Paul Guenther is the founder and CEO of Knowledge Hub Media, a West Chester, Pennsylvania based company that specializes in B2B advertising and marketing services such as demand generation programs, high-impact online advertising, lead generation, account-based marketing, mobile marketing, white paper syndication, and content syndication. Other than that, Knowledge Hub Media takes pleasure in educating its users through relevant business articles, case studies, marketing research, eBooks, and frequent blog posts to help them increase their knowledge span and everyday productivity with rising workflow. Since its establishment in 2009, Knowledge Hub Media has maintained a positive curve in terms of both growth and expansion as a business. For its outstanding contribution to the industry, it has been recognized among the top Inc5000 companies for three consecutive years, and most recently it was named among the ‘Best entrepreneurial companies in America’ by the Entrepreneur magazine. This was again the third time in a row that Knowledge Hub Media made it to the prestigious Entrepreneur360™ List. Taking it from them, Knowledge Hub Media is now a recognized specialist when it comes to innovation, the balance of impact, growth leadership, and value. But how did they get here in such a short amount of time?
Before Paul founded Knowledge Hub Media, he used to work for a similar company that offered lead generation services. It was there, he learned the whole process that runs behind all the segments of this industry naming sales, marketing, and production. Soon, he gave up his job and started his own company based on the experience he gained here and as a growing teenager on web development and online content promotion. According to him, his initial motivation was just to find one steady client to be the seed to embark on his long-awaited journey. He shares, “From an employee standpoint, we have grown year over year ever since the company’s inception. We have also increased our revenue year over year, every year except for one, where we saw a slight dip.” For his exceptional career graph as an entrepreneur, Paul has also been featured in the book ‘Dynamic Founders of the 21st Century’ written by Kathleen Tracy to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs and founders by casting a spotlight on the skill-set, innovation, grit and vision of the leading entrepreneurial maestros.
“Sometimes new ideas are the products of a lot of forethought and innovation,” says Paul Guenther, Founder, and CEO of Knowledge Hub Media.
When ‘excellence’ becomes a ‘habit’
As a company serving businesses rather than consumers, Paul says they take their inspiration from their clients and partners. He further adds, “Taking the time to better understand their wants and needs: What they already have, what they don’t yet have, and what the wish they could have, is the key to innovating and validating new ideas, new products and new services that ultimately drive performance metrics and resonate well with our partners.” At this point, Knowledge Hub Media is capable of targeting any country in the world to promote white papers and webinars in the very language that is native to that country. Just as sun rays only burn when focused, they micro-target ad campaigns using both account-based marketing and intent data analytics to provide valuable leads to their clients containing specific job titles, company sizes, industries, and install bases. Knowledge Hub Media launched intent data analytics service as its proprietary B2B intent platform in collaboration with Intent DataCloud to design creative demand generation programs for B2B companies based on data analysis of their content consumption, asset and webinar registrations, website and landing page analytics, social listening and active demand period for particular products, services, and technology solutions. Paul shares, “Knowledge Hub Media’s partnership with Intent DataCloud has effectively solidified the company’s position as one of the industry’s leading intent data providers.”
However, one of the major challenges that are most frequently faced by Knowledge Hub Media is campaign fulfillment which is achieved by meeting the delicate niche targeting criteria and that too within the deadline. Speaking of it, Paul presents a pretty straight-forward and effective approach to handle this issue. He says, “We are very proactive about never ‘overpromising and under-delivering.’ We simply won’t do it. We forecast for lead output and delivery as well as anyone in the industry, and we are usually dead on. Even so, we are typically conservative with the projections that we give clients. This provides another layer of protection that helps to ensure things go smoothly and we keep our promises in terms of goals.”
“In my opinion, at least, being a true entrepreneur is not something that you can teach...Entrepreneurship is a burning desire that churns inside of you.”
‘Unconventional’ but ‘powerful’ leadership
This ability of Paul to hold back before it gets too much clearly reflects his dynamic leadership quality and powerful management skills. But for him, leadership and management were never something he gave much thought to. Instead what drives him is his strive for greatness. He asserts, “In my opinion, at least, being a true entrepreneur is not something that you can teach – maybe not even something that you can learn? Entrepreneurship is a burning desire that churns inside of you. It drives your thoughts, your tendencies, and in some cases, your every move. It’s not something that you ask to have, try to have, or in a lot of cases, even want to have. It’s just there. The good news? Like everyone else, these people can continue to improve, as well. With additional practice and new techniques – on top of what they already possess naturally – the sky is often the limit.” Under his leadership at Knowledge Hub Media, everyone carries an eased-out approach when it comes to the workload which helps them maintain an excellent work-life balance. They are only required to report to the office 2-3 times a week, that too only for four hours and four hours of their choice. So, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke down many big businesses, they were still able to carry on remotely without any complications. In fact, “fast forward to POST COVID-19… And believe me, I know that we aren’t there. Not YET,” exclaims Paul. “But when we do get there, I think our approach is going to be even more relaxed than it was before the pandemic. Knowing what we all know now – what we’re capable of doing even when working remotely for three months straight – it would be foolish of me not to ease things up even more.” To keep his team motivated and nurture their talent even further, Paul also makes sure he treats everyone even better than the way he would treat himself and this is why in 11 years of its existence, Knowledge Hub Media has never lost an employee for any reason.
In his upcoming ventures, Paul has decided to shift his focus more on the big data now to optimize even better solutions for his clients. He explains, “Because of data analytics – our own, internal analytics – we can micro-target audiences that meet very specific criteria. As a B2B technology publisher, we are essentially in the advertising and marketing industry. The products that we offer our clients are all intangible. For that reason, as much as any other reasons that I can think of, our focal point is no doubt the customer experience. Now, in my opinion, we deliver an excellent customer experience… end excellent performance metrics, might I add! But maybe you should ask somebody else… somebody who isn’t the CEO and who didn’t start the company from scratch in 2009?”
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