Local businesses are the backbone of Wheeling, West Virginia. Places like Sarah’s on Main, Centre Market, and Wheeling Heritage are known and loved by everyone. Other local businesses work in the background and are less well-known; however, they are no less important. Direct Online Marketing (DOM), a company based in Pittsburgh, PA, but founded, grown, and continues to operate in Wheeling, WV, helps other companies and businesses increase their online visibility and export their products globally. The Founder and President of this company, born right here in Wheeling and living here with his wife and children, is Justin Seibert.
“I’m the luckiest person I know, so I wanted to give others at least as good as a life as I could,” he said, “to be able to give people opportunities for them to work all over the world and to be able to do that here in Wheeling was a really important part.”
Mr. Seibert has grown his business from a one-man team in 2006 to a 40-man team today that works in all inhabitable continents and works with over 40 industries. And while these achievements are impressive, Mr. Seibert feels most satisfied helping others. Every year, Mr. Seibert speaks at conventions in and outside the U.S. as an expert in digital advertising.
“The reason I do it, is for those people in attendance.”
Mr. Seibert wants to get people into the digital marketing business, whether it’s to join his own company, or help others get a job at another. But even though Mr. Seibert is travelling to different countries for business or having meetings with companies around the U.S., he always circles back to Wheeling and gets involved in the community. He is a part of the Oglebay board and Wheeling Park commission, along with others, so he can improve life for those in his hometown.
“I really enjoy being a part of committees that help the town, but how I help the most is through business,” he said, “We have our building in Wheeling so that we still pay taxes in the area where people build families, so I’m very happy and willing to pay taxes to improve the area.”
Mr. Seibert credits his business’s success to all of his amazing team members, most of how he met and employed in Wheeling.
His wife, Kristin Seibert, found appeal in Wheeling through him.
“It’s got these amazing, amazing parks,” she said, “It’s a wonderful place to raise children in a safe environment and life has been much more pleasurable.”
Born and raised in California, Kristin never experienced the natural appeal of Wheeling, West Virginia, with its hills and green for miles. Mr. and Mrs. Seibert met in L.A., got married, had a kid, and decided to move back to Wheeling because they missed the environment in West Virginia.
Mr. Seibert says almost every day, “We decided to move here and it’s been wonderful.”
He loves Wheeling and the people in it, so he will take any opportunity to tell people about the town and enthusiastically tell them to visit. Mr. Seibert’s love for the town and the community is shown through his everyday words and actions. Whether it’s cracking jokes with his employees to lighten the mood, giving his input on the Oglebay board, or doing regular household chores to keep his house in check, Mr. Seibert is a helpful, optimistic person always looking to better himself and the town he grew up in.
