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I’ve worked with a lot of clients during my career as an online marketer. What I’ve found is there are two types of clients, those who are “all in” and those who want to “pass the baton” and believe it or not those clients who are “all in” have a higher percentage of success and ROI than those who just don’t want to deal with it and pass their agency the baton. In today’s post, I want to talk about four things your business must be willing to do to win at SEO.
Every Member of The Organization Is Part of The Marketing Department
This is probably the most important thing that any business can implement to help drive business growth and help with SEO and other marketing initiatives. Gone are the days when the marketing department consists of a few individuals, if you want to win, every member of your company needs to be involved in the following:
- Content creation (blogging, images, video, slide decks, etc)
- Social media
- Relationship building
- Link building / outreach
- Etc
This doesn’t mean they should be devoting all hours in the work week toward marketing initiatives, that would be reckless, however they should be devoting some time each week to pushing the work forward. Companies who do this are typically light years ahead of their competition, have higher employee engagement, and a better culture.
Have A Face of The Organization
Many of the up and coming companies in the US have one (in some cases a few) individuals who are the face of the organization. Take any SEO company and you can figure out who the face of the organization is… Moz – Rand, Vertical Measures – Arnie, Seer – Wil, Avalaunch – Matt. Let’s go outside the online marketing industry… Domo – Josh James, People Water – Jef Holm, Zappos – Tony Hsieh.
People do business with, and link to (SEO benefits) companies who have a face behind them. If you don’t have one, get one, and work really hard to get them noticed for the right reasons and keep them in the lime light.
Be Real
If you are a legitimate company trying to build a real business, then you need to get out and be involved in your community. This should include your local community and the online community. Some of the things you can do is offer your products or services for free to non-profits, provide support groups and trainings for individuals who are looking for inexpensive help, do a fund raiser, lecture at local colleges and universities, and the list can go on and on. All of these things build brand awareness and will help with your SEO efforts.
Be A Force For Good
I am a huge believer in helping people who are less fortunate than I am. I guess it was probably bred into me by my parents (thanks Mom and Dad). In my honest opinion, profitable businesses, should also do everything they can to help others as well and be a force for good. The most recent example of this is Vertical Measures. Arnie Kuenn put together a campaign to help children affected by hurricane Sandy have a Christmas. Not only did they donate to the cause, but the attention they received from their campaign brought on additional donations (more than $5,000) to help others. Freaking awesome!
In the end, they received so much brand awareness, social activity, and links coming into their website that it provided them real business value.
At the end of the day, if your business can get these four things right, you will be stacking the odds in your favor for succeeding at SEO as well as building a sustainable business.
The views and opinions expressed here are of the author and not necessarily of Marketing Pilgrim.
About The Author
Greg Shuey is the VP of Client Services for SEO.com, a leading inbound marketing agency located in Utah. Greg runs the day to day operations of the client services team and guides SEO strategy for all SEO.com clientele.
