FirstClick Consulting

Grace Chu

The SEO industry is so saturated that standing out from the crowd can be extremely difficult. One way businesses do this is by training up their staff to be experts in their field, so they can assist better clients and generate more word-of-mouth buzz.

FirstClick chief executive Grace Chu puts a large emphasis on this as part of her marketing strategy. She trains up her staff to speak at conferences, and also gets them involved within the business to generate new ideas.

“We hold regular sessions aimed at getting all staff in a room to brainstorm and discuss ideas that will catapult our business forward.”

“Here our staff can submit any ideas they like – it could be about what type of snacks to buy the office all the way through to revenue generating new business ideas. The ideas are submitted by staff and voted on by the rest of the team. It's been a fantastic ideas generating tool for us.”

In seven years the company has grown to reach $24 million in turnover with 27 employees. There were some rough times, including during the financial crisis when businesses scaled back on marketing, but Chu decided to scale up and prepare for the inevitable bounce back.

And with the industry changing so rapidly, maintaining growth has been a consistent challenge. But Chu says investment in both the company and her staff keep FirstClick on top.

“The digital world is always changing at a rapid rate and it can be a challenge staying ahead of the game.”

“But while challenging, it's essential. What's hot one minute is quickly replaced by the next big thing. Each channel or technology brings its own set of innovations which change the search marketing industry substantially.”