So you’ve engaged an internet marketing company to help take your business to the next level of success. Congratulations! This step represents a well-placed investment that will help you realize your goals for revenue growth and profitability.
As a savvy business owner or marketing manager, you understand that you must develop a strong online presence to capitalize on the overwhelming trend of consumer behavior that relies on internet searches for purchasing decisions. Otherwise, you will fall behind your competitors who recognize that digital marketing strategies are the key to success today.
Unfortunately, many business owners take the “set it and forget it” approach, once they place their trust in a digital marketing expert. In doing so, they may cheat themselves out of the truly spectacular results they could get if they engaged — at least to some degree — with their internet marketing company.
When you hire an SEO company or digital marketing firm, you trust that they know exactly how to propel your company up the Google page rankings to get you into the highest possible spot in the search engine results.
Although that belief is well-founded, there’s one topic that your digital marketing consultant is not an expert in: the unique characteristics of your business.
An SEO expert may know all there is to know about your industry and your geographic location, but they don’t have your knowledge, expertise or insight into your company’s unique take on the products or services you provide.
When you get involved — even just a little bit — with your digital marketing, you can boost the efficacy of these efforts and increase your return on investment (ROI) significantly.
So what’s the best way for you to get involved, to help your internet marketing firm help you even more? It just so happens that we have some insight into this question!
You’re on the scene day after day, seeing the fruits of your company’s efforts firsthand. Your internet marketing company doesn’t have the benefit of this insider perspective, but with minimal effort, you can help them develop a more in-depth appreciation for what you do.
The best way to accomplish this is to document the work you do with photographs and descriptions.
For example, if you’re a flooring contractor, take some photos of a completed job you’re particularly proud of. Add some notes to explain what’s in the photos and ship them off to your SEO specialist. This will help their team gain a better appreciation for the value you deliver to your customers.
If you provide a service (rather than a product), you can share real-life anecdotes of how you helped a particular client. Or you might send along some live-action shots of your team working with clients or putting their heads together to solve a particularly challenging issue.
The more insight you can share, the more your SEO company can tailor their efforts to reflect the value you deliver to your customers every day.
SEO experts do a LOT of work in the background to make your digital marketing efforts a success. It takes tons of time and effort to bring your website up to the top of the search engine results pages. But although they are subject matter experts in their industry, chances are they aren’t as knowledgeable about what you do.
With just a little time and effort, however, you can help them develop an in-depth understanding of what you do.
Take just a little time to review the content they create on your behalf — including website content and blog posts — to determine whether they’re on the right track. Providing feedback on industry-specific terminology is especially beneficial, but you’ll help boost the marketing effort substantially if you take the time to explain why you request changes or edits.
At Be Locally SEO, we invest significantly in the content we create for our clients. But when we have your feedback about how we can improve our efforts on your behalf, we gain critical insights into how we can tailor our efforts to better suit your needs.
Digital marketing and SEO optimization go a long way to boost your position in the search engine results, but you can help even more by getting active on social media.
Social media is unique in that it allows you to communicate directly with your audience. If you doubt how effective these platforms are, just look at how many followers famous actors and musicians have on platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Facebook is also extremely effective for reaching both qualified prospects and your existing customers.
At Be Locally SEO, we help our clients with social ads, but you can help boost the effectiveness of these and other digital marketing efforts by doing your own social media posts. The more active you are on social media, the more reach you will develop.
We are happy to help you identify the most effective strategies to use for your social media posts, but you’ll truly shine when you have fun and engage with your audience. You might be surprised at how effective this can be for growing your business.
If you engage a digital marketing company to assist you with web design and development, content creation, email newsletters or other internet marketing activities, make sure they have all the information they need to do their jobs.
As soon as you engage the services of an SEO company or internet marketing consultant, ask what they need from you to do their job.
For example, they might want your digital logo artwork, your email database and your login credentials for your website. However, depending on the services you have requested, they may need specific information about your products, services and areas served.
You’re making an investment in your company and your future by trusting an SEO company to help you. Make sure they have everything they need from you as soon as possible and you can substantially increase your return on investment for their services.
This leads us to our next tip: communication.
Once you give your SEO expert the go-ahead, you might believe you’re off the hook for the future. In reality, however, you should embrace the communication process that’s necessary for your internet marketing consultant to deliver for you.
Be responsive to questions and inquiries, because without your valuable input, their SEO team won’t have the information they need to do the best possible job for you.
Share with your digital marketing company how you prefer to communicate, whether that’s email, phone or text. They understand how busy you are and they will be respectful of your time. Realize that, when they ask questions or request information from you, they’re only trying to deliver the results they promised — and that you deserve.
When you engage an internet marketing specialist, take the time to understand the scope of their services and endeavor to work within those constraints.
Many digital marketing consultants try to provide their clients with a more loosely structured suite of services. In other words, they often provide services that aren’t officially a part of their agreement. But it’s important to understand that whenever you ask your SEO company to undertake a task outside their scope of work, they may have to redirect from another important pursuit.
When you take the important step of engaging an internet marketing expert to assist you, take the time to determine what services they provide. If you are willing to work within those constraints, you will get a much more successful outcome than you might if you try to push the boundaries of their scope of work.
Yes, your digital marketing company will make suggestions and recommendations based on their knowledge and expertise. But as we have already established, you are the consummate expert when it comes to your business and it is your absolute right to determine the direction of your internet marketing efforts.
Don’t be shy about sharing your thoughts and feelings on the direction your digital marketing efforts should take.
Like any consultant, your internet marketing company works for you. But ultimately, you are responsible for building your business. Leverage the services they can provide, do your part to provide them the tools they need and request, and you will reap the benefits many times over.
Be Locally SEO provides expert SEO and digital marketing services to clients in Utah and throughout the United States. We tailor our service offerings to help you meet your business growth and revenue goals. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you achieve your objectives with our internet marketing services.