Matt Kohli
Digital Marketing Agency Founder
Meet Matt
I'm a Senior Marketing Consultant and the Founder of Fortitude Marketing, a UK based Digital Marketing Agency.
First, the boring stuff (aka, my credentials):
CIM Level 5
CMI Level 4
BSc Honours First Class in Digital Marketing
Marketing Awards Show Judge & Presenter
Experience working in agencies, in house, and independently
Phew, now that's out of the way, we can get into the real stuff.
I've always approached marketing through a simple lens. I believe that it's all about connecting people with things they're interested in. Whether that's a new car, a holiday destination, or a solution to a work related problem, it's all about giving people what they want and need.
The challenge for any marketer is making the businesses you work for into the solution that their target customers actually want. It's bigger than just saying the right things and pretending you get it. It's about developing a genuine understanding of customer needs and their journey, so you can be present and offer solutions at each stage. Do this effectively, and you'll build brand affinity that makes you the only realistic choice.
This brain dump is exactly why I launched Fortitude Marketing. As a solo freelancer, I could only influence a small piece of the wider marketing mix. I wanted to work with businesses to build their brand and visibility across all the important areas, not just one in isolation. The issue? My expertise only goes so far. I'm a strategist and have led multi-channel projects, but I only have hands on delivery experience in SEO and CRO.
So the logical next step was to build an agency, right? Bring people in that can manage the areas I can't. This felt like the only way to achieve this goal of mine... Except, it's not exactly realistic to hire staff across four or five service areas right off the bat unless you've already got significant capital. There are also several limitations with traditional agencies that I won't get into fully, but my overall feeling was, once you hit a certain size and target a certain number of services, you hit a wall, and it becomes really hard to make any changes. This is something I've seen people go through, and definitely wanted to steer clear of.
I wanted to create something more agile, and never get stuck in templated or recycled delivery. That's when it hit me. I've worked with incredible experts in almost every area of digital marketing over the years. These are people vetted by founders and directors with much more experience than me, consistently delivering results. Many of them are freelancers, and that felt like the real opportunity... If I could create a business model that incentivises talented freelancers to work with me, I don't need to hire staff, and I can deliver the same level of (or in my opinion, better) delivery for clients.
Fast forward to now, Fortitude Marketing operates as a collective of senior freelancers across SEO, PPC, CRO, and Branding. Clients have a dedicated team for the duration of our work together. Our consultants have consistent work they can lend their expertise to. And I feel like I'm getting closer each day to my goal of impacting the stuff that really matters.
It's not perfect, but I'm proud of what we've done so far, and feeling excited for what's next.
Feel free to check us out, or to drop me a message: