"Milestone is always at the forefront of digital marketing technology and is always first to market with innovations that drive results for our clients."

Digital Marketing is becoming critical to the success of just about any business. With businesses unable to keep pace with evolving consumer behavior and the marketing landscape, the pressure is on to align digital marketing strategies, technologies and tactics with the rapidly evolving consumer landscape.

In view of the above-mentioned scenario, we are thrilled to present Milestone Inc.

Milestone is a leading provider of digital marketing software and services for hospitality, retail and finance. The company provides a full range of solutions including website and mobile design, content creation, SEO, analytics and competitive intelligence. Its state-of-the-art technology and solutions drive revenue and ROI for clients across the globe.

Over 2,000 companies worldwide do business with Milestone, including leading hotel chains, major retailers and financial services companies. The company has garnered over 500 awards, was short listed for the US search awards 3 years running and recently won Search Engine Land's 2018 Best Overall SEO-SEM campaign. It has also garnered a reputation for blending outstanding design with advanced technological capabilities. It's one of Silicon Valley Business Journal's fastest growing companies and is an Inc. 5000 company.

Milestone was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, Chicago.

Anil Aggarwal & Benu Aggarwal, Milestone Inc. Leadership, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Q. Why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings over the years?

Benu started Milestone 20 years ago out of her home office after working as a Marketing Director for several major branded hotels. In the early days of her venture, she was trained as an SEO specialist, programmer, designer, marketer, salesperson, trainer, accountant, and speaker - whatever it took to make things happen. From a one-woman show, Milestone blossomed into a Digital marketing powerhouse that is making a difference on how to maximize marketing on the Web. For two decades, Benu has worked with clients every step of the way, learning every element of Internet marketing and understanding every aspect of technical marketing, to ensure the success of the businesses Milestone represents.

In 2005, Benu recognized that to continue to grow and scale the business, Milestone needed an experienced and seasoned CEO that could work in close cooperation with Benu to continue to grow. During that same time, Anil Aggarwal, Benu's husband had just sold his startup: "I had just sold my startup, Zeevo, a wireless connectivity solution provider to Broadcom. One evening when I returned home after work, I saw that Benu was having a meeting with 20 executives and potential clients. For every dollar they spent, Benu was delivering an ROI of $47. It was then I realized that there was a lot of potential in what Milestone was doing and decided to join them."

With Benu and Anil at the helm, Milestone has continued to grow at 20 to 30percent each year. In the past decade, Milestone has grown even further. With the development of a full cloud-based digital marketing platform, Milestone has become a unique provider of Digital Marketing software and services for location-based businesses across many industries. Hotels, retailers, banks, automotive companies and healthcare groups all leverage Milestone's unique value proposition of ‘software + services' to connect consumer-facing businesses with their constituents.

Today, Milestone is one of the premier providers of digital marketing software and services. We have offices in three countries and over 240 employees including over 100 engineers and developers. Over the years, we have won over 500 awards and have been recognized by both our peers and industry experts for our vision and leadership.

Q. So, is Milestone an agency or a software company?

Actually, both. The core strength of Milestone is that as a software company we provide leading-edge technologies targeted at digital marketers. At the same time, we recognized along the way that often digital marketers don't have the resources to manage the entire spectrum of digital marketing services necessary in today's market. That's why we also provide award-winning digital marketing services for our clients. Milestone clients can either buy our software platform and do the work themselves, or we can work with them to help them get the most out of their investment - whether that's in developing websites that drive revenue or creating award-winning campaigns that drive ROI and maximize the results of their digital presence. That's why, over the years, we have won hundreds of awards - including the best overall SEO-SEM campaign at 2018's Search Engine Land awards.

Q. What makes Milestone stand out from the competition?

There are three core differentiators that are at the heart of why Milestone outperforms its competition. First - and most critical - is our deep knowledge of technology. Milestone is always at the forefront of digital marketing technology and is always first to market with innovations that drive results for our clients. Second, is Milestone's unique software + services value proposition. Our clients get the best of both worlds - the best software, coupled with award-winning services. Finally, Milestone is one of the only digital marketing companies in the world to recognize the need for a central, cloud-based platform dedicated to the needs of digital marketers. Our Presence Platform provides a unique, cloud-based system that replaces hundreds of tools for digital marketers, eliminating the need for a myriad of tools that don't work together.

Q. Do you have any new products ready to be to be launched?

Yes, we are very excited about the upcoming release of our Presence Platform - a unified, cloud-based digital marketing platform for the creation of content, sharing of content and analysis of digital marketing performance. The Milestone Presence Platform provides content management, local search management, social media monitoring, review management as well as competitive analysis and digital marketing analytics - all in a single platform that is easy to use, centralized, secure and built on top of an enterprise-grade architecture. It's a huge leap for digital marketing for location-based businesses and we are very excited about its imminent launch.

Leadership | Milestone Inc.

Anil Aggarwal: Anil Aggarwal is the Chief Executive Officer of Milestone, Inc. He brings an extensive background in management and technology marketing to Milestone and has transformed the company into a digital marketing powerhouse.

A recent survey of 167,000 Silicon Valley CEOs by Owler Inc. -it recognized Mr. Aggarwal as one of the top 1,000 CEOs in Silicon Valley. He has written several articles and technology white papers related to e-commerce strategies and co-authored the book ‘From Hotels to HTMLs'. Anil is a board member of the HSMAI hospitality association and was named one of the top 25 extraordinary minds in the hospitality space.

Before Milestone, Mr. Aggarwal was Co-founder and CEO of Zeevo. He has won several awards including FSA's Best Financially Managed Private Company Award.

Mr. Aggarwal holds a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay, India, as well as a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Hawaii, and an MBA from the University of Georgia.

Benu Aggarwal: Benu Aggarwal, founder, is the President of Milestone Inc. She is a highly recognized expert in Digital marketing solutions and SEO. Mrs. Aggarwal over sees product development, client services, technology and strategic vision for the company. Under her leadership, the company has launched several award-winning websites and software products.

"Milestone is one of the only digital marketing companies in the world to recognize the need for a central, cloud-based platform dedicated to the needs of digital marketers."

Click here to read the original article published in The Silicon Review.