Employee Spotlight

At CanIRank, we are extremely proud of our team and their diverse backgrounds and talents. Today, we’d like to introduce you to Mark Lewandowski. As a strategic and operationally driven consultant, Mark delivers results for his clients. Plus, he’s always making us laugh and his personality is pretty contagious. So with no further adieu. Meet Mark.

About Mark: Mark is a globally experienced professional with a background in data-driven marketing, communications, and business operations. He’s passionate about helping create genuine connections between businesses and their audiences and identifying opportunities for growth. (He’s also passionate about creating the perfect cup of coffee and planning his next travel adventure.) Drop him a note on LinkedIn. He’d love to hear from you.

Location

Black Hills of South Dakota

Random Fun Fact

I have a really bad habit of buying more books than I can read at a time. I have a stack of 10 books, and probably 20 Kindle books all lined up to be read next. My guilty pleasure is eating jars of Nutella with a spoon. (Don’t judge, you know you do the same.)

Professional Background

  • What is your background in SEO?
  • “My background in SEO stems from starting work at a marketing agency back in 2011 and needing to do more than just building a website, creating social media campaigns, or developing marketing newsletters for my clients. Thanks to some cool WordPress plugins, I learned what works and doesn’t work for SEO. Titles are important, meta descriptions with clear call to actions are REALLY important. SEO is vital to any marketing and communications strategy.”
  • Tell us about your role at CanIRank.
  • “I think I have a really fun role at CanIRank (other CanIRankers will probably say their roles are also fun). I am not only a lead consultant, getting to work with colleagues to create a strategy to help best serve our clients, but also serve on the operations team, working with other leadership to make CanIRank more efficient and impactful for everyone at CanIRank and for our clients.”
  • What led you to choose marketing and SEO as a career?
  • “I really like SEO because it combines two things I really love: data and communications. Throughout my career, I’ve led initiatives to ensure that communication is always authentic. I really like taking the data that’s available through CanIRank, Google Analytics, and my own research to develop a marketing and communication strategy to ensure the communication between clients and their audience is authentic and optimized.”
  • What led you to work for CanIRank?
  • “I was on the search for a position where I could rely on my past marketing experience, use a more analytical lens to create communications, and be a part of an organization where I can make a positive impact. I found the posting, filled out the application (still probably one of the most fun job applications I have ever filled out), and in a few weeks I was chatting with CanIRank!”
  • What niche industries would you consider yourself an expert in?
  • “I’ve held leadership roles in nonprofit, retail and e-commerce industries, and worked in health and wellness and sporting goods, and think those in addition to international experience is really valuable. (Even with a lot of experience in these areas, there is always something to learn!)”
  • What SEO tactic do you find yourself recommending frequently to friends or small business owners?
  • “I cannot stress enough how important content is to a successful SEO tactic. One thing I tell friends and small business owners (and you, gentle reader), is that having meaningful, well organized content on your website will really help your SEO efforts and help people create a connection with your business which will hopefully make them take action.”
  • Do you have an example of work that you are extremely proud of?
  • “I helped a logistics startup in Nashville get their first REALLY big contract through a combination of Google Ads, landing pages, LinkedIn ads, and landing pages! It was fun to do audience research and also use data analytics to develop a strategy and then for them to be excited about their first big contract! Knowing I helped in their success really meant a lot.”
  • What advice would you give to a small business owner looking to expand their business?
  • “There are so many things you can do! Look at your consumer and see what their needs are and how you can meet them! Do a competitive analysis and see what you can be doing better or different from your competition! Or, evaluate your marketing efforts and see what else you can be doing differently. I would also argue that it’s important to examine what changes you can make in your organization to scale easier.”
  • What is a common mistake you’ve noticed working with new clients?
  • “Having worked with all types of clients in my career, I think new clients are so excited to get started that they also think that improvements can happen overnight. I like to tell people that like anything worth waiting for, things take some time. It takes time for your SEO efforts to be realized, it takes time for a new marketing campaign to make an impact. Also, I like to stress the importance of having a marketing and communications strategy rooted in analytics and sticking to that strategy for some time to see results and then adjust from there.”
  • Describe a marketing campaign that impressed you.
  • “One campaign that continues to impress me (and has had a long run), is the “Calling All Creators” campaign from adidas (and I’m not just saying that because I did an internship at adidas’ global headquarters in Germany while completing my master’s degree). :-) It not only positions the brand in a certain light of positivity, but also engages with people (even those who may not be dedicated adidas fans) making the brand accessible to elite athletes and those with an eye for street style and performance.”
  • How do you determine success with your clients?
  • “When I start an engagement with a client, I want to be clear about their goals and how I and everyone at CanIRank can help achieve those goals. I am successful when we meet or exceed those goals and also when we create small wins for our clients (maybe getting them mentioned in a publication, or seeing a significant increase in rankings or trends). My greatest joy is seeing my clients seeing the payoff from investing in their strategy, and also developing a strategy to drive their business forward.”
  • How do you explain SEO to your friends/colleagues?
  • “Well. Most of my friends don’t know what SEO is, so I usually tell them “You know when you Google something? Yeah, I help websites get to the top of that list when it makes sense for that word or phrase so you find information easily” That response is usually met with head nods and folks saying “ohhh, okay, yeah, I get it”.”
  • What is the best part of working in SEO?
  • “I really enjoy digging into data and doing research to understand users and how they are finding our clients. From there, developing strategy that communicates and grabs attention is really fun. Then seeing that strategy convert users is really rewarding.”
  • How do you keep up to date with industry information?
  • “There are so many great ways to keep up. I really like using Feedly to easily digest industry news and stay on top of trends. I also like doing online courses to keep growing my analytics, management, marketing, and SEO skills.”

Personal Background

  • How would you define your life with emojis?
  • 🤣✈️🤔🗺️☕💻
  • What is the neatest thing you’ve ever done?
  • “I don’t know how “neat” it is, but it’s certainly something that was a big decision, and one that I’m so glad that I did. (And…one that my colleagues here at CanIRank are probably sick of me talking about.) ;-) I think making the decision to move to Germany to complete a master’s degree in international business and finance was probably the neatest thing I have ever done. Adapting to a new culture, having adventures in trying to communicate in German (that I still am trying to learn), and getting a really international perspective on business are just some of the great things I experienced. While I learned a lot in class, living in Europe, and then working with really diverse, international teams is something that can’t be learned in a classroom. Really got a quick lesson on adapting to different situations quickly and being creative while communicating. I was fortunate to do some traveling in and outside of Germany while studying for 2 years, so it was neat to be immersed in so much history and meet so many different people. What’s neat about traveling or living somewhere completely different is realizing that we all have more things in common than you realize.”
  • What/who inspires you?
  • “There can be a lot of negative stuff out in the world, so I’m constantly inspired by positive news: breakthroughs in fighting disease, people overcoming adversity, silver linings in otherwise tragic events.”
  • If you could ban one thing from existence, what would it be?
  • “Room temperature coffee…it’s hot coffee or cold brew all the way.”
  • What is your favorite hobby?
  • “Traveling! I also enjoy cooking (because I really, really enjoy eating). And since I really, really enjoy eating, I also really, really enjoy checking out different workout apps on my phone!”
  • If you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today?
  • “This is a deep question! Probably just telling my friends and family how much I love them. Then maybe in doing some really adventurous things, like skydiving would be on the list, as well as eating and drinking things I wouldn’t do on a normal day.”
  • Would you rather find yourself living in a real-world version of “Stranger Things” or “The Matrix?”
  • “Uhhhhhhhhhh neither.”
  • Dessert or Candy?
  • “Oh dessert for sure!”
  • Lizards or Snakes?
  • “Oooh snakes are horrible. Let’s say lizards.”
  • What else should we know about you?
  • “I drink so much coffee that I’m pretty sure my blood type is “Starbucks House Blend”.”

And… that’s a wrap!