The Definitive Checklist for Effective Facebook Post

The Definitive Checklist for Effective Facebook Posts

Ron Schott, September 13, 20129 Comments

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While most in the industry think that copy can change the world, it’s quickly becoming apparent that you need to think of each individual post as a self-contained piece of marketing with copy, art, and targeting.

Facebook, while their stock hasn’t been showing it, has been consistently making improvements to the way brands can use their network to reach customers and advocates. But, with more functionality in posting come more things to think about when making that post.

This quick guide was created to help you remember the most-important aspects in making a successful post.

Message

This is where, traditionally, a team spends most of their time – in the copy. With Facebook’s advanced targeting, you’re able to create different messages for different audiences, which make copywriting actually easier rather than harder.

You have the chance to craft a super-specific and targeted bit of copy that truly speaks to your intended audience, rather than a watered-down, please-them-all bit of copy that may or may not even cause someone to pause in their news feed long enough to get to the meat.

Pro tip: Asking questions is great, but don’t just ask a question to get an answer. Have an answer in mind and ask a question that not only leads there, but goes further. Also, be sure to bring other pages into the conversation when you can by tagging them in your post.

Image

It’s been said many times over that a picture is worth a thousand words. Nowhere is this more apparent than in today’s social media landscape with Instagram still gaining and gaining and Pinterest taking the visual desires of many and turning them in to clicks.

Images are quickly becoming an important part of brand marketing strategy – and rightfully so. For the first time, the industry is seeing budget set aside for the creation of imagery especially for social media.

Pro tip: Aim for images with a 403 px by 403 px dimension. That way you can pin that post if needed. The largest size of a picture that Facebook will display in a slideshow is 960 px by 720 px.

Targeting

Since Facebook rolled out their advanced post targeting a few weeks ago (to pages with more than 5,000 Likes), brands have had the chance to provide a richer experience to their fans than ever before.

By giving brands the chance to target super-specific messaging, Facebook has cut down on that age-old nemesis of advertisers everywhere – noise. Also, they’ve provided a way for brands to more effectively manage their EdgeRank by making sure that users only see content that is hyper-relevant to their interests.

Facebook now allows you to target page posts by:

• Age
• Gender
• Interested In
• Relationship Status
• Language
• Education
• Workplace
• Location: Country, State, City

We aren't aware of any of the large publishing/CMS tools that have the ability to tap into Facebook’s advanced targeting features, but look for this soon.

Pro tip: Create targeting profiles for your target audiences and refine them often to make sure you’re delivering targeted, specific material to your audiences. Create multivariate testing with multiple copy/image combinations for different targets in order to test effectiveness.

Timing

Along with targeting, timing of posts is the second-most important thing you can do from a creation and distribution standpoint when thinking about Facebook posts. There are many views on when and how often you should post, and that’s another topic for another time, but there are definitely ways you can test and refine your posting cadence – as well as decide when to post to which targets.

One tool, Prosodic, uses a clock view to show when your fans are most active in regards to your posted content. One thing we’d like to see here is the ability to potentially splice data by targeting criteria.

Pro tip: Don’t just think about what times of day to post, think about wider events like planned press conferences, major sporting events, and other cultural events when you’re laying out your timeline. You don’t want a great post to be overlooked because of something you knew was coming. Also, scheduling posts in advance gives you a chance to move them around if breaking news fills the newsfeed.

Final Word

Facebook marketing is still what it has always been about – making a connection through interesting content. While that hasn’t changed, the way we go about making those connections has and will continue to evolve, creating the need for an educated and quick-to-learn team tasked with creating, delivering, and refining content for this channel.

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2205139/The-Definitive-Checklist-for-Effective-Facebook-Posts?wt.mc_ev=click&WT.tsrc=Email&utm_term=&utm_content=The%20Definitive%20Checklist%20for%20Effective%20Facebook%20Posts&utm_campaign=09%2F14%2F12%20-%20SEW%20Daily&utm_source=Search%20Engine%20Watch%20Daily&utm_medium=Email

Ditch The Silos – How to Build a Great Content Marketing Team

Kevin Gibbons, September 14, 20120 Comments

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Last month I attended SES in San Francisco and saw some great presentations, as always covering the ever-changing world of search. Having recently launched a content marketing agency, the session that stood out to me the most was the convergence of search, social and content marketing – with some great presentations from Chris Winfield and Arnie Kuenn.

Search, Social & Content Has Merged into a Single Process

I’ve recently written about how to transition of a team from SEO into content marketing - and in my opinion, the best content marketing teams merge all things search, social, CRO, PR, paid media etc into a single team.

These days, if all you focus on is SEO, you’re probably not actually that good at it. That’s because you’re missing the point that you need to acquire high-quality, natural links, create a social buzz/awareness, reach a targeted audience, and convert those into customers/leads.

The Best Teams are Integrated & Work Together

You’ll often find the best in-house teams and agencies will have a mix of all of these skills – SEO, social, PPC, CRO, etc.

Even in content marketing, you have to break down the silos. When we started delivering content marketing projects, our approach was to break projects into three key deliverables:

1. Content Auditing and Strategy
2. Content Development
3. Blogger Outreach and Social Promotion

In theory this works very well and means you can tackle each key section of a project with a specialist in each area. But we quickly realized we were making a mistake in efficiencies of managing the process and getting the best results.

The single biggest lesson we’ve learned, is that it’s not quite as simple as that. These are all very important parts of any content marketing project, but they need to work together much more closely.

Otherwise, once you’ve done your content strategy and developed your content and you’re ready to move onto outreach as the last step, what happens if no one really likes your content or idea in the first place?

So we’ve found that if we all work together on a project from day one, we can make sure that we can ensure the blogger outreach specialists and content developers are just as involved in the early stages as the content strategists. Making everything a much smoother process all-round, removing the margin for error further down the line when it comes to promotion and outreach.

So what skills do you need in a content marketing team?

1. Content Auditing & Strategy

There's a range of different types of skill sets you need in order to get the best results. This is likely to include all of the following:

• Content audit: Reviewing your existing content, what types of content do you have, what topics do they cover and what goals do they achieve. You should apply your new checklist here to see if your content is still good enough to remain active. Being just as selective here as if it was newly created - it's a great time for a clean-up!
• Competitor and marketplace analysis: Now you have a full audit on what content you have available, what are your competitors doing? Find out what the hot topics are within your market or industry and make sure to cover everything your customers are interested in.
• Brainstorming content ideas: What gaps do you have in your content? What are you missing that your users and customers want to see? What do you have that they want to see more of? How can you mix up your content into different types/channels (e.g., in-depth articles, videos, infographics, social media audiences, etc.).
• Research tools: You need to research your plan of attack, so make sure you've got all the tools that can help you on the way. Google AdWords is obviously a good start for keyword research, but don't just leave it there - use UberSuggest for a wider range of suggestions, Google Trends for seasonality, the SEOgadget content strategy tool for more topical ideas and sites like TweetMeme to keep an eye on what is popular on social media to trigger new ideas for content people are interested in sharing.
• Build an editorial calendar: Once you've done all of the above, you are well set towards getting started with enacting your content strategy. For this the most important step is to form a seasonal editorial calendar based around your customer's interests and goals. That way you've got a clear plan of what content you're going to create and when you're going to do it. Setting deadlines on this makes it much easier for everyone involved – it gets the writers/designers on track with what they need to produce and gives the community manager and social media marketers a clear idea on when it is going to be delivered, so that they can plan their publishing schedule and promotion around this.
• Community management: Finally, once you have all of this in place, you need to make sure you have structure in your content strategy. Content marketing isn't about just promoting a one-off infographic, you need a clear 6-12 month plan which you can build into your editorial calendar. So taking seasonality, events into account, put someone in charge of owning your content – that way they can schedule publishing, manage blog/forum/social media comments, edit content and accept or reject content based on your checklist and brand guidelines.

2. Content Development

• Writers and Bloggers: Behind every good content strategy is a great writer and in SEO especially, authorship is being incredibly important. Google is now trusting the author of the content as highly as it does the actual content and the site that it is written on. So if authorship is becoming a measure of trust, it's important that you have great writers.
  
  What is a great writer? In this sense, it's not someone who is grammatically flawless - that can't be a bad thing - but here were talking about writing which can generate a buzz. Writers who know how to target and engage with audiences, spark discussion or even controversy. And more importantly, stand out as knowledgeable by building a reputation with their niche. If you are considered a thought leader on the topic of African Safaris, for example, I want you writing on my African Safari website!
  
  So in this sense, we look to hire great writers who can specialise within a niche. If you can write the best content on the web within your industry, there’s a great chance you'll win. Plus you'll save a huge amount of money compared to the paid advertising alternative method of getting there. So my advice would be to hire the best writer you can within your industry or sector and get them fully involved within your content strategy.
   
• Creative designers and video producers: The exact same for writers applies to creative designers and video producers. I would definitely recommend mixing up the type of content you create for your readers. Some people prefer in-depth articles, while others will prefer videos or infographics, for example.
  
  So try to keep it interesting for your audience – and be creative. Don’t be afraid to attempt ideas that might fail, as long as it doesn’t risk your brand, and at worst you’ve just learnt a new type of content that your audience doesn’t like.
  
  But if you keep pushing to be creative and on top of your game, you’re more likely than not to see some great results – so definitely mix it up!

3. Blogger Outreach & Social Media Specialists

• Blogger Outreach: Surprisingly this is often the stage that can be overlooked. In an age where all brands are now facing to the fact that they have to become a publisher in order to compete online - they still don't quite get the importance of promotion.
  
  Content is king, as they say - and you're not going to get very far at all with average, or even good, content. But even if your website has the best content in the world - if nobody sees it, who really cares? Google certainly doesn't. Their algorithm rewards content which not only is very good - but it's also trusted by generating authoritative links, social media shares and online buzz.
  
  So the blogger outreach role is vital. You need to give your content a push in order to make sure it's maximizing potential. That means building an audience, partnering with industry leaders to promote each other, connecting with key influencers both online and off to build valuable relationships - and making sure that you've done everything possible that when you've got a great piece of content that you want to promote, you've got an email list full of key contacts that can be ready to help you out. As long as you remember it goes both ways.
   
• Social media promotion: Social media will certainly pay a key role here too – which is why we look to ensure we can play a key role in building social profiles with our clients, ensuring they are active within the community and building an audience with key influencers.
  
  But don’t just leave it at brand profiles – get your team and writers involved too. You’re likely to have much better results if you can build personal relationships with key influencers. Especially if you’re a big brand, you have a great advantage here – you have lots of people you can leverage!

The Whole Must be Greater Than the Sum of All Parts

The game is continually evolving – this is type of skillsets I’ve found to be most important in our content marketing campaigns to date. But test what works with your audience, everyone is different and those who can be creative and push the boundaries by doing something new are normally those who stand out and are rewarded as a result.

And make sure you’re working together as a team to get the best results – you can have the best content strategy, content development or blogger outreach/social promotion techniques out there, but the important thing is making sure that the whole is great than the sum of all parts.

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2205511/Ditch-The-Silos-How-to-Build-a-Great-Content-Marketing-Team?wt.mc_ev=click&WT.tsrc=Email&utm_term=&utm_content=Ditch%20The%20Silos%20%E2%80%93%20How%20to%20Build%20a%20Great%20Content%20Marketing%20Team&utm_campaign=09%2F14%2F12%20-%20SEW%20Daily&utm_source=Search%20Engine%20Watch%20Daily&utm_medium=Email

Investing in SEO: Marketers are Doing More SEO Than They Think

I was thrilled to see the joint GroupM and Nielsen research published recently on the UK Search Marketing Landscape. If you missed it, Danny Goodwin’s blog post, “Organic vs. Paid Search Results: Organic Wins 94 Percent of Time” is a great summary. With this study, marketers and search marketers have, for the first time, vendor-neutral data containing evidence of organic search click-through rates (CTRs).

As a quick recap, the research concludes that 94 percent of searchers click through on organic search results, and that the top three positions in Google earn 61 percent of the clicks. These numbers aren't far off the numbers I’ve used for years when describing the importance of SEO in a marketing budget as well as ranking on Page 1 for the keywords prospects are searching on to find your organization. The GroupM and Nielsen numbers simply (and strongly) validate the importance of an on-going SEO strategy.

A significant disconnect, however, continues to exist between the impact that SEO can have on impressions, click-throughs and lead generation compared to PPC and the representation each receives in a typical marketing budget.

Take Forrester’s U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast, for the years 2011 to 2016. Marketers are spending and will continue to spend, on average, 88 percent of their search marketing budget on paid search campaigns to access just 6 percent of the available click-throughs, and 12 percent on organic search in attempts to reach an astounding 94 percent of the available click-throughs.

I’m not the first person to point out this imbalance, nor will I be the last.

I find it useful for marketers to visualize the difference in available CTRs from SEO versus PPC. Before the GroupM and Nielsen CTRs were published, I used Optify’s CTR data to apply to monthly search volume for a given keyword. The chart below depicts the daily estimated number of clickthroughs for the keyword phrase “HR Software” in Google.com, Google.ca and Google.au across Page One and Page Two of the SERPs.

Based on the research, data available and assumptions below, an HR software company attempting to rank for this keyword should expect, if they were occupying position one in Google for the term “HR Software”, 24 clickthroughs per day from SEO and just two from PPC; three clickthroughs from SEO if they were in position six or seven for the same term and nothing from PPC.

Think of this more as a model for comparison rather than an exact answer since there are so many uncontrollable factors surrounding a keyword. (Read: Five Forces of Keyword Competition)

In this model, one must also consider the difference is resources (time and money) required to increase positions in SEO versus PPC. With SEO, the input of time and money is uncertain, however, the results are longer lasting. With PPC, one can instantaneously gain a top position, but it can disappear just as quickly without a trace of ever being there.

2120 monthly searches * 94 percent = 1992 * 36.4 percent /30 days = 24 daily clickthroughs for position #1 in Google.com for the keyword "HR Software"

The purpose here isn't to convince marketers to shift their marketing spend, nor is it intended to discount one marketing tactic over the other. (I believe there is a time and a place for all marketing tactics within a given strategy). The purpose is simply to take a closer look at SEO as a line item in a marketing budget and other marketing tactics that affect SEO.

SEO as a Line Item in your Marketing Budget

Marketers are spending more on SEO than they realize when they also have the following line items in their budget:

• Content Marketing
• Social Media
• Video Production
• Public Relations

These marketing tactics affect a web presence and organic search rankings and can have a significant positive impact on SEO including: rank, backlinking, social signal generation and fresh content, but are often not included in the traditional SEO budget.

Content Marketing

SEO cannot be done without content creation in the form of on-site content optimization and off-site optimization (i.e., blogs, press releases, case studies, how-to guides, videos, etc.), yet content marketing is often a separate line item from SEO, and unfortunately a lot of off-site content isn't optimized for SEO.

A client case study, for example, can have a significant impact on SEO rankings if it is deliberately optimized for keywords driving traffic and socialized for the purpose of organic search ranking.

It is worth noting that according to the Custom Content Council, marketers spent $16.6 billion on electronic content marketing in 2011 and the trend is continuing.

Social Media

Social media and SEO are very much separate line items in a marketing budget, but content socialized at the page level through Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube generates social signals which can positively impact SEO and an organic search ranking.

The most direct link between SEO and social media is Google+ and Search plus Your World. If you haven't yet started to build out your personal and business Circles, please do. A piece of content shared through your Circles has an opportunity to be found by your followers through Search plus Your World – before your competitors’ content is found.

Video Production

Video can be a secret weapon in an SEO strategy given that YouTube is the second busiest search engine and your prospects want to consume your content in video format. Many organizations are specifically itemizing video creation in their marketing budget. If the video content is optimally tagged, it can dominate in both YouTube and Google proper for the keywords the video has been optimized for.

Public Relations

Many organizations have a PR budget that doesn't factor into their SEO budget. So although PR efforts may be impacting SEO, they could be positively impacting it even further if the PR content was optimized for keywords driving traffic.

Press releases that are written specifically for a keyword that is converting targeted traffic will be more impactful on lead generation efforts given that Google gives priority to fresh, relevant content and will likely list the press release in its News section if it is distributed through the proper channels (e.g., Marketwire, Businesswire, PRWeb, etc.).

Stop Underestimating SEO in Your Marketing Budget

SEO today consists of more than just backlink building and on-site optimization. Content marketing, PR, social media and SEO go hand-in-hand, and the investment in one tactic can positively influence the outcome of another.

If you're an SEO professional, but not yet involved in your clients’ social media, PR and video production efforts, talk with them about the importance of bringing these tactics together for the overall benefit of SEO.

If you're a marketer and are working with different professionals or employees on each of these tactics, it's worth your time to bring the different disciplines together in attempts to optimize all content across your web presence for keywords that are driving targeted traffic and conversions.

SEO as a line item in marketing budgets is typically underestimated. The gap between what marketers spend on SEO versus PPC is not as significant as Forrester indicates. Those marketers and SEO professionals who attempt to execute SEO in a silo will never get the results they expect (especially not overnight).

My marketing budget has a line item called “Optimized Content Marketing Strategy” with sub categories that include:

• Content Marketing
• SEO
• Social Media
• PR
• Video
• Email Marketing 
• Paid Search

This approach will give you a better chance at reaching the top of Google for your converting keywords and the opportunity to enjoy awesome organic click-through rates!

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2203277/Investing-in-SEO-Marketers-are-Doing-More-SEO-Than-They-Think?wt.mc_ev=click&WT.tsrc=Email&utm_term=&utm_content=Investing%20in%20SEO%3A%20Marketers%20are%20Doing%20More%20SEO%20Than%20They%20Think&utm_campaign=09%2F06%2F12%20-%20SEW%20Daily&utm_source=Search%20Engine%20Watch%20Daily&utm_medium=Email

Content Creation: How to Build a Successful Outsourced Team

by Steve Lazuka  |  359 views

Published on August 31, 2012    

In this article you'll learn that...

• Your can outsource content that is high-quality and cost-efficient and delivers results.
• A true team effort is needed, including efficient systems, management time on your end, and client engagement, to make the process work.
• You can achieve growth and success when you view your freelance writers as long-term partners and an extension of your in-house team.

Editor's note: Although this article specifically addresses agencies' efforts at content creation for clients, much of the guidance it provides can apply to client-side marketers as well.

Marketers far and wide, including those on the agency side, know the value of content marketing—as its own service offering and as the foundation for integrated campaigns.

Agencies confront clear operational challenges, however, in delivering a high volume of quality content that is also profitable and efficient for the business and serves the full range of clients' niche business areas.

Agencies therefore need to ask themselves:

• Do we have the ability to hire professional copywriters in-house?
• Should we task our account team members with producing content on behalf of their clients?
• How do we price content to be reasonable and within client budgets and also profitable for the agency?

Often, to address these issues, agencies turn to freelance networks and specialized writing partners to either supplement internal resources or serve as a fully functioning content team.

Results begin and end with relationships

As a writer, and having seen content marketing from all corners of the business, I've learned that results start with solid relationships behind the content.

When outsourcing, you can employ the best technologies, platforms, and channels, but as an agency leader you need to approach content as a true team effort, engaging your account leaders, clients, and partner writers.

If you don't focus on your people management skills as well as spend the time needed to guide the process and provide strategic and editorial direction, disconnects will arise between the delivered work and the desired end goals, including traffic, lead conversions, thought leadership, and community building,.

Look at the process as a convergence of business, freelancers, and clients, making your writers an extension of your business and building long-term partnerships that can scale with your needs.

That sort of fusion won't happen overnight, but if you're willing to put in the time to build the systems that work for your agency, you'll build long-term success that brings future opportunities in content marketing.

1. Set up your agency for success

If your current editorial management process is built around a spreadsheet, you need to move toward more collaborative and efficient systems.

A dedicated project management software platform can serve as the key communication hub to manage your writers, projects, and publishing calendar. Take the time needed to identify the tools and maximize all of the features. Also, make sure you can add your own in-house writers and manage outside talent within a writer marketplace, all from the same system.

Don't be afraid to spend more time up front evaluating systems, training yourself and your account teams, and building an infrastructure to support the volume of content your agency will be managing.

The more confidence you have behind your people and processes, the more comfortable your clients will be with the idea of outsourcing their writing. By being transparent, you demonstrate that you have your clients' best interests in mind and the ability to change your outside writing partners as needs change—all while keeping your client-satisfaction levels high.

Using whatever management system works for you, work closely with your client to deliver content projects in the way that works with their schedules and budgets.

2. Connect with the right talent for your clients

Take the opportunity to sample writers you think could be the right fit for your agency and for individual clients' style and industry. Get to know writers on a personal level, review and compare rates, and check out writing samples.

Also, understand the cost sensitivities from both sides: the clients looking to maximize their content budgets and the writers building their writing business and earning income. Refuse to compromise on delivering original, quality content that makes an impact in the quantity and pricing that keeps you competitive. You can find balance if you do your homework up front.

Typically, higher rates will yield a higher quality of writing, but if you create a more efficient process that saves time and efforts, you might be surprised at the quality of content you can receive at lower price points.

Always keep in mind that successful content begets more content opportunities. By outsourcing, you can scale your deliverables without dramatically increasing your overhead.

3. Take responsibility for results

Accountability is the key to successful collaboration. Responsibility falls to your agency to achieve end results and to make all the time and efforts worthwhile.

To forge the best writing partnerships for your agency and clients, look at early works from writers as "works in progress." When working with smaller client budgets, plan for agency time for strategic direction, content review and editing, and revision rounds with your client.

If you like a writer's style or niche focus but you are not fully satisfied with early posts, use the opportunity to create a partnership via open communication, and refine the content by adding insight, client knowledge, and marketing savvy.

Your agency bridges the gap between written copy and results-driven marketing by setting goals and building the mechanisms to measure the success of your content. Content that drives business results is a win-win-win for clients, writers, and your agency.

The fate of the game is in your hands.

How do you manage outsourced content?

http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2012/8819/content-creation-build-a-successful-outsourced-team?adref=nl083112

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2012/8819/content-creation-build-a-successful-outsourced-team#ixzz258TUEfYJ

Why I Talk Most Folks Out of SEO Projects

Agree with Mark article below--- some accounts might not be the best for your firm and we need to learn to move on.

Why I Talk Most Folks Out of SEO Projects

Mark Jackson, August 13, 201221 Comments

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After reading that headline, perhaps you’re wondering to yourself, “has Mark lost his mind”?

The answer? Not yet.

I've been involved in search engine optimization since March 2003. In that time, I have seen every angle and talked to just about every type of SEO prospect that there could ever be. One thing that hasn’t changed much, unfortunately, is that there are still a ton of people who are trying to engage in SEO, but hardly even know what SEO stands for.

Case in point:

Had a call this week with a prospect. Prior to the call, I had run a few reports and did a little research/digging around, so that I could be prepared to take them through what I believed to be “reality”.

One of my first questions on an initial sales call is “what are you trying to achieve?”. I might also phrase this as “what are your goals” or “how will you determine ‘success’”?

The answer? “I want 5,000 hits per month”.

Once I corrected them on what I believe they meant “5,000 unique visitors”, we moved on to what I thought it might take to grow traffic to those levels, and whether I believed that a sound ROI (that stands for “return on investment”, for those “SEOs” out there) could be achieved, at least in the short term.

After reviewing their competitive landscape, we find that the space (rankings) is dominated by government websites. That is to say, any keywords that have any amount of search volume and are “on target” with who we’re trying to reach, have official government web results dominating the top 4-5 positions. If we were going to make any headway, we would need to (at least in the initial phases) build out content to target the long tail until we earn the right (and Google’s trust) to gain any traction on these competitive keywords.

Oh…and did I mention that this was a new website with all of three websites linking to it?

As I explained to this prospect, “this could take a while”. And, “while the perception is that search engine optimization traffic is ‘free’ traffic, that is not the case…you’ve gotta earn it.”

After years of “selling” (have I mentioned that I really don’t like using that word?) SEO, I had a gut feeling that this prospect had no idea what SEO looked like, how it was done, how it should be measured, or much anything else. Mind you, I’m not throwing this guy under the bus.

SEO can be a challenging thing to wrap your head around. It’s not as “easy” as buying traditional media and many people are still trying to evolve to the “new ways” in which companies should be marketing themselves (i.e., getting into marketing programs that can be measured and optimized).

One other thing that I knew? This guy was not going to wait months for results…he needed leads, today, and needed ROI very soon.

When you’re building your initial presence into the search engines, you can expect it to be an investment of time and money. Did you catch that? An “investment”, meaning that you’re not expecting quick returns…you’re going to invest time and money into something that you hope will one day be a sound investment and provide ROI.

Feeling that I was on the right track, I helped this person understand ROI. And, when you take into account the cost of their employee(s) working on the SEO initiative, the cost (time/money) of creating content, the cost of an agency assisting with SEO efforts, etc., SEO was not going to provide an ROI for this particular prospect for quite some time. So, I recommended PPC. And why not?

When you get into PPC, it can provide some great information that you can – one day – take into your SEO efforts. You might learn which keywords “work” (convert into leads) and which do not. You might find which ones convert better than others, and decide to build additional content into your website, based upon this information. You might find that your website doesn’t convert traffic into leads/sales at all (which is great to know, before you work 12 months on obtaining that coveted number one ranking on that highly competitive keyword).

Our industry has matured, but there are still many prospects out there trying to “get into this SEO thing” without much thought as to why, how, how much, etc…

I ask each of you out there who own/operate or otherwise influence decisions at SEO agencies to help these folks. Sometimes helping them involves walking away from money. As a small business owner myself, I know that’s hard to do…but, often, it’s the right thing to do.

Many prospects still feel “icky” about our industry. Who can blame them when prospects, such as the one above, can call 10 companies and find 8 that would gladly take their money without providing any insight on how results can be achieved, how long it might take and let them know if it’s even possible/reasonable to expect ROI?

Let’s all do our part by walking away from business that we shouldn’t take. Let’s commit ourselves to being honest about expectations and the work necessary to see results.

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2198225/Why-I-Talk-Most-Folks-Out-of-SEO-Projects?wt.mc_ev=click&WT.tsrc=Email&utm_term=&utm_content=Why%20I%20Talk%20Most%20Folks%20Out%20of%20SEO%20Projects&utm_campaign=08%2F14%2F12%20-%20SEW%20Daily&utm_source=Search%20Engine%20Watch%20Daily&utm_medium=Email