Founder and Lead Marketing Strategist at Plaski Advertising
Emily McKnight is the founder and lead marketing strategist behind Plaski Advertising, a boutique, full-service marketing agency based in Central Indiana. She helps small businesses bridge the gap between their companies and the constantly changing world of digital media through thoughtful strategy, approachable guidance, and marketing built around measurable goals.
With experience spanning agency leadership, website development, search engine optimization, paid advertising, graphic design, content production, photography, and video, Emily brings both creative and analytical thinking to every client relationship. She is especially passionate about helping small businesses in construction, home services, and other lead-driven industries determine where to begin, what to prioritize, and how to make their marketing budgets work harder.
Her goal is to make professional marketing feel less overwhelming and more purposeful.
Where Creativity Met Strategy
Emily’s interest in digital media began long before Plaski Advertising existed.
Her interest in digital media began at a young age. At 11 years old, she started teaching herself Adobe Photoshop CS3 and experimenting with photo manipulation, graphic design, and photography. What began as childhood curiosity soon developed into a lasting passion for visual communication and the creative possibilities of digital media.
Emily went on to attend Asbury University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in communication with an emphasis in multimedia and a minor in graphic design. During college, she also interned with LEX 18 News, gaining experience in professional media production and communication.
That combination of creative curiosity, formal education, and practical media experience helped shape the way she approaches marketing today. Strong design may capture someone’s attention, but strategy determines what happens next.
Building a Career in Marketing
Before founding Plaski Advertising, Emily worked as a digital design specialist, assistant creative director, and eventually creative director at a marketing agency in Indiana. Through these roles, she gained experience leading creative projects, developing marketing strategies, managing client relationships, and translating business goals into cohesive campaigns across digital and traditional platforms.
Emily also spent six years supporting a high-profile national nonprofit organization. During that time, she helped grow its social media audience from approximately 200 followers to more than 1.2M in three months. Converting increased public attention into meaningful audience growth required timely content, a strong understanding of each platform, and the ability to recognize what motivated people to engage and remain connected.
Her professional experience spans website design and development, social media, branding, paid advertising, photography, video production, analytics, and content strategy. Today, she works extensively with WordPress, Adobe Creative Suite, Google Ads, Google Analytics, and other digital platforms to create marketing strategies that balance strong creative work with measurable performance.
The Beginning of Plaski Advertising
The idea for Plaski Advertising began taking shape in 2020. Emily officially opened the agency in 2023 and made it her full-time career from the beginning.
Plaski was created to offer small business owners a more personal and practical alternative to the traditional agency model. Emily had seen how frustrating it could be for clients to submit support tickets, wait days for answers, speak with a different person during every interaction, or work through a project manager who was disconnected from the actual work.
She wanted to build something more responsive, informed, and transparent.
Since opening in 2023, Plaski Advertising has worked with 50+ businesses and 2 municipalities. Many of the agency’s earliest clients continue to work with Plaski today. That long-term client retention reflects the kind of partnerships Emily set out to create from the beginning.
Strategy That Fits the Business
Emily does not believe every company needs every available marketing service. Small businesses should not be pressured into paying for extra tools, campaigns, or platforms simply because an agency has them to sell.
Instead, she begins by learning how the business operates, what its owners want to accomplish, what success realistically looks like, and what resources are currently available. From there, she helps determine which marketing efforts should come first and which can be added as the company grows.
This often includes a combination of grassroots marketing, website development, local SEO, Google Ads, Meta advertising, social media, photography, video, email marketing, and content strategy. Each plan is tailored to the individual company rather than copied from a standard agency package.
Analytics and reporting remain central to that process. Plaski clients receive access to a custom-built live reporting dashboard so they can see what is happening within their accounts. If a strategy is not producing the expected results, Emily communicates what she is seeing, recommends a change, and adjusts the direction.
Clients also retain complete ownership of the websites and domain names Plaski develops for them. Emily believes businesses should own the digital assets they have paid to build without worrying that changing providers could mean losing access to their website or domain.
Personally Involved From Start to Finish
Emily remains closely involved in every Plaski account. Client work is either completed by her personally or reviewed by her before it is presented.
That involvement means clients are not repeatedly asked to explain their company, goals, or previous conversations to someone new. Emily understands the strategy, stays familiar with the work in progress, and can usually answer questions without bringing several additional people into the conversation.
Her clients frequently appreciate her organization, communication, and ability to explain complicated marketing concepts in understandable terms. Whether she is discussing the difference between SEO and paid advertising, setting realistic expectations for a new campaign, or helping a business prioritize a limited budget, Emily wants clients to understand both what is being recommended and why.
For her, transparency is not simply providing a monthly report. It means giving business owners enough information to feel confident about the decisions being made with their time and money.
Work That Makes an Impact
Some of Emily’s favorite projects are those that allow Plaski to help shape a business from the ground up.
One example is TAK Floor Coatings. Plaski developed the company’s new logo and website, strengthened its social media presence, and created an SEO strategy around the services its ideal customers were already searching for. Following the launch, the website began generating consistent traffic and leads without relying solely on paid advertising.
Emily is also proud to have helped develop the Town of Trafalgar seal. The original concept began as a hand-drawn sketch created during a flight home and was later professionally developed in collaboration with Jeremy from Pop Print. It remains a meaningful example of how an idea can move from a rough sketch to a lasting piece of a community’s identity.
These projects reflect the kind of work Emily enjoys most: learning what matters to an organization, giving its ideas direction, and building something that continues to create value after the initial project is complete.
Small by Design
Plaski Advertising is intentionally structured as a boutique agency.
Emily believes growth should not come at the expense of responsiveness, familiarity, or thoughtful work. Larger agencies often carry additional overhead and layers of account management that can increase costs while creating distance between the client and the people doing the work.
Plaski fills the gap for businesses that need experienced marketing support but are not ready to hire a full-time internal marketing professional. Clients gain strategic direction and access to a wide range of marketing capabilities without assuming the expense of another full-time salary.
Remaining intentionally small also allows Emily to stay personally invested in client relationships and maintain the standard of service that Plaski was built around.
Beyond Plaski
Outside of work, Emily is a proud firefighter’s wife, bonus mom, dog mom, and someone who values time with family. She is also an enthusiastic lifelong learner who is rarely satisfied with simply knowing how something has always been done.
That curiosity continues to shape Plaski. Marketing platforms, technology, and customer behavior are always evolving, and Emily believes her clients deserve a partner who is willing to keep learning alongside them.
Looking for a More Personal Marketing Partnership?
Emily works best with small businesses that rely on lead generation and want clear, strategic direction without the complexity of a traditional agency relationship.
If your business needs help determining where to begin, what to prioritize, or how to turn disconnected marketing efforts into a cohesive strategy, Plaski Advertising would be glad to start the conversation.
“Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else ever thought."
– Albert Einstein