In the last three years at Distilled, I have sold approximately $5 million in marketing services to over 100 businesses. Initially, the vast majority of the business I sold was in search, but over time it has evolved to encompass different facets of marketing because we are now headed towards a hyper-competitive future. In order for our industry to continue to thrive, we need to set ourselves apart. I wanted to share some of my experience in how I was able to overcome some of the challenges our search industry is facing when it comes to competing in this post-Hummingbird, post-Penguin, post-(not provided) environment. I've found that it is extremely important to:
- Know what questions to ask when you have the opportunity to pitch at the executive level.
- Know why you're investing in specific marketing channels (i.e. if I invest $x,xxx in this channel for y number of months, I can anticipate z amount of traffic and revenue).
- The goal is to invest first in the channels that you are most confident will generate the greatest increases in traffic and revenue in the short-term. Once you achieve this, your client has validation to request more budget internally to develop more long-term, less immediate-ROI driven activities.
For many years now, search marketing has been a wide open market, with more business to go around than we have known what to do with. Brand after brand has recognized their need for help with search visibility, but they have not necessarily been clear on what that would entail. This led to the gold rush of search.
While many larger agencies were focused on media buying, creative, and television campaigns, the digital landscape was taking form with SEO, PPC, social, display, conversion rate optimization, email marketing, outreach (PR for the web), and much more. We as search marketers know there is a massive opportunity to be had as the digital landscape continues to mature, but whether it is ours for the taking remains to be seen. In order for us to survive, search marketers need to become more well-versed into all digital marketing channels and gain a concrete understanding of when it is appropriate to invest into some of them.
The combination of secure search (not provided), Google's continual innovation upon their ability to crawl and understand both the web and search behavior (with Hummingbird being the most recent example), their successful moves against scalable link building tactics (Penguin and manual penalties), and an overall increase in competition will push search marketers down either of these two paths:
- Become less and less white-hat over time, constantly looking for ways to justify the means for scalable tactics
- Jump ship to broader digital marketing roles and bury the SEO hats (example: Director of Marketing, Marketing Strategists, Brand Strategist, Content Strategist, Product Manager etc.) to grow revenue/traffic over time on different marketing channels.
Given the picture I have described above, I want to provide you with a framework with supporting examples for how you, the search marketer, can better get more of the resources you will need in order to pursue path 2.
Search marketing challenges: a top-level look
Change is hard, especially at the pace required to be successful digital marketers, but Google, competing agencies, and the competition of brands on the web are forcing our hands as search marketers to pick our paths quickly and adapt.
Let's start off by taking a closer look at some of the macro trends that add complexity to our jobs:
Google is a business
SEOs are dependent on a third-party platform that provides them with no proprietary information and gives them no advantage. The reality is that as Google's ranking algorithm becomes increasingly complex, what exactly the right recommendation is for any given site becomes more ambiguous. Google simply isn't in the business to support SEOs; they're in the business to build the best technology in the world, so that they continue to attract the greatest number of users and generate the greatest amount of revenue. If SEOs continue to chase the algorithm, they'll simply continue down a rabbit hole of becoming dependent on short-term tactics that at best, have no longevity, and at worst, damage the core of a business.
Not provided
Not provided impacted how SEOs were able to directly attribute their work to organic growth. It has brought challenges not only to reporting, but also to how the previous work SEOs did was valued within an organization. With the advent of not provided, different marketing departments within an organization such as content, SEO, PR, and creatives can all justify that their work is what led to organic traffic growth. This makes it difficult for any organization to invest significant budget into SEO.
Penguin
Penguin sent a very clear signal to SEOs that many of the link building tactics they were reliant on in the past were not only no longer effective but could even provide long-term damage to the bottom line of a business. Recovering from Penguin and any algorithmic update is uncertain, difficult, and extremely expensive. It also forced SEOs to step back and assess whether a tactic that might work today may also be detrimental to the site in the future.
Hummingbird
Although Hummingbird may not appear to have significantly impacted search results at an initial glance, the reality is that the underlying algorithm has changed to become much more adept at understanding semantics. Hummingbird, in combination with not provided, indicates that a continued emphasis on keyword-focused strings is not sustainable. Future SEO initiatives cannot be siloed into keyword research, keyword-focused landing pages, and building links to those keyword-focused pages; wider context-based approaches are required.
Google crawlers handling technical challenges
As Google implements more updates to its underlying search algorithm, it has also become capable of resolving (for better or for worse, depending on the circumstance) many of the technical issues that SEOs used to manually correct on their own, whether it be duplicate or keyword-stuffed meta titles/descriptions, mobile alternative issues, resolving 302 redirect issues that were meant to be 301s, etc. The reality is that barring very specific technical issues on a site (penalty, migrations, development of new processes/capabilities on the back-end), the "low-hanging fruit" of on-page SEO will shrivel.
Actionable ways for search marketers to get more buy-in at the beginning to execute a broader marketing strategy
The only way to execute the broader marketing tactics that will benefit search (e.g. dedicating resources to creating content, improve the UX of the site) is to say the right things to the right people. In this era of not provided and Penguin/Panda/Hummingbird, we need to be involved in much more overarching marketing goals/objectives in order to stay relevant, have budget, and become a priority for the organization.
1. Get in front of key stakeholders. Then, ask the right questions.
There are several key stakeholders who can impact the work you do, the budget you get, the visibility your work gets, and the amount of internal resources you can utilize. They tend to be the CMO, Director of Marketing, and VP of Sales (especially if marketing is a purpose of lead-gen). The biggest challenge most individuals have when they are granted an opportunity to pitch to the executive team is how to ask the right questions that will demonstrate their expertise in not just a specific marketing channel, but how your marketing efforts will positively impact a business's bottom line.
For example, below are the type of questions I ask executives based on their specific position within the organization.
CEO: High-level business picture
- Is this the only brand you own? Do you have a group of brands you own and operate? Does this brand we are discussing today have a parent company?
- How many years has the company been in business?
- Is the company a privately held company or publicly traded company?
- What is your business's unique value proposition?
- Who are your major competitors in this space?
- What are the company's most important business milestones/goals over the next 12-24 months?
- What is the business's 10-20 year goal?
CFO: High-level financial picture
- Is the company bootstrapped (self-funded) or loan/venture funded? If loan/venture funded, what implications will this have on our engagement or your milestones?
- Is the company profitable?
- How long has the company been profitable?
- What is the company's annual revenue? (This is easy to find if the company is public.)
- What has the company's year-over-year growth been for the past 3-5 years?
- What are the company's most important financial milestones/goals over the next 12-24 months?
VP of Sales, CMO/VP of Marketing: High-level growth picture
- Do you have a sense of the Total Addressable Market (TAM) of your businesses category / niche? (How much revenue opportunity is there in your space?)
- How much of the TAM would you say your company currently controls?
- What was the initial growth strategy of the business when the company first started, and why?
- How has your growth strategy evolved over time?
- What do you see as the major factors that contributed to your growth (when you first started and now)?
- Do you foresee those same factors continuing to play a role over the next 3-5 years? The next 5-10 years?
- What internal teams or external agencies played a huge role in that growth or success?
- How long has your company been gaining market share? By how much YoY? If losing, by how much YoY?
- What have been your most effective channels for growth to date?
- What have been your least effective channels for growth to date?
Director of Marketing: A more granular look into growth strategy/plans
- How does your company set goals and strategy around growth, expansion, and optimization of your business? Who does that? How often do you revisit this? Who sits in on this conversation from the marketing department?
- How does your business determine how much money each year you invest into the growth and expansion of the company?
- How much did the marketing department invest into growth last year (including all of the channels)?
- Has the amount you've invested into growth over the years fluctuated a lot or stayed pretty consistent? Why?
- How much of your marketing budget do you invest into offline vs. digital per year?
- Has the amount of money you've invested into digital fluctuated much year to year? Where do you attribute most of the fluctuation in spend to?
- How much of your digital marketing budget went to paid channels vs. other?
- Have you already or do you have plans to acquire companies to support your growth?
2. Convert bad project requests into great briefs
Here are the most typical reasons I have seen companies offer when requesting services from a search marketing agency:
- We want growth of traffic/conversions through our site.
- We are about to make a big change and we don't want to lose traffic.
- We need to recover our traffic.
- We need your help to debug this problem we are experiencing.
- We would like you to do some research and help us make a decision (provide your expert opinion).
- We need your help to track, measure, and report on the impact of our efforts.
Clients often ask for the wrong things for a number of reasons:
- They don't have enough first-hand experience with growing search visibility, or they have unrealistic expectations on how long this process would take for how much budget.
- They focus too much on the industry jargon they've read over the years. Or,
- They just do not have a deep enough understanding of what the business goals and objectives should be and why.
There is nothing wrong with this, but we should not let it stop us from focusing on the things that matter most. Business equates to revenue, and revenue increases lead to more confidence in your skill set.
For a specific example, if a client comes to you and asks you for links, reframe the conversation by asking them why they want links. Most clients ask for links for the following reasons:
- Links are important to increase the domain authority of the site and the probability you can rank for highly competitive keywords, which increases the organic traffic that will go to my site.
- Links are quantifiable/measurable (I've gotten x number of links in y amount of time for z price).
In this sample scenario, I would respond by saying links are an output you receive when you create great content. In order to deliver great content, you need to first start by understanding the data you have on-hand (via their CRM, customer surveys, their analytics, and their existing internal resources). The first step is for us to gain access to all this information in order for us to assess the potential opportunity this channel has on your business.
It is critical that you train your clients to talk in terms of business goals, objectives, and KPIs because that is the only opportunity in which they will allow you to determine the marketing strategy, rather than you becoming their outsourced vendor for a variety of different marketing activities like link building.
3. Research and know which channels to invest in
Once you have a concrete understanding of the business's goals, objectives, and KPIs, it's the search marketer's job to determine which specific marketing channels are the ones the client should be investing in. Is the goal to generate the quickest possible ROI in the least amount of time? CRO. Is the goal to understand product-market fit? Then perhaps paid search is the best medium. Is the goal to build a community and brand awareness? Creative content + PR + social media.
It's crucial to prioritize the specific marketing channels and activities that are most aligned with the company's business goals, while simultaneously also being the channels you feel the most confident will deliver the highest likelihood of ROI for your client. The reason is because whenever a client first signs with an agency, the first 6 months are the trial period. The client has taken a risk by partnering with an agency and they want to ensure that it's a good fit, that you follow your word, and that you're able to deliver results. Essentially, they're determining whether you are a good long-term partner for them.
Once you're able to deliver meaningful results that are aligned with the client business goals and objectives, you've passed the trial period. After that, the client is much more likely to opt for longer-term, higher-budget activities because you've successfully demonstrated your knowledge and expertise in marketing. Bigger budgets often times mean larger access to resources, which again significantly increases the chances that you will be building a long-term, meaningful relationship with your client.
Conclusion
Clients want you to succeed in helping them achieve their marketing goals, but they will be selective about when and how they spend their time getting you what you need. We, as search marketers, need to get better at identifying the channels that will increase the probability of success during the first 6 months of the campaign, while demonstrating our ability to think critically by asking the right type of questions and gaining the important knowledge that will give us what we need to be successful at the beginning of the project.
Fight the urge to think that if I see success you will be rewarded later on. Although that sentiment is mostly true, if you don't get enough of what you need to be successful in the first half of the project, you may not get to a point where you can create enough value to justify them keeping you around for follow up work. For instance, if you agree to build links for a client, it's highly likely you'll always be perceived as a link building vendor to the client. Great search marketers don't just plan to be successful, they plan for all of the scenarios that could keep them becoming successful and structure in solutions to position them for an optimal outcome. This means we need to build a concrete understanding of how different marketing channels integrate with search and understanding when it is appropriate to invest into which channels. We can no longer operate in solely a search silo; ironically, in order for us to survive the future of search, we need to broaden our scope and play a much more strategic digital marketing role for us to generate returns in search for clients.
I think this attitude is a breath of fresh air, and it's something I've been an advocate of in my own career at least, often describing myself as a "digital marketer who specialises in search". Thankfully I've had roles in large organisations where I work alongside talented marketers who specialise in things like design, email, branding, data management etc and also in my own role I was required to diversify first from SEO to PPC, and then to split testing/CRO and social media.
This is why I am such an advocate of being an in-house search specialist (having also worked agency side) because you'll not only get exposure to wider marketing disciplines but over time you'll develop an understanding of them which gives you a better chance to progress your marketing career. Otherwise as a search only specialist you're kind of either going to need to be happy at a certain level (bar a very few very senior search only roles), or take the plunge and go freelance and then start an agency if you've got any ambition.
The problem search agencies will have trying to expand is that companies (clients) will often either already have other agencies which are better than you at other disciplines of digital (no disrespect, but if that's what they've done for years, they will be) or they'll have good people in-house and the search agency is filling a skills gap so they won't want you to give wider advice.
So, good luck to you, I really mean that, but I know which side of the agency/in-house divide I think has developed my career in leaps and bounds!
I agree 100% having worked on the agency side and now in-house. IMO being focused on just one channel / splitting up roles (SEO & PPC) impedes the growth of the marketer as well as the growth of the client's business.
If done right it doesn't impede, it actually yields a better result.
You can't be a jack of all trades at the implementation level. Staying fresh on SEO, PPC, and a multitude of other digital trends would take all day, every day. Specialization allows you to cut down on the educational workload and still be at the top of the game.
The kingpin is not to silo these people, which is your point. There needs to be no barriers and there needs to be a team leader that is capable of strategic oversight to improve investment return. That team needs to be in proximity and in direct verbal communication daily.
This makes hiring, workloads, and profitability much more realistic for the agency / in-house marketing group.
What we are having a lot of success with is taking very experienced people in a particular skill or small subset of skills who also enjoy the people / client facing aspect and making them strategists. This does not mean that they have to be jack of all trades, but what it does mean is they need enough knowledge in different industries and different channels to talk intelligently about them, know how to prioritize activity, sell in ideas, and then bring in the specialists as needed. Not everybody loves the client facing stuff as much and chooses to stay a specialist. We typically determine this with our experts when assessing personal development plans.
That seems like a traditional and logical pathway for management. You hire a human that is good at problem solving or a specific task, but that same vein enables them to be good at many other things usually.
Congrats, most companies / managers seem to miss that point and get caught up in day-to-day and titles. Your people are a team there to complete the entirety of the companies tasking.
Alan,
I agree and do think it is possible for the roles to be split if, like you said, the team is in close proximity and communicate daily. I guess I was referring more to the agency side where this type of daily communication can get lost easier compared to an in-house team. I may also be a little biased based on some bad experiences in the past.
I would say your bias is warranted. I've seen it go both ways.
Ron - your list of questions for the various stakeholders is gold, thanks for putting this together!
I stopped reading, copied it and pastet in an intranet post :)
So I aggree
Great post, probably one of the best post this year, Congrats Ron! It is a breath of fresh air to finally see that the time is almost here when Marketing will be about Initial Strategy that gets produced to be a complete Marketing Solution.
Companies are beginning to understand the value of Data and how to increase traffic. Therefor our job as marketers has became much more of a Strategy Position especially in the beginning.
Even to the point that Google has opened a Business Community help Community where SMB's can go to get assitance with Seo, Sem ect...
Companies need to be realistic with themselves. I've dealt with many C-level and D-level people that simply think that they can throw money at a problem or "will it" true. Doing SEO or doing PPC doesn't make it valuable or right for you as a company. Doing either half-assed will just leave you frustrated and empty handed, and in the case of PPC, without a budget.
However, the #1 problem affecting businesses these days is the lack of implementation. SEOs can be VERY effective in todays world of Google, and frankly the basic rules of SEO have not changed. That is a falsehood that is pushed by people that don't really understand SEO and/or have grown accustomed to the old days of crap links = gold. Quite frankly, SOMEONE has to rank first, and with the ever growing diversity of Google's SERPs it gives MORE opportunity for less than stellar companies to show up in results. My empirical evidence for my sites over the past years have seen a growth in visits, growth in rankings, and growth in the number of long tail searches we show up for that aren't targeted. So, yeah, the lazy days of pushing an SEO button and making gains are over. You get out of it what you put in it.
Virtually every company I've worked with has been hamstringed by a slow website development cycle and slow IT response. THAT is where digital marketing starts ... the people. You need creatives, you need bean counters, and you need a responsive model. From there you need to develop a real strategy that can be implemented properly. Cutting corners does not work, you need time to do homework. You need to have CLEAN data that is well understood from solid sources.
I cannot begin to count the number of times that $50 - 100K decisions have been made on erroneous data only to be mired in an inability to react to the results.
I liken most companies out there to a simple analogy. They are in a life raft that's filling up with water. They grab a bucket and start furiously bailing water. If you can bail more water than what comes in then you stay afloat. However, I've met very, very, very few decision makers that are smart enough to simply plug the hole rather than bailing water and toiling away.
I think an overlooked element of content marketing is the idea of making useful software tools that apply directly to a given niche - if you're working with a client in plumbing, work with them to create a scheduling app with twilio integration, and then make that free/very cheap and spread it to plumbers all around the world. Software very often has a kind of lasting utility that even highly interactive content can seldom provide, and if you put your design chops to work on creating an elegant solution to a common problem, you've got 'content' that will spread like wildfire.
Meteor.com is a great platform to start with as it uses common web tech - html, css, javascript (client and server side) - and it abstracts away a lot of the difficult in getting a web app up and running, such as user accounts, social logins, security, etc.
In the emerging knowledge economy, there's two prongs that I see as the driving forces into the future: high quality information, and tools (hint: software) that empower action.
I really like this response Matt. Thanks for contributing. I think leveraging tools / apps to create value is a fantastic way for companies to build awareness, brand equity, and value for the community.
You're more than welcome Ron. Feel free to get in touch if you'd like a piece of my mind on this kind of stuff... it's what I love to think and talk about, and I think there's tremendous latent power in the idea of scratching itches with clever little software tools. With APIs becoming more and more a thang, the opportunities are really exploding.
Hello Ron,
This post clearly shows the experiences of a true digital marketer. There are various things are remarkably crafted in this post like the Digital marketing channels, Questions to ask and the landing page diversification. Thumbs up for the effort!
A very reputed brand's CMO today updated this status on her Linkedin:
"An SEO expert walks into a bar, bars, pub, tavern, public house, Irish pub, drinks, beer, alcohol.."
Digital Marketers should have to evolve now, they have to do the critical self-analysis and behave like a real player. We can't blame Google on every update they ruled out instead whenever Google updates the algo, we should completely revised our strategies, planning and the way we presume and think.
Thanks again Ron,
Cheers!!
Thanks Umar. I can't take full credit. My team here in New York plus my experiences with clients was the inspiration for this piece. Stephanie Chang and Mike Tekula (both Senior Consultants at Distilled) helped me bring my thoughts to life. I couldn't have done it without their help.
Ron,
I'll give this post a "flippin awesome" simply because it completely resonates with the shift marketers and agencies NEED to make in order to even stay relevant. If I'm disgruntled with how search/SEO works, then why should I expect my clients to get giddy about paying me for these services.
Just like you mentioned that clients ask you for links, clients also ask for SEO, or "is this good for my SEO?". What they really mean is, "how can I better rank in Google?". But even than needs to be taken a step further to get clients to understand and verbalize to themselves that their needs are far beyond SEO. They need business. They need people to find them via cost-effective means. They need good marketing.
Then we can explain that good marketing influences their rankings - or visibility in general.
Great post.
I do agree with this article 100%. We were a search agency and have made the change to fully digital as soon as penguin hit. I have forced the issue of changing my skill set and this has helped a lot the SEO campaigns but we have also been faced with brands not wanting to invest in other channels because SEO, as they want to understand it, has brought in the most revenue and growth for them.
As much as we understand the need to create a marketing stragegy that piggy backs of the different tactics to achieve the goals we also need to start educating the brands and fellow peers that its about a uniform effort across the relevant tactics to achieve one goal.
The moment our strategies pull our tactics together like choir singing the same song our search efforts will rewarded greatly. Link Building in a SEO world just over a year ago was key word and directory based now its seeding content to the right audience or generating that "viral" campaign that gains links.
Great Post!
Ron,
Thank you for writing this article. It really helps people like myself who want to learn more about SEO strategies. I particularly like the infographics you included. I found another great article about the Future of SEO on an agency's blog:
https://royalladv.com/blog/2014/03/14/the-future-of-seo-2014-guide/
There are a lot of great tips for those who are interested in SEO, Check out the article for sure!
This post does a really good job showing the importance of becoming a "T-shaped marketer." While many of us will always specialize in organic search / SEO, it's already clear that we have to be extremely knowledgeable about the other digital marketing channels and be willing to work with them in order to truly deliver a valuable experience to our clients!
When thinking about the T-shaped marketer I always refer back to Mike Tekula's post (https://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/building-a-t-shaped-skill-set/) and Rand's post (https://moz.com/rand/the-t-shaped-web-marketer/). Both great reads.
TL;DR having a good knowledge of a range of job related disciplines helps you become better at your job, water is wet.
Fantastic post - you really hit the nail on the head here. I think all this change is a great thing for the industry. More competition & complexity = Strong results to the clever ones willing to invest time & energy into their marketing. A fairer marketplace for everyone
Great post, probably one of the best post, Congrats Ron! I am totally agreed that Google is Rewarding Marketing Strategists. Now Your SEO result depends upon your whole marketing strategy that’s the reason that the SEO is now replaced with Inbound Marketing or Digital Marketing.
I learned so much from this post. Really good high level overview of the macro view of the market. I wonder - do you see a place for specialist agencies? One that comes to mind is Page One Power that only does link building - is there a place for companies like this that become the best at one aspect of digital marketing? Keep writing, I like your style that gets to the point sharply and succinctly.
Joe,
My opinion is this. If you are going to specialize and focus on one thing as a business, you need to:
1. Be best in class, become known for being cutting edge, and be incredibly reliable (you are only as good as the last thing you've done for someone).
2. Access to deal flow will become more and more challenging for niche services no matter how good they are as the market matures. Competition will creep in from places you least expect it. Companies with a niche offering must constantly have their feelers in the market to identify when market changes are occurring and adapt to ensure their opportunities do not dry up. Some ways I've seen companies do this is to partner with larger / full service agencies that need a compelling offering but do not specialize in it themselves. It's also important to tailor your offering to meet the evolving needs of the market, even if the company doesn't choose to diversify.
Easier said than done :) but hope this helps.
Appreciate the list of questions greatly Ron. Thank you for sharing
Thanks Ron, very informative and helpful in reviewing my own strategy in moving forward with small business retainer accounts.
It is critical that you train your clients to talk in terms of business goals, objectives, and KPIs because that is the only opportunity in which they will allow you to determine the marketing strategy, rather than you becoming their outsourced vendor for a variety of different marketing activities like link building.
Absolutely spot on. Without knowing what the business objectives are, how can you know what (digital) strategy will best get your client there?
This approach - behaving like a partner rather than an outsourced vendor / service - will also help developing that important long-term relationship. I'd rather work with an agency that wants to really get to know my business and what I'm actually trying to achieve, than one that just pitches to me the amazing services they offer, or self-promote via their other clients / successes or awards. Very unprofessional when they don't show an interest in what my business goals actually are. It doesn't exactly generate confidence in their strategic thinking either.
Ron, all points you make are excellent, and yes, Google is a pretty smart company that I am convinced exists to keep SEO's on their toes. That plus they hire really smart people.
I liked the set of questions you laid out to ask the C-Suite. All to often the CMO's are either on the Brand Focus band wagon, or the ROI/Profit band wagon when it comes to Search $.
Great Post Ron, Love it;
I am totally agreed that Google is Rewarding Marketing Strategists. After the Panda/Penguin and Humming Bird updates the old SEO tactics are now completely dead and you have to focus on every single marketing channel such as Social, Content Marketing, Blogging, PR, PPC, email marketing, Branding and much more. Now Your SEO result depends upon your whole marketing strategy that’s the reason that the SEO is now replaced with Inbound Marketing or Digital Marketing.
"It is critical that you train your clients to talk in terms of business goals, objectives, and KPIs because that is the only opportunity in which they will allow you to determine the marketing strategy, rather than you becoming their outsourced vendor for a variety of different marketing activities like link building."
Absolutely spot on. Without knowing what the business objectives are, how can you know what (digital) strategy will best get your client there?
This approach - behaving like a partner rather than an outsourced vendor / service - will also help developing that important long-term relationship. I'd rather work with an agency that wants to really get to know my business and what I'm actually trying to achieve, than one that just pitches to me the amazing services they offer, or self-promote via their other clients / successes or awards. Very unprofessional when they don't show an interest in what my business goals actually are. It doesn't exactly generate confidence in their strategic thinking either.
thanks for sharing the article I really liked about Marketing Strategists
Great post! Think long term strategy for your online business instead of shortcuts.
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Many thanks Ron for this valuable post! You are spot on with your points and I especially like your high-level questions to ask to the different C-levels.
The key to building long-lasting relationships and trusted advisor status with clients is to ask those tough questions up front during the sales process and connect your activities with their business goals. It is so easy as an agency to fall into the trap of responding to a request and sending out a service offer without fully understanding their needs. By taking a more consultative approach during the sales process (going in depth with goals, plans, challenges and timelines,etc) you'll weed out the clients who aren't a good fit, separate your agency from your competitors, and align the client expectations to give you the best chance of establishing a long-term relationship.
It's also important to get clients to understand that with the shift in consumer behaviour and Google algorithm changes, search/SEO is no longer the holy grail solution. Successful agencies need to act as generalists who can put the digital puzzle pieces together in a cohesive strategy that addresses the client's business objectives and generates ROI as quickly and efficiently as possible (lean marketing!).
Marketing solutions offered by google, directly or indirectly, are not complete but still offer a starting point in the race with the competition.It is through this article I seized the workings of the CRO. Thank you!
Love this blog entry and the list of questions. Wish there was functionality to add it to my favorites list
Ron,
One of the best posts I've read in a long time, and that's saying something! I transitioned towards a content-focused business when I decided I could no longer deliver enough value for my clients with "pure" SEO. My business was traditionally business and editorial writing, so the move was a natural.
Your peek into c-suite meetings was fantastic. I've missed some of those questions in the past.
It's been said for years that "Brands are becoming publishers". With Google changes, their hands' are forced. You're right. There is no way beyond educated guessing to know where much search traffic is coming from. It makes accurately measuring SEO ROI much more difficult, if not impossible.
Unfortunately, it also makes discovering new reasons you audience may want to visit that much more difficult as well. Are you answering what they really want to know? What are they really searching for? You'd better start taking market surveys, instead of letting Google do it for you in the form of keyword query data.
Thanks for the fantastic article.
This is the mother of all internet marketing Strategies . Its is going to take me LongTime to go through in detail
Once again I can't help but think many are running around trying to figure out what to do now that their main source of revenue - linkbuilding - is gone.
I wonder, are you still selling the same services you were 3 years ago? It seems many of those services that companies paid $5 million for would now be worthless, no?
All in all I felt you did a great job, and took an exceedingly long time, to let us know that know one, including yourself, really knows what's going on (you've certainly provided nothing new).
Hi Ron,
You really pin pointed the real pain of people working on SEO projects. The changes in search industry is really significant that led to this transformation in the strategic moves for marketing and branding for search.
However, I believe its too late for them who are still following old practices. The best time to change the way of working on digital marketing assignment was in the mid of 2011 or the start of 2012. However, it's never too late to start good work.
In my opinion, today's world has more option to market their brand or business, so things are pretty easy they just need to change the benchmarks of success.
Why do you feel "the 'low-hanging fruit' of on-page SEO will shrivel?" While Google improves at handling problems on their own, it does not mean that sites that do things properly will not have an edge. The statement is too general considering the diversity in SERPs and types of sites on the web.
thats really sad, google starts makin G's, we must trying new ways to get traffic. All u wrote - its well known...but what stratedy did u use for client with monthly budget bout 1000$ ?
I think marketing tips and "secondary" source (non google traffic) soon reach redline - whats next? bing.com ? Its really hard to play with cheater and owner....
"It is critical that you train your clients to talk in terms of business goals, objectives, and KPIs because that is the only opportunity in which they will allow you to determine the marketing strategy, rather than you becoming their outsourced vendor for a variety of different marketing activities like link building."
Absolutely spot on. Without knowing what the business objectives are, how can you know what (digital) strategy will best get your client there?
This approach - behaving like a partner rather than an outsourced vendor / service - will also help developing that important long-term relationship. I'd rather work with an agency that wants to really get to know my business and what I'm actually trying to achieve, than one that just pitches to me the amazing services they offer, or self-promote via their other clients / successes or awards. Very unprofessional when they don't show an interest in what my business goals actually are. It doesn't generate confidence in their strategic thinking either.
Great post and one that I believe we're all having problems to deal with whether you're in-house or at an agency level.
Great work!
Thank for Sharing Its Amazing to Search marketing...
Really you did kuul regard Marketing Strategists ;)