Michael Moran
Managing Partner at Two24 Digital Marketing
Website Address: https://two24.digital
What services does your company provide?
Creative, Social Media, SEO, Marketing Strategy, Other
About Two24 Digital Marketing:
We’re a distributed marketing agency that specializes in mapping the customer journey. How do your customers find you, how do they engage with you, and how do you engage back with them. We don’t strategize, recommend, and build solutions for short term gains. Our focus is on the long term growth and stability of your company.
How do you define success?
WE don’t define success. In collaboration with our client, we initially spend quite a bit of time discussing and laying out in fairly concrete terms what success should look like. One of our core principles is “Start with the end in mind.” Personally, I look at success as very black and white, win or lose. Particularly because of the fact I come from the millennial generation, (granted I’m on the older end of that scale) the “everyone gets a trophy/everyone’s a winner” generation, I buck that every way I can. Success is achieving or exceeding the goal that was set when you set out on any endeavor, i.e If our goal at the start of a partnership with a client is to increase their web traffic from 5k visitors/mo to 15k visitors/mo in 6 months with xx,xxx budget, success is reaching or exceeding the 15k visitors/mo at or before the end of the 6 months. If we get to 14.5k visitors, that’s failure. You hit the goal, you deliver, you succeed only when you SUCCEED. Black and white, 15k visitors or more is how I define success.
What percent of your advertising service offerings does media buying make up?
25%
What makes your company unique?
Four things in particular which make us unique: #1 We’re a full service ad agency (primarily focused on digital) and yet we don’t offer and won’t accept PPC for the first year a client is with us. #2 We’re entirely distributed. Although we have two offices which serve as work spaces/meet up/collaboration spaces, we all work remotely. #3 We’re not open M-F 9-5, we commit to our clients that if they’re open, we’re open and have a designated team member available to them when they’re open if and when they need us. #4 We offer exclusivity. If you choose us, we choose you, exclusively. It’s a direct conflict of interest if an agency serves two businesses in the same vertical in the same market. We commit to our clients that we’ll never work with one of their competitors in any capacity so they can benefit exclusively from any and all competitive advantages we provide.
Who in the industry inspires you and why?
For sure, my former employer, Joe Chura, founder and CEO of Dealer Inspire/Launch Digital Marketing. From coffee shops he started a web design and digital marketing company that went from 0 to a $350 million buyout by Cars.com in 7 years. His back story isn’t too dissimilar from mine, either. He created something, he found great people, delivered innovation, great service, and a great set of products and he did it on his terms. I think also, as much as any person has inspired me, seeing and acting on good advertising inspires me. Whether it’s a commercial I see for the first time that makes me say when it’s over “what’s that? I want that! I want to go there or do that” or whatever. An ad, regardless of format, that initiates action from me, really does inspire me.
What is a tip for success that you would provide someone in your same industry?
#1 NEVER.STOP.LEARNING. Take every opportunity to learn something new that you can. It’s all going to change tomorrow. Then it’ll change again the day after, and more change and more change so never stop learning and trying to keep up with it all. #2 Pay attention to the details, the details matter. The real difference between good and great, is some details in between. AND #3 Please please be transparent. There isn’t enough transparency in the advertising industry. I had a new client during onboarding say to me last week, in response to a question about something his previous agency did, “I don’t know, I really don’t know any of this stuff as well as I should.” Here’s the reality though, he shouldn’t have to know all the in’s and out’s of all the facets of his website or his digital advertising. His core competency is operating and managing his store and his expertise is in the product category he sells. It’s our responsibility to provide the service we’re hired for AND the transparency that assures him of what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and what expectations he can have for the end result.