Meet Carrie Morgan

 

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carrie Morgan.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Carrie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Growing up, I was a horse lover who spent far more time on horseback then hanging around people. In fact, my very first job was at a dude ranch in Redmond, Washington, taking groups of people on rental horses through the woods. I went to college in Virginia to study equine science and journalism, going on to become a hunter/jumper horse trainer. Talk about a hard way to make a buck! Eventually, I came to my senses—much to my parent’s relief, I’m sure—and turned to something more lucrative. Marketing. I landed a part-time job handling event and direct mail marketing at a local financial services firm.

My first full-time job in marketing was in the late nineties for an internet start-up. Called Virtual Shopping, this early adopter of cloud-based services provided kiosks in office lobbies and other areas where people could shop for items online with a live agent available to help them. It combined online shopping with video conferencing in the form of kiosks, since desktop computers with internet access were not nearly as prolific as they are today. (Remember seeing AOL installation disks everywhere for the first consumer dial-up solution? It happened in those days. LOL)

Since it was early days of the internet, I’m sure you can imagine the quality of the video. Painful stuttering from dial-up bandwidth, early editions of Windows software that were barely past using DOS, and all of the other limitations that came with the early days of internet usage–but, oh, the glory of one of the very first online shopping opportunities! I’ve been a digital specialist ever since.

I’ve moved through various roles in marketing and public relations ever since those days, including ten years in vice president roles and the last twelve years as a consultant. Technology companies, health care, nonprofits, agencies – I never specialized in certain industries, but always found my way to some sort of digital role. In fact, in many of the agencies I worked at, I was instrumental in bringing digital skills to the team, promoting and even teaching them. I also found myself frequently in a client retention role, saving clients from walking out the door, and building strategies and enticing proposals to win new agency business. I had a ring-side view of the struggle agencies went through (and continue to face), in terms of fulfilling digital skills that clients demand.

It’s been an interesting career, for sure. These past roles definitely lead to where I am today as a keyword analyst, including significant time working with website development, heuristics analysis for website customer experience, site architecture, branding and market positioning, public relations, and search engine optimization. Lots of SEO. =) All of these skills make me uniquely suitable for keyword analysis. It also makes it hard for others to compete with what I can offer. They just don’t have that same background.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being self-employed is something I fell into by accident. I was laid off, couldn’t find a job in a difficult economy and had two small kids to feed, so I created a way to earn income. I found clients.

I was laid off during the Great Depression of 2008—and doesn’t that just sound rather ironic considering the coronavirus predicament we’re in right now that might trigger another one—I was working at a small boutique PR agency in Scottsdale. They lost most of their clients in a matter of days, and just like that, I was laid off.

So long, paycheck.

As a single mom of two young kids in middle school, it was absolutely terrifying. Little cash in the bank, two weeks of severance pay, no child support and a mortgage to pay – I had to think fast. I took stock of the skills I had to offer and went toe-to-toe with local agencies to land client retainer work. I cobbled together a website and learned how to compete.

Today, I’m an award-winning author and an established part of the marketing community, and almost thirteen years into being my own boss.

I didn’t start out as a keyword analyst, though. Until last November, I helped companies integrate digital tactics like content marketing, search engine optimization and social media into their existing marketing. As a digital marketing consultant, over 90% of my business was directly related to SEO and content marketing.

Clients valued my skills as a digital marketing generalist, but the passion and enthusiasm for my work were dwindling away. When my two largest, long-term clients decided not to renew their contracts after 4-5 years each, I viewed the attrition as a good thing and knew it was time to do something different. Similar, but better. I wanted to find something that would rekindle my love of marketing and provide immense value to clients. I wanted to do something more niche, unusual and interesting.

After doing some deep personal reflection, I realized deep keyword research and aligning SEO with conversion was something I’d always loved, and something I was very, very talented at. I chose that as my niche and reinvented my business as a keyword analyst helping companies bring exactly the right audience to their website, so their SEO and content marketing dollars are spent more effectively. Launched just a few months ago, CarrieMorgan.com is the result.

Deep keyword analysis is my strongest, most unique skill. It’s one that has the power to deeply impact the success of a business, transforming their lead generation, so I’m super excited about the new direction. I’ve always been passionate about conversion and SEO, and am looking forward to what the post-coronavirus year will bring.

We’d love to hear more about your work.
I’ve never been a “good” employee. Hard-working and motivated to succeed, sure, but also opinionated, decisive, unafraid to speak out and honest—sometimes too honest. While people say they want these qualities, the truth is that it doesn’t work in every corporate culture. But those same qualities that made an agency and corporate career difficult seem to work well in my career as a self-employed consultant. They’re valued.

I’m a keyword analyst (consultant) who works with companies investing in content marketing and SEO that want to improve their conversion. I help them understand the online search behavior of their target audience, identify their highest priority keywords, then integrate those keywords into their website and content marketing to boost sales and conversion.

Ultimately, it’s not about keywords at all. It’s about business outcomes we can achieve by bringing the “perfect” lead to their website at the right moment in that person’s discovery process or purchase decision. Not only does it boost targeting and results, it often helps them understand lead generation and their potential customer’s decision process much, much better. I’m a spreadsheet totin’, data lovin’ analyst that looks at nuances, audiences and buyer intent, then comes up with a keyword plan of action to make very specific business outcomes happen.

I’m more than a keyword analyst, though, when it comes to my professional life. I provide custom training to small groups, such as agencies or marketing teams. I also recently created Modern Communicator, a peer-to-peer coaching and mentoring group for marketing, public relations and communications professionals to help each other improve their digital skills. It includes local monthly events in Phoenix, virtual events, and a growing library of online classes and other resources (free and paid). It’s also got an active job board of remote work opportunities for those impacted by the coronavirus. I’ve always had a strong love of teaching and helping others, and Modern Communicator is a venue to do that.

Last, I’m an award-winning, published author in digital marketing. I love to write, so although I may have only my first book available now, there will be others. It’s just part of who I am. Who am I in my personal life? A single parent of two young adults, a fraternal twin, a voracious reader and a quilting hobbyist. Life is good.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I’ve been a prolific reader my entire life, starting in elementary school – powering through 10-20 books a month. School librarians knew me well in elementary, middle and high school. And as a reader, I would dream of being an author… never thinking it would become reality.

My proudest moment was in 2016 when I opened a package from my publisher to see my book in print for the first time. Seeing my name on that cover was INCREDIBLE. That book went on to win two awards, one from the Nonfiction Author’s Association and one from the Book Excellence Awards, and putting those foil stickers on the cover of my book sends a thrill down my spine every single time. It might be my first book, but it won’t be my last.

(If we ever meet for coffee, ask me about my story of firing and hiring a New York book agent and a publisher, before signing on with the one that actually printed my book. It was quite an experience!)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.carriemorgan.com/
• Phone: (602) 953-8211
• Email: carrie@carriemorgan.com
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morgancarrie/

Image Credit:
Photography by Jodi Lynn

Suggest a story: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.