Akron’s growing Eleventy marketing firm has planted its flag in Beachwood.
The company hasn’t moved but has acquired Think Digital, a digital marketing firm formed in early 2017 that specializes in search engine optimization and search engine marketing, known as SEO and SEM, respectively.
“We’re an Akron firm that actually bought a Cleveland firm, so there’s a little bit of reverse there from what people probably expect,” Eleventy owner and CEO Ken Dawson said.
The two marketing companies joined forces in mid-September, with two of Think Digital’s four founding partners, Steve Donatelli and Matt Beck, joining Eleventy and splitting their time between Akron and Beachwood.
It’s not a huge deal in terms of personnel, as both firms were fairly small. The transaction brings Eleventy’s staff from 13 to 20.
It is a big deal in terms of the firms’ new combined capabilities, Dawson said. That’s because the addition amps up Eleventy’s skill sets in a key area dealing with internet marketing.
“While we’re a full-service agency, there are just some things they do better than us, frankly,” Dawson said.
Eleventy has done some high-profile work, including working on the 2016 presidential campaign of Ben Carson, and has helped build brands of companies such as Akron-based Fully Loaded Chew, which makes tobacco-free snuff.
The chief specialties of Think Digital that attracted Dawson was SEO and SEM. SEO refers to the ability to get a client’s site or content at or near the top of search engine results, while SEM entails things like getting the right advertisements on the right web pages and in front of readers most likely to have an interest in the ad’s content.
And though Think Digital was the smaller firm, it was well-known, even perhaps better known than Eleventy in some key markets, not the least of which is Greater Cleveland.
“We’re still an unknown entity in Northeast Ohio in many regards, and this will help get us out of the gate,” Dawson said.
Prior to the deal, Eleventy had a client mix of about half nonprofits, while most of the rest of its work was devoted to consumer brands, for which it did marketing, branding and sometimes even product fulfillment, Dawson said. Think Digital lists 20 clients on its website, and they include both Eleventy — for which it did work prior to the acquisition — along with corporations ranging from Westfield Insurance to Parker Hannifin.
The two firms’ complementary skill sets, client bases and geographic penetration make them a good strategic fit, Dawson said. Think Digital’s Donatelli agrees.
“I’ve known Ken for about seven years now, and we’ve known each other as two companies doing work together and as friends,” Donatelli said. “It’s a combination of familiarity and trust.”
Eleventy will maintain offices in both Beachwood and Akron, Donatelli said.
He added Eleventy wasn’t the first firm to approach Think Digital about a possible combination, but that he was most comfortable working with Dawson. It’s usually been his firm’s expertise in SEO and SEM that has attracted the attention, he said.
That’s not surprising, as the specialty of figuring out how to use Google and other search engines to serve clients is among the fastest-growing services in the marketing and public relations arena.
“Everything is moving toward SEO and SEM now,” said Joe Mosbrook, founder and CEO of Acclaim Communications in Cleveland.
Companies constantly are bidding on words or phrases people may use to search, he said, and bidding to be at the top of the results list when they do. It’s no accident that if you search “paint,” for example, that Sherwin- Williams is the first result. That little “ad” logo next to their entry shows a company paid for placement, Mosbrook said.
Many corporations are turning to outside help to address this challenge, which has made the field important to marketing firms. As a result, many are either building their expertise or seeking acquisitions that will bring them that expertise, according to Mosbrook.
“What you’re seeing in the industry are traditional marketing firms that want to get deeper into the digital space, and SEO and SEM are a perfect way for them to do that,” said Mosbrook, who added that he started his firm in 2012, in part, to take advantage of that trend.