Adam Oakley of Express Writers On How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Humility: Be open to new ideas. There is a wealth of knowledge that can be learned by listening to others. If you ask questions, you will be surprised at what others will share.
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 Adam Oakley.
Adam has more than 20 years of experience in executive roles in manufacturing, technology, and professional service businesses. His leadership and management skills, together with transparency and diligence, have earned a reputation as a trusted partner among clients. Further, his experience running marketing for a large manufacturing company and leveraging the new world of SEO in the 2000s brought exponential growth to the business. Since then, he’s served on the leadership team of a global technology provider where he focused on business operations, scaling the worldwide group, and developing the client service model for a $30 million company. Now, he’s brought these skills to Express Writers as the CEO and owner.
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 20 years of sales, marketing, and operations experience. Back in 2001, I cut my teeth in the early days of SEO and digital marketing. I built Google Adwords campaigns, optimizing landing pages, and wrote keyword-rich press releases to improve rankings. These experiences hooked me on the power of marketing. The effectiveness of content and broader digital strategies is undeniable.
For the last 13 years, I was part of the leadership team that grew a technology consulting agency from less than $500k in revenue to over $30M with 250 employees globally. We focused on hiring the best technology team to deliver exceptional results for our clients. During my tenure, I was fortunate to be responsible for critical business areas, including business development, marketing, sales, operations, and recruiting. I am most proud of helping to build a strong culture that scaled worldwide. Our teams are global, and we make systems that help our people succeed in meeting our client’s goals.
Quality content is close to my heart. I have led corporate rebranding engagements, led website redesigns, designed marketing campaigns, developed industry case studies, and managed expert content creation. I have worked with in-house writers and freelancers and self-created when needed. Quickly I learned you get what you pay for when it comes to content. Having great people, paying well, and setting clear direction are all critical when working on creative projects.
After spending a decade building a world-class organization, owning Express Writers is a perfect fit.
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?
Microsites were a big thing back in the early 2000s. At the time, I was doing marketing for an engineered parts manufacturing company. I went crazy and created over 20 different websites utilizing keyword-rich domains. It took a ton of work and ultimately led to a few of the sites getting blocked by search engines. I learned that even though tracking current trends is important, it’s more important to understand that they work and will support the growth of your brand.
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?
I would be here without the support of my wife. Over the last two decades, I have worked countless hours, maintained a relentless travel schedule, and missed many family activities. As a busy educator herself, she has been my biggest supporter. She has been my best sounding board. As I looked at what was next for my career, it was her prodding to explore entrepreneurship through ownership.
I searched for over two years, evaluated hundreds of businesses, and made numerous offers before finding the right opportunity at Express Writers. We have been able to take a good business and are on the path to making it great together.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Our commitment to being driven by our quality and people-first is one of the best things about us. We want to develop relationships with the folks we work with and help. Behind the incredible content produced by Express Writers is a group of real people with unparalleled skills. We have our own stories, our own struggles, and our own passions for this work. Collectively, we are inquisitive — the status quo has no place here (although we do stick to the Chicago style guide, unabashedly). We won’t do something just because that’s the way it’s always been done. Instead, we dig in and find new and creative ways to deliver our best.
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?
Flexibility: To be effective today as a leader requires the ability to adapt and learn new skills. This is true across every member of a team. As a business owner, embracing flexibility is key. Uncertainty is the new normal, and adaptation is the new black.
When we acquired the business in 2021, I had originally planned (and budgeted) to keep the existing technology platform in place and not make any significant changes until later in 2022. Once we saw the limitation of the platform and the impact on our clients, I knew we needed to make a change. It was not easy, but I am glad we accelerated our technology roadmap.
Approachable: I believe in the power of learning from others. At Express Writers, we have an amazing team with unparalleled skills. Each person has their own stories, their own struggles, and their own passions for work. As I look to the future, keeping our eyes on the people who contribute to our work is of the utmost importance. We aren’t the sum of our daily word output. We’re a collective of creatives who provide something of value, and we welcome others to join us.
One way I draw out learnings is to send a personalized email to everyone we hire. The last thing I ask in the email is feedback on the hiring process. In doing, I have discovered changes that have made our hiring better.
Trust: To run a successful business, it’s imperative to trust the team you build. That means I give my team the space to do their jobs well and creatively. Often, that can look like stepping back and setting clear expectations but knowing my team can handle the projects I give them or that they’re inspired to take on.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Currently, we’re working on an overhaul of our technology platform while focusing on simplifying the client experience. We already believe in the content we create for our clients, and now we want the way they interact with us the most to be just as easy to interact with as talking to a real person. This will help people access content faster and with a better understanding of what they’re getting. This is working in conjunction with marketing efforts we’ve been growing over the last eight months, so more people will be able to find a content solution that can help them manage their needs better.
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.
They don’t focus on the quality of the things they produce, and they try to do too much all at once. The best thing you can do for your strategy is to focus on one thing at a time and really nail down how you’re going to do it and what it will look like. Your results are far more likely to be successful the first time. To build on that, quality is key to the content and other marketing materials you produce. Without high-quality, informational content, you won’t bring in an audience that wants to read your work and trusts you. At the end of the day, building trust should be a goal of your content and marketing efforts.
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.
Before starting any campaign, it is crucial to have a firm understanding of what makes your brand unique. I believe the most powerful type of marketing is high-quality content. This means understanding the steps that have helped others and then making them your own. We’ve got eight steps to a great content strategy.
1. Get Clear on the Purpose of Your Blog
First, you need to know why you’re blogging. If you don’t know why you’re blogging or how you’ll blog, you can’t figure out how your blog will help you reach other goals.
2. Determine Who Your Target Reader Is
If you’ve been in business for a while, then you probably already have a clear picture of your target persona. But if you don’t, you have some work to do before moving forward.
You can get to know readers more deeply with things like surveys or personalized emails to ask questions that help you develop more personalized content.
3. Assign Someone to Write for and Manage Your Blog
If you’re a solopreneur, then blogging tasks will likely fall on your shoulders. But if you’re lucky enough to have a team working alongside you, share some of the various blogging tasks among your team members. You probably have someone with unmatched writing skills and others well-suited for editing and fine-tuning content. If your team isn’t large enough for that, or you’re spread thinner than you’d like, you can outsource content.
4. Decide How Frequently You’ll Post
An important element of your blog content strategy is the frequency at which you post content. Consistency is key because you want to give people a reason to keep coming back to your site. And you do that by providing high-quality, valuable content for visitors to consume.
According to HubSpot, sites that publish 16 blog posts or more a month receive 3.5 times more traffic than those publishing less than four posts. That’s likely because many people will come back to check out every new post. Plus, the more content you publish, the more opportunities to rank in search engine results.
However, it’s understandable that you might not have the resources to publish 16 posts per month. It’s better to ask yourself how many high-quality posts you can commit to each month and make that your goal, instead of the quality of those posts suffering.
5. Conduct Keyword Research to Plan Topics
Coming up with fresh and exciting content ideas is arguably one of the most challenging parts of content creation. Since you may not know what a writer wants to see from you.
At this stage, you already know quite a bit of information about them. You know their interests and their pain points, which is a fantastic starting point. Put yourself in their shoes and think about the topics they’re likely to be Googling. Then, you can use various tools to gauge their popularity.
BuzzSumo is a great tool that allows you to enter a keyword or a domain (like your biggest competitor). It will then show you some of the most popular articles relevant to your search. The Google Keyword Planner is also a popular choice, but there are tons of other free keyword research tools to try.
6. Map Everything Out in Your Editorial Calendar
Once you’ve got some content ideas in mind, it’s time to begin mapping everything out in an editorial calendar. This allows you to create a flow from one piece to the next. Plus, you’ll always know which posts go live and when. It’s much more convenient to have everything planned out this way.
Airtable is a popular choice among content creators, and we’ve used it at Express Writers in the past. These days, we rely on HubSpot to keep our content organized and our team informed.
7. Start Creating Content
You’ve now made it to the all-important step of content creation. This task will either be something you take on yourself or assign to a team member or content agency. Either way, don’t rush the content creation process. Give yourself or your writers ample time to create amazing content.
8. Track and Analyze Your Content’s Success
The final step in your blog content strategy is to do a deep dive into your analytics to see how your content is performing. It’s crucial to see which posts resonate with your audience because it’s a good indicator of what to create more of in the future.
Pay attention to the topics that generate the most traffic. But also, it’s smart to note any other similarities with your top-performing content. For instance, does your audience prefer listicles, infographics, or in-depth how-to guides?
Review your analytics at the end of each month to gain an understanding of which posts are doing well. By doing this monthly, you can make changes and tweak your strategy faster than waiting until the end of each quarter.
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?
We’ve found that platforms like Instagram and Facebook are great for visibility bumps, which can bring in more great leads. For B2B brands, we have found LinkedIn to be a great way to extend our reach and target leadership in industries that are important for our growth.
Can you please share 3 things that you need to know to run a highly successful PPC campaign?
- Experts: We have selected partners that are at the top of the industry to help us build out the best campaigns. It’s important to have a team that understands each platform and how to get the most of your budget.
- Goals: Set goals for each campaign to guide decisions. Without establishing these in the beginning, paid advertising will not have focus.
- Adjust: Never “set it and forget it”. You need to look at the data to see what’s working. It takes time to understand if each campaign is delivering on your goals.
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?
I would say that the first thing to be aware of is that, while you’re working to increase sales, you can’t forget that you’re talking to real people. Your campaign should be valuable to your audience — so are you considering what your offer is and if it’s helpful? And the last thing is understanding how a subject line will impact open rates. When you have a great subject line, your readers understand the value you’re bringing and are more likely to be interested, without that, the email can just languish in someone’s inbox.
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?
SEO tools are a must. Things like SEMrush and Ahrefs are some of our personal favorites as Express Writers. These are essential for seeing how your online presence grows through keywords.
Additionally, Google Analytics is really helpful for tracking conversions and seeing which pages gather the most traffic on your site.
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?
- Desire to learn: There is a wealth of information about digital marketing that’s available to everyone. My recommendation is to pick a few topics and go deep. Good places to start are analytics, SEO, and email marketing. Start with online resources and test ideas to learn more about an area. Failing on side projects or tests can be a great way to understand what works and what does not. Even though I got my undergraduate degree in Marketing, I learned the most after I graduated. Continually learning is the key to a long and fruitful career.
- Networking: I have found marketers are generous with their time and willing to share with others. There are so many ways to connect with others in the industry. Reach out online with specific questions. Be direct, and you will be surprised how often you will get a response.
- Experience: The longer you work on the craft of marketing, the more successful you will be. You will start to see patterns that will help you make better decisions. Trends tend to be cyclical. The longer you’ve been around, the easier it is to spot them and take action.
- Luck: This is a powerful thing. Luck could be a new person you meet or a job offer for an exciting role. Do not underestimate the power of luck in your career. I love this quote from Thomas Jefferson, “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”
- Humility: Be open to new ideas. There is a wealth of knowledge that can be learned by listening to others. If you ask questions, you will be surprised at what others will share.
What books, podcasts, videos or other resources do you use to sharpen your marketing skills?
Turn the Ship Around by David Marquet had a huge impact on my leadership style. In the book, he advocates for the Leader-Leader model that promotes extreme delegation. After taking charge of a failing submarine, he took drastic steps by giving an unusual amount of authority to members of his crew. It is a great lesson that teams are capable of more, and our job as leaders is to help them see what’s most important.
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. 🙂
In my own life, I have seen the power of travel and working in new countries. International vacations are fun, but working in new places opens you to entirely different ways of thinking. I would like to expose more people to the power of living and working overseas. I love building an online community of people sharing ideas, resources and connecting over the joys of living and working abroad.
How can our readers further follow your work?
You can find us on expresswriters.com. We post to the Write Blog every Tuesday. Or sign up for our newsletter and stay up to date on content marketing trends.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
Adam Oakley of Express Writers 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.
