In this interview series by
Website Planet, I talk to executives from the best digital companies, who share their stories, tips and perspectives on what it really takes to create a successful website and online business. A deep dive into decades of hands-on experience and technical expertise to learn untold truths and practical advice that will immediately help you build and grow your website.
Jesse Erickson is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Pathfinder, a full-service creative & marketing agency that provides strategic storytelling and business services.
In addition to his role at Pathfinder, he has experience as a Business Development Manager at E2i, Inc., and is noted for his leadership and strategic marketing efforts. Erickson is also recognized for his contributions to the podcasting industry, offering full-service solutions aimed at helping clients effectively engage their audiences
To start, tell us briefly about you. What is your current role at your company, and what are the measurable achievements you are most proud of?
I am the COO of a marketing and business services agency. I also spend time with clients providing strategy insights for their businesses.
Many of our clients see a very quick gain in engagement and followers in their first 1-3 months with us, many times over 100% gain. Clients that go deeper with us are seeing new leads every week to their business. One client was hitting about 100 new leads per month to their business through a very integrated approach to marketing in their industry.
What do you think makes your company stand out? What are you most proud of?
We stand out to most people and businesses because we do everything in house. We don’t hire outside contractors or rotate employees constantly. This allows us to train people to be strategic storytellers for our clients, working as a team across our different service-lines to provide an integrated brand experience.
We also are a full-service agency, meaning we can build anything in your marketing stack from the website, to social/ad campaigns, and video/photography for the content.
What’s the one key lesson you’ve learned about building a website and business that you wish you knew when you started? What’s the story behind this realization?
The biggest lesson, that I keep seeing and learning about over and over, is
how many small businesses are struggling to keep up with the website and marketing trends. We see new tools released every year that are supposed to help businesses “do it themselves”, but they seem to be causing confusion and preventing people from going deep into anything.
Since web marketing has become so widespread, people get stuck in trying to figure out where to start, and how to build anything from there. Small businesses especially are getting lost in this mess, trying to set something and forget it, but it takes regular work and upkeep that business owners don’t have the time, knowledge or other resources for.
In your opinion, which aspect of running a website tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?
Can I say all of it?
We have gained many clients who have used a “one stop shop” company before that builds them something cheap, charges them for it “forever” and who are unable to build on or improve it on top of that initial website. Customers need more and more custom builds and integrations that many companies are unwilling or unequipped to handle.
Pathfinder has been careful to
build our websites in a flexible way so that they can still be upgraded and improved years later.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen people making when building their website and online business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
I see a lot of businesses actually get into bad agreements or poor website builds purely because someone sold them on something that they just don’t understand. Before they realize they have a problem, they are already stuck or have invested thousands of dollars that they can’t get back.
It’s hard to talk with potential customers because they are skeptical of us now that they have already been taken advantage of, or in some cases they don’t even realize how bad it is with their current website and we have to walk through that with them. It’s really challenging and requires a lot of teaching moments, honest conversations, and some uncomfortable situations.
We just try to give people a fair assessment and show them why we think that and why we want something different or better for them. I think our clients appreciate that the most about us.
If I asked you to share the key ingredient in your “secret sauce” for inbound marketing, what would it be?
I think there are a lot of companies out there that really push one vertical or another – Google Ads or SEO, etc.
What works best for most of our clients (even when on a smaller budget) is a more multifaceted approach. When we have had to do a marketing campaign, but had no control over the client’s website, for instance, or the build of it was very poor, we would run into a brick wall once we increased traffic to the website, because people would just leave from there.
We try to help with the entire marketing stack, giving us the ability to make more strategic decisions, and talk through the options with our clients in a way that allows us to really decide what we want a campaign or brand to be and how we want it to perform.
How can our readers follow your work?
Website: www.yourpathfinder.io
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseaerickson/
