In this episode of Executive with a Cause, host Tammy Ven Dange chats with Rodney Ferro, founder of the digital marketing agency, PN Digital.
Rodney Ferro has come a long way from building websites in exchange for free pairs of spectacles. Identifying a space to connect agencies and clients, Rodney is now a mediator and strategist helping Not for Profits (NFPs) to discover digital marketing solutions.
In this episode, Rodney offers Not for Profits advice on how they can use digital marketing more effectively in their organisations, some that cost nothing, such as Google Ad Grants. The power of LinkedIn is discussed for its ability to bring together users over shared interests and provide a ‘face’, unlike more anonymous Facebook organisation connections. More broadly, the importance of a conversion strategy to complement brand awareness campaigns is considered.
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IT in Plain English
Keeping capabilities in-house or outsourcing is a decision faced by many resources, and IT support is no exception. In this episode, Tammy discusses assessing your size, capabilities and core business systems to decide the right solution for your organisation. Furthermore, it may not be strictly ‘one or the other’, but perhaps a blend of the two options.
Sign-up here to subscribe to the “IT in Plain English” newsletter. You can submit your question to Tammy Ven Dange by messaging her on LinkedIn, and maybe she’ll answer it on the show.
Topics from this episode:
- 00 | Introduction
- 50 | The beginnings of trying something new
- 40 | Becoming a mediator
- 40 | The role of agencies
- 00 | Growth from mediation to digital marketing
- 35 | Where they fit in the process
- 00 | Creating consistency through collaboration
- 20 | Avoiding FOMO
- 33 | Google grants
- .50 | What are NFPs missing out on on Linkedin?
- 20 | Further information
- 01 | IT in Plain English
Quotes from Rodney Ferro in this episode:
“And that’s when I felt there was a mismatch in the dialogue between an agency and a client. Where an agency wants to get the work done really quickly and move onto the next project. And charge a certain amount. And a client wants to get the most out of the budget and asks lots of questions because they’re not sure what they’re getting into…And I thought I could be a mediator for web development and digital marketing”
“We found with most organisations, they’ve got the talent there. They’ve either got great comms managers, great marketing managers, or a great graphic designer. All the talent is there, but sometimes because they didn’t have best-practice in place. Or they missed something in comms, or something wasn’t connected with something else. That we find just by doing that little audit and strategic framework practice, we’ve already been able to fix 50% of their problems.”
“To have that conversation between agencies and clients. To say ‘hey, we’re both not right, let’s both come to the party and be more collaborative for the better good of the result that will give, rather than trying to ‘win’ the one conversation.’”
“It’s (Google grants) very much about wanting to give airtime to organisations. To get that paid advertising out there, get their message out there in front of users.”
“It’s up to $10,000 per month of Google ad-spend that they will give an organisation/ charity to tell their stories, to increase traffic to their website.”
“Everyone’s looking at Return on Investment in digital marketing…this Google ad grant is a return on opportunity…Google is very much a pull-marketing mechanism where a user will search something, and get a response. And the idea is the organisation can have a response to that search, and direct to their website.”
“At the moment Linkedin is really two things. It’s somewhere you can create your brand. Your personal brand as a human. And the other thing is it’s an online networking platform. So, these are the things we’re probably missing as organisations because it might be a skill set that’s lacking, or we might not want to talk too much about ourselves. They’re used to talking about what the organisation is, not themselves. But on Linkedin people are connecting with other people, not organisations. They’re connecting with other humans because of shared values. And the networking potential on Linkedin is huge. You can connect with someone based on a job title, based on where they work, similar interests. It’s a one-on-one connection, not like other platforms like Facebook where you don’t know who you’re connecting with”
Links & Resources
- Connect with Rodney on Linkedin
- Perhaps the simplest URL out there, learn more about PN Digital through their website
- Learn more about Google Ad Grants
Credits
Thanks to our Producer, Nick Whatman, and the entire team at Lonsdale St. Studio. Thanks also to our Digital Content Creator, Laura Kleinrahm.