A digital marketing agency is a team of skilled marketing professionals, each with a focused area of expertise, that collaborates together to provide a full-service marketing program. It is a company that deals exclusively in marketing to consumers or businesses through digital channels. This includes creating and launching campaigns for clients through social media, pay-per-click advertising, videos, and custom websites, among other means.  A full-service digital agency typically offers end-to-end solutions for the client’s online presence – from branding the client’s business, designing the client’s website and optimizing it for higher rankings in search engine results to creating and executing complete digital marketing strategy.

Marcel Digital is a team of digital marketing, web development, and Google Analytics experts focused on carrying out digital strategies that drive more traffic, sales, leads, and engagement to the client’s websites from prospects and customers. Its areas of expertise include SEO, CRO, paid media, web development, and Google Analytics - all of which are used holistically and comprehensively in digital strategies for its clients.

Integrated services provided by Marcel Digital

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Marcel Digital creates data-driven SEO strategies centered on three pillars, namely technical SEO, content, and off-page SEO. While every SEO campaign it runs is personalized to the client’s needs and goals, it has cultivated an extensive list of proven SEO services under each of these three pillars to maximize the search engine exposure and produce results. The technical audits analyze factors like website mark-up, crawlability and indexability, site architecture, mobile friendliness, link portfolio, structured data markup, image optimization, penalty assessment and recovery, local SEO. Marcel’s team develops holistic offsite strategies utilizing tactics like ethical backlink building strategy, link reclamation, elimination of nefarious backlinks, local SEO services, anchor text optimization, branded mention monitoring, targeted content distribution, penalty recovery.

Paid Media: Marcel earned the elite Google Premier Partner status putting us into the top 3% of all Google Partners worldwide. It works with the client’s marketing teams to ensure the Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts are properly connected for the best possible data. It also targets specific audiences to drive business and helps optimize the landing pages and content so users take action. It then shares that data with the SEO team to ensure a holistic strategy for search and create cross-channel success. This company’s paid search team optimizes Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising (Bing), Audience targeting, Landing page optimization + testing, Google Analytics + Google Ads integration, reporting through Google Data Studio.

Web Development: The team believes in shaping a development approach that gets to the root of the customer’s needs. It has developed a comprehensive process that incorporates the UX, analytics, user tracking, mobile responsiveness, SEO, and other web development services to ensure that the client’s website is not only well designed but also better suited to respective users. All web development projects are put into a project roadmap and the organization’s work management tool to which the client’s team will be granted access. The integrated web development process is composed of the following phases:

Data Collection: The Chicago web developers and usability experts are certified in a host of data collection tools including Google Analytics, Hotjar, ConversionXL, Visual Website Optimizer, and more, that it uses to drive the development of the client’s website.

User Experience: From audits to wireframes, user testing to development and everything in between, Marcel Digital UX experts will create a comprehensive user experience strategy focused on increasing the overall engagement and conversions of the client’s target audiences and personas.

Information Architecture: Marcel Digital will work with the client’s marketing teams to create a user-focused information architecture that categorizes content in a logical manner so it’s easy and quick to find via the client’s website’s navigation.

Wireframes: The team of ConversionXL user experiences and usability experts will collaborate with the digital marketing experts to develop wireframe templates focused on informing and converting the client’s target audiences using data analysis and industry best practices. These wireframes will then inform the basic structure of the web design moving forward.

Design: Marcel Digital will then use these wireframes to develop a clean, easy to use website that is SEO friendly, responsive, goal-focused, Google Analytics-driven, and Hotjar informed.

Backend Development: Not everything happens in front of the screen. It’ll configure the backend of the client’s website so that the client can quickly make changes without needing web development or IT teams. It gives the client full control of the client’s website, complete with user administration and permissions.

Frontend Development: It’ll take web designs and create them in the frontend of the client’s website so that the client can see everything in a development environment. It provides the client’s team with consistent, regularly scheduled updates so the client can stay on top of the client’s site’s progress. The most successful website launches involve close collaboration with both teams, so it provides access to the project management software through all stages of development.

Meet the leader behind the success of Marcel Digital

Ben Swartz, Founder and CEO

Ben sharpened his digital marketing skills at AOL Time Warner during their heyday before launching Marcel Digital on his birthday in 2003. He received his MBA from the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business to compliment his Marketing degree from The Ohio State University.

Ben is passionate about Chicago Lights Internship Program, JUF (Marketing and Communications Board), and University of Chicago Social Enterprise Executive Coaching. Currently Ben serves as Chairman of the Board of StreetWise, empowering Chicago's homeless population with the dignity of work. 

 "From college to AOL to Marcel Digital, I have been tremendously lucky to have continued support and help from amazing people along my journey. For these reasons, I feel compelled to always give back to my community."