Why we’re different (and an insight into our marketing process)

Online marketing has a pretty bad wrap (thanks a lot ‘top of Google’ email spammers and shady internet marketing gurus…). It’s a super interesting industry, but sometimes it’s not that fun to be a part of…

There’s a saying that marketers do destroy everything. And unfortunately in some ways it’s true. The bad ones do tend to destroy things. They burn their relationships. They burn people on their email list. They burn other marketers. They burn people they haven’t even ever met.

And because of all the bad guys out there, it’s a lot harder for legitimate, ethical marketers (like us!) to build trust.

So to set your mind at ease. Here’s a big list of…

Reasons why we’re different from most of the digital marketing companies and agencies out there

1. We care about our clients and want them to succeed. Lots. We’re not just in it for the money. In fact, we tend to over-serve and sell ourselves short (maybe we shouldn’t say that).
2. We care about traffic and conversions. We will never trick you with vanity metrics that are unlikely to turn into customers.
3. If we don’t think we’ll get you at least 3 – 5 x ROI on your investment over time we won’t take you on as a client.
4. We’re certified digital marketing nerds. You should see how excited we get if we come across a new strategy we think will help our clients… And we’re always learning.
5. We’re closely connected to some of the best minds in the business and invest thousands of dollars into leading edge training. That means we stay ahead of the curve. This is important when what works in online marketing is constantly changing, and most agencies are stuck in ineffective practices that are five years old.
6. If you want to learn, we’ll explain how everything works to you. But we won’t deliberately confuse you or make things out to be more complicated than they seem.
7. We’re responsive. You won’t wait days for an email response.
8. We run lean, without the overheads of large agencies who sometimes charge a lot but do basically nothing. That means we can pass those cost savings onto you. Because we’re smaller, we can pivot more easily too. That means giving you strategies that are always fresh and evolving, rather than stuck in ineffective protocol.
9. We don’t do lock-in contracts. If you work with us ongoing it’s month-to-month. We have high client retention rates, but if for some reason you change your mind about us, give us 2 weeks notice and you’re free to go, no hard feelings.
10. We won’t charge you a minimum [insert stupid number of hours] retainer just to do 20 minutes of fixes on your campaign.
11. We don’t do anything cookie cutter. Everything we do is tailored to your individual needs.
12. We won’t ever sell you anything you don’t need.
13. We won’t ever try to sell you anything we wouldn’t use ourselves on our own sites.
14. We do not use black hat or spammy techniques – ever.
15. We will never use aggressive or will-bending marketing techniques. We prefer the light side of the force.
16. We won’t hijack your online properties so you’re forced to stay with us.
17. We will never use or commission fake reviews.

As a marketing agency we know how to build trust

Think about the last time you did business with someone.

Maybe you were referred by a friend or family member.

Maybe you came across an informative piece of content that educated you and made it clear the company in question was an authority on the topic.

Maybe you looked at their reviews and saw they were all five stars.

Maybe you’d already heard good things about them and specifically sought out the brand.

Or saw them highly visible in Google (a signal most people naturally trust) and were driven to click on one result above all the others.

What’s the common denominator in all of these scenarios? Trust.

Sadly, search engine marketing and to some extent digital marketing has become synonymous with those spammy “top rank on Google” emails your inbox gets hammered with all day long.

The people sending these emails don’t care about you. They don’t want a mutually beneficial business relationship. They’re just out to make a sale, then the salesperson will often disappear or just won’t deliver.

They don’t care about sending you enquiries that will convert into lifelong customers and clients. They don’t even take the time to learn who you are (we run an agency offering SEO and get offered SEO by other companies who can “see problems with our website” all day long). And if you buy a $50 link package from somewhere in India expect your rankings to go down, not up..

Here are trust metric we’re different. We care about our clients. A lot.

We understand that effective digital marketing is about more than just sending some links at your website. Authentic marketing is about building trust and visibility for your brand and creating relationships.

It’s about building a bridge between your company and services and the people out there who need them the most. And then showing these people once they find your business that you are exactly the people to help them fix their problems.

You answer their questions. You talk to them in the same voice they talk to themselves with inside their head. They begin to trust you above every other business out there offering the same service.

Trust is powerful. Once they trust you they’ll partner with you. They’ll feel like they just can’t go anywhere else.

Some insight into our marketing processes

There is no such thing as one-size-fits-all for digital marketing.

Anyone who tells you there is either:

a.) Doesn’t know what they’re doing; or
b.) Will probably try and sell you on a package that in the long run is not going to bring you any useful results.

Because we run lean we’re not restricted by the rules and operating procedures of big marketing agencies.

Those guys and low quality practitioners tend to be stuck in outdated marketing practices like:

• Spamming your site with low quality links embedded in spun content
• Relying on practically useless social bookmarking or online directories; and
• Basic on-site SEO practices that will only really help people who already have a lot of website authority to begin with.

In contrast, we’re adaptable and are always exploring new avenues in driving more traffic and sales for our clients.

The strategy we use to promote your website evolves as we do.

Phases of an online marketing campaign

When we onboard a new client, from the time they fill out our discovery form through to the first few months of the relationship we go through some or all of the following phases.

Whether each step below applies to your business depends on if you are local, national, physical or digital, and on what package you choose.

Phase 1: Discovery

We begin every new client relationship by asking you to fill out an application form.

This form helps us understand your business, your goals, your current and previous marketing efforts and whether we would be a good fit to work together.

From there we will do an initial analysis of your site and your competitors, so we can advise you accurately on whether or not we think we can help you, or whether another form of marketing (or even another agency) would be a better fit for you.

Phase 2: Strategy

Taking into account your goals and our analysis of your market we’ll put together a range of strategic ideas to massively increase your visibility and enquiries.

Phase 3: Niche research

If you decide to work with us we then take a further deep dive into your industry.

• What keywords / search terms will bring the most traffic to your site?
• Which of those keywords have the strongest commercial intent?
• How are your competitors marketing themselves?
• What relationships or mediums are they leveraging?
• Are they getting their traffic from organic search?
• Are they running ads?
• Are they active and getting customers on social media?
• What questions are people in your industry desperate to have answered?
• How can we structure your site in a way that will most effectively convert traffic into buyers?

Phase 4: On-site SEO optimisation

After thoroughly analysing the sites of your competitors, we make sure you are the authority in your industry.

• Do your competitors all have 800 words on their pages that are ranking? We’ll put at least 1000 on yours.
• Are the most effective keywords represented in your sites content and meta data / information?
• Do you have enough pages on your site to look authoritative to google and establish topical relevancy?
• Is your site mobile responsive?
• Does it use https:// rather than http:// (a trust signal).
• Does your site pass Google’s page speed test and more?

Phase 5: On-site conversion optimisation

Is your website set up in the best way to convert traffic to enquiries? If not, this is where we fix it.

We’ll do a full analysis and ask questions like:

• Is your website confusing and overwhelming, or clear and easy to understand?
• Are you displaying trust logos / symbols?
• Are your calls-to-action clear and strong?
• Do you have an email list that can be used to market to your audience and build trust and reciprocity over time?
• Do you answer expected questions from your ideal customer in your website content?
• Are there any factors on your website that will significantly hinder trust and conversions?

Phase 6 (Local businesses only): Google My Business

Seen the map listings up the top of local results? If you’re a local business you should be in there. To do that, you need Google My Business (and lots of business citations with accurate name, address and phone number).

If you don’t have a Google My Business page we’ll set one up for you. That’s just the beginning though.

It then needs to be optimised, pictures added, correct categories selected, bio written and a whole plethora of other things done to put it in the best position to rank in the map pack organically.

Phase 7: Ad campaigns and quick wins for immediate enquiries

If we think that SEO may take some time to kick in on your site, we may choose to run ad campaigns on Google, Twitter, Reddit or other platforms to bring more immediate traffic to your business.

We also have other tricks up our sleeve to get you quicker rankings for Youtube videos, Linkedin profiles / pages or other online properties that already have strong standing in Google we can leverage.

Phase 8: Brand building

We claim lots of social media properties and business citations for your brand on the most authoritative sites on the web. Not only does this protect your brand from identity theft, but it creates a strong fortress around your site that makes Google love your business. And it helps boost your site and map rankings.

Phase 9: Link building

Links from other websites to yours are like votes or recommendations. Imagine you wanted to go to an Indian restaurant but you didn’t know any in town. So you ask all your friends for recommendations. You would likely put more weight on the recommendations of friends you trust more, and go to the restaurant most people recommended. To Google, links and online mentions work in the same way.

To completely oversimplify the first page results:

The website with the most links from the most trusted / authoritative and topically relevant sites is the one that wins. We put the process of getting high quality links and mentions in motion to make that website you.

Phase 10: Content marketing

Here’s where we take your trust and authority in Google’s eyes to a whole new level.

By creating unique, authoritative content that effectively answers questions we know people are asking Google, both for your site and other authoritative sites online, we can send your traffic through the roof.

Phase 11: Relationship building

Your business is only as strong as the relationships you build, both with customers or clients and other businesses.

We’ll help you create strategies to:

• Get amazing reviews
• Build a referral system to continuously grow your business through word-of-mouth from happy customers; and
• Create relationships with businesses (who are not direct competitors) with whom you can have a mutually beneficial inbound-marketing-related business relationship (you help them and they help you).

Want to get started?

If you like the sound of the above and think we’re the agency for you, get started on a new campaign by using the button below. Fill out the application form and we look forward to speaking with you soon!

David takes the time to get very involved with your business and learn the finer details about it so that he can drive great quality traffic to your site. I would highly recommend hiring David to see what he can do for you! ~ James, Multi-Business Owner

David has provided such a refreshing look on what I called SEO, working with him has made me understand that most of the things I was doing weren’t really helping my site (and sometimes they even end up hurting my rankings!), after a couple months since he handed me the tools to work efficiently on my digital marketing campaigns I’ve seen amazing results, and have also stopped wasting time on things that don’t matter – Ed, Blogging manager at GentleWeight.com