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Verified Profile
SmartSites is an award-winning website design and digital marketing agency with a focus on search engine marketing (SEO & PPC). SmartSites was founded by brothers Alex and Michael Melen, who grew up with a passion for all things digital. With an innovative vision and a lot of hard work, SmartSites quickly became one of America’s fastest-growing digital marketing & SEO companies.
Our relentless focus on our clients has led us to over 100 5-star reviews since our inception in 2011. When Dun & Bradstreet asked, "How satisfied do you feel about the quality of service?" we scored a phenomenal 97%. We keep our clients happy by delivering results that exceed their expectations.
Call (201) 870 6000 for a free consultation!
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Locations
United States
45 Eisenhower Drive, Suite 520 Paramus NJ,
New Jersey,
New Jersey
07652
(201) 870-6000
Focus Areas
Service Focus
- Digital Marketing
- Web Development
- Software Development
- Web Designing (UI/UX)
- E-commerce Development
SmartSites Executive Interview
Michael Melen
Co-Founder
Please introduce your company and give a brief about your role within the company?
SmartSites is a leading digital marketing company based in New Jersey. We are a three-time fastest growing company (Inc5000) and top 250 private companies in New Jersey (NJBiz.) I am the Co-Founder.
Mention the objectives or the parameters critical in determining the Digital Marketing Strategy for a client.
Some of our initial questions to a client during a discovery call is:
A. Lifetime Customer Value (i.e., a paid member is $2k in lifetime value)
B. Timeframe (i.e., next board meeting to present results is in 6 months)
C. Budget (i.e., $50k marketing budget)
D. Their Goals (i.e., to make 100 new sales)
From this, we can adequately suggest the proper strategies. For example, if the timeframe is tight – we would lean more heavily towards pay-per-click. Whereas if the goal is to achieve long-term sustainability, we will put more focus on organic SEO.
A. Lifetime Customer Value (i.e., a paid member is $2k in lifetime value)
B. Timeframe (i.e., next board meeting to present results is in 6 months)
C. Budget (i.e., $50k marketing budget)
D. Their Goals (i.e., to make 100 new sales)
From this, we can adequately suggest the proper strategies. For example, if the timeframe is tight – we would lean more heavily towards pay-per-click. Whereas if the goal is to achieve long-term sustainability, we will put more focus on organic SEO.
How does your company differentiate itself from the competition?
Instead of looking at competitors, we focus on providing value to our clients. If anyone researches SmartSites, they will find over 150 client testimonials on how we improved their business. This approach is much more effective and sustainable than comparing ourselves to others. If we can get 5x ROI on your business, what does it matter what gimmicks other agencies are trying to pull?
What industries do you generally cater to? Are your customers repetitive? If yes, what ratio of clients has been repeated to you?
We work mainly with small businesses. While we do have some “one and done” projects, over 90% of our clients are ongoing relationships.
Please share some of the services that you offer for which clients approach you the most for?
We have three core services:
A. Web Design & Development
B. PPC
C. SEO
This makes up a majority of our service offerings.
A. Web Design & Development
B. PPC
C. SEO
This makes up a majority of our service offerings.
What do you find to be some of the most key factors for running a successful agency in the field of Digital Marketing?
An agency is only as good as its people. We acquire and retain the best talent – both for our NJ headquarters and also for our global offices. All of our team leaders have been with us for over 10 years. We are a bunch of extremely hard-working individuals who hold ourselves accountable for our work.
What are the key factors that you consider before deciding the cost of a project?
Paid Advertising: Fee is a percent of marketing spend.
All Others: We follow cost-based pricing. i.e., a 100-hour project would cost a certain amount, regardless of the client’s business or industry.
All Others: We follow cost-based pricing. i.e., a 100-hour project would cost a certain amount, regardless of the client’s business or industry.
What kind of payment structure do you follow to bill your clients?
We price hourly or fixed fee, depending on the scope. If the scope is well-defined, we can give a fixed cost for the project. Otherwise, we charge hourly.
What is the price range (min and max) of the projects that you catered to in 2018?
The price range of the projects that we catered in 2018 is:
Minimum: $1k
Maximum: $250k
Minimum: $1k
Maximum: $250k
Name a couple of activities that you think to provide the best ROI in terms of benefit/impact when it comes to different areas of Digital Marketing.
Recently, Google Ads has been giving clients fantastic returns. The reason is that we are a Google premier channel partner, which allows us to use the latest & greatest in their platform. Enterprise clients are often too slow to keep up with the fast pace of changes in the platform, which gives our small business clients an advantage.
