DIGITAL MARKETING ADVISORY
Senior-level thinking.
Hands-on execution.
Upper Level Consulting is the outside digital lead for professional practices, owner-led companies, and startups. We figure out what’s getting in the way, determine what will actually move the business forward, and stay involved to make sure the work gets done.
Est. 2008 • 17+ years in practice • Referral-driven since day one
Who we help
Three kinds of clients. One recurring problem.
Digital is central to how you grow, and nobody inside the organization owns it.
Professional services
Practices and firms where reputation drives referrals. Your website either reinforces that or quietly works against it — and most owners have never been shown which
Owner-led companies
B2B or B2C, service or product — what they share is that the person who cares most about growth is also the one with the least time to run it. You became the marketing department by default.
Start-ups
Early teams that need marketing infrastructure built correctly the first time, before there’s budget to redo it.
If you don’t see yourself here and something’s broken, the conversation works the same way.
Who You’ll work with
Greg Taylor
Founder & Principal · 17 Years Digital Marketing Strategy
WordPress Architect · Rutgers University
Founder of Upper Level Consulting, Greg Taylor has spent nearly two decades helping professional practices, owner-led companies, nonprofits, and emerging businesses navigate digital strategy.
Since establishing the firm in 2008, his experience has spanned website development, search, content, and emerging technology, including work with Phoenix Children’s Hospital, the Philadelphia Phillies, Jay Baer, and Gary Vaynerchuk.
His career has covered two distinct eras of digital marketing — from the rise of search, social media, and mobile to today’s shift toward AI-driven discovery and automation. Through those changes, his approach has remained consistent: understand the business, identify what is getting in the way, and determine where digital strategy can make a meaningful difference.
Since establishing the firm in 2008, his experience has spanned website development, search, content, and emerging technology, including work with Phoenix Children’s Hospital, the Philadelphia Phillies, Jay Baer, and Gary Vaynerchuk.
Every Upper Level Consulting engagement is led personally, from initial assessment and strategy through implementation, combining senior-level marketing perspective with hands-on technical experience.
The Upper Level Method
No guessing.
Marketing decisions get made on opinion far more often than anyone admits. We don’t work that way. Every engagement runs on the same four phases — evidence first, priorities second, work third, and a monthly return to the numbers that started it.
Measure
Every engagement opens with evidence, not opinion. Search visibility, traffic sources, conversion paths, content performance, and where revenue actually comes from — documented, so there’s a fixed point to measure against later.
Build
The work gets executed against the plan. When the build calls for custom development, it runs through Upper Level Development.
Blueprint
Findings become a ranked plan, with effort and impact attached to every item. What happens first, what happens next, and what we deliberately leave alone.
Refine
Monthly review against the baseline. What moved, what didn’t, and what changes as a result — then back to the blueprint.
The cycle doesn’t end. That’s the point — the data compounds, so every pass is sharper than the one before it.
On AI
We use it. It reads data faster than any person can, finds patterns across a year of analytics in an afternoon, and makes the Measure phase more thorough than it was five years ago. Refusing to use it would be its own kind of guessing.
It doesn’t make the decisions. Nothing reaches a client that wasn’t reviewed, judged, and signed off by a person who understands the business it’s for. AI is a tool in this practice — not a substitute for the thinking you’re hiring.
What we’re hired for
Nobody goes looking for help on a good day.
People reach out because something is broken — referrals slowed, the site stopped converting, the spend stopped working, or nobody can say which part is working at all. Figuring out which one comes first. The prescription comes after, and the relationship usually outlasts both.
“We’re spending on marketing and I can’t tell you what any of it did.”
What’s actually wrong
Measurement was never set up, so every channel looks equally plausible and nothing can be cut with confidence. We rebuild attribution first — then the budget conversation becomes arithmetic instead of argument.
“The site looks fine. It just doesn’t seem to do anything.”
What’s actually wrong
Usually not design. It’s that the site was built to describe the business rather than convert a specific visitor with a specific intent. The fix is architecture and messaging, not a redesign — and it’s cheaper than the redesign.
“We’re busy, but we’re not growing.”
What’s actually wrong
Volume without mix. The work coming in is the work that’s easiest to sell, not the work with the best margin. That’s a positioning and channel problem long before it’s an advertising problem.
“We’ve been through three agencies and I’m tired of explaining the business.”
What’s actually wrong
You were sold services when you needed judgment. Each agency executed its specialty competently and none of them owned the outcome. That’s the gap this practice exists to fill.
Every one of these is a business problem before it’s a marketing problem. That’s the level we work at — and the level we’re accountable to.
Exposure
Being findable by the people already looking for what you do — increasingly inside an AI answer rather than a list of ten blue links.
Recognition
Being the name that’s already familiar when the referral comes, so the sale is half made before the call.
Lead generation
A predictable flow of the right inquiries — not more volume, better fit.
Where we add value.
These are the tools, not the point. Which ones you need is a conclusion we reach together — never the thing we sell you on day one.
Marketing & web audits • Search & local SEO • AI search visibility • Analytics & attribution • Positioning & messaging • Content strategy • Email & lifecycle marketing • Marketing automation • Conversion optimization • Paid media oversight • Site architecture • Custom WordPress development • Vendor & agency review • Fractional CMO
How we work
Engagements that fit the moment.
Start with a diagnostic or bring us in as a standing advisor. Every model is built around how your team actually operates — and we hold a limited number of retainer seats, so the person you hire stays the person you get.
Fixed fee
Diagnosis & roadmap
A one-time assessment and prioritized plan. The most common way new relationships start — and the fastest way to find out whether we work well together.
Fixed fee · fixed timeline
Scoped strategy engagement
A defined deliverable on a set budget and schedule. Positioning work, channel strategy, a content system, a launch plan.
ONGOING
Monthly Retainer
An embedded marketing lead inside your team. Our default for multi-quarter work where priorities shift and decisions can’t wait for a scope change.
standing role
Fractional CMO
Senior digital judgment available rather than scheduled. For owners and founders who need the function without the hire.
Straight Answers
Let’s answer some common questions.
What does this cost?
A diagnosis and roadmap runs $6,000–$9,500 depending on how much is under the hood. Retainers and fractional CMO work start at $5,000 a month, billed month to month. Scoped strategy work is quoted against the deliverable. Nothing is billed hourly — you’ll know the number before we start.
Am I actually working with Greg?
Yes. He runs the diagnosis, writes the strategy, and remains your point of contact for the life of the relationship. That’s the reason retainer seats are limited — the model stops working the moment it’s delegated.
We already have someone handling marketing
Good — that’s often the better engagement. Plenty of our work is advising an in-house marketer or reviewing the agency you already pay. We’re not looking to replace people who are doing their jobs well.
How soon do we see something?
The diagnosis lands in three to four weeks. Fixes worth doing immediately usually surface in the first two. Compounding channels — search, content, reputation — move on a six- to twelve-month horizon, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
What if the roadmap says we need a build?
Then we build it, through Upper Level Development. You can also take the roadmap to your own developer — it’s written to be handed off, and it’s yours either way.
What’s with the pigeon?
Pigeons are underestimated. They’re intelligent, adaptable, persistent, and exceptionally good at finding their way through complicated environments. They don’t get much credit for it. They just figure things out. We like that.
Who we work with.
Our site is faster, it’s secure, and donations have gone up meaningfully since the strategic rebuild.
Shane Barnhill
VP of Digital Philanthropy
Phoenix Children’s Hospital
Greg has completely transformed our digital marketing and e-commerce presence.
Dr. Steven Davis
Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon
Davis Cosmetic Plastic Surgery
We brought Greg in for the Bette’s Triples campaign with the Phillies for PSPCA. Every season it runs flawlessly and exceeded goal.
Beth Overmier
Founder / Bette’s Triples
Let’s talk
Not sure what’s wrong, or what to do about it?
Tell us where you’re trying to go. We’ll tell you what it takes to get there — and whether we’re the right team for it.