About Scott Feder
In the Scene. On Every Screen.
WordPress websites, local search visibility and programmatic advertising — and you work with me directly, not a junior account manager.
The Origin Story
SCOTT FEDER
Founder & Managing Partner
Qualify LLC Digital Marketing Agency
BBA Business Administration
Southern Methodist University
MBA Marketing
Florida International University
MM Telecommunications
University of Dallas
Before programmatic. Before Google. Before social media. I was already building brands, targeting audiences, and turning ad spend into sales. The mediums have changed. The strategy never did.
I started in Miami in 1990, as marketing manager for a scuba diving travel publication. I led writers and photographers on expedition trips to dive destinations across the Bahamas, Mexico and the Caribbean — drift diving in Cozumel, wreck diving off the Florida coast, the reefs of Bonaire, the shores of Aruba and Curaçao. My job was to bring together the airlines, hotels, dive operators, equipment manufacturers and tourism bureaus whose support made each story possible.
For nearly two decades after that, I built one of the most successful Yellow Pages territories in the mid-Atlantic — managing advertising sales across GTE, Citizens, Frontier and CenturyLink. I worked directly with The Berry Company, the people who invented the Yellow Pages, for more than ten years. I led the merger of the Citizens and Frontier directories into a single brand, FrontierPages, and oversaw a major territorial expansion into the Southeast with CenturyLink.
Then Google arrived, and the entire industry changed overnight. Most of the people I'd worked with rode it down. I went the other way.
I built the print-to-digital ad bundles. I launched internet directory products for media publishers like Comporium, who put thousands of local businesses online for the first time.
Building the local search industry
As VP of Sales at Innovectra — one of the first companies to create electronic directories — I helped publish over 800 Internet Yellow Pages editions. When Innovectra merged with ImmersiFind, I helped build the largest local search platform in North America, supporting a national network of publisher sales teams.
Before I launched Qualify, I consulted with hundreds of small business owners at Surefire Local, an Inc. 5000 platform — developing digital blueprints across nine industries, including a national lead generation program for James Hardie supporting siding contractors throughout the U.S.
Then I co-founded Shrewd Marketing, where our team designed and built a local search platform from scratch — a U.S. directory of 14 million business listings powering MakeItLocal.com for Comporium.
Qualify LLC is my answer.
To meet the required standard; to be entitled to a benefit or privilege by fulfilling a necessary condition.
The name is the promise. Every campaign starts by deciding who deserves to see your advertising — and who doesn't. Not everyone qualifies to see your ad. Yours will find exactly the right people.
Career Timeline
The Magazine Years
Florida — 1990s
Fisheye View Scuba Magazine
Ad sales and the media kit for one of the first magazines ever published digitally — airlines, hotels, tourism bureaus and dive brands like Beuchat.
The Publishing Years
Texas, New York & Louisiana — 2000s
Building brands in print
P&L responsibility for GTE's $1.2B directory portfolio, then Frontier and CenturyLink — merging two brands into FrontierPages and expanding into the Southeast.
The Digital Pivot
Virginia — 2009
Evolving ahead of the industry
As print declined, I moved first — publishing digital yellow pages nationwide at Innovectra, then building North America's largest local search platform at ImmersiFind.
The Consulting Years
Virginia — 2013–2018
Hundreds of businesses. Nine industries.
Digital blueprints for small business owners at Surefire Local, then a local search platform built from scratch at Shrewd Marketing for Comporium.
Founded Qualify LLC
Virginia — 2019
Ashburn, VA — serving businesses nationwide
Founded Qualify LLC to bring website design, local SEO and Fortune 500 advertising technology to local and regional businesses.
Thirty years in advertising teaches you one thing: the currents never stop changing.
Every disruption — the internet, the death of print, the rise of programmatic — is a deep end you get thrown into without warning. Adapt immediately or fall behind completely.
As a certified NAUI Advanced Scuba Diver, I know the ocean doesn't care about your plan. You read the current, stay calm, and keep moving forward. Thirty years later, I'm still swimming.
And so are my clients.
This isn't a list of industries I'd like to work in. These are industries I've actually worked in — building websites, running local search, and managing advertising campaigns. Pick yours.
Advertising & Media
I spent a decade inside this industry as a product marketing director and group product manager, overseeing $1.2B in directory revenue. I know how publishers, agencies and media companies operate — and I work behind the scenes for agencies today.
Automotive
Dealers and service centers were a core category through my directory years, managing over 1,200 titles. I understand how automotive buyers search, compare and decide — and what it takes to be found at every step.
Business Services
IT consultants, software companies, coaches and sales organizations. I've built their websites, handled their search visibility and sold to them directly — and my VP role at an IT services consultancy gave me the insider's view of this category.
Health & Beauty
Dental practices, med spas, salons and fitness studios compete on local visibility and a full appointment book. Websites, local search and advertising all have to point at the same thing: booked time.
Home Improvement
My largest and longest-running category. Contractors, builders and remodelers compete for high-ticket local projects, which means a website that converts, search visibility that holds up, and advertising that reaches homeowners at the right moment.
Home Services
Pools, pest control and seasonal maintenance run on a service calendar, not a one-time project. The marketing has to keep the route full and bring customers back season after season.
Insurance
Agencies sell a considered purchase against national brands with enormous budgets. Local search and precise targeting reach people who are already shopping for coverage, before the national advertiser gets to them.
Manufacturing
B2B manufacturers need to reach buyers, distributors and procurement decision-makers — not consumers. My enterprise sales background translates directly into how these companies get marketed and found.
Non-Profits
Educational institutions, member organizations and charitable causes need marketing that stretches every dollar and still shows results to a board. Cost-effective work, measured honestly.
Pet Services
Daycare, boarding, grooming and pet brands live on local trust and repeat visits inside a tight radius. Being the obvious choice nearby matters more than being known everywhere.
Professional Services
Law firms, accountants, financial advisors and consultants demand precision — the right message, to the right audience, at the right moment. Credibility is the product, and the website carries most of it.
Real Estate
Agents and teams compete on visibility inside a defined geography — listing by listing, neighborhood by neighborhood. Local search and precise targeting decide who gets called first.
Travel & Hospitality
Where my career started in 1990, selling advertising to airlines, hotels, tour operators and tourism bureaus. I've been marketing this industry longer than most agencies have existed.
Don't see your industry? Tell me about your business and I'll tell you honestly whether I've worked in your space before.
There are thousands of digital marketing agencies. Here's why business owners from Virginia to Idaho, Florida to Massachusetts choose Qualify.
You work directly with Scott — not a junior account manager. Every strategy, every campaign, every recommendation comes from 30+ years of real-world experience.
Official Simpli.fi certified partner — the same professional-grade programmatic platform used by major agencies and Fortune 500 brands, running your campaigns with real-time data.
We earn your business every month. Short minimum commitments, transparent reporting and results you can verify independently.
Campaigns running from Virginia to Florida to Idaho — each one targeted street by street, ZIP code by ZIP code. Wherever your customers are, we reach them like a local.
Digital advertising, local SEO and website design work together as one integrated strategy — not three disconnected services from three different vendors.
Real numbers, real reporting, no black boxes. We publish actual campaign results publicly on the Digital Wall of Fame — no cherry-picked case studies. If it's working you'll see it, and if it needs adjustment you'll hear it from us first.
Six roles, one direction. Each one built toward the last — and in 2019 I founded Qualify LLC to deliver digital marketing solutions for small and mid-sized businesses: website design and development, local SEO, and programmatic display and CTV advertising.
Professional Endorsements
600+ LinkedIn endorsements · 3,000+ connections · Recommended 42 times on Alignable.com
Scott is a roll-up-the-sleeves sales & marketing guy who can scale. He worked as my Chief Sales Officer, VP Sales and Head of Business Development in my last 2 turnarounds — we re-started the engine of both companies and drove strong recurring revenue in record time.
Tom Lewis
Chief Surfer — Surfio — Former Direct Manager
Scott has been able to offer wonderful insight for three of our current clients looking to grow their digital footprint. Thank you for helping create a strategy for targeted content, localized marketing and giving our clients a voice.
Carl Grivakis
Holy Carp Design — Peabody, MA
Scott is a great listener and offers wise, sensible and practical solutions to digital marketing endeavors. His extensive experience in the marketing sphere lends him a high degree of professionalism and integrity.
Tim Syrell
Mobius Financial Group — South Glens Falls, NY
Scott is a focused, driven professional who brings amazing energy and passion. He builds excellent relationships with customers that consistently deliver sales results and thinks well on the fly — something so few professionals can do.
Eric Koefoot
Founder — PublicRelay Inc. — Entrepreneur & Angel Investor
Working with Scott is always a true pleasure. His strategic insight and commitment to excellence always stand out. I look forward to continuing our successful collaboration!
James Du Rell
L7 Labs — Dallas, GA
Scott always exceeded his goals. He helped develop the product roadmap and was instrumental in establishing partner/vendor relationships. He is a true professional and an asset to any corporation.
Mike Evanchick
Project Cost Controller — Worley — Former Colleague
Get In Touch
No pitch decks. No pressure. Just a straight conversation about where you are, where you want to go and whether Qualify LLC is the right fit to get you there.
Scott Feder
Managing Partner
Qualify LLC — Ashburn, VA
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