How to get most results out of your SEO, Social Media & Digital Marketing activities.

How to Manage a Successful Digital Marketing Agency – Interview with Bill Sebald

Summary:

Bill-Sebald-Greenlane-SEO

Bill Sebald, currently the managing partner, founded Greenlane after 15 years of E-commerce and SEO experience which included leading the first group of SEOs at GSI Commerce as well as working with clients like Toys R Us, PetSmart, Calvin Klein and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Since 2005 he has been offering consultive services through the name Greenlane and in 2012 he launched Greenlane Search Marketing, LLC.

On days, when he is not leading any team, writing or speaking about digital marketing, he is happy to be in his 80’s shrine watching some bad monster movie or listening to hair metal.

First, let’s fire off an accusation.

Not at anyone per se, but more of a statement of fact as we see it. Rank Trackers today are slightly misleading when it comes to telling you how to measure your search engine rankings. I’m not implying that the data they’re presenting is wrong – not at all. But more along the lines that the data they’re presenting is too literal. Measuring your ranking performance based on just search positions isn’t as insightful anymore as opposed to a ranking metric with intelligence behind it.

Let me explain.

Data is only relevant when it can communicate an insight beyond the obvious. Imagine a scenario where two companies are competing online. Company A is doing all it can to rank higher and in the SERPs, their site is ranking higher. But. Company B is working smarter. Through better optimization techniques, they’re managing to pull in more traffic with a lower SERP ranking. If you were to ask any digital marketer or SEO professional, they would tell you that Company B is doing a better job since it’s able to extract more ROI from it SEO efforts. (Although I’m loathe to admit that for some clients, Company A is the way to go. Sigh.)
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Client Retention Issues: 12 Warning Signs Your Client Is About To Ditch You

Client Retention. Customer Loyalty.

An agency meets their perfect client – They woo the client with fancy proposals, phone calls, promising results – The client is swept off their feet & hence starts a beautiful story of an agency & their client.

However, as is with every story, there are many obstacles & complications in this one too. The biggest complication is if your client wants to break up with you.

Warning Signs to Look Out For

As is with every relationship, an agency’s owner or client manager can innately sense that something is not quite right with the way their client is behaving.

Customer loyalty & customer retention are common issues plaguing agencies in every industry. So here are 12 warning signs that could indicate you might be about to lose a client:

First. A Confession…

I’m not an SEO guy, never was, never will be. Even though I work for a company that makes an SEO & Social Media Toolset, I’m more of a marketing sort with an eye for the consumer. This means that when things get complicated, I’m the first person to raise his hand and say: “Hey! I don’t think this is simple to do. How can you expect our users to get this?” My personal attitude towards SEO is looking at it like Algebra – lots of doubt and suspicion but tempered with the grudging acceptance that it is useful once you understand it.

So that’s why when we were planning to revamp our existing Rank Tracker, I thought it’s a perfect time to poll our target audience and get their thoughts on rank tracking. And boy, was I in for a shock. Close to 35% of the businesses we polled didn’t track their rankings regularly or have a clue why they should. Another 25% said that they’ve attempted it – since everyone they’d spoken to said it’s terribly important – but didn’t really understand what to do with the data. The remaining 40% understood the importance of rank tracking but didn’t have time to do it themselves so hired agencies or SEO professionals to do it for them.

Summary:

Josh Josh Garofalo is a SaaS copywriter and conversion optimizer — a specialist in a sea of generalists. Before starting Sway Copy, he led marketing at a VC-funded B2B SaaS startup that went through AngelPad, the #1 accelerator (Forbes, 2015).

Today, he writes copy for SaaS companies and digital agencies with SaaS clients.

Summary:

Casey_1792 Casey Cobb helps organizations thrive by keeping founders focused on delivering value. Casey believes in testing assumptions early and often — and puts that theory in practice as a software engineer, inventor, angel investor, writer, and speaker. He has co-founded three companies, including web development agency Project Ricochet, and speaks regularly at conferences, accelerators, and companies on topics ranging from co-founder selection to his popular “Avoiding Accidental Evil” keynote.

He’s written 30+ articles on the intersection of technology and management, and gives back as an entrepreneur by advising several software startups. Casey lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and 3-year old son.

Summary:

Bala interviews Rodger Johnson, the founder of SociallyRelevant.us. Rodger is a social media consultant & a communications strategist. He is currently pursuing his Doctorate on this subject.

Rodger has moved from various lines of work to choose the field he loves now. He shares his story on how he started out and what he has learnt from this field of work. From various tips on how to run a Social Media Command center, to the important metrics that need to be measured in social media marketing, are shared in this interesting conversation.

lessons from a marketing agency entrepreneur

It’s no easy task running a successful marketing agency and doing so for 18+ years can take some genius.We spoke to Johan Hedin, the Founder of Marketing Ignite who has been a successful agency entrepreneur from 1998. He shares his perspective on marketing to clients & how to understand and deal with customers.

Have a listen to the podcast interview by clicking “Play” below. Read More

What it takes to run a successful Content Marketing Agency – Interview with Andreea

If you want to hear the podcast version, please click here.

A Brief intro

Andreea is the founder of the School of Content.
She has been in the content writing business for more than 8 years now and started off as a freelancer.
Has started a Content Marketing Agency focusing just on Romanian clients

Figuring out the right content strategy with each client

Understand needs and expectations of the clients clearly and evaluate whether the content is to be written for the purpose of branding, traffic, leads, sales, etc.
Do a thorough audit of all existing content assets and identify any content opportunities & gaps.
Research the market to see how competitors in the same or similar industries are going about their content marketing. Pick & learn from the best.

Formula to remember:

Influencer Marketing Agency - Interview with Nick White

It’s hard getting the attention of your target audience, what with the number of competing products and ever growing mediums of communication these days. Your audiences have too many options to choose from, they have ads barging in at them from all sides and they don’t really choose products any more based on just the ads they see. Ads are no longer as effective as they used to once be and moreover, the trust of a consumer is not easily earned via ads. This is where something like influencer marketing can help. Getting influential opinion leaders in your line of work to talk about your product or service, directly or indirectly, can really go a long way in helping you reach out to the right audience in a much more effective way than traditional ads.

Reach out to the right audience by getting influential leaders talk about your product, directly or indirectly

Tweet This

Given the importance of this space, there have been a few agencies who have chosen to specialize in this field. We decided to interview Nick White, the co-founder of Silkworm social, who runs one such agency that specializes in influencer marketing. He had some interesting things to stay about what his agency does, how they go about it, how influencer marketing really works and he also shared some success stories that can be great take-aways for you. Read More

How to Manage a Successful Digital Marketing Agency – Interview with Bill Sebald

Measuring Search Rankings: Why “Traffic Flow” matters more than a #1 Ranking on Google

Client Retention Issues: 12 Warning Signs Your Client Is About To Ditch You

4 typical excuses I hear about NOT tracking keyword rankings. And why they’re terrible excuses

What it Takes to be a SaaS Copywriter – Interview with Josh Garofalo

Summary:

How to Avoid “Accidental Evil” In Your Agency Business?

Lessons from a Marketing Agency Entrepreneur serving 120+ clients globally

What it takes to run a successful Content Marketing Agency – Interview with Andreea

What it takes to run a Successful Influencer Marketing Agency – Interview with Nick White