Reston Chamber Spotlight: Conversion Pipeline

Reston Chamber Spotlight is a feature by members of the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now. Today’s spotlight is on marketing firm Conversion Pipeline and its CEO Michael Delpierre.

Reston Now: Why did you decide to start your business in Reston?

MD: Reston is a centralized location for business in Northern Virginia. Also, it’s location is central for finding skilled employees.

RN: What are the challenges and rewards of being a business owner?

MD: Rewards are:

• Helping other companies meet/exceed their revenue goals
• Personal reward of helping create business growth
• Overall sense of achievement
• Building a company with great people is the most rewarding experience I have had

Challenges:

• You do NOT have a lot of free time.
• Work never ends. So long to the 9-to-5 jobs. Weekend work is the norm for our industry.
• Finding new employees that are skilled in digital marketing is hard because colleges do not prepare students to succeed in digital marketing.

RN: Name something about your business that most people don’t know.

MD: I served for 6 years in the United States Marine Reserve, so we are a veteran-owned business. Also, Harry Brooks, our CMO, worked for an major Internet Registrar and has given over 200+ presentation on SEO & Google AdWords He is our go-to presenter. He is a a complete digital rockstar.

RN: What do you offer your clients that makes you unique?

MD: Digital marketing has become completely transparent. We utilize conversion goal and call tracking solutions so we can tell our clients down to the dollar what their return on investment it.

Most companies spend marketing and advertising dollars without truly knowing what their ROI is. We provide our clients with a platform that allows us to discuss where and how much they should spend on specific advertising campaigns based on actual data.

Digital Marketing has and will keep on surpassing other traditional advertising paths.

RN: How has the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce helped your business grow?

MD: I view the Chamber as a partner. We have held many joint seminars, the last one being a seminar where we had Google present to a group of 20+ small business owners and marketer on the benefits of AdWords. We utilized our partnership with Google and with the Chamber to put on a great event, which benefits the local business community and raises our visibility within the community.

I started out volunteering in the Communications committee, now I am the co-chair of that committee. Shortly thereafter, I joined the Board of Directors and have been active within the chamber ever since.

My company sponsors events because we believe in the Chamber’s mission and love to have our brand next to other great chamber members.

RN: What is the quote that best describes your business?

MD: I never thought of defining my business with a quote. Digital Marketing is constantly evolving so the old cliché “You Grow Or Die” is probably the most applicable.

RN: What is your advice to someone who is thinking about owning a business?

MD: You have to look around and at your competition, if you think you can do it better than them, offer a superior product/service and have a good time doing it, then GO FOR IT! I thought to myself, I didn’t want to be 75 years of age looking back saying “What If”… that would crush me.