2016 was the year of Brexit, Zika, the Cubs World Series win, and a Presidential election no one could ever forget. It was a time of technology with the launch of a new device called Google Home, Microsoft Teams to compete with the growing popularity of Slack , the first 1TB SD card, Space X’s successful Falcon 9 landing, and Tesla’s new production facilities powered by renewable energy sources. 2016 was also the year Cobalt Digital was founded.

It seems like only just yesterday, but here we are, six years later astounded by the world we live in. We are survivors of a pandemic that shook us to our core. We are forever changed, and as a business community we now face a digital economy with vastly changed user expectations, unconventional workplaces, new technologies, employee skill gaps, and the need to pivot both operations and marketing. Oh yeah, and the tidal wave that is Metaverse / Web 3.0.

For six years, we have thoroughly enjoyed helping clients meet and exceed their marketing goals. Whether it was launching a new product or service, generating customers leads, or growing ecommerce sales, our team has adapted digital marketing strategies to evolving user trends and technology in order to provide the best possible marketing return on investment.

As we’ve helped our clients grow over the last six years, we too have evolved. Change is as much an opportunity as it is a challenge. Every year, we’ve made it a goal of ours to challenge ourselves and move beyond our comfort zones. Our team is committed to professional development.

Our catalysts continually expand their skill sets so collectively continue to improve what we do and how we do it. We maintain multiple industry certifications, attend cutting edge webinars, and platform-specific training sessions. We also integrate cross-platform learning internally including weekly mini staff led 7-in-7 presentations.

From the day we started, we have called ourselves CATALYSTS because we embrace change and our goal is to create change. What started as a philosophy ultimately grew into a sales formula. We believe that marketing results at any budget level give the best return on investment if they are data-driven and strategically integrated across platforms from traditional media to targeted SEO, PPC, OTT, and social ads. Our Cobalt Formula™ has been proven across industries and continues to adapt and evolve with technology, user trends, and platform algorithms.

The Evolution of the Cobalt Formula™

⦿ 2016: In the beginning there was SEO

The engine that is Cobalt began in 2016 with a few website, seo, and social media clients. Clients like Heroes Dental grew alongside us from one location providing just pediatric services to six locations providing a wide range of technologically advanced whole family services.

In 2016, we built the Heroes Dental website to work alongside the existing Little Heroes website. Then we worked to optimize both websites using traditional onsite and offsite SEO tactics.

Our marketing tactics adapted over the years to accommodate their growing business, better target customers, and adjust to platform and user trends. Now, our Cobalt Formula™ for Heroes Dental includes OTT streaming video ads and a bit of TikTok!

⦿ 2017: Identifying and Testing a Better Way

Our first year in business confirmed what we long suspected, that when clients use their marketing budget across platforms, the marketing results are better than if they invest in one tactic ie., social media or seo or ppc.

At any budget level, by utilizing cross-platform marketing strategies, we can get the biggest bang for the buck. This led to the creation of our Cobalt Formula™.

Santa Cruz Properties was the first of our clients to beta test the Cobalt Formula™. While summers had typically been a slow period for this client, Santa Cruz Properties saw its (first) best summer ever. From that point forward, as our client reinvented itself and identified new opportunities geographically and demographically, we were able to adapt the Cobalt Formula™ to have multiple digital sales funnels generating leads.

It’s fun to look back at the numbers and see how their digital footprint has exploded! Their Facebook following has grown from 536 likes to 6113. Traffic to their website has increased 752%. Most importantly, lots and tracts are selling as they continue to break their own “best year” records!    

⦿ 2018: Refining Formulas For Business

By 2018, we recognized that the Cobalt Formula™ could benefit businesses of all sizes and at any budget. As a result, we formalized the Cobalt Formula™ to be able to better meet the varying needs of our clients.

Cobalt Green Formula was created to establish a local digital presence, to help businesses optimize their map listing and “near me” searches.

Cobalt Yellow Formula was developed to enable small businesses to expand their digital presence by adding keyword search engine optimization tactics, more content, and social media.

Cobalt Blue Formula was a comprehensive strategy for enterprises and large companies wanting to aggressively compete online. Cobalt Blue integrates the elements of our formula into a lead generating sales funnel.

In 2018, we also saw the digital ad budgets we managed increase by 250% from the previous year with much greater spending on social. In fact, at the Social Media Summit hosted by the Mission EDC that year, Stephanie Hawk and Mauricio Piña led a workshop helping social media marketers and small business owners better understand the advancement and nuances of ad targeting on Facebook.

⦿ 2019: A New Formula For Lady Justice

Lawyers were the first to jump on SEO as a way to compete online from its inception. Already having served a multitude of law firms and attorneys throughout the years, we continued to test methods to drive actual case leads. In 2019, we enhanced our Cobalt Formulaᵀᴹ specifically for the law industry, creating the Cobalt Justice Formulaᵀᴹ. With an ever-increasing level of digital competition amongst lawyers, we adapted the formula to create more aggressive targeted content and social strategies as well as micro-targeted digital ad campaigns using key data points. It worked.

We saw massive increases in case leads for our clients, some months reaching as much as 100 actual new cases! In 2019, we also saw digital ad budgets grow an additional 40% across platforms including Google, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

⦿ 2020: The Game-Changer

Understandably, the pandemic in 2020 was a game-changer across the board for businesses.

Our Cobalt Catalysts worked tirelessly throughout the year to help new clients pivot to digital tactics and existing clients find new ways to keep in touch and build loyalty with their customers.

New, appropriate, and compassionate messaging was created as businesses tried to strike a balance between sensitivity and survival. We knew that, more than ever, each marketing dollar spent needed to yield return on investment.

We adapted  the Cobalt Formula™ with creative crisis management tactics and built success stories for our clients. We helped Heroes Dental maintain a steady flow of leads, even while the office was closed, with a mico-targeted orthodontic campaign. We helped two medical practices change their messaging to include telemedicine options, and for The Glatz Group, we optimized the site so quickly after the shelter-in-place order that his website dominated local telemedicine searches for his specialty and for all local telemedicine searches.

Our Cobalt Formula™ helped four restaurants build a solid flow of curbside and delivery business when they had none previously. We also worked with Karlas Jewelry to build online AND in-store traffic with targeted promotions and special reservation only buying opportunities.

The shut-down and quarantine periods of the pandemic brought about a massive increase in user streaming. Video subscriptions soared 26% and surpassed 1 billion worldwide. As a result, we built our cross-platform ad campaigns with a much heavier investment in OTT streaming ads.

⦿ 2021: The New Normal

The digital world continued to play a critical role in the lives of everyday consumers as a result of the pandemic. In 2021, the Cobalt Formulaᵀᴹ continued to grow in the direction of OTT services, YouTube ad campaigns, and music streaming campaigns.

We also strove to better utilize data, focusing our efforts on micro-targeting, using purchase histories, Google search data, social interactions, and much more to best help our clients reach their customers.

Our Journey Continues….

We’ve started 2022 by formalizing our Cobalt Political Formula. Since our inception, we’ve worked with a number of politicians to enhance campaigns. We knew how critical a role digital marketing played in the 2016 Presidential campaign and the precedent it set. Digital marketing continues to move the dial connecting politicians and their constituents, and so we adapted the Cobalt  Formulaᵀᴹ specifically to meet those needs.

Our diverse dream team of Cobalt Catalysts are the ideal team for creating bi-lingual, bi-cultural Cobalt Formula™ strategies. We are located on the border of Texas and Mexico, and we draw from talent on both sides of the border as well as other parts of the world. This ideally positions us to help businesses target the 43+ million Spanish speaking consumers in the US.

“From businesses wanting to reach more potential customers to organizations and politicians seeking to build their brand among new groups, multicultural (and multilingual) marketing is a must.”  This quote is taken from a blog we shared a couple of years ago and continues to be true today.

The beauty of the Cobalt Formula™ is that it is cross-platform and adapts to new technologies. We are already riding the tidal wave that is the Metaverse / Web 3.0. While companies like our client, CryptoCache, are working to demystify the blockchain world for investors and consumers, we are working to build new tactics for immersive marketing of NFTs and other digital assets.

Let’s Grow Together

The last six years has just been the beginning. With the Cobalt Formula™, we have the know-how, experience, and process needed for businesses of all sizes to be competitive online. Do you want to explore your company’s potential and learn about how our Cobalt Catalysts can help strengthen your brand’s awareness to a broad reach of consumers? Take the next step to giving your business competitive advantage alongside a team that build creativity and ingenuity into their formula.

Our digital marketing strategies offer endless opportunities for continuous growth, and we forge strong business relationships with our clients to ensure they’re fully engaged in seeing the demonstrable results we offer.

If you’re ready to grow your business, then don’t wait any longer.
Let’s grow together.

Find Your Cobalt Formula™