Why you should work with a local Maine marketer like me
To grow and prosper, Maine business communities need to work together by pooling resources, sharing expertise, and tackling challenges collectively. Collaboration helps businesses access new markets, share costs, boost marketing impact, and solve problems more effectively, creating a more vibrant and sustainable ecosystem for everyone.
Maine businesses face unique challenges in standing out online. And opting for a local marketing partner is the way to meet and overcome those challenges. Remote firms - often located hundreds of miles away or overseas - may offer low prices but usually lack a nuanced understanding of Maine's market dynamics. Simple work that can be done by low-paid cubicle-dwellers far from Maine can often for a few weeks get you more website traffic (which may or may not convert to new clients). But once the easy stuff has been done, you will find yourself paying more for their services than they are returning in new clients and revenues.
And you'll be pushing back the date when you get the ongoing business growth you need and could have had by working with me.
An expert local marketer brings to the table proximity (think time zone, business hours), cultural fit and local knowledge that translates into effective marketing strategies that produce more conversions and faster growth for your Maine business. Local experts who are embedded in the Maine ecosystem understand Maine's seasonal trends (think tourism) so can make timely campaign adaptations that capture peak demand. A good local marketer can achieve higher relevance in search algorithms, and do it faster, for improved rankings and higher conversion rates than are possible with one-size-fits-all approaches provided from away.
When you choose an agency from away with no stake in Maine, you get a generic solution. When you choose me, you get a customized strategy from a certified Google professional who understands the culture and economic landscape of our state.
I offer more than just management; I offer partnership. My Unique Selling Proposition is Built for Maine:
- Local & Dedicated: We are a Maine company. We're invested in the success of local businesses.
- Deep Expertise: With 20+ years of experience and an engineer's eye for detail, I guarantee to design and execute marketing campaigns that are based on hard data coming directly from Google's systems - not “vanity metrics” that sound impressive but don't add anything to your bottom line.
- Simple Engagement: I know you're busy. I offer flat fee pricing, no long-term contract, and guaranteed satisfaction. My goal is to get started fast and provide immediate value.
- We especially like to work with entrepreneurs and owners who run small-to-medium independent service and professional businesses selling to local or regional Maine and New England markets and want to get more customers and make more money.
I want you to succeed. Taking your money isn't a win for me. Giving you a good return on your investment and seeing your business grow and prosper is.
How I can help you get more web traffic and make more money with Google Search Marketing
I came to Google search consulting from a business background - shipbuilding, agribusiness, energy, tourism - so I know that who you are and what your business does should be the basis for your search marketing strategic plan. And that earning and keeping more revenue is the one metric that matters most to your business.
Unfortunately there's a common perception that search marketing is just a quick fix that has nothing to do with how you run your business. But that's a dangerously short-sighted view.
Simply getting more traffic to your website isn't enough. Along with increasing website traffic, search marketing needs to help your business generate good-quality leads, acquire and retain customers, and make profitable sales by getting a better return on your marketing spend.
Google, the world's #1 search marketing platform, is used by 98% of companies of every size that get business from online search. I want you to use it too so you can succeed, make a lot of money and be happy. You run and grow your business, I'll help you with your search marketing campaigns, and we'll both make money!
I've helped dozens of Maine businesses accomplish those goals, and I can help you as well. From 20+ years of search marketing experience, I know that your every lead, every sale, every online conversion of any kind depends on your website and your marketing being found, creating a good first impression, engaging with sales-qualified leads, and persuasively selling your products or services to your customers and prospects.
Businesses I Work With
I like to work with entrepreneurs and owners who run small-to-medium independent service and professional businesses selling to local or regional New England markets and want to get more customers and make more money.
Being visible in Google Search is essential for most types of small local businesses. Because when people need what those businesses are selling, they use Google to search for where to buy it. These search-critical businesses include:
My qualifications and experience
I grew up in a New England mill town, attended college on scholarships and part-time and summer jobs, graduated from the University of Iowa with a Master of Science degree in engineering with psychology minor, and was elected to the international science and engineering honor society
Sigma Xi, which supports research and has more than 700 active chapters worldwide.
Prior to starting my own businesses, I worked as an engineer in the US Navy Nuclear Shipbuilding Program, and later as Key Account Sales Engineer for the Central Maine Power subsidiary of renewable energy giant Avangrid Networks which serves 3.3 million electric and natural gas customers in New England and New York.
I spend many hours every week keeping up with Google's latest improvements to Google Ads, Google Business Profile, Google Maps, Google Cloud, YouTube, Mobile First Indexing, and all Google's other tools and platforms.
I use the latest and best SEO and PPC tools: Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, Google Ads Editor, Screaming Frog, Xenu - and now the open-source AI chatbot DeepSeek, and more...
I'm an active professional member of the Paid Search Association which is dedicated to maintaining high ethical and business standards in the paid search industry.
Since 2000, I have been founder, President and CEO of tourism marketing firm ACRO Global, a Maine corporation, providing digital marketing, advertising and representation services to tourism businesses and destinations that are targeting the New England market.
My X (formerly Twitter)timeline is here. I tweet mainly about Google search and advertising, also tech research and conferences. Please check it out, and follow me!
On a Personal Level
When not traveling, my wife Blanche and I divide our time between our two favorite small towns: Boothbay Harbor, Maine “The Boating Capital of New England” where we have our office and a 100-year-old log cabin, and South Boston, Massachusetts, where we're located in an even older block of triple-decker brick rowhouses down by the beach.
I've always liked to tinker with machinery - engineering was an obvious career choice - so have rooms full of audio, video and computer gear, and a garage full of old cars, some drivable, some not yet (but working on it). And, for creative therapy, I cook.