How Alex Melen Built an Inc. 5000 Digital Marketing Agency @ MarkytMan
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A 15-minute interview on the MarkytMan channel, published as “Alex Melen | How He Built A Fortune 5000 Digital Marketing Agency”. Alex talks about how he got into digital, why he and his brother started SmartSites, what makes an agency hard to grow, and what he would change about the SEO industry.
In this July 2021 interview, Alex Melen describes how SmartSites grew to more than 200 full-time employees and over a thousand clients in about ten years. He explains that an agency sells a service delivered by people, so the work is hiring, training, process and tools, and that the hard part is keeping quality and morale as headcount doubles. He also covers why SmartSites builds its own tools, why a company that stops growing or innovating is at risk, the lack of transparency in SEO, and what Apple’s iOS tracking prompt did to Facebook ad targeting.
- Alex started his first company, a web hosting business, in 1997 at age 13. After college and a few startups he spent three years at Publicis managing digital for Samsung and then Walmart.
- He saw that the marketing offered to Fortune 500 companies was far ahead of what small and mid-sized businesses could get. His younger brother was running an SEO company, so they joined forces and started SmartSites as a full-service digital agency.
- In mid-2021 SmartSites had over 200 full-time employees and more than a thousand clients, and had been doubling in size about every 18 months.
- An agency has no product to perfect. The service is delivered by employees, so the focus is hiring and training the right people, putting processes in place and giving them the tools to help clients.
- The biggest challenge is growth itself. Going from 10 people to 200 means protecting service quality and morale and defining departments, roles and responsibilities along the way.
- Beyond Google Workspace and the standard SEO tools, SmartSites did not build the company around off-the-shelf software. It made its own tools as it grew, for flexibility.
- Companies that are content to stay where they are go out of business. Growth can mean headcount, services or innovation, and SmartSites sets aside time to try new things.
- The problem he most wants fixed in SEO is the lack of transparency. For years it was sold as a mystery box with no clear expectations, and many businesses were burned. SEO still matters: optimizing the site, creating content and building authority keep paying off.
- On Apple’s iOS tracking prompt: only about nine percent of people were opting in at the time, so Facebook advertisers lost much of the age, gender and interest targeting they relied on.
- He does not follow a single role model, to avoid copying someone else’s approach. He follows industry trends and many people, and values in-person conferences for candid conversations with peers.
Why did Alex Melen start SmartSites?
At Publicis he managed digital for Samsung and Walmart and saw how far enterprise marketing was ahead of what small and mid-sized businesses were offered. He and his brother, who was running an SEO company, started SmartSites to bring that level of work to smaller businesses.
What is the hardest part of growing a marketing agency?
Growth itself. Alex says staying at ten employees is much easier than going from 10 to 20 to 40 and beyond, because service quality and morale have to hold while departments, roles and responsibilities are defined.
What is wrong with how SEO has been sold?
Alex says SEO was pitched for years as a mystery box, with little transparency and no clear expectations, so many businesses paid and did not get what they expected. He wants agencies to be open about what they do and to set expectations up front.
- Jan 27, 2022 · Austin, TX
- Jan 5, 2022 · Cleveland, OH
- Nov 17, 2020 · Paramus, NJ
- Oct 5, 2020 · Singapore, Singapore
- Sep 18, 2020 · Cranbury Township, NJ
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