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Most business leaders will tell you that achieving success takes a lot of hustle. Frank Sanchez, founder, and CEO of ELK Marketing, would certainly agree with them. His path to success involved a good deal of hustle.
“One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is the firsthand realization that no one is going to hand you anything,” Frank explains. “You have to get out of the confines of your comfort zone, be prepared to hustle, and effectively close deals to win the business you seek for your company.”
Under Frank’s leadership, ELK Marketing has hustled its way to success in the world of search engine optimization (SEO). It provides clients with proven and effective SEO services that ensure they stay competitive in today’s digital world. To date, Frank has deployed initiatives with over 150 clients, including those in the financial, e-commerce, medical, B2B, and commercial real estate industries.
“Identifying the businesses that need your help and showing them that you have a proven track record of success is critical,” Frank explains. “Making that an imperative within your business strategy creates momentum. It needs to be a fire that you light and foster within yourself.”
While Frank’s hustle has been a big part of ELK Marketing’s success, he acknowledges that business success also depends on building and empowering a great team.
“Another lesson I’ve learned through experience is to hire people who are smarter than you are,” Frank shares. “A single person cannot be an expert in all things marketing. If you are looking to scale your business, hiring experts who can support the growth you seek is a vital step toward success. And hiring experts is not enough. You need to allow them to be experts.”
Franks points to the experience he had with hiring a key team member as an example of the power of adding smart people to your team and unleashing them to do what they do best.
“Prior to hiring Steve McQuaide as our Head of Strategy, we knew we needed someone who had a high level of understanding paired with a different strategic approach to the services we offered,” Frank shares. “Steve has proven himself to be that person time and time again. Both his education, which includes receiving an MS in Product Management, and the in-depth applicable experience in digital marketing he acquired while working at The Search Agency have made him a trusted advisor, not only for our team internally but also for our clients. I can’t help but wonder how much farther along we would be today as a company if I had chosen sooner to allow him to be the expert that he is.”
The success that Frank and the ELK Marketing team have achieved has meant more opportunities. However, Frank has been selective when it comes to pursuing those opportunities.
“I’ve learned the immense value of picking a few things to be great at over picking many things to be good at,” Frank says. “There is a difference between having the ability to do something and having the expertise to be the best at it. Being adequate or satisfactory in something for the sake of winning business doesn’t allow anyone to win.”
ELK Marketing’s specialty is something they call Growth SEO, which is the practice of driving a steady stream of new traffic to a website by effectuating top-of-funnel, non-brand, page-one keyword growth. In essence, Growth SEO boosts business for ELK Marketing’s clients by identifying the most efficient strategy for organically attracting the most promising consumers. According to their clients, the work Frank and his team deliver is amazing, exceeding expectations and displaying a deep knowledge of the inner workings of digital marketing.
“Oftentimes, a customer will ask us to handle something outside our area of expertise,” Frank shares. “In the early days, we wasted a lot of time trying to figure out how to take on everything. However, we quickly learned that being selective in what we take on in the name of giving great service to our clients results in the best outcome for everyone. It’s impossible to scale if you’re constantly trying to become experts in everything.”
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Photo provided by the author.