"Virtual and augmented reality will continue to grow with more real applications."
Eric Alonzi is Owner and President of Renaissance Marketing, a 5-Star Rated Digital Marketing, PR, and SEO company in Virginia, DC, and Tampa. He is an experienced Digital Media Consultant with a demonstrated history of excelling in the marketing and advertising, and PR industry. Skilled in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Sales, Digital Marketing, PR, Programmatic Advertising, Paid Media, and Social Media.
He is a marketing professional with a BS focused in Business Administration from the University of Mary Washington, who enjoys an active life when he’s not growing his client’s online presence and improving their revenue from digital marketing & PR. You may see him playing tennis or golf, rock climbing, or 4 inches short of dunking a basketball. He also enjoys time with his family and dogs, and between all of those things… that’s a pretty good life.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Eric Alonzi: Renaissance Marketing is a full-service, 5-Star Rated, Digital Marketing and PR agency in Virginia, DC, and Tampa. We work with organizations to increase their exposure and engagement with their target audience and community. Doing so helps them increase their revenue and their impact on the world.
Our mission comes from our past of working at big box marketing companies. There, even though there were some positive experiences and services for businesses, sometimes customers felt like just a number. We strive to stay tech-forward and on top of newest innovations, just like a bigger company, while still being focused on caring for our local communities. This means:
- Caring about results, monitoring calls and leads to help move their business forward.
- The health of our client’s business and marketing. We call it Account Health Checks, where we assess the experience with the business holistically and make recommendations and changes to improve user experience and increase sales and engagements.
- Keeping our finger on the pulse, paying attention to the analytics and the dashboards.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Eric Alonzi: We have learned that staying nimble and agile as possible is great, but foresight is even better. From a digital marketing perspective, how many companies had to start selling online and delivering after COVID started? The ones who attacked it earliest had the biggest advantage. Stores that already had ecommerce in place before COVID were at an even bigger advantage.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Eric Alonzi: The pandemic has shown us all why we can’t get stale or too comfortable with current practices. We can’t predict the future, but after COVID, innovation is key. Offering added value to customers, new products and services, more features and benefits, more accessibility, and acquiring customers in new ways and keeping them.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Eric Alonzi: Like a lot of businesses, meetings have mainly moved online which can be good and bad. I would say however, that our jobs just got more important, because digital experience and touchpoints became a large majority of interactions with the target audience.Finding more ways to get in touch with people whether it’s via Google and Facebook or streaming TV is a good thing.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Eric Alonzi: This is not the time to play scared. Like Warren Buffet says, when everyone else is greedy, be cautious. And when everyone else is timid, be greedy!
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Eric Alonzi: I bought an Oculus Quest 2 and I’m a believer. Virtual and augmented reality will continue to grow with more real applications.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Eric Alonzi: I regularly spend 12 to 14 hours a day in front of a computer screen. Get your yoga mats out and maintain that flexibility.. it can be tough on the spine to sit in front of the computer for that long. I focus on good posture as much as possible!
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Eric Alonzi: My perspective is that stories are great because they can show empirical data. In our industry, there are a number of bad actors and employees which results in clients becoming skeptical over time. So, it helps to build confidence when you can tell true stories about how much your company and your team efforts have helped other companies grow and flourish. That stuff is inspiring and helps you push forward to shine above the others.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Eric Alonzi: Privacy and data policies are a challenge for marketing departments that have succeeded, by using an abundance of rich data. Luckily, there have been warnings about this for a while and we’re smart enough to avoid a problem. There are so many tactics and techniques that we have at our disposal as we continue to become more resilient. Programmatic advertising is amazing!
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Eric Alonzi: I like to stay in my wheelhouse – but podcast advertising is on the rise and we want to be at the forefront.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Eric Alonzi: I think capitalism will shake things out, because for some people, the salary will make them stay and be miserable. But for others, money is not a priority as they would rather be happy. Now, there are a lot more of the latter. Leaders do think “that’s not me” or they don’t care to even get that far, but with more relaxed hours and work from home options, the work life balance issue is being addressed.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Eric Alonzi: If I could blink like “I Dream of Genie” to create an email and send it, that would be great.
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Eric Alonzi: Growing the business and living a great life. If you find people who enjoy what they do, the freedom, the satisfaction of helping others, then you’re helping your team live their best life. I want that for myself and my team – and the more people we can provide that for, the better.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Eric Alonzi for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Eric Alonzi or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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