Certifications & Licenses

Creating digital business development solutions that generate results is my passion.  Even then, you will likely find some reassurance in the fact that I actually know what I am doing.

Here are a few of my (Mitch’s) current certifications and also former licenses.

Current Certifications

Ongoing education is something I prioritize every week, however, most of the courses I participate in do not have certifications like Google does.

This just gives you an idea of some of the courses that do have official certifications attached.

Google Adwords Search Certification
Google Adwords is Google’s search engine marketing platform which enables businesses to capture the attention of prospects at the right time.

Search engine advertising is essential in today’s world, particularly when it comes to businesses that require clients to invest a large amount of money, which are also not particularly fun to shop for.  If you want to generate high-quality mortgage leads or insurance leads, for instance, your window of opportunity to generate high-quality leads can be as narrow as a single moment that a prospect makes a search.

This combination of expense and suckiness, make it essential that prospects are reached at the time that they make a search for the product.  As attention spans continue to narrow, you will see the importance of high-performance search engine marketing become increasingly important – even more than it already is.

When it comes to generating mortgage and insurance leads using social media, you cannot reach quality prospects consistently, at the right time.  That’s because the audience has not shown intent at the moment they see your ad.

So long as search engines remain the primary means of information gathering by humans, this will remain true.  You don’t have to take my word for it – just wait and see.  

FogPusher-Mitch Smith Adwords Search Certification

Google Analytics Quaification

Google Analytics is Google’s analytical platform which enables one to track website activity, conversions, and more.  

FogPusher Mitch Smith Google Analytics Certification

Google Mobile Sites Certification
In today’s world, consumers have very high expectations when it comes to mobile website browsing.  If your website is not up to speed, you are likely losing prospects left and right.

According to Google, the #1 complaint that mobile web visitors have, on any website, is page speed loading time.  Mobile visitors have very high expectations when it comes to mobile web browsing, and if your website does not live up to those expectations, you are likely flushing money and prospects right down the toilet.

FogPusher-Mitch Smith Mobile Sites Certification

Google Digital Sales Certification
Google’s digital sales certification just says that I understand how to sell and market digital marketing services.  This may not be of much value to you, but it does speak to the dedication I have to my craft.

FogPusher-Mitch Smith Digital Sales Certification

Google DoubleClick Search
DoubleClick is Google’s search engine marketing platform which allows for larger, more complex search engine marketing campaigns to be managed across all of the primary search engines – all from one location.

Rather than having to update ads on Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, etc… individually, DoubleClick allows for performance metrics to be consolidated, managed, updated, and evaluated – all from one place.

FogPusher-Mitch Smith Doubleclick Search Certification

More Coming Soon...
I take time to work on new courses every week – and this is an essential part of ensuring that my clients are receiving the latest and greatest products and services out there.  Failure to prioritize ongoing education is a sure-fire way to fall to the digital marketing wayside.

In order to remain relevant in today’s digital marketing landscape, this is essential.  If your marketing provider is not prioritizing ongoing education, they will be left behind.  And you will find yourself in the wake of the mess that follows.

It’s just the nature of the beast right now – and I love it.

Former Licenses

One of the primary reasons I’m able to deliver substantial results for my clients can be attributed to the real-world experience I obtained prior to specializing in digital marketing.

Many people offer digital marketing services; very few have real-world experience comparable to what I have.  This might not sound like a very big deal but when it comes to maintaining advertising compliance and understanding what the actual products are – this is very important.  You can’t understand the benefits of a product or service unless you actually understand what the products and services are.

I have clients telling me constantly that the people they have hired in the past were not competent – and when I look at the ad campaigns that they ran, it is easy to see why that is the case.

For most eCommerce shops, direct experience may not be as essential.  For the mortgage, real estate, and insurance industries – it is absolutely essential.

Oklahoma Life & Health Insurance License

When I was 18 years old (2006), I was sucked into working with Primerica (no regrets – I learned a lot) and I obtained my Oklahoma life & health insurance producer license.  I was not very fond of this business (particularly because talking to an 18 year-old about life insurance is a little silly), but I learned a lot about how the insurance business works – so it was well worth every dollar/second of it.

Verify With NAIC

Oklahoma Real Estate License

I obtained my real estate license when I was 19 (2007) and held it until I moved to Ohio to work with Premier Custom Builders in 2009.  I had the opportunity to work directly under one of the top producing brokers in Oklahoma at that time, Linda Almaraz. with Coldwell Banker Advantage.  I studied on my own for this exam and passed on my first attempt.
Verify With OREC

Federal Mortgage Loan Origination License

When I started working with United-Bilt Homes (now spelled United-Built Homes), I was required to also have my national mortgage loan origination license.  I also passed this on my first attempt.
Verify With NMLS

Oklahoma Mortgage Loan Origination Licence

When I started working with United-Bilt Homes (now spelled United-Built Homes), I was required to have my Oklahoma state mortgage origination license.  I passed on my first attempt.  This was formerly managed by the OK Dept. of Consumer Credit but now appears to be managed by the NMLS.
Verify With NMLS

What are you waiting for?

These certifications/experiences have enabled me to obtain a very clear/wide perspective on the current state of human communication and engagement.  As AI technology continues to work its way into every aspect of our lives, and the human attention span continues to narrow, the state of marketing is going to flip, right before your eyes.

If you think digital marketing is more complicated now than it has been in the past, guess how it’s going to look in 2020…  It’s not that it’s complicated, it’s just that you have to catch people in the right way, at the right time, and chances are – you are not doing that right now.  \

Otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this.

The good news is that I’ve dedicated my life to staying ahead of this wave.

Get in touch