We’re The Original Digital Natives
As a team of mostly millennials who spent too much time on AOL in the late 90’s, we watched the internet grow from a niche hobby to a necessity of modern life. We were marketed to since our earliest days watching Nickelodeon, giving us an appreciation for the power of targeting the right audience.
As search engines transcended Ask Jeeves and Google rose to become one of the largest corporations in the world, we learned about the power of big data. We watched MTV’s reality shows turn into today’s Instagram influencers, a change which tracks with the paradigm shift of our parent’s cable television subscriptions to our streaming and social media accounts.
We’ve watched Apple come back from the brink of bankruptcy, becoming an unstoppable juggernaut, propelled by good design and perfectly executed marketing.
All of this is to say, we understand marketing because our generation is the result of non-stop advertising and media consumption. Recognizing the power of marketing, we’ve taken the time to learn the psychology behind consumer choices, the formulas that guide Google’s algorithms, and the design choices that transform a website into your company’s most valuable employee.
History in the Making
Cut Throat Marketing was the brainchild of Cynthia Giles, a self-described professional vagabond. Originally trained as a nurse, Cynthia found herself spending more time working with databases than patients and was on the forefront of the medical industry’s transition from paper to electronic records. Over time she wore a variety of hats, helping companies teach their legacy staff how to transition to the newer systems, serving as the director of compliance, building user interfaces for medical data access, and more.
Through the vagaries of time and business, Cynthia found herself with a large network of business associates and friends at the Columbia and Irmo Chambers of Commerce and enrolled in a web development course. The earliest days of Cut Throat were spent creating websites for these Chamber associates, but as time wore on it became clear that websites were more than design projects, they were marketing projects.
As Cut Throat grew, so did its scope. In early 2018 Geoffrey Giles, Cynthia’s husband and partner in crime, began to help with projects, and by 2019 the business had grown so much that Geoffrey was able to leave his career in the information technology sector to work at Cut Throat full time.
Today, Cut Throat Marketing’s mission is clear and simple: to help propel a small cadre of businesses to success. When you work with us you won’t find us seated behind a mahogany desk that costs more than your monthly marketing budget – we’re normal folks who believe in honesty, hard work, and constant improvement.
If you are looking for a marketing firm that will dedicate itself to making your company grow – you’ve found yourself in the right place.
We Are Marketing Specialists
Our team has grown a lot since those early days, and we’ve strategically added specialists to create a well-rounded team of experts.
As we discovered early on, even something as simple as a website goes beyond design. To rank well a website needs a planner for search engine optimization, to read well a website needs a copywriter, to look good a website needs a web designer, and to get engagement a website needs an expert at the helm of its social media.
A single person can theoretically wear all of these hats, but this is impractical at best and untenable at worst. Here at Cut Throat Marketing, we’ve solved this riddle by hiring and developing a robust team who work together to create award winning websites and marketing plans.
When you work with us you’re getting access to the skills and knowledge of an entire team of marketing specialists. The results speak for themselves: our clients see vast improvements in website traffic, increased conversion rates, and soaring revenue.
Work With Stakeholders and Experts, Not Salespeople
It’s not uncommon for salespeople who work on commission to, shall we say, make exaggerated promises. Perhaps this comes from well intended ignorance, but the result is expectations which aren’t always met.
We do things differently.
When you schedule a consultation with us, you’re speaking with our stakeholders and our experts. No one on our team is a ‘salesperson.’ This means if we tell you a marketing goal is feasible, you’re hearing it from our company’s owners and the marketing specialists who are going to be responsible for making it happen.
We have a reputation for success and we intend on keeping it! This is why we don’t make promises we can’t keep and we approach every new project with the same vigor that has won us awards in the past.
Our Team
Cynthia Giles
Chief (Executive)
Geoffrey Giles
Chief (Operations)
Tayla Cameron
Office Manager
Evan Meehan
Copywriter
Kaela Cameron
Social Media/FB Ad Coordinator
Lauren Wells
SEO Coordinator
Kat Benson
Jr. Web Developer
Our Process
Success isn’t an accident – it comes from executing a well-defined plan. The way we’re able to reliably provide our clients with more traffic, more conversions, and more sales is by using an 8-step process:
Step 1 - Get to know our client
We don’t tell you what your company’s marketing strategy should look like – we learn about you and your business and create one that will fit.
Step 2 - Research
Data drives effective marketing decisions. We do a deep dive into your business, industry, and competitors to find what will give you an edge.
Step 3 - Design
Design isn’t an accident – it precedes and guides the copy and images that follow. We carefully plan how your site will look and feel before a word is written or an image is selected.
Step 4 - Optimize for Conversion
All of our websites are designed to maximize conversions – facilitating your customer’s journey from prospect to sale. A good website is easy, intuitive, and helpful.
Step 5 - Build
Every website is custom built – no templates full of unnecessary bloat. All of your copy is original, all of your images relevant.
Step 6 - Execute
A marketing plan goes beyond making new marketing materials. Using traditional marketing channels, digital marketing, social media, and automated review management we generate engagement and drive traffic.
Step 7 - Measure
Our job doesn’t stop just because a website goes live. We monitor its performance, tracking advertising performance, traffic, conversions, and more.
Step 8 - Adjust
Measurements by themselves are interesting, but the real power is using data to adjust course, reorienting towards initiatives which are delivering the best results.
The power of having a process is that we deliver reproducible results. We aren’t reinventing the wheel for each client but instead are following a path which we’ve laid down and optimized iteratively. This isn’t to say the process is fixed in place – as we learn and grow, so too does our process – but at this stage the changes are evolutionary rather than revolutionary.
Schedule a Free Consultation
What It Takes To Get Started
15-30 minutes of your time to discuss:
- Your company
- Which goals you’d like to achieve in the next 6-12 months
- What you’re already doing to achieve these goals
What You’ll Get From The Consultation
- A 15-30 minute free consultation with one of our marketing strategists
- An honest assessment of your current marketing model
- 2-3 actionable tips to improve your lead generation
- High level marketing strategy to meet your 6-12 month goals
- A quote for implementing these recommendations (if both parties feel this is a good fit)