The Media Captain

Several years ago, the marketing side of business accounted for most of our revenue. I wanted to diversify by growing our web design services. The journey was challenging, with numerous obstacles along the way. We invested considerable time refining our process, cultivating the right talent, and developing websites that outperformed our competitors. Monday.com, our project management software, played a crucial role in this transformation. Initially, we struggled with larger site projects due to inadequate processes—a shortcoming I take responsibility for. Through persistent refinement, we developed a streamlined workflow in Monday.com that seamlessly coordinated our team members while providing clients with clear visibility and easy communication at every project stage. While there's always room for improvement, I'm proud of our progress. Launching a new business division is no small feat; it requires patience, resilience, and a willingness to learn from failures. During the struggles, I often thought the investment and resources put into growing this division weren’t worth it. I’ve learned that building something worthwhile takes time and perseverance. The road may be longer and bumpier than anticipated, and you may not reap the benefits for years. The end result, if executed properly, is worth the journey!

Note: This picture was from 2014 when we first started building websites. We’ve come a long way since then. I’ll always be grateful to everyone who was a part of the journey during the early stages! The process could never have developed to where it is today without the early struggles and ideas that came during those times.

Hi There! I'm Stefanie Parks, Co-Founder of The Media Captain (TMC) and business partner to my brother, Jason Parks, the agency's Owner. Back in 2010, I was working at a market research firm in Chicago, feeling unfulfilled. I'll never forget the moment Jason pitched me the idea of joining TMC after he secured his first 5 clients. The timing couldn't have been better. I convinced my market research company to allow me to work part-time, giving me the chance to help build our new agency.

My first task was revamping the website. Trust me, you wouldn't want to see how bad the first iteration of Media Captain's site was! I immediately improved the branding to ensure we made a great first impression when people visited our site and got introduced to TMC.

It's amazing how many people can't believe a sibling duo can exist as business partners. We constantly get asked if we argue. The honest answer is that we hardly ever do, although Jason does try to take credit for a lot of my ideas! Jason and I complement each other extremely well. We each have our strengths, and there's also a nice crossover in certain areas.

After working on the agency side for 5 years, we became more well-versed in eCommerce marketing and web design. Our dad, a dermatologist, was selling a few skincare brands at his office. We decided to start an eCommerce skincare site called DermWarehouse. We scaled the operation to sell hundreds of brands and thousands of products, and have since amassed over 400,000 customers throughout the U.S.

I often think back to what would have happened if I had been content at my first job out of college. Would I have taken the leap of faith and joined The Media Captain? Would DermWarehouse even exist? That's the beauty of entrepreneurship: when an opportunity arises, you have to seize it and there's no looking back.

When people ask what sets The Media Captain apart, there are a few key things. We are so confident in our marketing abilities that we've been able to grow and cultivate other businesses, like DermWarehouse. The Media Captain has also grown by investing in our own SEO and digital marketing. Plus, we're a family-owned and operated business that loves entrepreneurship and seeing other businesses succeed.

We plan on sharing more of our stories about our business from over the years – the wins, losses, and memories. Stay tuned!

Hi there! I'm Jason Parks, Owner of The Media Captain (TMC). Over the years, I've shared a lot of tactics on digital marketing trends but haven't shared much on my entrepreneurial backstory. I will start by sharing the story of how my agency came about. I founded TMC in 2010 when I was 22 years old, working out of my 500-square-foot apartment at Tivoli Apartments in Downtown Columbus. It's hard to believe it's been 14 years since then! In those early days, when clients wanted to meet face-to-face, I'd tell them I wanted to see their business operations. The truth was, I didn't really have a proper place to meet them at my tiny apartment!

When we first started, our primary focus was on video and social media. In 2010, social media was a novel marketing avenue for businesses (hard to believe, right?). This was before Instagram existed! There weren't many experienced professionals in the space, so brands turned to young millennials like myself for guidance. My background in video production allowed me to create great content for brands while simultaneously managing their social media accounts. I am always thankful for getting into this industry at the perfect time.

I quickly became immersed in digital marketing, working 70-80 hour weeks in my 20's, fueled by 4 cups of coffee per day (I later gave up caffeine, but that's a story for another time). While I knew social media was a powerful channel, I wanted to explore other avenues like Google optimization and website enhancement. I started learning and pitching these additional services to my social media clients, which eventually allowed us to expand into a full-service agency. There were definitely some bumps and bruises along the way while creating new divisions of our agency, but the 2010s were a great time for trial and error since so much was unestablished in the digital space.

There were some early clients who took a chance on me as a 22-year-old, and I will never forget their trust and support. We now work with hundreds of brands across many verticals, but some of my best memories are those early clients who helped me hone my craft.

None of this would have been possible without my amazing business partner and sister, Stefanie Parks. Stay tuned for the next posts, where we'll introduce her and share more about our journey together. I also plan on sharing more stories about The Media Captain from over the years so you can get a behind-the-scenes look at our entrepreneurial journey.

When you have a powerful eCommerce website that generates a lot of traffic and sales, retargeting becomes an integral part of the overall strategy. For https://www.glasses.com, we were the first ones to implement social media retargeting campaigns back in 2015. With limited ad spend, we were able to drive more than $85,000 in monthly purchases through our retargeting ads. Retargeting on Meta has evolved a lot over the years, but it was exciting to be at the forefront of this initiative.

Often in the construction industry, websites are dated and don't correctly represent a brand. Construction companies work on large contracts with large, trusted businesses. It's important for their website to convey professionalism and trust. We helped accomplish this for R&C Cooper Construction.
https://www.rccooperconstruction.com/

Social Media and Google Ads significantly increased Cincy Favorite's growth during the '22 holiday season. We generated more than $100k in paid advertising from Google alone. We look forward to surpassing this metric in 2023!
https://www.themediacaptain.com/portfolio/cincy-favorites/

Our team launched a new website for Broadview Heating, broadviewheating.com. After launching the site, we saw a dramatic increase in keyword rankings for this client. They went from having no exposure on Google to hovering close to the first page for most of their major keywords. We accomplished this rank surge by restructuring all their pages while optimizing each page with strong, localized content. When you build a new site, it's such a great opportunity to cleanse and improve upon your existing SEO strategy. Our focus now shifts to getting this client ranking on the first page of Google!

Jason and Stefanie Parks, our Co-Founders, spoke to The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business on October 10th, 2023. They detailed what an agency or in-house business would look for when hiring students directly from college... Google, Amazon, and Facebook account for over 50% of all online advertising spend. The sibling duo spoke about the importance of these online channels.

We're excited to launch our new and improved website. As we celebrated our 13-year anniversary, it was the right time to make the look and feel of our brand more polished. We also wanted to emphasize our results for all client types better. You can view our new website at www.themediacaptain.com

Yesterday, I spoke with a prospective client who owned a roofing company. He was frustrated that he wasn't ranking on the first page of Google. One of the first things I did was put their website through one of my favorite tools, Originality.AI. The software detected that 97% of their content was generated via AI, and 99% was plagiarized from other sites.

I told the client that without unique content that enhances the user experience, there will be a slim chance of them ranking well. Additionally, they are exposing themselves to potential Google penalties with duplicative content.

Most businesses can sign up for Originality.ai for under $30 per month. I highly recommend using this to check for AI-generated content and plagiarized content. I also use Originality.AI in job interviews for written evaluations from prospective candidates to ensure unique answers.

I'm seeing many businesses get blindsided, not realizing the content on their website is being copied from other sites, which is common with AI. This tool is well worth the investment!

Felt cute. Might delete later. 🐾⚓️

Thanks to for featuring our office!! Very exciting. ⚓️⚓️⚓️

We always love talking entrepreneurship and digital marketing to the students at !

Thanks for the kind words Jeff!

Some new decor for our conference room!

Congrats to us! We are honored to rank #3 as one of Ohio's best B2B companies and to receive a Clutch Leader Award for our Web Design and Pay Per Click advertisements. Read more on Clutch: https://clutch.co/press-releases/announces-2021-top-b2b-companies-ohio?utm_content=169490738&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&hss_channel=lcp-2666211

Happy Friday from The Media Captain! Remember, our team is always on call for you. While our office is open for visits and consultations, we're happy to schedule a virtual session with you anytime!

Meet your logo and web designer Brittany Ouellette! Along with designing for The Media Captain, Brittany loves helping companies create visuals that fit their message!

This is our ! What lessons could you learn from negative reviews or comments from unhappy customers? How could you apply them to strengthen your business and get repeat customers?

"Our firm hired Media Captain for site development and ongoing SEO management. They have been fantastic to work with and our site is absolutely stunning. We recommend them very highly!"
- Kelly Cox, Trolinger Law Firm.

View Site: https://www.trolingerlaw.com/