We were lucky to catch up with Matthew Demers recently and have shared our conversation below.

Matthew, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

In 2017, I began helping a close friend with her service-based, work-from-home business. I’ve always had a passion for marketing—I earned my degree in it and had experience managing marketing for various music projects I was involved with growing up. However, after graduating in 2008 during the economic downturn, I took a job outside of marketing to pay the bills. It wasn’t until I started working with her business that I found my way back to the field I had always loved.

Initially, I assisted with basic social media strategies, which gained some traction. Then, I built her a new website, which brought another increase, but it wasn’t quite what I expected. This was a pivotal moment for me: I realized that while having a well-designed website is important, without a strategy to drive traffic, it’s hard for potential customers to find it. That’s when I discovered SEO, and I immediately began experimenting with optimizations on her site and setting up her Google listing.

At the time, my friend had been making around $1,000 per month. Within a year of optimizing her online presence, her earnings had increased to $5,000 per month, and by the second year, she was generating a six-figure income with over 10,000 monthly visitors to her website—an enormous leap from the handful of visitors she had before.

This experience opened my eyes to how transformative SEO and a strong web presence can be for small business owners, many of whom are overwhelmed by the digital landscape. I saw an opportunity to provide a valuable service, especially if I could replicate these kinds of results for others. I committed to offering affordable SEO solutions tailored to small businesses, and it has been incredibly rewarding.

The most fulfilling aspect of this work is seeing the real impact it has on people’s lives. My friend has earned high six figures annually since our third year working together, and my team has achieved similar success for many other small businesses. Having once worked in jobs that lacked personal meaning, helping small businesses grow and thrive through SEO has truly been a passion that resonates with me.

Matthew, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I founded Diffuse Digital to help hard-working business owners navigate the often overwhelming digital landscape and achieve real growth. What started as a focus on SEO has evolved into a comprehensive digital marketing agency. While SEO remains at the core of what we do, we’ve expanded our services to offer solutions that drive traffic, conversions, and long-term success.

Over time, we found great success not only with small businesses but also in e-commerce SEO—particularly during 2020 when we were able to help several online retailers achieve significant growth, including boosting one client’s sales by over 500% in a single year. Our approach is grounded in data-driven strategies that ensure we’re not just driving traffic but converting it into real business for our clients.

In addition to SEO, we offer affordable web design services tailored for small businesses that need a high-converting website without a large budget. We also provide services like email marketing and Google Ads to create a holistic strategy for our clients.

What sets Diffuse Digital apart is our focus on results and transparency. We don’t just optimize for rankings or clicks—we work to make sure that every piece of traffic is contributing to our clients’ bottom line. Whether it’s a local business looking for more foot traffic or an e-commerce brand aiming to scale, we design strategies that are focused on conversions.

I’m most proud of the long-term relationships we’ve built with clients. Many of the businesses we work with start with smaller projects and, impressed by the results, choose to engage in ongoing services. Watching these businesses grow and thrive through our work is incredibly rewarding.

At the end of the day, I want potential clients to know that at Diffuse Digital, we care about your success. We understand how challenging the digital space can be, and we’re here to make it simple, effective, and results-driven for every client.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy for growth, is actually retention. And the most effective way to retain is to deliver tremendous value and demonstrate you care. By focusing on delivering results that drive conversion – we have retain most clients for years. And by retaining clients, we are able to grow steadily and comfortably as we get referred by happy clients, get found via search or social. We’ve also been able to grow offering white-labelled products to other agencies that outsource us – and since the results are always there, that has been a great area of growth.
But I truly think the most overlooked growth strategy, is simply focusing on retention. Until you get that right, growth will be an uphill battle.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In 2023, my business encountered its first major financial challenge. Up until that point, we had enjoyed steady growth, largely due to strong client retention. However, as talks of a recession and inflation intensified, we faced a significant setback. Two of our largest corporate clients in the tech industry were hit hard and had to cut their marketing budgets. Losing these clients represented a 40% revenue drop, and they were our highest retainers.

At the same time, I had just hired my second full-time employee to assist with one of these projects, which accounted for 80% of his workload. Despite the financial strain, I was determined to do everything in my power to keep him on board.

Rather than panicking or reacting emotionally to the situation, I took the opportunity to reassess how we could improve as a team and as a business. I invited my team to provide input on areas where we could refine our processes and enhance our skills. Instead of focusing solely on profitability, we chose to prioritize long-term growth. We spent time documenting our systems more thoroughly, upgrading our skills, and improving the way we delivered our core services.

Over the next six months, we rebuilt our client base and, with the refined processes, reduced the time it took to complete projects. Additionally, with the expanded skill set, we finally ventured into PPC services—something clients had been requesting for years. This allowed us to serve clients more efficiently and opened up new revenue streams.

Within a year, we surpassed our previous monthly revenue highs by 35%. This experience taught me the importance of staying level-headed during tough times and making decisions that support long-term success rather than short-term survival. It was a test of resilience for both myself and my team, and I’m proud of how we came together, grew stronger, and came out on top.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://diffusedigitalmarketing.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diffuse_digital/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/diffusedigital/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-demers-diffuse-digital/

Image Credits

David Applebee