Meet the Founder of an Award-Winning SEO Firm
Interview with Deepak Shukla, Founder of Pearl Lemon
Tell us about Pearl Lemon. What do you do?
Pearl Lemon is an award-winning SEO and digital marketing company in London. We offer high-quality remote services in SEO, sales, lead generation, marketing, and other related fields. Pearl Lemon is made up of an amazing team of SEO experts, social people and writers — together, we GROW our client’s businesses and have fun whilst doing so.
What is Pearl Lemon’s origin story?
I launched my first funded startup ‘Meet My Tutor’ in (an online marketplace connecting students to tutors) in 2010 with £75k, followed by ‘The CV Guy’ in October 2014 and ultimately Pearl Lemon in 2016. I bootstrapped the business from my mum’s house to the Pearl Lemon Group which did close to 500k in just it’s 3rd year.
Had you been involved in the industry before this startup? What is your background?
I started in the world of SEO around 8 years ago while I was running a tutoring agency called gobsmacked. That’s when I realized that if I put an actual ad on a classified ad site called Gumtree (aka Britain’s Craigslist) that I would literally make more money. I started to get more returns and conversions when I added more keywords to my actual job titles as well as the description for the service rather the tutoring service.
Take us through a day in your life. What does the typical day look like?
A normal day for me is jam-packed with good things. Right now I’m walking towards my local cafe to begin work and it’s 8:30 a.m. I’ve been up since 7:00 am and calls start around 11:00 11:30 am and then I’m in calls from 11:30 am typically through 6:00 pm. My calls can range from 10 to 30 minutes. But that’s not all I do. In between these calls, I’m doing my best project management focusing on business development and also speculating about what is it that I can do to grow the company. Every evening I participate in training exercises and I’m an avid runner as I said so I’m often out running or doing something outside.
What has been the most challenging part of growing your company?
Pursuing multiple business ideas and methods all at once in an an attempt to measure ROI and assess effectiveness. This can sometimes prove exhausting!
What has been your best marketing channel? What are some channels you are looking to explore next?
Digital outreach is our number one method, via our Youtube platform, social media links, guest posts on other websites, as well as lead generation methods via keyword research. We are currently exploring the idea of pitching HARO as a journalist outlet to create expert round up posts for networking.
What apps do you use that you would recommend to others?
Trello and Clockify for agenda management, Quora for building brand awareness, Ahrefs and HARO for PR and media mentions.
Do you have a book, podcast, or Youtube channel you would recommend to other Entrepreneurs?
Books: Jordan Belfort’s cracker about Straight Line Selling, also Close that Sale by Brian Tracy.
What are your short-term and long-term goals for your company?
I would say it all boils down to users finding your website and getting the most relevant content at the right time. This is of course as part of their education, information or buying journey and that’s really the most critical component of SEO in my view. I would love for all companies to be able to achieve that and that’s what we strive for.
If you could go back in time to the day you founded your company, what advice would you give yourself?
Don’t underestimate the power of PR for digital marketing growth!
What is the best way for people to find out more about your company?
Our website: https://pearllemon.com/
