How to Hire an SEO Agency

How to Hire an SEO Agency

by | Mar 22, 2022 | Marketing, SEO

How to Hire an SEO Agency

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Find the Right Partner for Your SEO Strategy 

Building a strong online presence is now standard practice for any organization. Internet visibility drives website traffic and can help you reach your business goals. There are many components to internet visibility including organic reach, paid placements and earned media.

Organic reach or organic SEO involves strategies to increase your website traffic and improve your site’s presence in non-paid search engine results. The world of search engine optimization is incredibly complex. Improving a website’s rank on search engine results pages (SERPs) involves technical and creative expertise, and they work in tandem to create a positive site experience and encourage repeat visits.

If SEO isn’t in your wheelhouse, you’ll likely want to partner with an SEO agency who can help you effectively navigate the search engine playing field. It could take years to acquire the internal bandwidth to build and implement successful SEO campaigns yourself. Having experts in your corner will support online visibility and will naturally assist with lead acquisition.

What Are the Goals and Outcomes of Your Organization?

To get the most out of any SEO agency, you need to determine the goals and outcomes you wish to achieve. Do you need more website traffic to help fill your sales funnel? Do you want to create more traffic-generating pages? Do you want to improve your brand’s reputation and credibility during the sales cycle?

Search engine optimization is not just about search results; it also entails how your company is detected as a whole. These campaigns are most effective when integrated into a larger marketing strategy, so you’ll need to get clear on your goals and how you are measuring success.

Think through how an SEO campaign will support content marketing, public relations and other social media marketing activities. Make sure you have the right internal team members at the table during these discussions.

Ready to take action? Let’s have a conversation. 

What to Look for in an SEO Agency

Although hiring an SEO agency might seem like a daunting task, you certainly don’t need to be an expert yourself to find the right partner – but you do need to ask the right questions. Here are six questions to consider when interviewing potential partners.

What is your SEO philosophy?

SEO isn’t just about keywords and content, and the best agencies know this. There are many ways to utilize search engines, algorithms, and other processes to improve visibility. There are three types of SEO you need for a well-rounded organic strategy: on-page, technical and off-page.

Ideally, you want a partner that’s well versed in all three areas. There are many consultants that only specialize in one or two, but modern SEO requires a holistic approach and experienced execution.

What SEO tools do you use?

Legitimate professionals invest in the tools required to do their work. The exact tool isn’t as important as listening for how and why various tools are used. A good partner will be able to explain why they use specific tools and the impact they can have when used properly.

What is being measured and reported?

SEO agencies who value the relationship they have with their clients know that they need to measure and report metrics that both parties find useful. They find specific details in their reports and use the data to make informed decisions. Avoid companies that cannot get specific about the metrics they used to measure success.

Who is doing the work?

When it comes to the above fundamentals, is the company you are interested in doing the work in-house, or are they outsourcing? Will you have English-speaking writers creating content? Search engine optimization is both an art and a science. You need the right minds working collaboratively if you want to move the needle.

How do you remain up to date on trends?

SEO is a constantly evolving discipline that requires education and first-hand testing. Keeping up to date on Google’s Webmaster blog is just one step to understanding the latest trends. The best SEO agencies also do their own research and testing and have a set of best practices that build on common knowledge.

Do you have sample case studies?

Case studies often tell a very clear story of how effective your potential partner will be. SEO companies who know what they are doing and want their clients to succeed use case studies to clearly demonstrate what they can deliver.

Partnering With an SEO Agency is a Smart Move

Hiring a reputable and results-driven SEO partner begins with determining the goals and outcomes of your organization. Organizing these goals and outcomes will determine what kinds of SEO services you might need. By asking the right questions, you’ll be well positioned to partner with an agency that can deliver long-term success.

Hopefully the tips above will help improve your organic SEO campaigns. Have more questions about partnering with an agency? Reach out to us directly.

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Meet the Author

Liz Hersh is the founder of Hersh PR and Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Together with a team of marketing professionals she helps clients generate leads and increase revenue. 

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Manufacturers: How to Hire A Content Agency

Manufacturers: How to Hire A Content Agency

In a world where online sales channels have become increasingly important, digital content is a necessary part of your marketing strategy that you cannot ignore. But creating quality content takes time, creative energy and a strong understanding of search engines.

read more

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2022 Trends Guiding Marketing in Manufacturing

2022 Trends Guiding Marketing in Manufacturing

by | Feb 28, 2022 | Manufacturing, Marketing

2022 Trends Guiding Marketing in Manufacturing

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The pace of change requires marketing teams to stay agile 

The last several years have been dynamic and disruptive for manufacturers, forcing many to embrace more digital marketing tactics to compete and survive. Yet maintaining a sense of relevance with your audience has never been more challenging. Supply chain challenges and radically shifting buying behaviors requires organizations to be agile.

Marketers who can quickly adjust strategies and tactics based on the shifting landscape can generate measurable results, remain ahead of the competition and deliver an experience that aligns with customer expectations.

With that in mind, we’re sharing three trends that marketers in manufacturing should focus on: creating an amazing customer experience, using brevity in your message and incorporating personalization.

Customer Experience

B2C industries embraced a strong customer experience (CX) years ago and manufacturing is finally catching up. Today’s business buyer wants a consumer-like experience. In fact, in a Salesforce survey, 74% of manufacturers said they believe customer experience to be a key competitive differentiator. Delivering a superior experience creates operational efficiencies and generates more revenue.

 Developing a strong CX isn’t solely the responsibility of the marketing department. But given our access to various tools and data, we play an integral part in determining the right time for engagement. We can understand when sales and marketing teams should swiftly engage qualified buyers, or when we can turn a steady customer into a true promoter of the business.

By partnering with other internal teams, manufacturers can create an amazing CX throughout the entire customer journey.

Brevity

Content marketing allows for an extensive explanation of any product or service. Most marketers want to pack as much information into their content or ad space as possible. But let’s face it, our audience doesn’t want to power through a 2,000-word white paper. According to Microsoft, human attention span has dropped 25% in the last several years. 

The more succinctly you can convey your message, the more likely your audience will engage with you. Say what you need to say but do it effectively and concisely.

Explore where you can incorporate brevity into your marketing — whether that’s simplifying your website to focus on the essentials or crafting content that hits directly on pain points and solutions without the unnecessary fluff.

Ready to take action? Let’s have a conversation. 

Personalization

The days of relying on generic sell sheets and one-size-fits-all catalogs are over. Manufacturing companies need to adopt more B2C marketing tactics to maximize revenue growth. Today’s business buyer wants marketing and advertising that speaks directly to them.

Account based marketing, although not new, offers a chance to get closer to your prospects and customers by taking time to understand their needs, tailor the outreach and connect on a more personal level. Investing in a more personalized content strategy can lead to greater payoff.

Another trend in manufacturing is foregoing print catalogs in favor of interactive online catalogs that can simplify quoting and ordering. Sales teams can communicate with prospective customers more efficiently during the sales cycle, better understand their needs and ultimately sell more.

Your Next Steps

Marketing teams must continually remain ahead of the curve, and manufacturers still have room to engage B2B decision makers with personalized messaging and an amazing experience.  By taking a proactive approach that incorporates key trends, organizations can position themselves to meet the ever-changing needs of their buyers.

Hopefully the tips above will help improve your digital marketing. Have more questions about developing and implementing an effective marketing strategy? Reach out to us directly.

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Meet the Author

Liz Hersh is the founder of Hersh PR and Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Together with a team of marketing professionals she helps clients generate leads and increase revenue. 

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Manufacturers: How to Hire A Content Agency

Manufacturers: How to Hire A Content Agency

In a world where online sales channels have become increasingly important, digital content is a necessary part of your marketing strategy that you cannot ignore. But creating quality content takes time, creative energy and a strong understanding of search engines.

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Marketing During a Supply Chain Crisis: Best Practices

Marketing During a Supply Chain Crisis: Best Practices

by | Jan 28, 2022 | eCommerce, Featured Articles, Manufacturing, Marketing

Marketing During a Supply Chain Crisis: Best Practices

As supply chain issues create out-of-stock scenarios across industries, brands are missing the opportunity to better align their marketing, sales and supply chain leaders.
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Marketing Can Support Supply Chain Management 

As product shortages and long-lead times continue, both customers and employees are feeling the strain. Between the lack of dock space for cargo ships and a shortage of truck drivers, experts predict that we’ll continue to see shortages until 2023. So how is this affecting brand loyalty? And how can brands improve customer experience during this crisis? 

Supply Problems Affect Brand Loyalty

New research from McKinsey reveals that product availability is the single most important purchasing factor. Only 13 percent of respondents who faced out-of-stock products in the past three months say they waited for an item to come back in stock. A whopping 71 percent switched retailers or brands.

As consumers develop new shopping habits, it’s time for marketers to re-evaluate their approach:

  1. Marketers need to better familiarize themselves with their company’s distribution and supply chain.
  2. Internal teams need to work together to help alleviate this crisis.

Here are several key steps brands can take ensure brand loyalty remains strong.

Do Not Cut Ad Spend

It’s no surprise that the brands with ongoing advertising campaigns are the most successful. While some brands are cutting their spending, others are taking advantage of the opportunity to snag new customers, shift loyalty or promote other products and services. Be flexible but keep your eye on the long-term goal of building customer loyalty. Brands that continue to run campaigns can experience several benefits:

 

  • Continue to collect first-party data which will support data-drive marketing decisions.
  • Continue to test and optimize ad copy while keeping existing customers away from competitors.
  • Test new opportunities like loyalty programs or allow shoppers to pre-buy.

Ready to take action? Let’s have a conversation. 

Maintain Open Communication

You have numerous communication channels available. Use email, SMS or even advertising to tell customers when items are back in stock. If delays occur, use these channels to provide updates. Customers won’t be thrilled about delays, but they will appreciate a thoughtful update.

Internal communication is imperative as well. By working collaboratively, you’ll avoid overpromising and under-delivering which can be a detriment to brand loyalty.

Create Contingency Plans

A crisis scenario has the potential to interrupt business and significantly damage your reputation. But crisis planning is not just for your PR team. Work together to determine a Plan B for every scenario ranging from raw materials shortages to closures due to variant outbreaks. Effective communication during a crisis can be the difference between a positive outcome and irreparable damage.

Your Next Steps

Our supply chain issues won’t disappear overnight. Now is the ideal time to update your response strategy across business units. Use this opportunity to explore how to build stronger relationships and keep loyal customers happy.

Hopefully the tips above will help improve your digital marketing. Have more questions about marketing during times of crisis? Reach out to us directly.

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Meet the Author

Liz Hersh is the founder of Hersh PR and Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Together with a team of marketing professionals she helps clients generate leads and increase revenue. 

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Manufacturers: How to Hire A Content Agency

Manufacturers: How to Hire A Content Agency

In a world where online sales channels have become increasingly important, digital content is a necessary part of your marketing strategy that you cannot ignore. But creating quality content takes time, creative energy and a strong understanding of search engines.

read more

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You Have More First-Party Data Than you Think: Here’s How to Use it

You Have More First-Party Data Than you Think: Here’s How to Use it

by | Jan 12, 2022 | Featured Articles, Marketing

You Have More First-Party Data Than you Think: Here’s How to Use it

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Meet the Author

Liz Hersh is the founder of Hersh PR and Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Together with a team of marketing professionals she helps clients generate leads and increase revenue. 

Gain A Better Understanding of Your Customers 

Reaching customers without intruding on their privacy continues to be a priority for marketers in 2022. Google, Apple and Facebook have taken steps to reduce the amount of third-party tracking on their platforms, which translates into less data for marketers to leverage. This information historically has been the cornerstone of effective marketing, helping to shape marketing content, advertising strategies, and more.

A Shifting Reliance on First-Party Data

First-party data is information a company collects directly from its customers. This data is collected firsthand without an intermediary between you and the information.  First-party data can only be accessed via platforms that you own and control. As a company, you can gather information about digital interactions, purchase history, social behavior or profile preferences to create content, ads and digital experiences that cater to an individual’s interests.

Third-party data sources can be incredibly helpful, but as we’ve seen, these sources are becoming less reliable and more expensive. Which is why it’s more important than ever to focus on collecting and using data that you own.

Benefits of First-Party Data

By relying on actual interactions with your brand, you’re building a strong foundation to understand your customers. The results can translate into a superior product or service without the “creep factor” that is associated with third-party tracking. First-party data is readily available and much easier to collect than you might think.  It’s about knowing what’s available and using it to shape your business strategy.

So, how can you effectively get the most out of your data without the help of third-party tracking?

Pro Tip: Use first-party data to create highly personalized messages and increase the effectiveness of your marketing.

Ready to take action? Let’s have a conversation. 

Sources of First-Party Data

Website

Digital interactions via your website are a primary way to collect data. Traffic sources, visitor behavior and even names and email addresses collected through website forms are valuable data points. Consider how users respond to your website and the pages they visit the most. 

Email and SMS

Your subscriber list is another valuable data source. Open rates, click rates and bounce rates all shed light on how these individuals interact with your brand and your content. Both email and text messaging are considered intimate forms of communication and can shed light on how customers view your company.

Call Centers

If your company runs a call center, you likely have access to call records and transcripts. This information can be used to understand patterns, keywords or other quantitative data that can help shape your strategy.

 Survey Data and Customer Feedback

Simple online surveys can yield plenty of information about your customers and what they want from you. More formal surveys conducted by a third party are still considered essential if you want unbiased feedback from customers.

Common Challenges with First-Party Data

Despite access to a wealth of information, there are challenges to collecting and leveraging this data. 

Poor Strategy  

Do you know what sources you have? And are they properly configured to collect data? It might take several weeks or months to understand what information is relevant to your brand and how to go about collecting it. And don’t forget to consider how you plan to map the data to your customer journey.

Integrating Data from Multiple Platforms

It’s challenging to pull data from different sources into one cohesive system or report that will give you a true sense of the big picture. Even though you own these data sources, the technology across platforms may or may not integrate easily. Consider partnering with an agency with the technical experience to guide the strategy and implementation of this piece. 

Taking Meaningful Action in Real Time

Your data is only valuable if you use it in a timely matter. Customer behaviors are ever evolving which means companies need to move efficiently when they recognize valuable trends. And always be ready to shift your strategy as the landscape evolves.

Your Next Steps

Using first-person data to guide your marketing campaigns is no longer optional – it’s a must do for every brand. Invest the time in understanding what data sources will be valuable to you and build the necessary system to collect and distill the information in a way that’s actionable. Over time, you’ll be able understand what data points are key success metrics for your brand.

Hopefully the tips above will help improve your campaigns. Have more questions about data driven marketing? Reach out to us directly.

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Manufacturers: How to Hire A Content Agency

Manufacturers: How to Hire A Content Agency

In a world where online sales channels have become increasingly important, digital content is a necessary part of your marketing strategy that you cannot ignore. But creating quality content takes time, creative energy and a strong understanding of search engines.

read more

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Manufacturers: How to Hire A Content Agency

Manufacturers: How to Hire A Content Agency

by | Sep 2, 2021 | Featured Articles, Manufacturing, Marketing

Manufacturers: How to Hire A Content Agency

Digital content is a necessary part of your marketing strategy. Discover how to achieve business objectives with a content agency.

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Achieve Your Business Objectives With a Content Agency 

Online sales channels have become increasingly important and digital content is a necessary part of your marketing strategy that you cannot ignore. But creating quality content takes time, creative energy and a strong understanding of digital platforms.

Between basic website maintenance and supporting your sales team, it’s likely you don’t have the necessary resources to produce thought-leadership content in house.  

If your manufacturing firm wants to gain more market share or cultivate better brand awareness, an increased content marketing effort may be exactly what you need. The right agency can be an invaluable partnership, ensuring the right customers find your business. However, hiring a content agency isn’t as cut and dried as you might think.

Here are several steps and considerations to discuss before you hire an agency.

Consider This Before Partnering with a Content Agency

The objectives of your business can be achieved through a focused content strategy, but only if you are clear on your goals and how you are measuring success.

Before hiring a content agency, discuss items such as sales goals, creating awareness for your brand, and positioning your organization as a leader in the industry. Content plays a role in all of these.

You also need to ask yourself a few tough questions about your existing content.

For instance, when was the last time you updated your website content? When was the last time you published or shared something new that provided real value to your target market?

Chances are good that you’ll need an agency partner if you are still relying on print materials that haven’t been updated in several years.

As I’ve mentioned, your internal bandwidth will also play a major factor in outsourcing your content. It can take 50+ hours per month to produce and promote high quality content, and most brands don’t have the capacity to do this in-house.

Pro Tip: Developing meaningful content is built on a strong understanding of your target market so make sure you have detailed buyer personas to reference.

Ready to take action? Let’s have a conversation. 

Understand the Content Landscape

There are dozens of different kinds of content that you can use for your manufacturing brand – blogs, videos, podcasts, eBooks, infographics or webinars are all viable types of content you might consider incorporating into your strategy.  

The sheer number of content opportunities means you’ll need to evaluate each potential partner carefully to understand what’s in their wheelhouse. Large, full-service agencies can provide a full suite of services, but they understandably come with more overhead and higher rates. Smaller agencies, on the other hand, often have several niche areas. Most of these specialize in one or several types of content production and are generally friendlier to your budget.

What to Look for in a Content Agency

The content agency you hire should do more than just churn out content for you. Think of this as a long-term relationship and an extension of your in-house team. Here are a few items you can use to evaluate potential partners. 

Areas of Expertise

  • Does the agency have experience creating content for manufacturers? And are they comfortable writing slightly technical content as your strategy evolves?
  • What types of content do they excel at?
  • What is the agency’s breadth of expertise? Are they strictly copywriters? Or are they familiar with related concepts such as keyword research and search engine optimization?

Who is Doing the Work?

  • What specific services are handled in-house, and what services (if any) are outsourced?
  • If any services are outsourced, how is quality controlled?
  • Will you have an account manager supporting you?

Measuring and Reporting

  • Does the agency have a solid track record of success? And will they actively measure and report on their content marketing efforts in relation to your business goals?
  • Does the agency make an effort to understand your business and its goals?
  • What tech tools or other reporting tools are used? How often do you receive reports?

Remember that mistakes with outsourcing can be costly. While content creators can quickly familiarize themselves with your brand, you’ll want to make sure it’s a long-term creative fit for both of you. Starting from scratch is a massive drain on company resources and you will lose momentum that you have built, which can be frustrating.

Next Steps for Your Marketing Team

Creating content for your brand, making sure that it is optimized and sharing it across multiple channels takes a considerable amount of effort. If you’re ready to commit to a content strategy to achieve your business goals, hiring an agency is a smart move. Content comes in many different forms, styles and voices, so do your research on each potential partner to ensure that they are the right fit for your brand. 

Hopefully the tips above will help improve your digital marketing. Have more questions about hiring a content agency? Reach out to us directly.

Liz-headshot

Meet the Author

Liz Hersh is the founder of Hersh PR and Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Together with a team of marketing professionals she helps clients generate leads and increase revenue. 

Read 
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Read 
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Manufacturers: How to Hire A Content Agency

Manufacturers: How to Hire A Content Agency

In a world where online sales channels have become increasingly important, digital content is a necessary part of your marketing strategy that you cannot ignore. But creating quality content takes time, creative energy and a strong understanding of search engines.

read more

Subscribe to Get The Latest Insights.

What makes marketing so challenging?

Trying to keep-up with the tools, technology and the limited attention span of your target market are all challenging. Get our tips on how to grow leads and revenue, delivered directly to your inbox.

Join The List

Request a Demo.

Are you ready to take action? Let's see how we can reach your
goals with a 20-minute introductory call.

GET IN TOUCH!