Making Digital Marketing Work During the Pandemic

Lark Begin tells us how Profit Parrot Marketing is helping businesses succeed in the online world.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Lark Begin: It’s been a very hard situation with our family as we have 2 young children, 5 and 2. When the schools were locked down, as the income earner in our family, I was forced to work (at home) while they were also home and found this extremely challenging. There’s never any time to focus fully, but we’ve scheduled time blocks to combat this, and we’re making it work.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Profit Parrot Marketing.

Lark Begin: I fell in love with marketing when my husband owned his flooring company in 2008. He needed someone to help with marketing his business online, and I took on this role. After learning through a series of online courses, committing to hours of educating myself online, and even travelling for conferences, I was able to master some top digital marketing techniques that helped us build a steady flow of leads. I started helping others with their marketing and then formed Profit Parrot Marketing in 2011. I now manage many clients and help them with their SEO and digital marketing needs.

How does Profit Parrot Marketing innovate? 

Lark Begin: We always need to stay in the know of the latest google trends. We absolutely have to stay ahead of our competitors as well as our clients’ competitors. We are always committed to learning. There is never a day that I don’t try to learn something new about the digital marketing niche.

How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your business finances?

Lark Begin: Our finances definitely took a dip in the first few months when covid hit. Everything started to slow down at that time, and there were a lot of unknowns. We’ve pushed through the slow time now and have come out stronger and more profitable than ever. A lot of small business owners turned their businesses into e-commerce stores and depend more on digital marketing since covid started. Our services are now in more demand than ever.

Did you have to make difficult choices regarding human resources, and what are the lessons learned?

Lark Begin: Luckily, this time period and the virus complications didn’t affect our team.

How did your customer relationship management evolve? Do you use any specific tools to be efficient?

Lark Begin: All of our work is done online. We like to keep things streamlined by using email communication, slack, skype, spreadsheets, streamlined reporting tools, and google doc files. We need to stay extremely organized to keep things running effectively.

Did you benefit from any government grants, and did that help keep your business afloat?

Lark Begin: No

Your final thoughts?

Lark Begin: I think we’ve learned that it’s extremely important to be adaptable. I’m always testing new pieces of software, new reporting tools, and new ways to get quality results faster so my clients will get ahead of their competitors. There’s no time to be complacent and remain stagnant in this ever-changing world full of unknowns. We are always looking one step ahead.

Your website?

https://profitparrot.com/