Sunday, July 24, 2011

Work History 2003 - 2010: PlattForm Advertising

The market crash of 2001 taught me a lot. It taught me that even though I had come a long way since my move to internet marketing, things could go horribly wrong at any moment. It didn't matter if you created great content, nor if your company was "cool." Things fall apart.

So in 2003, I went to interview at a rising agency in the Kansas City area who were doing gangbusters with an online affiliate network. They were called PlattForm and they were soon to be one of the largest privately-owned agencies in the country. On my first day of hire, PlattForm employed 83 people. By the time I left 7 years later, they had grown to over 300 (and they're still growing).

The early '00s were an exciting time for internet marketers who were beginning to understand the implications of Google, both as a business partner and a utility. So while my initial years at PlattForm were focused on creating content for the affiliate structure they had in place, my team also began aligning with new teams focused on search engine optimization and paid placement campaigns. The combined efforts of my content creation team and the SEO and PPC teams allowed PlattForm profits to balloon in a quick, violent lurch of productivity and exposure. Private education became big business online, leaving state-funded institutions in the dust as far as technology and enrollment until well into the mid-2000s.

To this day, PlattForm remains the biggest player in the marketing of private education institutions and continues to develop innovative revenue streams and profitable verticals in related industries.

So to recap -
What I learned:

  • Direct marketing skills
  • On-page SEO strategies
  • Search marketing skills
  • Team management
  • Niche marketing
  • Email marketing
  • Creative services
  • Client relations
  • Feature writing
  • Statistical research
  • Social media
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Video scripting