FAQs
- What advice would you give a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?
Do your research and ask the right questions when looking for an SEO or internet marketing partner! How many clients do you have? Have any of your clients suffered penalties from search engines? If so why and have you mitigated that risk? What makes you unique from other SEO/Design/Marketing agencies? Can you provide proof of ROI or hard proof that your services have grown the bottom line of your clients? Many providers or industry experts will advise against using a SEO service that offers a guarantee. While I partially agree with this, I also don't see any issue with this as long as it is in a written agreement and both parties understand the risks involved. Furthermore, the agreement should outline the steps to take if the service provider is unable to deliver on that guarantee. Who are we to tell anyone else they cannot guarantee a service as long as risk is mitigated and the full scope is understood? To each there own. However, if an agreement is made for a guarantee without the proper understanding and agreements in place and things go wrong, it's probably not very ethical to then go and bash another due to your own poor due diligence. Proceed with caution when hiring an "SEO expert" with less than 2 years experience! Far too much has transpired over the last couple of years in search marketing and social media to have a full understanding and working knowledge of what forms of marketing work for your specific industry, niche, and local market. If you do hire a less experienced SEO company I would do it on a trial basis (at a lower cost) with an agreement to increase costs X amount after 3-6 months of effectively promoting your business. One of the most important aspects of properly managing the digital marketing and brand for a client is the budget! Please understand most providers NEED a budget to fully match up what you have requested vs what is realistically achievable for your industry, niche, and market. It's no different then if you wanted to build a custom home. Your dream specs are a 4/3, bonus, enclosed den, formal living, formal dining, open yet split floor plan, tile roof. If there average home in your area with these specs came out to $400,000 and you say you only have a budget of $250,000, your probably not going to be able to build that house right now would you find a contractor that would be willing to build for that price right? The same goes for digital marketing, web design, and web development. Be realistic with your budget, make sure that whatever you estimate for monthly marketing services, that you can forecast that in for up to a year or more, ideally. Keep in mind that a good consultant or agency should be able to get a double digit return within 3-6 months and ideally increase your monthly traffic, leads, and sales consistently quarter over quarter. Google is NOT the be all end all of digital marketing! A good consultant will have several strategies to implement that are unique to your industry, niche, and market that fall outside of Google's core offerings. Diversify your digital assets just the same as you would diversify an investment portfolio. Get a good grasp on these acronyms: CPA= cost per acquisition LCV= Lifetime Customer Value CPL= Cost per lead Conversion Rate = The average amount of leads converted to your specific goal out of 100. Could be sales, email optins, video views, seminar bookings, etc. Knowing your hard numbers on these important metrics/KPI's will help you understand the value of a successful marketing campaign. Make sure to include these costs when estimating the ROI on an advertising campaign either run by an agency or yourself (which I highly recommend against unless you really know what you are doing). Example: Dr. Joe owns a roofing and roof repair company. Joe's average job revenue is $18K with $8k total profit after costs. Joe spends $2500 per month on local SEO, SEO, and social media management. Joe spends $2500 per month on PPC (pay per click), That's a total of $5000 per month in total digital marketing spend. He gets 50 leads and closes 4 jobs. This gives Joe a conversion rate of 8%. A CPA of approximately $1250 per closed deal, and an estimated profit of $36,000 (assuming an average of $18,000 per job and an average of 8k total profit per job). Hence, if Joe was quoted $2500 per month to manage his marketing, knowing these numbers, scrubbed against what the marketing company estimates for total leads per month, Joe should expect to be well in the black within 3-6 months, and progressively improving upon these conversion rates and ROI beyond that. Consider partnering with a digital marketing agency on a CPA basis, this puts skin in the game for both of you! Have a product, idea, or dream business you've wanted to make a reality? An experienced digital marketing company is a great resource to partner with from strategy to creation, to launch. Many agencies will be interested in launching your dream product for either a low monthly/yearly retainer, or even Zero cost to you with an equity stake. Again, everyone has skin in the game with equal or close to equal risk. If you have seen no return from a digital marketing campaign within 6 months I would strongly suggest changing strategies or providers. Hence again why I suggest going with an experienced agency! Someone experienced will be able to break down your KPI's, goals, and expectations, and formulate a creative strategy to get you ROI well within 90 days, ideally within 30 or less!