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I founded Stark Digital in 2018. I’d received a couple of requests for ad hoc work, and wanted a way of legitimizing that income. However, Stark Digital was largely dormant until the COVID-19 pandemic. Seeing an uncertain market ahead, I took on extra work under Stark Digital to create an alternative source of income.
I was ready to scale Stark Digital should the pandemic have turned for the worse, but I was fortunate enough to keep stable employment throughout.
In fact, as hard as the pandemic was, it became an incredibly valuable time for me. I upskilled in Google Ads, Social Ads, SEO, content writing, and graphic design.
During this time, I had been receiving more requests for ad hoc work, and that work was turning into ongoing relationships. Eventually, I’d received so many invitations to work together that I saw that Stark Digital was offering a different level of service that the market was desperately seeking.
It was at this time that I decided to take the plunge. I launched Stark Digital as its own entity and made it my full-time job.
Work in a digital marketing agency for long enough, and you’ll see them all go the same way. Profit over performance. Money over meaning. One client comes on board as another cancels.
Large agencies aren’t cheap to run, which means they tend to take on more clients than they can reasonably handle. This leads to poor performance and a revolving door of clients that necessitates round-the-year-advertising, staff burnout, and a string of unhappy customers. It’s a self-sustaining spiral and I am determined to avoid this with my own business.
I don’t sell what I can’t manage.
I don’t sell what I don’t understand.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that I run all the campaigns myself. The true value of my service is understanding the pieces of your marketing puzzle, and it’s my knowledge of each marketing platform that helps me put them together in a way that just makes sense.
Does this mean I’m cheaper than other agencies? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But what it does mean is that I’m always aware of my working capacity. Because of that, I only take on what I can manage. I don’t drop you and your campaigns while I chase the next big client or focus on managing cash flow. The best way of not having a revolving door of clients is not to create one by taking on more than you can handle.
I’m not driven by mad profit or being Australia’s next millionaire. I’m driven by spending my time doing the best possible job for you. Whether you’re looking for SEO, PPC, social ads, or someone to simply take over your entire marketing function, I make certain that you’ll get everything you need.
I was born in Scotland, living near Edinburgh for most of my teenage years. After studying Communications, Advertising & PR at Edinburgh Napier University, I jumped across to Australia in 2011 and got to work building a life over here.
After nine years of serving drinks in some of Edinburgh & Melbourne’s favourite bars, I transitioned into marketing sales. It wasn’t for me, and I moved into Account Management a couple of years later. From there, I went from mega agencies to smaller agencies and eventually to an in-house role before deciding to go out on my own.
During my career, I earned a reputation for being quite dry with my opinions on campaign performance. If I didn’t think something was working, I was always the first person to acknowledge it and come up with a plan around it. Some people loved that, more people didn’t, but this approach has always kept me investigating what was next rather than simply hoping clients wouldn’t notice the shortfalls.
The clients that stuck around were better for this approach, and while Stark is my surname, the Stark in Stark Digital is indicative of my tell-it-how-it-is approach as well.
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