share some stories or examples of your ideas.
Start with your website. For many businesses we work with, their website represents their business online. It is the first impression a customer has of the company and the people within it, and it is the first place they are able to judge the quality of a business’s offering. Think of your website as your base. Until your base is in good order, it is pointless wasting time and energy elsewhere.
Whether a business is using their website to generate leads, or selling products, the performance of their website can have a huge impact on the growth of a business. When we are building or overhauling a website, we spend a lot of time planning the structure, conversion route, SEO and content for a website before we even think about the design and build stages.
Nailing website structure not only means that Google will love you from an SEO perspective but, it means users will find the information they need easily, and the business will make conversions. A clear conversion path will help you achieve this too, deciding on what your call to action is and where to display it is very important to persuading visitors to take the action that you want them to take.
Building a website with search engine optimisation in mind from the off is pivotal for a business to be found online. Carrying out keyword research is core to web design and to a digital marketing campaign as a whole. It all starts with finding the right search terms that are going to be transactional. You want your website to rank in Google’s search results for the keywords and phrases that your target customers are searching for online rather than just vanity keywords where you can rank number one for a term that nobody is searching for. For example, if you are a plumbing company, you may well have a friendly and well-groomed team of electricians working for you, but your prospects are not searching for “friendly plumber” or “well-groomed heating engineer,” they are looking for “emergency plumber” and “boiler servicing” instead.
Toyota made a smart SEO move recently by officially renaming its GR 86 to GR86 in order for it to be found easier online. That simple space between the letters and numbers caused such a problem with hashtags and SEO that Toyota realised they were missing tapping into thousands of potential search traffic, so they removed the space and reaped the traffic (and therefore, potential customer) rewards!
Once your fundamentals are sorted, you can use your keyword research, structure and conversion planning to write fantastic, engaging content that drives leads. Check that you are speaking to your target audience with the appropriate tone of voice and using the right vocabulary and language. A strong professional design will enhance your messaging and make you stand out from competitors. Competitors are only a back click away so a visually engaging website will help keep visitors on your site for longer, hopefully long enough for you to convert.
Let’s talk about Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC) for a bit. In your opinion which PPC platform produces the best results to increase sales?
For me, it’s Google Ads. It has the largest market share of any ad platform and has the widest reach too. It gives you control over campaigns; you can pull poor performing keywords immediately, you can track conversions, target customers and it is easy and simple to set up.
Can you please share 3 things that you need to know to run a highly successful PPC campaign?
1) Understand the client’s maximum cost acquisition. This is critical because what we don’t want to do is generate leads for clients that are going to cost them more than the profit in the job.
2) Determine the client’s goal. Whether it be to generate sales leads, revenue, or awareness it is important to pinpoint it and make it specific, measurable, achievable, time smart and of course, realistic.
3) Identify keywords and phrases. Select the most critical and bid on them accordingly.
Let’s now talk about email marketing for a bit. In your opinion, what are the 3 things that you need to know to run a highly successful email marketing campaign that increases sales?
1) Use catchy, short, subject lines. If you can personalise them, even better.
2) Review your click through rate. A high CTR is a good indication that your emails are helpful and relevant. Alternatively, a LTR will enable you to tweak your content slightly or it may be your email is not mobile-friendly.
3) Pick the right time to send them. Another good reason to check your open and click-through rates. You need to send emails at a time that is right for the recipient rather than for you.
What are the other digital marketing tools that you are passionate about? If you can, can you share with our readers what they are and how to best leverage them?
We are fully embedded into Semrush. It is a tool we use daily, and it is fully immersed into our company. Primarily, we use Semrush for the keyword allocation of a project. Our copywriters take advantage of the SEO Content Template which they use to compile the top ten pages ranking for a given keyword, making it easy to identify important ‘semantic keywords’ that they need to insert into written content to ensure it outranks what is already out there in Google’s top search results. We also use it to conduct a site audit so we can see any changes in the technical health of a website. The position tracking, reporting, backlink audit, competitor analysis, backlink gap, and link building functions are also well used by the team. On top of that, Semrush boasts its own training academy suite with some great tools to aid staff self-development.
Here is the main question of our series. Can you please tell us the 5 things you need to create a highly successful career as a digital marketer? Can you please share a story or example for each?
1) Be relatable and inquisitive. You need to have a craving to understand the deeper parts of a business rather than what it looks like on the surface. If you can understand a business and the people behind it, you will find it easier to set SMART goals. When a client says they want something, it is important to understand the ‘why’ in order to help determine what they actually need and what strategy would be best to achieve it. Being relatable will help you dig deeper into the client’s thought process.
2) An analytical mind. The key to successful digital marketing is to analyse what is working and what is not, and in the SEO game, things can change quickly at any given moment. It’s not a career where you can rest on your laurels or deliver a one-sized fits all service or approach. Measure your results and tweak appropriately.
3) The ability to listen. Actively listen to really understand so you can tailor a strategy based on the businesses exact needs and wants.
4) Agility and adaptability. The ability to be responsive is important in digital marketing. Things can change quickly, not just day to day, but long term too. Changes to the digital landscape means that adapting to new and unexpected developments is demanded. Always have contingencies!
5) Sound SEO knowledge. None of the work you do as a Digital Marketer will matter unless you are driving traffic to your website for people to see it. You need to be great at using SEO to its limit.
What books, podcasts, videos or other resources do you use to sharpen your marketing skills?
Anything from Greg Gifford is always a hit in our office. He is Vice President of Search at a boutique Marketing agency called SearchLab. He is a great speaker who not only has great practical advice but is very engaging and fun to listen to.
Backlinko and Search Engine Land are great hubs of information too.
Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. Here is our final ‘meaty’ question. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I’d love for the internet to be used more to influence positive social movements. The internet plays such a profound role in all aspects of our lives. It allows us to build networks, both professionally and personally, and friendships are strengthened through communication on social media networks. Plus, as we are all too aware, it provides a platform for businesses to prosper. In recent years, the internet has also been pivotal in tackling global social challenges such as gender equality and climate change.
Personally, my family and I are passionate about climate change, my daughter is particularly enthusiastic about making a difference. It would be great to leverage the power of social networking sites further to share knowledge around important subjects such as these. Social networking sites have the ability to assemble all different people, with varying backgrounds together and this is exactly what we need to aid discussion and solutions.
How can our readers further follow your work?
https://www.linkedin.com/company/makemelocal-com/
https://www.facebook.com/makemelocalcom
https://twitter.com/makemelocalcom
https://www.instagram.com/makemelocalcom/
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
Nathan Kelsey Of Make Me Local On How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
