Today we have selected Jason Hunt to take his Interview. He is the Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer at Merged Media.
First of all, how are you and your team doing in these COVID-19 times?
We are fortunate to be working in a digital agency where we were already in a position to pivot to the new normal. Our employees were already working from home 3 times per week so the transition was seamless. However, I do miss our whiteboard huddles.
Tell us about you, your career, how you founded or joined this company?
I started my social media agency Fresh Crowd (http://freshcrowd.com) back in 2015 and we specialized in managing Facebook and Instagram accounts for our clientele. In 2019, I made the decision to merge my fast-growing agency with a leading Canadian SEO and SEM company, CASEO (http://caseo.ca). We recently partnered with a local web design agency to cover all areas of digital marketing and to be that one-stop shop for our clientele. Merged Media (merged.ca) helps our clientele by acting as the outsourced CMO for all of their digital marketing endeavors.
How does your company innovate? The Merged Marketing Podcast was created to keep not just our audience but ourselves educated and ahead of the curve on the happenings in the digital marketing space. Our weekly podcast features marketing movers, shakers, and established entrepreneurs and never disappoints in providing our listeners with tips, tricks, and intrinsic value. If you’re a solopreneur or marketing director, I suggest you check out the Merged Marketing Podcast. http://merged.ca/podcast
How the Coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?
When COVID first hit we had several clients put their marketing budgets on holds such as travel businesses, dental practices, and restaurants. This greatly impacted our bottom line but also forces us to adjust and adapt to the current marketing where other opportunities emerged. We saw a plethora of new clients in the home renovation and e-commerce industries.
Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?
COVID presented us with an opportunity to still provide that value to all businesses when they were going through the struggle. We offered free hosting to any small business regardless of whether you were a client or not. We also helped those clients that signed contracts with the option to pause their campaigns, there is no point in continuing to charge a struggling business when they are struggling to make ends meet.
On a personal level, I have learned how it is such a blessing to be working from home. Working from home with 3 kids and a dog there are a ton of distractions but at the same time, I can finally make it to the table for dinner every night.
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to navigate this crisis?
We have always relied heavily on Slack for communication and the platform has proven to be a godsend, we host all meetings and communications regarding clients within the channel and I couldn’t imagine our agency without it. For project managing, we rely on Basecamp, the platform makes it very easy to onboard clients and manage ongoing projects.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
To be honest, we don’t really focus on what the competition is doing. We keep focused on ways we can better improve our own business while staying ahead of the curve in this fast-growing industry.
Your Final Thoughts
Thank you for the opportunity, if you have any questions on how to best leverage SEO and Social Media in today’s market then you can catch me on Instagram http://instagram.com/jayhuntofficial and Clubhouse – oh yeah I’m there! I also have a weekly YouTube show called ‘The Digital Hunter’ that keeps our listeners on the pulse of what’s happening in digital marketing. – Check out this episode where we talk about The 5 P’s of Marketing.
- Spokesperson: Jason Hunt
- Company: Merged Media
- Website: http://merged.ca