The techniques and tactics of “doing” SEO are forever changing and constantly challenging. For many SEO agencies, the marketing and selling of SEO services is a bigger hurdle than the task of actually obtaining improved organic search results for clients. Competing for marketing dollars while proving value through the sales process needs to be accomplished even before the insurmountable task of obtaining ROI through the Google search box begins.
From an SEO buyer’s perspective, it must be downright confusing and discouraging to obtain multiple quotes from SEO service providers that very clearly have differing price ranges and service methodologies, but not so clearly defined differentiating skill sets and experience.
So sellers attempt to make it easier for buyers to understand SEO proposals in order to ultimately get to a closed deal - a signature on a contract. In the meantime, are they undermining their own profession and setting themselves up for failure by setting unrealistic expectations with clients?
Or are SEO clients being unrealistic in their expectations of SEO results in the short term versus the long term, leading SEO service providers to drastic measures that may ultimately result in the client’s web presence being penalized in organic search? Or even results in... Read more
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SEO Buying & Selling Tricks that Create Unachievable SEO Results & Expectations
Tags: buyer experience, content marketing, content strategy, online marketing, Search, seo, seo services, social media marketing, social media strategy, Strategy, web presence optimization
Posted in Search, Social Media | 5 Comments »
The One Thing: What one piece of advice would you pass down to a seller just getting started?
It came up on a recent sales call: Where are Junior Sellers learning (or not learning) their habits, strategies, basically how they do their job? It was a casual conversation after the meat of the sales call with a friend who’s a director on the agency side. She was more than a little surprised at the lack of some sales 101 things – attire, follow up, grammar and spelling in email. All things that are completely avoidable and should be covered well before the first sales call ever happens.
It got me thinking – what do I tell my team on an ongoing basis, how do I guide my new sellers and what is the one thing I would share with anyone starting out in media sales. What’s the one nugget? While answering my own question I thought I’d sample some of my friends and peers on the sales side who have been selling & managing in the space for 7+ years. I’m glad I did. Very good sales insight and advice from people who have been doing it since it was banners and text links (over 90 years collective experience in the New York market).
If you could give a new... Read more
Tags: advertising, buyer experience, buyer personas, Digital Marketing, online advertising
Posted in Jobs, Media Planning & Buying, Opinions | No Comments »
It’s Not You, It’s Not Me, It’s the Industry. Breaking Up is Hard to do in Digital Ad Land
We’ve all been there, on both sides of the phone or Inbox. She won’t stop calling, he won’t pick up. Are my emails going to the Junk Folder? Another email from him – Delete. I’m not talking about singles asking for second dates. I’m referring to the proposal dance agencies and ad sellers play in this crowded marketplace.
Be it a factor of too many companies chasing the same digital budget, the almost inhumane time-constraints on buying teams, or a lack of resources all around, it feels like there’s a communication problem at the end of the sales / RFP / proposal process in digital media.
One common topic that usually comes up over a casual lunch or happy hour is the lack of business etiquette or manners from both sides of the sales aisle when it comes to the final part of the proposal process. The buyer perspective is something like this: “An RFP is not a promise of business, I’m sorry you didn’t make the plan this time – just wasn’t a fit - but if you continue to hound me and fire emails into the client there likely won’t be a next time.” The seller perspective is generally looking... Read more
Tags: ad sales, advertising, buyer experience, buying experience, Digital Marketing, media, Media Planning & Buying, Sales
Posted in Media Planning & Buying, Opinions | No Comments »
It’s Time to Be Real.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” (Charles Darwin)
It’s about time that digital marketers learn how to be more real. Well, more real-time. Just like Darwin said, it’s not about being the biggest, or the smartest, it’s about responding fast.
Digital marketers are clamoring to leverage social media data and real-time marketing technologies to understand consumer attitudes and interests, but listening and responding on a traditional media cycle is too slow. A four-week reaction time is too late to leverage anything that happens. Listening and media buying need to happen together, in real time.
How many times have you noticed the same exact video or funny picture (most likely of a cat or wedding proposal) being shared by a few of your friends on Facebook? Then at dinner when you wanted to share this funny piece of content, alas, you realize that everyone around the table already saw it? That’s how fast content moves around the web, Pinterest “pins” are being shared on Facebook, Tumblr posts are being retweeted on Twitter and many pieces of content get their 15 minutes of fame. Internet fame is temporary; people flock... Read more
Tags: advertising, branding, buyer experience, campaigns, Data, Digital Marketing, facebook marketing, Facebook strategy, google, marketing, online advertising, online marketing, Search, social marketing, Social Media, social media strategy, Targeting, trends, twitter
Posted in Media Planning & Buying, Social Media, Targeting | 1 Comment »
Channeling Buyer-Based Experiences in SMB
This is part 4 of a series on the challenge of targeting SMB markets and how the use of buyer-based modeling and buyer-based marketing help organizations to grow their SMB customer base.
When it comes to the SMB segment and the multiple sub-markets, it is just a plain fact that you cannot be everywhere. We addressed the segmentation thought process crucial for buyer-based marketing to the SMB segment in the previous article, Grow SMB Revenues With Buyer-Based Marketing, as a means to know where to have a presence. Therein lays the new buyer realities of today. Having a presence that creates a gravitational pull of SMB buyers towards your organization is the new realty of mastering the SMB challenge.
SMB marketing and sales began to become more than just an afterthought in the early ‘90’s through the early 2000's. Considerable investments were made in establishing inside sales organizations and in outbound marketing activities specifically to reach the SMB base of customers and prospective buyers. Newly created inside sales organizations endured the trials and tribulations of field sales entrenched infrastructure as well as the ownership battle of the mid-size customer gray area. Marketing discovered that outbound... Read more
Tags: buyer experience, buyer insight, buyer persona, buyer persona development, buyer personas, buyer strategy, buyergraphics, buyerology, content marketing, online marketing, small business marketing, Strategy, Targeting, twitter
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Email, Emerging Platforms, Opinions, Search, Social Media, Targeting, Word of Mouth | No Comments »
