Get To Know Tom Sullivan, Co-Owner Of LEAD Marketing Agency

September 23, 2022 | Interview

In developing LEAD Marketing Agency, Tom’s vision was to provide clients with measurable results as it pertains to their advertising and marketing. With years of leadership experience both selling and representing companies in their purchase of advertising, Tom has a well-rounded understanding of the industry.
Additionally, Tom has managed online advertising strategy and buys for multiple accounts since 2004 and has become expert in the strategy of driving targeted web traffic into conversions. He has hosted seminars on Search Engine Marketing in partnership with Google Ad-Words professionals, as well as Sports Marketing. He is a past member of the West Michigan Sports Commission Advisory Council and an Adjunct Professor at Davenport University’s Maine College of Business in Grand Rapids, MI.

Please tell us about yourself, where you work and your role at your company.


I am a co-owner of LEAD Marketing Agency along with Matt Tiedgen. We started the company in 2008 with the objective of providing marketing and advertising solutions that are measurable.
LEAD Marketing Agency is a “complete agency”, in that we work with our clients to establish a goal and then strategically develop the message and delivery to the most targeted audience while measuring the important data as we go. We are always optimizing.
We’ve been proficient in “digital” since people starting using that term. As part of our mission to provide measurable business solution for our clients, LEAD has years of success with all digital platforms including SEO, PPC, Programmatic Digital Advertising, Social Media Marketing, Email, Social Influencers, Mobile, Video and the development of responsive sites that convert visitors.
My main role is to hire and empower marketing professionals to do their job to the best of their ability.

How did you get introduced to digital marketing, more specifically SEO?


While in graduate school in 1996 I was in a class entitled, believe or not, “Introduction to the World Wide Web”. While the internet was new at the time and people were running to it for various reasons, I immediately saw it as the greatest marketing vehicle ever created.
As part of my graduate program I created a product that I marketed in Europe through email. When I began receiving orders from France, Spain and Great Britain just days after starting, I knew my assumptions were right.
As Search Engines quickly became more efficient, it was clear that a positive presence on them would be very important. I became a Google AdWords Certified Professional in short order and understood that ranking high organically would be important for businesses as part of an overall strategy.

How do you think SEO has changed over the last 10 years? And, how do you think year 2019 will shape up for SEO industry?


Content is king. Relevancy is vital. You have to create content that is desired by the audience and not just create content for the sake of doing it.

What are the services you provide to your clients and what do you think makes your business stand out among your competitors?


LEAD Marketing Agency provides measurable results for our clients.
We do this by managing a strategy that includes a mix of the appropriate tactics designed to achieve the goal of each client.
We offer SEO and web design services as well as planning and buying of media on all digital and traditional media platforms.
Our full-service creative team creates messages for all mediums that tie with the plan and amplify our client’s brand while driving action. And we measure all that we do.

Everybody knows what you have achieved, I would like to talk about your failure stories and how they impacted your professional life. (As we know Rome was not built in a day)


Anyone who has participated in sports or any competitive endeavor over a period of time understands that you will endure losses. The ability to pick yourself up and go back to work after a setback is what is important.
Failure to me, would be to not get back up after a loss or a setback. By that definition, we at LEAD Marketing Agency really don’t have failures, because we always get back up after a loss, learn from the experiences and become better for it.

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