Decoder was built from the ground up to help you grow — profitably and predictably.

The origin story of Decoder goes back to 2010 when digital marketing was still in its infancy and it was common for clients’ to ask, “I know I’m supposed to invest in SEO, but what does that even stand for?” Agencies sprung up to service businesses who wanted to get ahead in the wild west of digital marketing and were all too eager to take on any and every client, even when the project didn’t serve that client’s bottom line. What a waste when digital marketing was so eminently measurable and could be used for good!

There was a better way — one that actually aligned with both clients’ best interests and running an ethical, successful agency. Decoder was started at the beginning of 2011 to take a values- and results-driven approach that made sure that clients got the best ROI out of their digital marketing investment. The name Decoder came from a desire to help clients “decode” and navigate the digital marketing landscape, which is still too often talked about in esoteric, technical, and buzzwordy terms that obscure fact from fiction.

Today, the landscape is different: every agency has added digital marketing to their offerings and it’s common to see SEO, paid search and social, or even conversion rate optimization tacked onto a long list of “one-stop shop” services.” But few agencies actually specialize in it, have deep expertise or staff specialized talent.

For the past 12 years, we’ve developed and refined our processes based on real world experience with hundreds of clients across diverse industries. We’ve found what works — and what pitfalls to avoid. In the process, we found that it was critical to exclusively staff highly experienced and specialized talent. Our team members have more than 10 years of experience each and it can’t be overemphasized how important that is. The real value of an agency is always its people — it’s their expertise, their passion, their creativity, and their drive that’s the biggest predictor of success. 

Equally important is choosing the right clients. Being able to spot situations where we can win just as well as those we can’t and being completely candid from the first conversation to the last has ultimately resulted in a lot of happy clients and team members. We rely on driving meaningful results month-after-month to earn our clients’ business, so we’re careful to only take on clients with a clear line of sight to ROI. If we don’t think there’s a strong probability that we’ll have a successful relationship, we won’t work with you. And we’ve found that clients actually like hearing that, even when it means we point them in another direction.

At the end of the day, our clients’ ROI is our north star. At the start of every engagement, we ask: how can we double our clients’ leads, sales, and revenue? That’s the kind of thinking that achieves ambitious goals with equally ambitious actions and sets us up to hit home runs. Once we’ve gotten the broad strokes right, that question changes to how we can make everything we’re doing more efficient and profitable? That focus on continuous improvement can unlock a virtuous cycle of increasing profitability and scale.

If that’s where you want to head, reach out and let’s talk.