Mark Smith
CueCamp is a full-service marketing agency, offering everything from strategy, branding, web design, data analytics, social media, and automation to maximize your ROI. We help clients maximize their marketing dollar by providing intelligent, targeted marketing to boost revenue.
Tell us about yourself?
I have a unique ability to market businesses using a combination of web design, interactive marketing, social media and marketing automation to boost their ROI. My background is in Behavioral Psychology for my degree.
My career experience consists of over 32 years of being an entrepreneur myself helping other business owners grow their businesses with the different skill sets that I come to the table with. In college I ran a business where I would go into different Physicians offices and take over their bookkeeping, medical billing, and get them into the black with their numbers. Many Physicians do not have a business background and therefore do not know the business side of things.
Most struggle because of this and to most people’s surprise are struggling until they figure it out. I saw a need for this so I started my own consulting business. Out of college I was the head of human resources at a local hospital where I took care of all of their recruitment, and internal HR needs. In 2008, my husband and I decided to start our own businesses.
He had received his PhD which was interdisciplinary and focused on usability, communication, non-verbal communication, Psychology etc. So we decided to start a company called Situated Research which is a Usability firm.
What that means is that we have PhD’s on staff, including my husband, who specialize in creating user-friendly software and that goes for websites as well. We then branched off CueCamp to strictly focus on creating user-friendly websites, social media marketing, business strategy, logo design, etc.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Be patient. Owning your own business is a roller coaster ride. And you have to decide if you are ready for the ride.
What problem does your business solve?
Every business, big or small, needs an online presence so we are your one stop shop for everything online. You also need an online presence that is consistent and makes sense to end users.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Everyone has done a Google search for something and they click on the first website that comes up and they leave right away. We all make an impression about a website within 80 milliseconds. We were sick of seeing all of these awful looking websites.
So we decided to take our expertise of Usability and our background in programming and mesh the two so we could create user-friendly websites for the internet to enjoy. Once that was accomplished we then looked at these businesses and found out quickly that the rest of their online presence just didn’t go well together.
And when you figure that piece out you then get into business development and strategy with business owners. Learning about businesses, their stories, and going through this journey with them is rewarding in so many ways.
What is your magic sauce?
We differ from our competition because we have that Usability background and my husbands PhD. There are tons of web design companies that say they create user-friendly websites but have no idea what that even really means.
They think that if the website works, meaning forms work and the checkout system works that they have created a user-friendly site.
I would hope the website works and functions correctly. Having a user-friendly website means so much more. Does the labeling of your pages make sense? What does your information architecture look like and does it make sense to users?
Does it take 3 clicks to checkout or does it take more? Is the website simple and easy to use? It goes on and on and on and you have to have a true background in Usability to nail it each and every time.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We want to build a legacy and we want CueCamp to be the go to name for everything online design. In order for that to happen we need to reach out more beyond our local area.
We do have a plan for that and it includes things like this interview, being on podcasts, and establishing ourselves as industry experts. And I believe we are well on our way already.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
The pandemic really has thrown a wrench into things. Where we would normally meet in person with our clients we are now meeting on Zoom.
We have definitely learned to adapt but there still is a disconnect. We love building friendships with our clients because we end up working with them for years and so meeting on Zoom has made that a bit harder for us. So we have found other ways to connect and keep the relationships going.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We want business owners, of any size, to reach out and request a Free Website Marketing Analysis video from us. It’s Free. There is no obligation to anything. We do not call you. We simply need your name, email address, and url to your business website.
We have 5 users, and a PhD from our parent company Situated Research, review your website. We look at everything from menu navigation, Information Architecture, coding, layout etc. We put the good, the bad, and the ugly into a 10-15 minute video and you get to learn what needs improvement on your site and what you did well. https://www.cuecamp.com/free-website-user-experience-analysis/ You can take the information and implement on your own or you can contact us to help you out.
