Meet Kerri Koncius, the Founder and CEO of Koncius Digital Marketing; a company that provides an array of digital marketing services to its clients.
Kerri has been working in the digital marketing industry for over 15 years. She started her career on the agency side at iProspect, and moved to the client side while working for software companies like LogMeIn and EMC, before establishing her company Koncius Digital Marketing (KDM) in 2012. Her husband, Adam, left his career in property management to join KDM as the COO in 2014, and together, they run a successful venture with a growing reach.
Kerri had a happy childhood. She grew up in Beverly with her parents and her younger brother, Dan. She says, “I loved growing up in Beverly and remain close with many of my friends from childhood, some of whom I still text daily! I played field hockey and was a cheerleader. Overall, my childhood was great.”
Before Kerri started KDM, she had changed many jobs. She elaborates, “I think I always knew that I needed to work for myself; I could only take someone else telling me what to do for so long!” While she knew that she had to build something on her own, she was intimidated by the idea of networking. For her, going to after-work events, slapping on a name tag, making awkward small talk with strangers, and giving an elevator pitch on repeat were tedious chores. But when she started to convert her dream of KDM into a reality, she realized that she didn’t need to do any of that; she already had a well-developed network from keeping in touch with her former colleagues. Talking about those days, Kerri recalls, “My very first client was a former iProspector, and my second was my former boss at EMC. Eight years into the business, and we still work with both of them! The idea of tapping into my network worked out for me.”
Kerri’s company, Koncius Digital Marketing, provides an array of digital marketing services to its clients. Their expertise is in search marketing, both organic and paid, and their clients hire them to increase visibility, awareness, lead generation, and ultimately ROI. Kerri believes that the reason her clients keep working with her company year after year is because of the relationships she has established with them. She says, “I think building relationships has been especially important in 2020 – providing flexibility to accommodate clients who are homeschooling their children, helping clients balance workloads when their coworkers have been furloughed, and just plain old listening to them and providing reassurance when they’ve had a hard day.”
In Kerri’s words, they have “too much business”, and she is very grateful that the business is doing so well despite the craziness of 2020. However, when they had started, acquiring new business, figuring out how to create compelling proposals, and closing deals were her primary challenges. While she has overcome this challenge, she is now struggling with work-life balance. She comments, “We have always worked remotely, but working from home with the kids around is a whole other ballgame. My younger son once yelled for help in the bathroom while I was on a call with my Google rep!”
In Kerri’s opinion, productivity is more of a struggle than it was in the “precedented” times when there were regular school hours, available childcare, and after school activities. She says, “Everyone on our team is in the same boat, navigating this new normal together.“
Kerri believes that the support of her clients is her biggest asset. They are always willing to refer the company to others, thus growing her business. She elaborates, “We are very proud of the types of clients that we have been able to sign given that we are a relatively small shop – companies like UVA Health, PTC, Forrester, and the Better Business Bureau, Oracle Dyn, PAN Communications and more. Several clients have taken us with them when they switch companies; there are some people that we are working with for the third time now!”
Personally, the success of KDM has provided much-needed relief to Kerri’s family. Her younger son has a genetic disorder called Pierre Robin Sequence, which has led to several lengthy hospitalizations and a lot of medical attention. While he is doing great now, Kerri and her husband still have to work with several teams at Boston Children’s Hospital which would have been impossible if they didn’t have to work for themselves and had to report to someone else.
Kerri treats competition as an opportunity for collaboration and strongly advocates in its favor – “Several search marketers in my network have started similar agencies to Koncius Digital Marketing. On the surface, we would appear to be competitors. In reality, however, we all help each other out, learning from one another and figuring out partnership opportunities that can lead to positive outcomes for everyone involved. We even refer business to one another, depending on the unique strengths of each agency.”
