By Alexander Rivero

Staff Writer

Gina Fico did not originally plan to get into digital marketing when she graduated from County College of Morris with a degree in journalism and media marketing, but she knew she always wanted to open up her own business. As a child, watching her parents go to their jobs during the day and return during the evenings, she was amazed at the thought that someone could take a concept near and dear to their hearts and transform it into a successful business operation. 

“It didn’t matter if it was something as small as a local hardware store or something as big as Disney,” says Fico by phone, “what mattered to me was that someone once had an idea and was able to make money out of it. It’s something that’s always stayed with me my whole life.” 

She tried her hand at several business models herself, including stints as a personal stylist after brushing up on her own interest in fashion by taking a course. In the end, however, the real lesson she took away from the experience was that the fashion world was not for her.

“It was fun. I learned a great deal and kept myself busy, and also made a few bucks, but in the end it wasn’t what I really wanted to do.”

It was just as she was coming out of her stylist business that the COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm. She was already fiddling with the idea of putting her journalism and marketing knowledge to direct use and start up a digital marketing business. Her family was supportive but cautious. 

“They told me to be careful and to start it when I was absolutely ready,” she recalls the conversations with her parents in May of 2020. 

By late November of that year, she committed herself to the idea, and the early stages of Bay Rock Digital Marketing were set. 

The first two years of Bay Rock—which is an homage to Bayonne, the city where Fico’s family are from originally and where she spent the first year of her life, and Rockaway, where she was raised and currently resides—ran according to plan. Which is to say, with a lot of ups and downs. Fico expected all this, though, and was ready for it. Looking back at it now—the building, the searching for clients, the planning—she sees it all as a part of a necessary process to where she is today. 

“Everything is significant in the building and growing process of a business,” she says, “especially the failures.” 

Bay Rock offers its clients clean, well-presented digital marketing plans, web development, and digital consulting. It is a pleasure to scroll through some of the websites it has created for its clients list, which as of this writing include Eastern Glass Block, Papa Al’s Chicken and Waffles, Her Financial IQ, CXL Headlight Restoration, Home Choice Building Products. These are all local businesses heavily invested in their communities, just the way Bay Rock is as well. 

 What really distinguishes the company, in fact, is its community-focused approach to business, as well as its strong emphasis on communication with the clients to provide them with as customizable experience as possible with their marketing goals.  

“Bay Rock’s ideal client,” says Fico, “is a small business owner, running a community-focused business, whether it’s a coffee house where people get together to chat, or perhaps something more along the lines of a coaching business, that is as committed to open communication as we are.” 

A typical week for Fico, who also works as a paraprofessional at a Rockaway school four days a week, includes taking and making calls to clients, showing up for in-person meetings, writing up plans and contracts, working on websites, sales calls, and days when she is just making sense of everything and getting all her ducks in a row. 

Bay Rock offers all its prospective clients a free, no obligation discovery call, so that each party can get to know the other. Then, after a day or two, Fico herself will call the party up and offer them a wholly customized package, catered specifically to that particular client. 

“No two businesses will get the same pre-packaged offer from me,” she says. “Everything is customized to the client, including the pricing. I see each business as its very own unique universe, and I’m committed to the clients without ever being pushy.”

For more information on Bay Rock Digital Marketing, please visit the company’s website at www.bayrockdigitalmarketing.com, or e-mail the company at bayrockdigitalmarketing@gmail.com. You can find Bay Rock on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn as well.