How to Be Your Agency’s Favorite

ClientPresented by Ruth Burr

Lead SEOSEOmoz.org

@ruthburr

About MeLead SEO, SEOmoz.org•Home to the web’s most vibrant SEO community•Drive SEO strategy, consult on SEO products

Past: Senior Manager, Search Marketing, GameHouse•1400+ games online & for PC, Mac, mobile and social•Drive strategy for SEO, PPC, Conversion Rate Optimization•Manage vendor relationships

Past: Client Manager, Point It! Search Marketing Agency•PPC and SEO clients•B2B, retail, ecommerce, SAAS, enterprise solutions•Budgets from $5K to $250K monthly

@ruthburr

(source)

@ruthburr

Evaluate the Agency

• Who will be doing the work? Can you meet them?

• Is pricing similar to other agencies?• Can you talk to other clients?• What will you get for the price quoted?• How willing are they to share data and

projects with other vendors as needed?

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What are you actually buying?

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Manage Expectations• What does success look like to you?• What does success look like to your boss?• Can this agency get you there?• What do you expect to see in a report? • How often will you communicate?• How closely will the agency need to work

with internal staff? With other consultants/vendors?

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No. SERIOUSLY. What are you actually buying?

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Consultant or Vendor?

Vendor•Project-based•Does not inform strategy•They work with your tools•Working independently•Single point of contact

@ruthburr

Consultant or Vendor?Consultant•Drives strategy•Longer-term engagement•Helps make business decisions•Suggest tools•Multiple points of contact

http://j.mp/MUZxZT

@ruthburr

@ruthburr

Now that We Found Love, What Are We Gonna Do

with It?

source

Agreement & SOW

• Build expectations for communication & results into the statement of work

• Define relationships with other teams including sharing data

• Let them build YOUR side

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Source

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Time to Relax?

@ruthburr

Sorry.

source

NOT YOURS

Loop, Dude. Loop.

“We’re changing our shopping cart…pass it

on…” @ruthburr

The Perfect Report

NO

@ruthburr

YES

The More Perfecter Report

• ROI– Including Cost of Goods

Served

• Lifetime Customer Value• Map Revenue Back To:

– Content– Keywords– Outreach

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Turn the Beat Around

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You Get What You Pay For

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Hand-Holding is Billable

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So is Yelling

Ask for These if You’re Not Getting Them

• Regular calls • Strategy updates• Ongoing training• MBR/QBR• Reasons you’re not getting the

results you expected

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Connect

@ruthburr

www.linkedin.com/in/ruthburr

www.seomoz.org/community

@ruthburr