Courtesy of Jon Zacharias
Jon Zacharias: How the GR0 Cofounder Became a Digital Marketing Maverick
Jon Zacharias saw an opportunity to revolutionize digital marketing, and he took it. Now, he’s the cofounder of one of the fastest-growing startups in the field, GR0, and his massive partnerships are turning the industry on its head!
“We are basically matching the hottest direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands, working with the biggest celebrities in the world, and creating real partnerships,” says Zacharias of his brand’s unparalleled growth over their first two years. GR0 plays matchmaker for e-commerce brands and big-name stars and outlets while optimizing content for Google, leading to massive and immediate growth for their clients.
“We give these brands an opportunity to work with huge celebrities that they wouldn’t normally be able to work with because they couldn’t afford to put millions of dollars down up front,” Zacharias explains. “But they can afford for us to basically do a whitelisting campaign. It’s a new type of campaigns that we’re doing, and they are very, very powerful.”
Zacharias discovered this effective approach in an unexpected way. “I have a law degree, and when I was in law school I was working for one of my dad’s friends at a wage-an-hour class action law firm,” he remembers. “I realized that I was way more interested in getting the cases than litigating them.”
SEO was becoming a popular tool in the law and medical industries, but it hadn’t yet been tested in e-commerce. Zacharias knew it had the potential to completely change the game. “I spent the next seven, eight years, from 2011 to 2019 — when we started the company — perfecting the science behind SEO, and then once I had that perfected, I basically started applying tactics that had never been used in e-commerce. It was really like the second wave of SEO.”
In the meantime, Zacharias found himself battling substance addiction, and the process of getting clean rewarded him with more than he could have ever imagined. “I got sober in November of 2016 with the support of [residential drug rehab center] CRI-Help,” says Zacharias. That’s where he met his business partner, Kevin Miller. “We immediately became best friends, talking every single second,” Zacharias remembers. “I feel like my entire life shifted as soon as I met him.”
Miller had a history at Google and was head of growth at Opendoor when he met Zacharias. The digital marketing expert recognized the value of Zacharias’ research and made a proposition that would change both of their lives.
“I was showing him how to grow traffic through SEO and he loved it so much that he was like, ‘let’s just start a business and do this for as many direct-to-consumer brands as we can, because it’s such a powerful channel,’” Zacharias recalls. “Everyone trusts Google, and obviously if you can get high on Google for certain words, it’s incredibly valuable to the client.”
Zacharias has learned a lot through his trials and tribulations, and he leads his company with the knowledge and empathy gained from that journey. His sobriety taught him the importance of mental health and self-care, and he stresses the importance of both to his employees by offering his support, unlimited time off, and special initiatives like free memberships to a mindfulness app.
The duo started GR0 just two years ago, but they’ve already curated a stellar reputation for being the most forward-thinking and revolutionary company in the biz, partnering with the largest direct-to-consumer brands across the globe. Venus et Fleur, Theragun, Hydrow, Nugenix, and Funboy all have GR0 to thank for their huge recent traffic increases, and we know there’s so much more in store for this power duo!
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