I just came across an article by Mike Sweeney, Run If You Hear These Five SEO Marketing Statements, and I think it worth to reference, especially, if you aren’t a mature marketer, or if you company just created a team to work on online marketing activities. However, Mikes writes, like we are all deep into web marketing, and understand perfectly his point of view. For those who are not, my comments:
Let me go over his statements and add my 2 cents here and there:
#1 “… I am here to build your marketing plan”. Oh yes… Marketing plan is not a math, and it cannot be built efficiently without some knowledge of your business, your overall strategies, resources, etc. etc. Moreover, online marketing is not the only marketing for your company, so it’s supposed to be a piece of overall marketing agenda, not a separate instance. And third point – if you really want it to work out, you should be on top of that. The plan should be yours, and the agency should play by your rules, wherever is possible and not try to convince you to follow their rules.
#2 “…we can guarantee multiple top 10 rankings on your targeted keywords” – for how long – for a minute, an hour, a day? If you are targeting very popular keywords, you are not alone. Millions of others are trying to do the same. Many of them, started way before you’ve found a need for this keyword. Search Engines, such as Google, count many factors, including the age of your domain, for example. What this statement means to become true? First of all, they will limit you on the number of keywords. Secondary, they will work only with easy-to-achieve keywords that don’t have this much competency. Third, they may place your keywords on the 2nd Tier Search Engines, such as ask, altavista, etc. where they promise your 5-top placement for the keywords for a certain period of time… I am not saying this won’t work, but you should understand, there is no magic around this topic. A stable top placement is not an overnight technical feature. It comes through hard-working marketing initiatives and it takes a lot to keep it there.
#3 “…You really can’t afford to wait on addressing social media”. As the matter of fact, you can, especially if you are in B2B business. Focus more on Linkedin, professional forums and online communities, but less on Twitter, Facebook, etc. The wider the purpose of the community, the easier is to sleep over and lost everything. I am not saying that you should not consider all-purpose communities, such as Twitter, Myspace, Facebook at all, I am just saying that this is not something where you should invest a large percentage of your marketing budget. As the matter of fact, most popular and followed by profiles are of real people, and not company profiles, or marionette profiles. So, engage your team, work yourself, but do not spend a fortune on social media, unless you are in deep B2C. If you really need it fast, pay for a package where a certain number of bookmarks are pre-paid and entered by the “dirt force marketers”. You can easily buy 500 bookmarks at under $30 bucks, or set up an automatic tool to add you followers. But don’t overdo – Google Police will take notice.
#4 “…just last week we added capabilities in…” Sometimes, it’s good to hire one team for all, sometimes, it’s not. Thinks like internet marketing may seems to be easy, but without an experience, you won’t succeed. A good traditional marketer usually has no idea where to start with web interactive marketing and makes costly mistakes here and there. When dealing with SEs, you have to be smart in everything. Not enough to resell somebody’s pre-paid products or services. You have to undertake the site weight, position, respectability assigned by SEs, and so forth. By overdoing, you may easily ruin site credibility and it’s not something you can repair within a few days. So, check references, ask your friends, follow blogs, do your homework of researching the subject but never just handle your project to non-professionals.
#5 “…You shouldn’t cut back on your marketing/advertising spend in a recession…” That’s the most ridiculer statement, I agree with Mike. The question is how can you avoid spending too much and getting the same services and more? In fact, you are not the only one cutting your budget. Your vendors won’t have many customers right now and are more flexible in pricing. Use it, where you can. Don’t buy at the price you see, always ask for a discount, feature long-term relationship, more services, etc. See, where you can do stuff yourself without outsourced help. Of course, you will cut your budget. But there are many ways around… Don’t work with agencies that won’t co-op, period.
There are some other statements that could be added, but the article will be too long. The overall idea is clear:
• If you have a choice – research multiple marketing agencies, see what others think about them, before choosing one
• Do not buy “cold calls” if you are not looking at this time
• Do not trust those who gives you strict timelines, or tell you they know exactly what needs to be done. Online Marketing is an Art, not a Science, so be creative at this point.
• Have an in-house person to supervise all online marketing activities
•Educate yourself – read more blogs, visit more communities, listen what others have to say – constantly
AND YOU WILL SUCCEED! Good Luck,
Sasha
Run If You Hear These Five SEO Marketing Statements — In the spirit of fairness, I am determined to defend the marketers who make these types of statements. Here’s what Will left out - often times these misguided comments originate from an agency, consultant or service provider that the company has put its trust in. So let’s look for some warning signs. If you hear your agency, consultant or service provider make any of these five statements, consider running.
