Online marketing blog for advertising agency, in-house & PR professionals
Moderator Greg Jarboe (President & Co-founder, SEO-PR) opened the session by asking the audience “Who on our panel is the Lion, the Tiger or the Bear…oh my?” All Wizard of Oz references aside, there appears to be no clearly defined Yellow brick road to success in these tight economic times. Read the rest of this entry »
In our search marketing agency, the toughest standard operating procedure protocol we’ve defined and implemented is the “Goals & Scope Document” we attach to each client’s contract.We’ve found it critical to empower each aimClear employee to self-determine, within reason, if an incoming job request is included in a given client’s scope, will be done as a favor, or needs a new job ticket. We’ve fostered an environment where our people seek executive collaboration to make these calls only when necessary. Without defining such procedures, owning a search marketing agency can be a an unpaid scope creep money pit. Read the rest of this entry »
Most small SEMs give their clients’ credit card and billing information to search engines which can actually cause palpable accounting hurdles as an agency scales. This common practice also raises interesting questions as to who “owns” the account when a client leaves someday.
Though seldom discussed, failing to engage clients in preemptive dialog has the potential to cause accounting, intellectual property ownership, and even legal nightmares. If not proactively addressed and contractually codified, the account-ownership issue can come back to bite you. Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve received gratifying feedback in public and private to recent articles discussing the associated challenges of scaling search marketing from solo practice to agency. No doubt each day in our wonderful office presents fascinating, if not daunting, crossroads which have the potential to make or break the business. We’re having so much fun.
We’ve made some mistakes and done other things pretty well right. The fact that Rand Fishkin has been willing to unselfishly share what he’s learned about SEM agency structures certainly helped us shape our business model. Andy Beal has offered extremely practical information. In retrospect, Danny Sullivan & Chris Sherman’s SEM business track @ Search Engine Strategies 2006 mattered a lot.
Technology investments, hiring decisions, analytics philosophy, PPC management, accounting, training, marketing, transparency, social media strategies, networking, community relations, and many other issues require attention, vision and a cast-iron stomach. Read the rest of this entry »
There are two common reasons for a practicing SEM to get OUT of search immediately: 1) You’re a semi-effective Web 1.0 “provider” who is not studying, and have no stomach left for screaming corners where one of the the only givens is unpredictability. Stay in search and you’ll hurt your company or clients. 2) It’s time to cash out of your agency or business while search is relatively easy to understand. Read the rest of this entry »
