Matt Smith is the CEO of Modmacro, Inc. - an awardwinning web design and digital marketing firm based in Southern California. Modmacro partners with small businesses to strategically grow their companies. The company has completed more than 700 projects since their founding in 2010. Matt is intimately involved with clients on a daily basis, acting as the primary point of contact on 95% of Modmacro’s projects.

As our society moves increasingly online, do you find that companies are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of their online presence?
Absolutely. Even older, more mature companies that have never considered the need to have an online presence, are now reaching the point where they realize they need to have a vibrant and engaging digital presence in order to remain competitive. We work with companies that have been in business for 2030 years and are just now building their first websites. We are faced with explaining SEO and digital marketing as completely new concepts to them. We also partner with companies who already recognize the importance of being found online, but are still quite amazed at the growth they encounter as a result of our SEO, PR, and social marketing efforts.
Following on from that, how do you help small or upcoming companies stand out in such a saturated web space?
Our passion is partnering with small businesses and helping them to succeed. So the digital marketing methods we’ve honed over the years are specifically geared toward smaller companies and start-ups. When it comes to marketing, it’s important that businesses partner with a firm that specializes in working with companies of their size and type. For example, the SEO approach used for national brands is quite different from that of local service companies. Some industries are quite competitive and that impacts the marketing strategy as well. We approach each company as a unique case, keeping in mind their specific industry and market, and building the marketing plan that best supports their goals for growth.
Do you foresee a future where boutique companies become more popular as clients prefer a more personal service?
In many ways, I think small businesses nationwide have already begun to show their preference for boutique marketing firms.
Like many industries, digital marketing is being pushed toward two ends of a spectrum. At one end are the individual practitioners of web design and digital marketing. They are often quite talented in one or two specific areas, but lack the well-roundedness to service a customer’s variety of needs.
On the other end of the spectrum are the larger national firms who often have all the expertise needed under one roof, but who command fees that are often many times above what small businesses can afford.
Modmacro operates in the middle of that spectrum. We’re small and agile, but we service businesses nationally. We have a group of specialists who possess the expertise to execute multi-faceted marketing solutions that deliver measureable results, while still providing the boutique experience that clients crave.
Modmacro was founded 6 years ago - how did you weather the shaky economic climate and still manage to expand the company?
I started the company in 2010. For Southern California, that was about the worst time for the economy. By then, the housing market was nearing the bottom, and many small businesses were already closed. But I saw a clear opportunity to fill the needs of small business owners. Although there were thousands of web design companies to choose from, everyone I spoke with was saying the same thing: they couldn’t find a company that was professional and delivered the results they promised for small businesses.
Over the years, we’ve developed our team and services carefully by listening to what clients need, and learning from the stories they’ve shared about the mistakes other marketing companies have made with them.
We commit a lot of time to working directly with clients in a collaborative fashion, making sure they understand the options we’re presenting and the benefits of choosing one solution over another.
Looking into 2016, what do you anticipate for the company?
One of the areas we’re focused on this year is public relations. We’re expanding the opportunities for our small business clients by developing additional relationships with local and national media outlets. News and media publications offer an effective platform for us to share client stories and reach new audiences. We’re also investing in media partnerships to further amplify the voice of our clients and exert some control over the process of gathering publicity.