Ranksey Digital Marketing: Competing With The Big Firms… And Winning
UpCity drives greater visibility for blossoming Utah agency seeing steady growth.
To say that Ranksey Digital Marketing founder and CEO Tanner Scott took an unconventional route to open his own digital marketing agency would perhaps be the understatement of the year. After all, it’s not often that you find a highly skilled marketer who admits to only taking one digital marketing class in college.
He smiled when recalling “the old days,” which is particularly amusing since he is a young rising star in the industry, himself.
“It probably would have been easier if I would have been on a more traditional path,” Scott said. “But the majority of my work experience was in the steel construction industry. I was working full time while going to school and I didn’t have time to do an internship. It made things difficult because everywhere I applied, they wanted at least two years of relevant experience.”
Relevant, of course, is relative. Scott served as an estimator in the steel construction world, then moved up to become a project manager, where he was responsible for structuring and organizing complex initiatives and making sure everything was delivered on time at the highest quality. It doesn’t matter what field your business is in, every company needs a Tanner Scott.
He’s a meticulous thinker, a tireless worker, and someone who’s naturally curious, always looking to learn something new. It was time to take the leap, and in July of 2018, he introduced the world to Ranksey Digital Marketing.
There were the normal ups and downs that any new business faces, but overall, things were trending in the right direction.
Then a global pandemic hit.
“I’ve heard other owners talk about how 2020 was their best year ever,” Scott said. “I didn’t feel that, especially in Q2 and Q3. We were prepared, but we didn’t have the funnel yet.”
Ranksey Digital Marketing At A Glance
- CEO: Tanner Scott
- Year founded: 2018
- Headquarters: West Haven, UT
- Number of employees: 5
- Core capabilities: Web Design, Digital Marketing, SEO
- Website: https://ranksey.com
The Results Are In
- As of January 2022, Ranksey has 18 reviews on UpCity. All 18 are 5-star reviews.
- CEO Tanner Scott said UpCity has helped his company compete with much larger agencies in the Salt Lake City area and beyond.
- Within the first three months of partnering with UpCity, Scott said he noticed a significant increase in extremely high-quality leads coming in.
A 45-minute drive north of Salt Lake City, Ranksey Digital Marketing is based in West Haven, Utah, where Scott and his staff focus on web design, SEO services, PPC management, and digital advertising. He knew that if he was going to bring in new customers, they had to be able to find him.
He turned to UpCity to boost his company’s visibility and aid in growing his brand, and business has been picking up. In fact, Q4 of 2020 outperformed the second and third quarters combined.
“I honestly almost didn’t reach out to UpCity, but I thought I’d just roll with it, and I’m very glad that I did,” Scott said. “UpCity was ranking pretty well in most of the SERPs (search engine results pages) that I looked at, and I felt like (a partnership with UpCity) would help.”
When your small business is located near a large city, it’s inevitable that you’ll be facing an uphill battle against the bigger fish. But that’s a challenge that Scott and his capable staff are happy to take on. One thing that’s helped has been Ranksey’s relationship with UpCity, which Scott said has leveled the playing field.
“We’re competing against the biggest agencies in the state,” Scott said. “It’s a motivating factor for us. At the end of the day, we want to drive leads, and we’ve done that.
“And UpCity has certainly helped with our visibility. We’re at or near the top of every list, and we’re going against companies that are doing over $10 million in annual revenue.”
There’s no doubt that being at the top of a list is a good thing, whether that be Google search results or UpCity. Additionally, Ranksey Digital Marketing, which won a 2021 UpCity Local Excellence Award, can show its featured work on its UpCity profile page, and that helps the business display the kind of top-tier quality Ranksey clients have come to know and love.
“We were able to close a (significant) monthly retainer recently without being fully qualified, if I’m being honest,” Scott said with modesty. “Just because we were on UpCity.”
Ranksey Digital Marketing has continued its success, and Scott continues to grind. He’s active with insightful and intriguing content on LinkedIn, and he hosts a tremendously compelling podcast titled “Secrets to Scale.” That’s of course on top of his regular CEO duties, and make no mistake, Scott rolls up his sleeves and gets to work right alongside his team.
When asked what keeps him up at night, it’s the continued growth of his agency.
“But that’s a good problem to have,” he said. “It’s a result of our team being scrappy. They’re here doing great work every day.”
Scott says UpCity has also been an important part of his company’s growth.
“I wanted to be on UpCity because I wanted to see what kind of traction we could get. Within the first three months, we got maybe the highest-quality leads we’ve ever had.”
UpCity provides transparency and insights through a data-driven model that measures real credibility indicators and takes the guesswork out of the B2B Service Provider selection process. Ranksey Digital Marketing is one of more than 70,000 service providers listed on UpCity that appeal to the 2 million businesses (and counting) that have visited to find the best partner for their needs. If you want to improve your online visibility, boost credibility, and gain access to valuable insights that can help you grow your business, email us at info@upcity.com or call 312-445-9615.
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About the author
Jason is focused on the voice and strategy of UpCity’s written messaging. A former newspaper reporter and editor—and winner of an Illinois Press Association award for sports column writing—Jason has extensive communications experience in a wide variety of interests and industries. He has spearheaded content initiatives in the agency world as well as at major companies such as State Farm and DocuSign. Jason believes in the 3 Cs of written messaging: Be clear. Be concise. Be consistent.
