Today we’d like to introduce you to Jim Kreinbrink.
Hi Jim, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started making websites in 1997 for a small service bureau agency named Lineaux, Inc. When I couldn’t find my own personal website online, I started investigating Search Engine Optimization. It was 1998. I created websites and was fascinated that a small site could easily outrank stores like Walmart online – just by using keywords in the right places!
I launched an online martial arts supply store, and it quickly gained traction. It was so successful that it even disrupted traditional distribution channels — some suppliers and instructors weren’t ready for ecommerce moving at that pace. That early lesson taught me how innovation can challenge industries, and it shaped the way I approach marketing: finding opportunities where others aren’t looking yet.
Soon, the demand for small business marketing moved us to start Hyper Dog Media.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road wasn’t smooth, but I couldn’t resist the call of entrepreneurship. I didn’t have formal business training, but I set a simple goal: replace the income I’d been earning as an employee. With a shoestring budget, and every step was a learning experience. By the end of our first year, I had not only met that goal but surpassed it. One advantage was that my former employer kept me on part-time for a period, which made the transition smoother for both of us and gave me the confidence to keep building.
We’ve had various other struggles over the years:
The lessons we’ve learned about building a sustainable team were all learned the hard way. To go from a solo entrepreneur to an agency of just a few people can be an enormous step. It was difficult to grow the company from infancy. It was also difficult to train people from scratch on such a technical discipline as SEO or PPC. Our partnerships with other agencies, web designers and developers have all been key.
The pandemic brought challenges as many of our clients had to pause operations. Our top priority was protecting our team and supporting our clients through that uncertain time. With the help of a PPP loan, we were able to keep every team member on board and ready to serve. By late summer, as businesses reopened, nearly all of our clients returned — and we were proud to help them regain momentum quickly.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
What do you do, what do you specialize in / what are you known for?
We are known for our innovative SEO, PPC and social advertising strategies. In such competitive environments, it’s vital to stay ahead of the competition. In SEO, our focus is on authentic communication with search engines, chat engines, AI tools, and every other kind of bot that could deliver prospects for our clients. It’s important to analyze and maybe correct what they know about your brand, just to help them drive the right prospects to your business.
For our advertising clients, we are always mixing cutting edge strategies with our “penny pincher” approach. Justin Green, our Director of Advertising, excels at this. The ad networks, Google included, tend to broaden audiences beyond what is most efficient or effective but it wastes money for small businesses. For our clients, we structure and optimize advertising so that we can target only the best prospects – and ramp THAT up. We shut down the typical ad budget waste, such as running ads at 3am when maybe prospects wouldn’t be searching. Shutting down these typical “burn money” settings can save 10-20% right away, but of course we also have very nuanced approaches that depend even more on the advertiser, market and audiences they target.
We are also known for our events. I started the Denver SEO Meetup 18 years ago, and created the conferences SearchCon and AgencyCon from that amazing group of people. AgencyCon started with mostly SEO agencies, but increasingly draws agencies of all types: We have PR agencies, email marketing agencies, social media agencies. It’s an amazing community of competitors-turned-colleagues that we are making into more than a once a year conference.
What sets you apart from others / What are you most proud of, brand wise?
What sets us apart is also what we are most proud of: Our partnership with clients on achieving their goals, are beyond the typical client/vendor relationship. Our client retention shows it – and we’ve had some clients going back almost 20 years! Some clients have hired us anew as they’ve changed employers, or even started on their agency. It’s the greatest compliment. This approach means that we haven’t grown as fast as we could have, but we enjoy being “high touch” partner for our clients.
What do you want our readers to know about your brand, offerings, services, etc?
As more searchers are using Google’s AI Mode, ChatGPT, Copilot, etc, there are opportunities! There are also disconnects and misunderstandings that these A.I. tools have about brands. Many acronyms being thrown around for the new SEO: GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), AIO (AI Optimization).
Regardless of what it is going to be called, we’ve been testing and adapting our processes for years. Helping our clients connect with the right prospects, from any good source, is where we excel.
Another exciting new aspect of our business is our work integrating A.I. with automation. We’ve long been using automations internally to be efficient and effective, but are now offering these to clients as well. Many new technologies have advanced the last couple of years and now allow sales and marketing to be more scalable – while still keeping humans in the loop. Content can also be amplified more widely, customer and sales prospect outreach can be analyzed, automated, and more. It’s an exciting time to see so many worlds come together.
What makes you happy?
Time with my family, and in the mountains, makes me happy.
My wife and I like to sneak off for Sunday picnics on our mountain land, have coffee conversations in the mornings, and enjoy watching the antics of our pets.
Our sons are 17 and 19. We enjoy our family dinners, movie nights, video games together. Family trips are a treasure. I have a daughter in her 30s also, and enjoy traveling with her and going to concerts together.
My siblings and Dad started family zooms during COVID and have continued for 5+ years now. The zooms remind me of laughing around the dinner table when we were growing up.
Pricing:
- $2750/month minimum for SEO services, as it takes more time and attention than ever!
- Our PPC services are more flexible, as it depends on the budget, campaign complexity and more.
- Ads for social media networks like Youtube, TikTok, Meta facebook, etc can require video and creative assets. While we don’t provide those services in house, we have many great partners that we can recommend.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hyperdogmedia.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hyperdogmedia/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyper-dog-media/
- Twitter: https://x.com/hyperdogmedia
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hyperdogmedia/
Image Credits
The Image of our Yorkie looking out over a valley from our land: Janet Kreinbrink, 2020
The event photos are all from SearchCon and AgencyCon: Attendees signed waivers, and the photos were taken by my team.
