Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Stark.
Matt, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
After graduating from Illinois State University with a B.S. in Marketing, I started working with Idearc Media where I helped small and mid-sized businesses of all types grow through strategic digital marketing. Here I grew a passion for making a difference in small businesses by making a concerted effort to understand their goals and putting together comprehensive marketing programs to help achieve them. After two years I then moved on to LexisNexis/Martindale-Hubbell, where I worked exclusively with lawyers to help grow their practices through online marketing strategies. Here I worked with hundreds of law firms to understand their needs and goals and then helping devise custom online marketing programs to help increase caseload. After LexisNexis, I took the experience that I had accumulated over the years and working with hundreds of small businesses and law firms, and opened the doors to Forward Marketing. After living in the corporate world and seeing the inner workings of how bigger companies interacted with their customers, I not only wanted to provide a better product for our clients, I wanted to provide a better customer experience serving as an advocate to all business and law firms. After nearly 4 years in business, we are actively working with nearly 100 law firms and businesses across 10 states.
Has it been a smooth road?
There have certainly been many challenges ranging from trying to cram as many of us into a small office as possible while we were growing to keeping up with ever-changing world of digital marketing and everything in between.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Forward Marketing story. Tell us more about the business.
Forward Marketing is a digital marketing agency dedicated to advancing the growth of small businesses and law firms nationwide. We specialize in custom website design, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Management, Social media management, and all things digital marketing. As a company we are not only proud of the results we have been able to consistently generate for our clients, we are also very proud of the level of service we give to all of our customers. We pride ourselves in being strategic partners, not just throwing different campaigns at the wall and seeing what sticks.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Digital marketing changes every single day and it’s sometimes hard to keep up with. 5 years ago seems like ancient times and we’ve seen significant changes to our industry just over the last couple of years including the increased importance of a mobile presence. Prior to April 21, 2015 when Google updated their “Mobilegeddon” algorithm, it wasn’t nearly as important as it is today to have a “mobile-friendly” website. It’s inevitable there will be significant changes over the next 5-10 years that will change our industry and change the needs of our clients. With Siri on our iPhones and Alexa at our homes and offices, voice search is something that is already here and is growing faster than type search. For example, if you’re in your car and ask Siri for a Chinese Restaurant near you, you’re already using voice search. Also, Live Streaming is something that will continue to change our industry over the next 5-10 years. Speaking to a live audience online who already engages in your content by “liking” your page is going to play a more important role in digital marketing in the future.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3553 W. Peterson Ave., Suite #30,
Chicago, IL 60659 - Website: www.fwd-lawyermarketing.com
- Phone: 888.590.9687
- Email: info@fwd-mktg.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FwdMktg
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/FORWARDmktg1
- Other: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/117636570505691238192/117636570505691238192
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