Yeliza Centeio: Bringing Brands to Life Through Marketing

Advertising and marketing are integral to the business. These processes are used to create, communicate, deliver, and exchange offers for customers or clients. The quality of marketing determines the quantum of sales, which in turn decides the fate of the company. Marketing can give small businesses the impetus, as owners who hire experts to take care of this critical aspect can focus more on creating one-on-one customer experiences. A good marketing campaign, especially in this era of social media, is excellent for engaging with existing as well as potential customers. Yeliza Centeio, founder and owner of Integral Marketing and Advertising, helps businesses scale and grow with her strategic thinking and demonstrable understanding of digital media.   

Personal Life 

Yeliza has a diploma in Marketing Education from Greater Lowell Technical High School and has more than 15 years of experience serving diverse brands as a media advertising and marketing expert. She has worked in advertising agencies as an expert in Programmatic, Affiliate, Paid Social, Paid Search, SEO, brand marketing, eCommerce, and lead generation/sales. Yeliza always had an entrepreneurial urge which made her take the leap of faith and start her own agency, Integral, in 2020. 

Brand Management 

Many years in the advertising industry made Yeliza wary of a lot of things but freelancing on the side as a marketing professional gave her the freedom to choose her own clients and be heard and understood. She was always told in her earlier jobs that she was an integral part of the organization, and now she wanted to be integral to herself. Thus, Integral, the marketing agency, was born out of Yeliza’s media expertise and no-frills approach with an employee strength of 11 people.  

Integral’s services include managing day-to-day agency operations, including agency financials, human resources, new business growth, client support, project management, lead media planning, buying, and strategy, as well as analytics and providing support to brands, start-ups, and agencies with support. Through Integral, you can partner with talented freelancers/consultants on websites and brand-building projects and collaborate with partner agencies on digital media projects as well as new business pitches. With a solid network of subject matter experts at Integral, the clients can expect works of advertising art by experienced designers, seamless user experiences by meticulous developers, analytics wizards who can transform data into savvy marketing strategies, and copywriters who start conversations and turn them into clicks. 

Harness Your Power 

A recent survey in 2022 showed that there were around 6,000 advertising agencies in the US, and only 1% were owned by women, while 3% were led by women. This statistic reeks of inequality which disturbed Yeliza, and she wants more women to take that leap of faith into entrepreneurship and be an example and support others. Her path to becoming a business owner was not filled with roses but what kept her going was resilience and grit. According to Yeliza, work-life balance is a myth, and one has to just go from day to day, putting in all the effort that is needed at that point in time. Chasing balance can be overwhelming, which can be remedied by prioritizing and understanding that it is not always about balance.  

Yeliza wants to work towards encouraging more women and minorities to get into the world of advertising for inclusivity. Networking is key, and she wants women to get in touch with their peers who have shattered the glass ceiling to draw inspiration from and empower each other. As a word of advice for women who are struggling it out and trying to make a mark for themselves, Yeliza thinks it all starts with an intention. “Try silencing the negative voice in your head which says that you are not good enough. We have been wired to think of failure first as we are riddled with the fear of letting others down. It might feel like you are falling, but what if you are actually flying? So, do not get bogged down by your surroundings; just keep working towards your dreams,” Yeliza said, while speaking with WomLEAD Magazine.