sfima seo agency management presentation may 2013

SEO Agency and Campaign Management

How Not to Get Fired…..

Presented by:James Loomstein

Sr. ConsultantCrown Partners

@jloomstein

Wait, About Me….• Integrated marketing professional with over 10 years of direct advertising agency experience

• Extensive expertise in core marketing – including:– Local search marketing – Pay Per Click (Google AdWords) – Search Engine Optimization– Insights and Web Analytics (Google Analytics) – Marketing Strategy – Brand Positioning– Targeting/Segmentation

• Plus – I’m a dad, husband, and Dallas sports junkie • I sit in your spot and use tools like these to build my agency • And, If I wasn’t doing this - I’d love to be a PGA tour player, or storm chaser

So What’s the Fundamental Problem We All Face?• SMBs: Time, resources, knowledge• Corporation: Too much budget, directionless,

management• Your client: Justifying value for your service• Your company: Scalability, repeatability, duplicating

yourself The #1 problem all businesses face is obscurity --- If they don’t know you…..They can’t buy from you.

CHALLENGE

Overview• A little background• A little GSD process • Some tools, platforms, and services to care about• 10 step “short and long term” strategy• And five things you can do today to impact your

clients and show value starting today

HOW WE

SOLVE THE

PROBLEM

WHAT’S IMPORTANT DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU SIT...

How searchable is your website?• Crawlability• URLs indexed (site:domain.com)• NAP citations• Site structure• Content optimization

What is your link value?• Domain-level• Page-level• Quality of referring domains

• Is this is the best place to spend my dollar• Revenue / return • Is my boss going to fire me...everyone has a BOSS

What is your link velocity? • How quickly your message is spreading• SERP Ranking • Traffic from organic keywords• Brand versus non-branded organic keyword traffic

How searchable/engaging is your website?• Visitor loyalty • Page views / visit• Time on-site• Bounce rate• Comments and interactions• Social amplification

What you care about (SEO standpoint):

What you client cares about: • Keyword research• Competitive analysis• Correcting site structure • Optimizing on-page issues• Checking site navigation

• Scanning for potential

issues/threats• Monitoring SERP ranking• Link building strategy

Step 0 – Standardize Your Process• Identify your team• Create boiler plates

– Contracts– One-pages– Bios– Kick-off documents– Job postings– Client questionnaires

• Standardize tools • Develop a playbook• Build your outsourced

support team

Step 1 - Kickoff• Client questionnaire • Internal set-up (basecamp, harvest, highrise, quick books, evernote)• Competitive audit (client / competitor /keywords)• Email access you@clientdomain.com (great for link building)• Reporting / analytics access• Google alerts (brand, c-level, keywords, competitors)• Find the quick win first (stop boiling the ocean)

If you don’t know where you’re going – any road will get you there.

Create a roadmap ….you have to show them where to go

How do you get your client from “A” to “B” - From “Share” to “Convert”, etc.

Internal set-up • Create single source view of your clients, projects, tasks,

and team• Leverage automation tools to reduce non-billable tasks• For billing purposes I recommend Freshbooks, Zoho,

Quickbooks

Client audit example• Client Problem: Understand the digital landscape• Tool set: Screaming Frog, SEOMOZ, Webpagetest.org,

SpyFu, and social sites • Time: 1-2 hours• Process: Competitors, keywords, tools

Client audit example: in-depth

Tweet me @jloomstein w/ #SFIMA for complete questionnaire…

Step 2 – Execute (GSD)• Monthly tasks list• Weekly check-in • Scheduled reporting • Identify opportunities• A couple of ideas….

Step 3 – Keep adding value• Invest in yourself and your client (on your dime)

– Editorial calendar / spec landing pages – Press releases / blog mock-ups – Client specific events (webinar, conference, newsletter)– Industry trend updates (RSS/Google Alerts) – Reporting engine (Raven, MySEOTool.com, etc.)

• Host events – Brainstorming session– Happy hour sponsorship / working lunches

• Find new types of content to create • Remember that clients don’t know what they don’t know• You’re a partner – not a monthly marketing expense

Step 4 – Standardized toolset

Business PPC SEO CompetitiveHighrise Rapportive* Merge words Yellowpipe MuckrackBasecamp Pipeline* WordWatch Seo-

browser.comFollowerwonk

Quickbooks Scribe Callrail SEOMOZ Builtwith.com

Evernote Buffer WordTracker Whitespark SEMrushHarvest Twitterfeed Hitwise Hittail.com SearchMetricsBoomerang* Fliptop SpyFu Crazyegg KeyCompeteHootsuite Rapleap Google

TrendsMySeoTool.com

AllTop

CrazyEgg Pocket Screaming Frog

SocialMention* Google Tools

Step 5 - Don’t leave money on the table • Yes, we do that • Outsource (know your margins)• Automation tools• Build your team• The objective is scalability /

repeatability

SEO

Keyword Research

Code

IndustryTrends

Step 6 – Stay smart

Step 7 – Network yourself• Create platform partnerships that you can leverage

• Let clients/partners generate leads for you• Be seen and known in the market • My personal goals

– 1-2 lunches/month– 4-6 events/month– 2-4 webinars/month– 1 conference/quarter– 15 minutes of industry trends/day

“Nobody ever got a client sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring.” - me

Step 8 – Keep perspective • Know your margins • Identify how much non-billable work goes into a

billable hour• 200K in sales = $100,000 in salary• Standardize reporting template to streamline the

process• Identify the spots that you can add value immediately

– get the quick wins • You’re not charging enough

Step 9 - My final thoughts…• Stop chasing shinny objects • Replicate, scale, iterate, repeat • Its all sales • Perfection is the enemy of good • Invest in the tools that either save you time, make you

money, or make you look smarter

Step 10- Creating the perfect client/agency relationship

• Why client-agency relationships go bad…..– Lack of communication– Agency’s inadequate capabilities – Clients unrealistic expectations

• What to think about before your next engagement:– Charge for value not time– Offer the right service (produce results that impact the bottom line)– Be accountable for results – Charge more (Profitable clients become loyal clients, not the other way around.)

ALMOST>

Connect with Me….. CrownPartners.com

jloomstein@crownpartners.com

Twitter.com/jloomstein

Linkedin.com/in/Jloomstein

James Loomstein, MBASr. ConsultantCrown Partners