How I Broke Into Digital Marketing

Despite making inroads over the last five decades, marketing still remains largely uncharted territory as a profession for African-Americans. Like most industries, we are well represented as consumers and far less as owners, executives, and professional talent. My goal is to help other marketers, especially those who look like me, break into an exciting, creative, and innovative space that continues to grow.

Recently I've been focused over-time on building Narratent, a digital marketing agency. We help companies develop strategies and creative for social media, website, search, and email, often targeting Black audiences. Narratent is a six figure business, but like anything worth building, it all started with a humble first step.

Planning College Events

When I first got to Southern Illinois University Carbondale, I got involved super fast, first with student government and later on other student organizations. During my sophomore year I was initiated into the best fraternity in the world – Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. This was the start to a new experience of planning programs and events at a small and large scale. At that time there was a super high demand for safe and consistent events for Black students (different story for another day).

My hands-down favorite moment was organizing a homecoming event that gave over 1K students a safe and proper social experience, while generating over $10K in ticket sales. What I came to realize while doing this kind of “work” was how powerful Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram were in building demand for events. This was the real start to finding a calling at the intersection of digital marketing and culture.

Interning at Pfizer

Internships are incredible opportunities to discover your talents and passions. They are also a chance to find out – early – what you don’t have. After interning at Pfizer for two summers, it became super evident to me that I had no ambition for Accounting. My particular experience lacked the strategic and creative buttons that I needed to press. So what did I do? I went back to campus to start my senior year and declare — very late in the game — a major in Marketing.

Selling Advertising at Comcast

Around three months after graduation, I started my career as an Associate Account Executive at Comcast Spotlight (EffecTV) in Champaign. This meant that I had up to a year to learn and master the television advertising game, and be promoted to Account Executive. My job was to sell advertising spots to local businesses for TV commercials. 

Comcast’s stellar training program helped me learn how to negotiate, come up with strategic ideas, and close deals. I was also excited to help our producer from time-to-time write scripts or pick out voice overs. After about six months, I started being transitioned into the promotion that I set out to achieve.

Getting small businesses onto ESPN, HGTV, and other networks was fun and challenging. The first year I created relationships with over a dozen new clients and closed around $75K in new business.

Comcast introduced me to the rawest version of business - sales. My manager was a phenomenal coach who motivated me to master the craft of sales, embrace the financial success that came with it, and to always have a reason outside of my career for doing what we did. We had a team full of older, experienced cats who never missed a chance to remind me that I was the youngest on the roster, but that my potential had longevity.

Starting a Food Truck

Young people are often wired to believe that successful careers come in straight paths. However, there is no straight path whatsoever. You are always well within your right to re-create what your dream is and then go after it, even if it feels like throwing a wrench into your journey. 

I started Smackin’ – a food truck business – while still at my first corporate job (which I soon left). While giving up a comfortable salary to slang soul food on wheels is not for everybody, it was a remarkable experience. Developing a brand, raising capital, and learning the logistics of the food industry was the kind of exposure I needed to learn the reality of building a company around the ground up. These fundamental business lessons transferred to other ventures after I once again re-created my goals.

After giving up my short-lived food truck business, I carefully chewed on my situation. My situation was uncertain, however most uncertain situations can be resolved with information, preparation, and a plan.

Content Writing at Groupon

Marketing was my niche and I remained intent on paving a path into digital. I found digital to be more interesting and in higher demand than traditional channels like print, radio, or TV. I landed a role at Groupon as a content writer and then packed up and moved up the road to Chicago, one of the best decisions I have ever made.

My job at Groupon was to write and edit copy for affiliate product pages on Groupon’s website. How it worked was that internet shoppers would visit Groupon, usually from a Google search, looking for deals and sales that linked to the likes of Nike, Amazon, Target and other retailers. From there, customers clicked through to purchase products directly from the retailer while also generating a unique link that gave Groupon the credit for referring the customer. The coolest part of course was that Groupon then, in most cases, received a commission payment for referring the customer.

Although my primary responsibility was writing, my natural curiosity led me to learning more about search engine optimization since most users came from Google. I saw an opportunity to develop a “double threat” skillset that blended content with the technical components of search. Leaning on other people also made a huge difference. The team had an SEO Specialist who was always willing to answer questions. Her help made SEO less intimidating.

Everything came to a screeching halt in March 2020. When the WHO declared COVID a pandemic, the company sent everyone home to work. A short few weeks later, much of our team, including me, was laid off. I continued to double down on learning and mastering the craft of digital marketing, while remaining true to my entrepreneurial spirit.

Freelancing Through a Pandemic

Remember, life is far from a straight and linear path. 2020 was a mixed bag. Fortunately I was prepared for a rainy day and when you stay ready, you have less getting ready to do. So, right before starting the gig at Groupon, I had actually started a freelance business designing small business websites with my friend and fraternity brother Allen. While extremely detrimental to the lives of many people, the pandemic had presented an opportunity for us to take our side hustle even more serious.

We continued working on small projects over the course of the remaining year as new opportunities arose. My fortunes that year led me to be recruited by the CEO of Marco Polo for a two-month project creating new ideas for the startup’s video chat app. 

During the fall, my former Groupon colleague hit me up to introduce me to someone who was hiring at Neil Patel Digital, an SEO agency. I interviewed and was offered the role, but was at an odds. Being exposed to the freedom, flexibility, and hustle of freelancing led a hesitation for hopping back into a box. Also, I was only weeks away from my wedding date and needed a clear palate altogether. Rather than accept the full-time offer from NPD, I opted to be a contractor which turned out to be the right decision in the end. My day-to-day at NPD was much of the same work I’d started as a content writer, but with a heavier focus on SEO, along with additional freelance projects.

Agency Life at G&S

Later in the fall of 2020 I was contacted by a public relations agency about a senior digital strategist role. The opportunity with G&S Business Communications made sense for two reasons. The team was led by a VP of Digital Marketing who – in an extremely rare case – was African-American. Having someone who was not only a component leader, but also culturally relatable was a huge value to me. The digital marketing team was also brand new. This created a ripe environment for me to not just learn, but also be hands-on with helping build the vision.

G&S was a prelude to building my own team. As a young, seasoned marketer, I was hungry to deliver new ways of thinking and doing for the agency. My assignments ranged from content strategy and SEO for our largest client to developing an SEO training program.

This led to being invited to lead an SEO learn-and-lunch session in front of the entire agency. My “coming out party” as it was later called was a nod to the strong impact that I was making in a short amount of time. This positive impression fed the agency with a new energy and confidence about digital marketing.

Yet again, life proved to be one that has no straightforward path. Given that I was continuing to – sort of insanely – give my extra time to other freelance work, the opportunity that Allen and I had prepared for was right around the corner.

Building My Own Agency

Up until then our freelance Narratent projects had modest payoffs. A few hundred here, a few thousand there. However, our expectation was always to evolve into a full-time agency when the time was right. But, our mindsets were never to sit back, kick our feet up, and only wait for time to make that decision for us. 

We registered our LLC from the get-go, created a company website, optimized it to show up in search results, and set up a customer funnel. That way, we’d be prepared for the day we caught our “whale”, or what agencies refer to as securing their first big client. That day came in late 2021. Over the course of several months we negotiated and secured a six figure contract with a prominent client for a digital campaign. The dominos started to fall as we got to work and continued to win several other new clients.

Almost a full year has passed and we are building a skyscraper. We continue to provide digital marketing strategies and creative to large and small brands. I am optimistic that we are building a company that will groom and hire the best marketing talent to make a difference for businesses and culture at large. My vision for Narratent is generational, and it is only beginning.

Breaking into Digital Marketing

I broke into digital marketing only five short years ago and with God’s will, many more are to come. This has been a spirited process and I’m learning a lot in real time. My achievements are a byproduct of being curious and courageous enough to invent and re-invent myself, a relentless work ethic, and preparing for opportunities before they knock. If you are young professional or entrepreneur looking for a signal to your dream, or how to land in unfamiliar territory, know that it’s possible. We can and will!