Sam Kuehnle

Professional soccer player. Physical therapist. Psychologist.

What do these occupations have in common (besides all starting with "P")? They were the different career paths I wanted to take growing up. As you see by my job title, those didn't happen.

"Cool, Sam, but what's the point?" Although I didn't end up in one of those fields, those interests provided me with a unique skillset that’s allowed me to prosper as a digital marketer.

Teamwork & Discipline:
Good luck having any chance at success as a soccer team if teamwork and discipline aren't at the core of what you do every day. At a company serving multiple clients, working as one with each group is a necessity in creating successful omni-channel campaigns.

Find Problems and Deliver Solutions:
Your back has been killing you lately, so you go to a physical therapist and they tell you it's because your right hip is a half-inch higher than the left (true story). Your back compensates for this by working double time on that side, creating a strain. The physical therapist gives you exercises targeted specifically at treating the root cause, and the pain goes away. As a digital marketer, it's critical to understand the full customer journey. A late stage tactic may not be performing well, but the reason for it could be an early stage tactic not providing the necessary input. Understanding how everything ties together and having a plan to fix the root cause is required to be successful.

Empathy:
The single most important trait required of a psychologist is being able to place themselves in the other's shoes. As a digital marketer, the exact same is true. You must ask yourself, "What type of content is relevant to me?" at each stage of the journey.

Expertise: Paid Search/SEM, Search Engine Optimization/SEO, Display, Retargeting, Social Media/SMM, Paid Media, Account Based Marketing/ABM, Lead Generation, Digital Marketing/Strategy, Analytics, Customer Acquisition, Customer Journey, Content Marketing, A/B Split Testing, Budget Management, Conversational Marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization, Growth Marketing, Multi-Touch Attribution, Copywriting