Turning Problems Into Solutions

Prior to becoming a Digital Marketer, I worked for my family-owned ticket brokerage. Back then, we spent our days talking with customers on the phone, faxing purchase orders, and keeping track of inventory on a notepad. No, not the iPhone app, but an actual paper notepad. By the early 2000’s technology was catching up to us. Customers were less reliant on our personalized services and we were forced to make the switch to digital.

The Problem

I quickly discovered that managing an ecommerce business with few technical skills or knowledge of branding strategies was very difficult. We found success early on, but didn’t put a lot of effort into maintaining our position in the market. Pay-Per-Click advertising and branding strategies? That was for big firms with huge budgets. Where would a company like ours even learn how to do that? We were just a small, family-owned business. We’d get through, we said. We always did. Unfortunately, we were wrong.

By the time we realized what happened, it was too late. Our cool, new website now looked like a 7th grader’s art project. We had no social engagement with our user base and our advertising budget was non-existent because…well, you get it. Long story short: we got crushed by our competition. With our business teetering on the brink of collapse and no money to hire a big marketing firm to rescue us, I headed back to college to find a solution.

After years of making a living selling their football tickets, I enrolled at Penn State in the summer of 2011. My goal: learn how to run an ecommerce business and create the ticket company I had always envisioned.

While I did that quite successfully, something unexpected happened. I fell in love with Digital Marketing. Me, the same person who just a few years before thought AdWords was a mythical tool, only to be wielded by the “big guys”, was smitten with ad campaigns and negative keywords. It was at this time, I was presented with an opportunity to help other businesses tackle the same problems I went back to school to overcome.

The Solution

Many experiences and countless educators assisted in the creation of KNG, but one stood above the rest. During a class at Penn State taught by Dr. Jim Jansen I participated in the Google Online Marketing Challenge designing and implementing Google AdWords campaigns for real businesses with real budgets.

My team’s client was Sole Protector, a company who uses 3M adhesive technology to create a film which applies to the soles of collectible sneakers to keep the soles “Icey and Clean”. Sneakerheads all over the world rely on this product to keep their sneakers clean and my team’s work helped Sole Protector reach new markets, protecting shoes by the thousands.

After the course was over, I took it upon myself to earn the Google AdWords certification so I could begin doing freelance Pay-Per-Click management and was quickly hired by Sole Protector to continue managing their paid advertising campaigns. Originally I thought this would be a way to foster my new found interest, provide some extra income for myself and ultimately revamp my own ticket business.

But before I knew it, new e-commerce businesses were reaching out for help every week. A business was forming organically and I needed help to take things to the next level. Luckily, my good friend and analytical guru, Charlie Garufi joined forces with me, and that’s when KNG Strategies was born.

We didn’t spend millions of dollars and several years studying the market to make a grand entrance, this company was born out of necessity. Most of our clients are small to medium sized businesses, just like the one I originally set out to fix, and thus far 100% of our clients have come to us via referral.

Over the coming weeks we are excited to make a number of announcements that will shape the future of our firm and provide our clients with some innovative new products and services. Stay tuned to our Medium and our Website for all the latest!

-Nick Keesey (Co-Founder & Marketing Lead)