Founder-led, independently owned merger unites two dental-only agencies that have served 4,657 practices, with an average client relationship of 7.4 years.
BEAVERTON, OR, UNITED STATES, October 21, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — WEO Media, the Beaverton-based dental marketing firm founded in 2009, and Marketly Digital, the dental brand and omnipresence agency founded in 1999 as Roadside Dental Marketing, announced that they have merged to form WEO Marketly. The combined company is independently owned by its two founders and serves dental practices nationwide with one goal: get the practice found, get it chosen by the right patients, and show the owner what each part of their marketing is contributing to new patients and production.
Between them, WEO Media and Marketly Digital have served 4,657 dental practices, and the average client relationship lasts 7.4 years. All existing clients continue to be served without interruption.
Why the Merger
Founders Cory Roletto (WEO Media) and Shannon Mackey (Marketly Digital) crossed paths at a Backstage Mastermind retreat, where they were two of three marketing companies in the room. Rather than compete, they pitched a practice together. Thirteen agencies were competing for that account. Their 30-minute meeting ran 90 minutes, and they won it. They spent the next nine months working side by side on joint clients before combining the companies in May 2026.
The two firms were built on complementary strengths. WEO Media developed the technical engine: search engine optimization, AI search visibility, and ROI tracking. Marketly Digital built the brand engine: story, video, social, and websites that make patients choose one practice over the one down the street. Practice owners had been hiring one agency for each and refereeing between them.
“We didn’t merge to be bigger,” said Shannon Mackey, CEO of WEO Marketly. “We merged to kill the thing that keeps burning practice owners: the black box. Money goes in, a report full of impressions comes out, and nobody can tell the dentist what actually put a patient in the chair. There is no private equity behind this. It’s Cory’s name and mine on the paperwork, and the same people clients have worked with for years.”
Human-Raised AI Marketing
The merger comes as patient search behavior shifts. Patients now move between Google, AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Gemini, social feeds, and review sites in a single decision, and a practice that is invisible in AI answers is losing patients it never knew about.
“Every practice owner is getting emails from AI-only marketing shops promising half the price,” said Cory Roletto, co-founder of WEO Marketly. “AI on its own gets you the average answer, and the average answer doesn’t win a patient. AI is only as good as the people giving it the logic. We use it to take the repetitive work off our team so clients get more of our people, more time on their numbers, and more new patients.”
The Omni-Dentist Growth System
WEO Marketly delivers its work through the Omni-Dentist Growth System, a four-step program that replaces scattered tactics with one accountable plan:
Create Your Market Edge: brand and messaging that make the practice the obvious choice instead of one more listing.
Dominate Your Local Market: omnipresence across Google search, AI answer engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, Gemini), social, and reviews.
Track What Matters, Not Vanity Leads: ROI tracking that shows what each channel is contributing to new patients and production, not clicks and impressions.
Scale What Drives Patients: a quarterly planning cadence where the practice owner and their strategist review the numbers together and adjust the plan.
Leadership
Shannon Mackey, founder of Marketly Digital, serves as Chief Executive Officer of WEO Marketly. Cory Roletto, founder of WEO Media, serves as Chief Growth Officer.
Combined Capability
Websites built for conversion and AI-search readiness.
Traditional SEO plus AI search optimization (AEO and GEO) included in every engagement.
Google and Meta paid media measured by new patients, not impressions.
Omnipresence social, video, content, and reputation management.
Availability
WEO Marketly serves independent, dentist-owned practices nationwide. Practice owners can request a Practice Growth Call, a 30-minute conversation about their market and their goals, at weomarketly.com.
About WEO Marketly
WEO Marketly is an independent, founder-owned dental marketing company formed in May 2026 through the merger of WEO Media (founded 2009) and Marketly Digital (founded 1999 as Roadside Dental Marketing). Headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon. Learn more at weomarketly.com.
Shannon Mackey
WEO Marketly
+1 888-246-6906
team@weomarketly.com
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WEO Marketly Merger: Predictable Dental Growth System
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