“A team of professional revenue drivers.”

headshot
Elizabeth C.
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Head of Digital Marketing
OUR MANTRA

Since 1997, we’ve been driving business growth for our clients by building a team of experienced digital marketers. On average, our team members have over 10 years of digital marketing experience. By investing in our people and fostering a results-driven culture, we’ve created an environment where talent thrives, and clients succeed – a combination that sets us apart.

be on time
be better
be accountable
At Straight North, the ASAP mantra embodies our core values and drives our team to deliver for both our clients and each other.

Every quarter, Straight North recognizes an individual who exemplifies these values by going above and beyond for the internal team and our clients. During the voting process, the team shares stories and experiences that explain their nominations.

Here are a few earnest words from these nominations, spoken by our people about our people.

We’re older than Google.

So yeah, you could say we’ve seen it all.

Unlock 25+ Years of Core Memories…

1997

Founder Kevin Duffy launched Duffy Design Works

1997
It all began as a one-man operation in the basement of a house. Kevin founded his graphic design agency, Duffy Design Works, and after landing several key accounts, he took a leap of faith, expanding his team to three. In January 1998, he hired Tammy Barry (now Director of HR) and Jeff Wojciechowski (now VP of Creative Services). To this day, both insist they were the first official employee – which remains a frequent in-office ‘discussion’. Duffy Design Works collaborated with notable brands, including Budget Rent a Car and Amdocs.
2008

Chairman & CEO, David Duerr joined, and Duffy Design Works transformed to a full-service digital marketing agency, Straight North

2008
As the world shifted towards digital, Duffy Design Works recognized the need to expand its services. Kevin’s close friend and business partner, David Duerr, joined the agency bringing experience in digital marketing and growing businesses. After joining, Duffy Design Works added revenue-focused digital marketing services and officially became Straight North.
2009

Straight North acquired Whoast, adding COO, Aaron Wittersheim

2009
Led by Aaron Wittersheim, Whoast was a rapidly growing digital marketing agency. Whoast’s team brought technical depth in web development, SEO, and PPC. Several members of the Whoast team are still at Straight North, including Aaron Wittersheim, Ian Stevenson, Matt Cannon, and Brett Sawicki – all in leadership positions as Vice Presidents with our agency.
2010

Straight North acquired Word Sell Inc., adding social media and content marketing expertise

2010
Word Sell Inc., founded by Brad Shorr, was a Chicago-area social media and content marketing consultancy. Brad and his team brought years of content and social strategy experience helping Straight North and its clients improve content quality and production. Brad Shorr retired in 2021.
2011

Tammy Barry, Director of HR, starts baking cookies for our team and clients

2011
Tammy’s three children must have had an amazing childhood because she bakes the best cookies! Perfectly chewy with just the right amount of chocolate chips, her cookies are everyone’s guilty pleasure at Straight North. In 2011, we decided we couldn’t keep this treat to ourselves – Tammy had to share them with our clients. Now, whenever the occasion calls for it, Tammy whips up a fresh batch. Client satisfaction and retention skyrocketed. Just kidding. Well, sort of….
2013

Straight North acquired Ephricon, the largest SEO and PPC agency in Charlotte

2013
With strong technical and content expertise, the missing piece was strategic depth. As the largest SEO and PPC agency in Charlotte, North Carolina, Ephricon brought extensive experience in comprehensive digital marketing strategy. Through this acquisition, we gained a team of strategy experts who have become instrumental in our service offerings and business growth. Today, our Charlotte office remains a key hub for client strategy and services.
2014

Launched ProStockHockey.com

2014

Growing businesses is in our DNA. Over the years, we’ve helped thousands of companies generate leads and increase revenue. So, we asked ourselves, how can we leverage our expertise to start and grow a business of our own?

A lifelong hockey fanatic, our CEO, David Duerr, saw an opportunity to combine his passion for hockey with Straight North’s digital expertise. And with that, ProStockHockey.com was born.

Fast forward 10+ years, 100K customers, and 200K hockey sticks later – ProStockHockey.com is now one of the largest online hockey retailers in the United States. Straight North’s team continues to drive its growth.

To read the full story – from idea to launch to today – visit here

2014

Launched GoNorth! Leads (“GNL”)

2014

From day one, our biggest challenge was proving the real impact of our campaigns on our clients’ businesses. While leads and revenue were increasing, identifying what was truly driving success was difficult.

To solve this, our strategy and development teams created GoNorth! Leads, a platform that tracks the source channel of leads and assigns a unique identifier. This allows our clients to follow each lead through the sales cycle, providing a clearer understanding of the true return on investment for their campaigns.

2015

Launched GoNorth! Reporting ("GNR")

2015
First came GoNorth! Leads, then GoNorth! Reporting. GoNorth! Leads provided the essential lead tracking our campaigns required, but we recognized the need for an all-in-one platform that provided transparency into our deliverables and the KPIs necessary to analyze campaign progress. This realization led to the development of GoNorth! Reporting, which integrated tools such as GoNorth! Leads, SEMrush, Google AdWords, and more. Over the years, GoNorth! Reporting has evolved to incorporate additional tools and to report data that’s required for present-day campaigns.
2016

GoNorth! Leads tracks the 1,000,000th conversion on our clients’ websites

2016
In just two years since launching GoNorth! Leads, our clients have achieved a significant milestone: 1 million website conversions. Each conversion is tracked by GoNorth! Leads and presented in GoNorth! Reporting, providing our clients with insight into channel performance and business impact.
2017

BluePay Credit Card Processing acquired by First Data (Fiserv)

2017

We’ve had a lot of special clients, but every business has that one client that stands out – BluePay Credit Card Processing was ours.

In 2008, CEO John Rante and David Duerr met on a golf course and quickly realized that BluePay needed exactly what we specialize in – lead generation. Soon after, we partnered, and over the next nine years, we helped generate 100K+ leads for BluePay, contributing to its successful acquisition by First Data (now Fiserv) in 2017.

To this day, we take great pride in our role in BluePay’s growth and remain close with many members of the BluePay team.

Post-sale we continued our relationship serving Fiserv and their subsidiaries – First Data, Card Connect, and Clover.

2018

Launched GearGeek.com

2018

In 2018, David Duerr had another idea. As the leader in the pro stock hockey equipment space, ProStockHockey.com always kept track of which products players were using – sticks, skates, gloves, and more. So, David wondered: What if we officially tracked this data and built a site to showcase it?

With that, GearGeek.com was born. Backed by the strategy and development teams at Straight North, GearGeek.com quickly became the go-to resource for hockey fanatics to research and influence buying decisions and to track the gear of NHL hockey players.

Years later, Straight North’s developers went a step further – building the technology and API to transform GearGeek.com into an affiliate marketing platform. By leveraging the popularity and influence of NHL players, GearGeek.com now drives traffic and orders to its partners, once again demonstrating Straight North’s ability to generate revenue through innovative digital solutions.

2020

Covid strikes, and the Straight North team works ‘remote’ – changing our business forever

2020

Despite the immense challenges our business and society faced, one positive change emerged—we embraced remote work.

With that shift, our team could work from anywhere, which meant we could hire talent nationwide, instantly expanding our talent pool. Going forward, we were no longer limited by geography, allowing us to bring in the best and brightest from across the country. Since then, we’ve welcomed exceptionally talented and experienced individuals from new locations who have helped take our agency to the next level.

2021

Promoted integral leaders to Vice President – Jess Stewart, Matt Cannon, Brett Sawicki, Josh Schmidt, Jeff Wojciechowski, Matt Lane

2021
‘Hire from within’ is a core value of ours.  In 2021, we recognized six individuals for the value they deliver to our clients and the leadership they bring to Straight North.
2022

Launched our Partner Program

2022

As a full-service digital marketing agency, we’ve helped our clients grow through many channels. However, we recognize that sometimes they need support in areas beyond our expertise.

To bridge that gap, we created a vetted partner network – trusted professionals we can refer our clients and prospects to when they need assistance outside our core services. Since launching this program, we’ve built a strong network of partners who step in when we know we can’t, ensuring our clients always get the right solutions.

2022

We celebrated our 25-year anniversary

2022
From Kevin Duffy’s basement to generating over 10 million leads for our clients – time flies!
2024

1 oven, 5 KitchenAid mixers, and 5 million calories 🙄 later, Tammy bakes her 50,000th cookie for our team and clients

2024
Okay, we will be honest. We haven’t counted every single cookie Tammy baked, but we did some good old fashion back-of-the-napkin math, and we believe she reached 50k cookies in ‘24. At this point, Mrs. Field, Famous Amos, and Keebler have some competition. Tammy is becoming a household name….
2025

Launched GoNorth! Reporting ‘3.0’

2025

As digital marketing evolves, so do we. With AI playing an increasingly significant role in the search landscape, our service delivery has adapted, along with the KPIs that matter most to us and our clients.

Our GNR 3.0 reporting platform integrates tools such as Google Analytics, BrightEdge, Google Search Console, GoNorth! Leads, and CallRail, providing a transparent, all-in-one solution for tracking deliverables and gaining in-depth insights into key metrics that truly reflect campaign progress. GNR 3.0 enables us to make data-driven decisions that create a significant impact for our clients.