Roberto Popolizio, SEO Manager at Website Planet, sat down with Giovanni Mastropasqua, CEO and marketing director of Engenia, a digital agency with over a decade of experience, and a unique approach to online marketing, starting from building their own platform instead of using a sitebuilder.
He described the company’s origins, the evolution over time, and how it differs from similar agencies in Italy, but also shared some interesting insights on the
most recent trends in his industry.
Please Present Engenia To Our Audience. What Services Do You Offer?
Engenia is a company specializing in Digital Marketing, and the services we offer respond exactly to the current market needs. We founded Engenia 13 years ago as a “simple” web agency, but some proprietary web products such as Oraviaggiando.it and Direzionesalute.it have allowed us to expand our knowledge in the fields of SEO and social media marketing. In addition, working on national-scale proprietary projects has allowed us to come up with and refine new engagement strategies that we then make available to our clients.
Through the development of new formats, with Engenia we intend to meet the needs of the market; a creative marketing, aimed at combating the danger of “habit” that has now reduced the results of traditional means of communication to a minimum. Web sites, e-commerce portals, Social Media Marketing and SEO Consulting are the basic services, but we try to give our clients something more: the personalization of the strategy. The tactics used by most communication agencies no longer work because they are too tied to the dogmas imposed by marketing gurus who keep churning out books. Today, personalized strategies that make a difference and lead to better brand positioning and a visible increase in sales, certified and perceptible, are needed. This is what Engenia does.
What’s Your Story, And What Is Your Mission?
We founded Engenia with the goal of creating an all-Italian “Digital Farm” that enjoyed the trust of our clients, positioned on the market with a range of services based on innovative and out-of-the-ordinary communication.
What could be the mission of a communication company if not to have an excellent reputation on the market and a 100% satisfied clientele?
Our mission has always been to bring results to our clients. Business and revenue are a pleasant consequence. We are among the few who are not satisfied with applying the generic rules of web marketing to bring results to our client; we are result fanatics. We always sit on the client’s side, which is why, very often, our mission is the client’s mission.
What Makes You Stand Out From The Competition?
What sets us apart from the competition? I just said it: we are committed to achieving results and not just doing the simple school assignment. When a client asks us for our services, our approach is that of a new business partner joining the company. We fully immerse ourselves in the work and business of our clients in order to fully understand all the opportunities that may arise. We believe we have a great sensitivity in understanding how to position our client within its reference market.
Who Are Your Typical Customers’ And What Are The Pain Points That You Help Them Solve?
We don’t have a “typical client” because anyone can turn to Engenia to increase their revenue. The weak point we work on the most is brand identity. Without identity, you don’t get anywhere. In addition, we work a lot on “copy” and the effectiveness of texts, which we can then convey in the form of videos, posts, press releases and much more.
If You Were Starting Now, What Sitebuilder, Theme And Plugins Would You Use To Build Your Business Website?
We have created our own sitebuilder with proprietary CMS from the very beginning. We also work a lot with external CMS such as WordPress, which offer us the opportunity to exploit the power of some truly extraordinary plugins. I can’t list the templates and plugins we use because for each client we install the ones most suitable for their business.
What Other Tools Would You Suggest For Marketing And Management?
Today, it is essential to use a CRM that allows for marketing automation. Saleforce, Keap, hubspot are among those we use most often.
What Trends Are Going To Shape The Future Of Your Industry?
We are closely observing the growth of the Metaverse, artificial intelligence, and interactive personalized communication. The challenge will be to fight the habit of commercial stimuli, through the construction of a new method capable of making the audience feel like a true protagonist of the market. On the other hand, I am not very convinced of the future of “influencers” precisely because in this type of communication – which is still very effective – it is the influencer himself who is in the spotlight, making the audience a mass of sheep, a flock, that does nothing but buy what is imposed on them. It can’t last, because these are demeaning purchasing experiences.
Lastly, Any Exciting News Or Developments That You Would Like To Share About Engenia?
We are working very hard on food and beverage marketing. As I told you at the beginning of the interview, we own a restaurant guide called Oraviaggiando that was born parallel to the Engenia project. Oraviaggiando allowed us to acquire extraordinary expertise in the food sector. More generally, we would like to invest a large part of our resources in the tourism sector. We are in Italy and we cannot fail to take advantage of the great fortune of being in one of the most extraordinary nations in the world.
