We’ve love to know a bit about Matt Fielding from Custard Media before he starts guest blogging for Digital Fingerprint once a month. We asked him some questions.
Who are you, where did you grow up, and what got you where you are today in the digital media world?
Hello there… I work as an online marketing consultant for Custard Media Solutions in Lancashire. I grew up in sunny Blackburn, went to University in Lancaster and stumbled into SEO as a copywriter, after which Custard Media picked me up and introduced me to the wider world of digital marketing.
What does a typical day at work look like for you?
I’m a very organised person so I need to have my day planned out in advance – the problem being that one day at Custard is never the same as the last, and our directors love to throw tasks at us to keep us on our toes! Generally there’s a good mix of pay-per-click advertising, on-site work for clients and I also manage our support team, so they keep me busy.
What have you done recently for a client that made you feel like “I’m doing something worthwhile here”?
We took on a PPC client last year and the account was already quite healthy, but they thought it could perform better. After a couple of months of split-testing and refining, the account is showing real growth. We’ve actually provided more site traffic for less spend, which offers a great return on investment and shows what can be achieved with a structured approach.
If you only had time to give one tip to those embarking into the online space, what would it be?
As an SEO agency a lot of our clients are overly preoccupied with Google rankings, which really don’t mean anything if you’re monitoring the wrong keywords. Measure success in terms of traffic, conversions and CPA (cost per acquisition), that’s where we strive to add real value and that’s how any online campaign should be judged.
Where do you think the online world is going?
The obvious answer to that question is social, but in reality people can get too bogged down in their Facebook page or their Twitter feed. Being social means to be part of the community and be a useful resource, not just promote your own product or site. That’s how to make an impression online – offer something that helps people.
Who inspires you and why?
It’s not a particularly exciting answer but there are people within the online marketing community who work tirelessly to research and test new ideas. Rather than keeping their findings to themselves, they share it with the wider community – everybody benefits and they become more respected and more successful as a result. That makes me want to be better at what I do, in the hope that I can get somewhere near their level one day.
What are you going to offer us as readers: what can we look forward to?
Hopefully I’ll be able to share a few tips, tools and techniques for those in the online marketing game, but hopefully what I write will be of use to ‘outsiders’ – for example people who are interested in how Google works or why companies use YouTube to promote themselves.
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Custard Media are based just outside Preston in Lancashire and offer a full online marketing service including SEO, pay-per-click advertising and social media marketing. Get in touch with Matt at matt.fielding@custardmedia.co.uk