Lauren Nevels Joins Upstate Patch Team

Help us welcome Easley, Taylors, Mauldin and Simpsonville Patch team, advertising manager Lauren Nevels.

We asked Lauren to answer a few questions as an introduction. Feel free to ask her more questions in the comments section below.

Welcome to Patch, Lauren!

Tell us about your background. Where were you born and raised? 

I was born in Orlando, Fla., and had a blast growing up on Florida's Space Coast in Cocoa, Fla. Boating and watching shuttle launches from my front yard are my favorite past-times.  I attended the University of Central Florida were I majored in Communications. From there my career in advertising and marketing began, with my internship at a local, family-owned radio station. I truly enjoyed meeting musicians who came to the studio and working in the advertising department. 

After graduation, I landed an exciting position with a group of radio stations in Melbourne, Fla. There I enjoyed creating advertising campaigns for businesses of all sizes. My favorite part of that position was engaging with local business owners. From boutique shops to car dealers to national big-box stores, every experience was different and no two days were alike. 

From there I decided to trade in my flip-flops for boots and make the move to Atlanta, where I enjoyed a position working with a major trade show company. There I helped wholesalers create marketing campaigns to reach the right buyers for their products. 

Before coming to Patch, where did you work?

Soon after my trek to Atlanta, I met my amazing husband, Josh. Soon after our wedding, we packed our bags and headed out to Houston, Texas, where we opened a family chiropractic practice. I managed all aspects of running the practice, including advertising and marketing, of course. A few years later we realized we truly wanted to be closer to our loved ones and slow down our pace of life. We took a leap of faith, sold our practice and decided to move to Greenville. We absolutely love it here and are now planting some deep roots in this amazing gem of the South!

What's a typical day been like as a member of the Patch sales team?

Always busy and always different! I LOVE my new role with Patch and am very happy to be helping local businesses understand and simplify advertising, so they can focus on running their business. 

Most days you'll find me running to appointments with local business owners. In between those meetings I stop by businesses to introduce myself and to let them know that I am here to help them. (Sometimes I drop of Patch goodies too!) I also make sure that businesses with a Patch town's address are aware that they have a FREE directory listing on their Patch site and how they can make changes and upload pictures. If business owners are interested in learning more about Patch and how Patch can work for their business, I schedule a time to sit down with them. Before talking about advertising and all that Patch has to offer, I talk with owners and managers about their goals, needs, challenges and experiences with advertising. Based on that information, I'm in a better position to make recommendations tailored to their business. I also may make recommendations to help them improve their businesses Internet exposure and other ways to market.

What's your favorite thing about working for Patch so far? 

The people! I enjoy each and every person I work with. I like that everyone is willing to work as a team to enrich the Greenville area Patches. This in turn benefits the community and local businesses who choose to sponsor our sites. We've grown fast and everyone at Patch knows how to keep up with the demand. Also, my favorite tid-bit about Patch is our mission statement: "Making life ridiculously easy for you and your neighbors."Seriously, that's our mission statement! How cool is that? 

Why should Easley, Mauldin, Taylors and Simpsonville businesses advertise on Patch?  

Oh, let me count the ways! 

• High quality, trusted local content, which is great to associate a company with. 
• Patchers are engaged and interact sparking local conversations, unlike any other news and community website.
• Patch is king when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). We work hard to make sure that our content ranks top on Google searches. This also benefits advertisers. The more our content is read, the more eyeballs see their ads!
• Patch aims to make advertising to local customers accessible for small business owners. Typically, what you would spend on Patch for a month is what you would spend in a week on other media platforms. 
• Businesses can reach a focused demographic. Plus, Patchers are mostly women, who typically make a household's buying decisions. Patch is all about family. If business owners want to reach women, moms and families, we're a great fit.
• Each Patch site has a local editor that lives in the Patch town. They go to the local PTA meetings, Chamber of Commerce events, high school football games, business events and work with local government offices to bring relevant news to Patchers. You won't find anything else like your local Patch. It's news that's happening in your backyard!
• The average time spent on a Patch website is 11 minutes, which is much longer than most websites.
• FREE creative, high-quality ad design which advertisers can change at no charge once a month!
• Our advertisers receive great customer service. Once I have finalized a plan for a business I communicate with my Client Service Rep who helps me make sure the advertiser's campaign runs on time and their ad is to their liking. I will go above and beyond for my clients. I don't disappear once they're advertising with us. I check in and continue to brain-storm with them and make recommendations throughout their campaign.
• Patch offers many different products for all ad budgets. From one ad placement on a specific Patch to multiple ad slots across all four Greenville Patches, or even ad campaigns on Patches in other states, there is something for everyone. We also offer videos, enhanced directory listings, special sponsorship opportunities for our Holiday Gift Guide and Real Estate sections and more.
• Advertisers receive a report every month during their campaigns telling them how many Patchers went to the site and how many of those Patchers clicked on their ad! Advertising on Patch is trackable!

I honestly could keep going on about all of the benefits to advertising on Patch. Advertising on Patch brings a fresh experience to businesses and we're proud of it!

Interested in advertising? Contact Lauren Nevels at lauren.nevels@patch.com or call 864-494-8264