Get to know Danni E., Owner, Blank Page Consulting

I am an independent marketing consultant through my own company, Blank Page Consulting. I also serve as the fractional CMO for ReachDynamics, a cutting edge ad technology company, based in St. Louis. I’ve been fortunate in my career to play an active role in helping startups launch and non-profits thrive. I received an award from Governor Jay Nixon for my work to move forward a Missouri Trails initiative through the #100MissouriMiles campaign.

Thankfully, search has become more intuitive, intelligent and accurate with the evolution of various search algorithms. When I first began working in content marketing, techniques that would now be considered “black hat” were the norm. Content quality was non-existent, and article spinning and keyword stuffing was accepted methods for rank building. Luckily, with the search algorithm changes we’ve seen over the years, marketers have had to learn to write more intelligent, more in-depth, high-quality content. As a reader, I’m thankful to see this. As a writer, I am thankful beyond measure to be challenged again to write high quality content.

Growing up, I was easily the most intense and passionate kid in my small town. If I wasn’t walking the streets with a mason jar to raise funds for the MDA telethon or a family in need, I was advocating for a 5K or some other cause that tugged my heartstrings – that I was sure I could impact. Because of this inclination and drive early-on, I went to school for a degree in non-profit management & organizational studies.
Now, my mother had been a writer, and I knew I had the same inclination as well, but I also saw how difficult a career that could be and I wanted to take another path. As I was going through school, my professors saw my writing and encourage me to take it more seriously as a career path. They referred me freelance writing gigs that helped to pay for my tuition.
As I worked with these freelance clients, they began asking if I could help them with other needs. In order to accommodate their needs, I began learning all I could about every element of marketing, including early SEO. I was already an avid user of social media on MySpace at the time, and then early Facebook. It all just kind of worked naturally with my abilities and I began to be able to make a career out of my natural talents.

My primary goal is to ensure that every client I work with achieves their business goals. I’ve never been a fan of making noise for the sake of making noise with marketing.
As a marketing consultant, I work in a contract CMO (Chief Marketing Officer – Executive Level) capacity, working to direct their overall strategy in order to help them achieve their business goals through marketing. I do this through strategy development and execution and management of their SEO, PPC, PR, and social media strategies.

Despite all of the changes in technology and tactics, I still believe that the heart of marketing that drew me into this field is still a driver for success – collaboration. In addition to link building and content writing, I think it is absolutely critical that you’re working offline to network and find ways to partner with likeminded people in your industry to build strong cross-promotional content. Google takes notes of the energy behind content – the click-through rate, time on page, etc – these are metrics that show the strength of content. Strong content is created when energies are aligned.

Be in control of your own career. As a freelancer, you may have the inclination to take all of the work that comes your way, but remember that if you’re good at what you do, you’ll be in demand. Be picky about what projects you take on. Seek out projects and clients that you truly believe in. It will make every minute of work more worthwhile – and it will allow you to feel like you’re developing expertise and making real progress for your clients.