Digital marketing professionals can help businesses in a wide array of industries grow. But in some cases, it may be more effective to work with companies that only focus on one industry.
Optmira Marketing provides that type of focus for creative businesses in the San Francisco area. Learn more about the niche and the business behind it in this week’s Small Business Spotlight.
What the Business Does
Provides an array of digital marketing services for creative businesses.
Marketing Specialist Olivia DeGraca told Small Business Trends, “Our mission is simple: we have a deep passion rooted in a love for the arts and a vision to share this love with the world. Working to improve the reach of creative industries and individual artists means more of the world will be engaging with, experiencing, and loving art too.”
Business Niche: Marketing for Designers and Artists
Focusing on designers and artists.
DeGraca says, “In every city there is a guild of artists who stick together and understand each other’s lifestyle more than others. We are known for working with artists because this information has spread by word of mouth throughout San Francisco.”
How the Business Got Started
As an Etsy business.
DeGraca explains, “Audrey Ashburner is the founder and CEO of Optmira Marketing. Optmira first started as an Etsy-based design marketing company in 2013. After four years of success on Etsy, 23-year-old Ashburner launched Optmira as a Public Relations and Marketing company in San Francisco in 2017. Today, Ashburner and the Optmira team offer many services such as marketing analytics, website development, digital marketing, and marketing optimization to name a few.”
Biggest Win
Growing a fashion brand’s website traffic by 800 percent in just one quarter.
DeGraca says, “This was early on in the company’s foundation (only about a year in), so, this showed the Optmira team and Audrey that they were undeniably doing something right.”
Biggest Risk
Starting the business in the first place.
DeGraca adds, “As a primarily Etsy-based business, it was terrifying for Audrey to be 22 and take the business offline and into the real world. But, Audrey knew she had what it takes to run a marketing firm and she was right.”
Lesson Learned
Take action quickly.
DeGraca explains, “Her success boomed once she actually began to market her company.”
How They’d Spend an Extra $100,000
Growing the business in a few different ways.
DeGraca says, “Some ideas are: hire more employees, purchase marketing trainings for current employees, purchase expensive search engine optimization (SEO) tools and put a lot of the money toward ad campaigns to increase the traffic and understanding of our business.”
Office Guest
Nala the cat.
DeGraca explains, “We have an office kitten named Nala who is everyone’s best friend! She loves to climb up onto the desks and “assist” with typing on our keyboards.”
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Images: Optmira Marketing, Audrey Ashburner