Enter Reva Minkoff. The Harvard honors grad. The digital marketing guru. The social media enthusiast. Reva has worn many amazing hats, but it's her latest as the Founder of DigitalGroundUp that really piqued my interest in her work.
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As with all great founders, Reva saw a problem and decided to pull together the resources to solve it. "I was thinking about the next big project and what I Ioved to do most (mentoring and training). I looked over the digital work for a few smaller companies and was frustrated. There were some quick digital mistakes that I could spend just 10 minutes to fix and it would completely change the ROI for these companies.", said Minkoff.
The problem? Many agencies and consultants would charge anywhere from $100 - $500 an hour for these quick and easy digital or social media services. If you're a large enough company then that solution may work for you, but what is the answer for all of the startups and SMB's that are guaranteed to use digital and don't have the knowledge to optimize it themselves? The answer became DigitalGroundUp -- an online solution for digital marketing training that is both affordable and easy to use for anyone, anywhere.
Courses currently target four main areas and are designed to meet the needs of small and medium sized businesses:
• (PPC) Pay Per Click
• Display Advertising
• Google Analytics
• Facebook (comprehensive walkthroughs)
In addition, there are a number of courses designed specifically for SMB's within the financial services vertical, including courses on Social Media Risk Management and Industry Trends.
In a recent press release, DigitalGroundUp also announced a collaboration with Facebook to bring this digital marketing training to SMB's and startups via hands-on, online courses. These courses are all described to be hugely engaging and interactive, promising to get people using these tecqniques with tests at certain milestones that will require 100% understanding before the user can progress. Minkoff was particularly excited about this relationship because it really helped to get the word out about something that is affecting everyone.
"Given Chicago's growth in becoming the premier midwestern hub for digital startups, this type of training for the fast-moving digital age is a necessity and you can't find it in traditional institutions, even with the new graduates. I attended an advertising class at a well-known university and not one student could tell me the difference between an agency and an in-house operation", said Minkoff.
Given that the digital media industry is changing so rapidly, I believe DigitalGroundUp has executed a great business plan against a giant problem that may not be fully realized yet. Four years is a lifetime in digital media so what is a Freshman entering a Bachelor's program to do when the curriculum doesn't move as fast as the industry they are preparing to enter at graduation? What about the low-budget and high-potential startup or SMB? Training from DigitalGroundUp. Brilliant.
[email protected] / @sampraspro3
