Shanee Kirk Marketing (SKM) was founded in 2002 to give the founding principal, Shanee Kirk, the flexibility to focus on the types of projects she finds most rewarding —pay per click consulting — and to provide small businesses and organizations with marketing support they would not otherwise be able to access.
Based in Kingwood, Texas (north of Houston), SKM works with local, national and international clients managing over $10 million in paid search advertising a year. Shanee has been honored to be named and serve as a Google Adwords Top Contributor, volunteering time to answer questions and troubleshoot in the Adwords forum.
In her spare time, Shanee is a proud mother to four awesome children. A perfect night is spent snuggling on the couch with a movie and some homemade popcorn. Family is everything!
About the Founder
Ms. Kirk holds an MBA with a focus in marketing and statistics and an undergraduate degree in Business Administration. Her education is enhanced with hands-on experience with national and international marketing giving Ms. Kirk credentials and expertise not usually found with in-house marketing organizations and not usually available to many businesses. Working with SKM allows clients to cost-effectively execute eBusiness and marketing projects that are the best industry has to offer.
Shanee Kirk began working with web sites and e-commerce in the 1990s. As Marketing Manager and Retention Projects Coordinator, she executed some of the first successful online marketing efforts for the Austin American-Statesman. Some of Ms. Kirk’s specific contributions include
- lead the revamp of the circulation website, increasing web site subscriptions by 55% in less than one year
- won NAA Top 60 Circulation Ideas for web site innovation and design
- supervised the bulk sales sector of the sales and marketing department more than doubling the departments sales one year and raising them another 300% the next
- analyzed and improved the success rate of circulation direct marketing pieces – typical success rate of an average direct marketing response improved by over 100%
Working for large international companies like Motorola and Seiko International, she learned tactics and strategies that result in successful multi-channel marketing programs. With Motorola, Ms. Kirk acted as an account manager for an “internal” advertising agency. In this role, she managed hundreds of projects each month. These projects included printed collateral, web sites, banner ads, e-direct campaigns, video, and live events.
Working within a division of Seiko International specializing in mass market manufacturing, importing, distribution, and sale of watches, Ms. Kirk worked with licensing, statistics, and marketing analysis of brands such as: Disney, Barbie, Starter, Ocean Pacific, and exclusive brands for large customers such as Target and Wal-Mart. Ms. Kirk developed and implemented the company’s first forecasting model. She monitored the results and success achieved from the model, and designed changes to improve accuracy. Ms. Kirk received an award as a member of the company’s “2000 All Star Team.” Also while with Seiko, Ms. Kirk won Target’s “Vendor of the Year Award” in the second quarter of 2000. This was due to successfully managing the inventory flow to Target stores.
SKM draws strategies and tactics from best industry practices. SKM uses current online marketing tactics that are proven effective and relevant for B2B or B2C markets. To assure that practices are the most up-to-date, Ms. Kirk actively participates on Google AdWords forum. She volunteers for several hours every week as a Level 3 Contributor on the forum answering questions and providing advice on troubleshooting and improving paid search campaigns. Ms. Kirk is a Google AdWords “Qualified Individual” through the Google Advertising Professionals program, and keeps up with all of the annual requirements to maintain certification.
Services and Success for SKM Clients
Ms. Kirk is experienced with copywriting, design, project management, and production used in print-based and online marketing programs. She currently manages SKM’s virtual workforce offering turnkey project management and services of copywriting, graphic design, web programming, and web design through one central source. SKM develops and executes marketing campaigns and strategies focused on online marketing while seeking a complete integrated marketing approach.
Major clients for SKM include
- Large Agency Consulting: GWEM Online, Spur Interactive
- Business to Business: Secure64, Motorola, Freescale Semiconductor, ePaperFlip, easyGUI (Denmark), IHS
- Business to Consumer: Crocs, Olshan Foundation, Sun and Ski Sports, Medical Hair Restoration, American Institute for Gastric Banding.
SKM also works with start-ups and entrepreneurs. Bringing big business strategies down to smaller companies with a smaller budget and intense need to succeed (and succeed quickly). SKM projects tie metrics and reporting in the monitoring to provide clients with data needed to determine ROI, and make data-driven decisions intended to in a continuous improvement loop.
The PPC expertise of SKM—particularly Ms. Kirk’s ability to understand the manipulative variables involved with PPC—has resulted in large agencies bringing SKM in to consult on “troubling” PPC campaigns. In a matter of months, SKM can act as the “cleaner” taking a non-working campaign and shape it up to meet the previously unachievable goals for the clients. A maintenance campaign plan is put into action and the campaigns are then given back to the agency to maintain.
The challenges and complexities of online marketing keep projects varied and interesting. Ms. Kirk enjoys learning new things and passing her knowledge on to others. Ms. Kirk finds that measurable results and the ability to track multiple factors associated with online campaigns supports successful marketing efforts. The growing complexities in SEO and the impact of search engines on the industry will continue to draw SKM to seek opportunities that included strong online components.