enterprise seo Archives by Mark Murnahan

Fire Your SEO: Here is Why and How

Do you think you need a search engine optimizer? Let’s get serious. Your company is not a hobby, and you’re not working to build it only because the work is fun. Companies – smart companies – want to receive profit from their investment of hard work and money. Profit is what companies use to pay the bills.

It would be unwise to throw away your profit on SEO services just because you hope it may work out – someday. Don’t pretend to be shocked if I tell you that’s exactly what a lot of people are doing every day. I see it all the time that companies test the water and shakily hand over their credit card to the next SEO that gave them a good pitch. Other companies have all the skill they need for success, but they fail to use it.

I will give you some good pointers on how to select a good SEO, the basic components of their role, and even why you may (or may not) be able to handle much of it without their help.

Before I continue, I want to note that I do not sell SEO services (but I’m still in recovery). I am just here to share what I know from a lot of well-earned experience. Unless you are ready to pay me a huge salary plus a significant benefits package, don’t worry – I’m not looking at your checkbook.

SEO be damned, I’m going to tell you the truth you may not want to hear. It may sting, but it also may save you a lot of time, money, and frustration. I’m not just out to knock search engine optimizers, either. There are a lot of very talented SEO out there who just don’t want to talk to you because you’re trying to compare apples to airliners. As I tell you this, be mindful that it’s your business on the line, so if you’re getting this wrong, your company is the one that suffers.

SEO is a Double-Edged Sword

Don’t get me wrong about the value of good SEO. If you’ve got a good SEO, by all means, hang on to them. They are probably making you a lot of money. The problem is that statistically, most SEO are not very good at the job. Good ones are few and far between. It takes a lot of knowledge and experience to be really good at SEO. The best ones are also very well connected, and you don’t buy that for a few thousand bucks.

A truly qualified search engine optimizer can make an amazing difference in your business, but search engine optimization is a sword that cuts both ways.

Let’s make no mistakes about this: A legitimate attempt to reach your online audience can multiply your business, but an uncommitted and ill-considered effort can send it the other way … fast, and in more ways than you may realize. Rather than paying an inexperienced SEO who is still learning, you may do better to handle it yourself. It is true that a bad SEO can cost you a lot more than you pay them. Seriously – if you doubt me even a little bit, read about “Google Panda, Google Bowling, and How Bad SEO Can Kill Your Business“. If you’re trying to get by the cheap way, it’s like hunting for the cheapest root canal … it’s likely to hurt.

Do You Really Need Your SEO?

What makes you believe that you need a search engine optimizer? Think about that really hard. If you don’t have the right answer, based on the right strategy, it may be time to fire your SEO.

If your answer is that you have a legitimate business case for it, like most companies do, that’s great. Examine the business need carefully, choose your provider wisely, and make a strong commitment. Be sure that they understand your goals, and that they can provide a realistic forecast based on their work.

You should be prepared to pay them for that forecast, too. Otherwise, you are likely to make some huge strategic marketing errors. If you’ve chosen wisely, it will be worth every dollar you spend for their market research. If you get a good one, don’t expect to get their research for free. I’ll tell you why if you read that link I just gave you.

You should understand that even the best search engine optimizer will fail to bring you optimal results if you “kneecap” them with short budgets, “not enough time”, or other excuses. One of the worst things you can do is to make excuses because you are just too afraid to implement things they recommend based on their solid research. That frankly just pisses them off.

The mathematical confusion of SEO destroys a lot of companies’ efforts. They struggle to grasp that a twenty percent effort will not yield one fourth of the same result as an eighty percent effort.

Understanding the math of SEO, and how it pertains to your specific business needs will matter more than you likely realize. I’m not kidding, and I’m not making this up. I’ll explain more about the math of SEO return on investment in a moment.

On the other hand, if your answer to why you need SEO services is that you’re trying it out because you are hopeful it will eventually have an impact, I have a suggestion: Fire your SEO immediately! Don’t pay them another dollar until you have a better answer. Hope alone does not create profit, and it can lead you down a really bad path. If you’re just “testing the water”, take your money and use it elsewhere in your business. There are sharks in that water!

Reaching a usefully measurable result with search engine optimization does not happen from “testing the water”. There is a bell curve (a gaussian function) at work, and it does not work in favor of minimized efforts.

In case you never heard of The Pareto Principle – a widely used economic principle – it is worth the effort to understand it and apply it to your marketing.

Why to Fire Your SEO: Three Things You Should Know

SEO creates a lot of mixed reactions. If you ask a room full of business people about their experiences with SEO, you are likely to hear everything from extreme delight to extreme dismay. These few points are important to know if you want to avoid the dismay.

SEO is Not High Tech! I know that search engine optimization may sound very tricky and technical – and it is in some ways – but the technology aspects of SEO are only a small part of the “magic” a search engine optimizer actually does. I suggest reading “Search Engine Optimization is Not a Technology Job!” If you wonder if it is just one person’s opinion, be sure to read the comments to see what other professionals had to say.

If your SEO has ever led you to believe that their work is largely a matter of technical things, or that you don’t have the time or intelligence to understand what you are paying them for – Fire Them! No, wait … don’t fire them … incinerate them, because they are like zombies, and you don’t want them coming back to try and eat more of your brains again later.

Good SEO Are Smart Cookies! You should understand that you don’t just pay an SEO for what they do – you pay them for what they know, and for what they research on your behalf. If you want the best SEO results, you will need to hire some very talented and creative people.

Here’s the kicker: If they are smart enough to help you, they are also smart enough to help themselves. You should read further to understand “Why Good SEO Don’t Seek Your Business“. If you get a good one who loves your company as much as you do, get up off your wallet and book them before the competition does.

Otherwise, if you ever question their industry brilliance for a moment – Fire Them! Of course, I can’t condone criminal behavior, but you may want to keep a wooden stake handy. They are “un-dead”, so if you see their blood-sucking fangs – stake ’em!

$5000 is Not Half of $10,000! Maybe you think I just made a mathematical error, but I did not. I want to make a point about the vast difference between measuring efforts versus measuring results.

I already discussed the importance of having the right people handling your SEO versus the wrong ones. So, let’s assume you have the right ones – you are confident of it, and you are confident about your business goals. Let’s climb that bell curve that’s killing your success.

You can scale this to any level you like, but if you think that half of the effort will yield half of the result, you’ll waste money. The bell curve I mentioned has a nasty way of killing company hopes for profit.

Look at the bell curve of your industry’s marketing, and notice where the numbers make a sharp increase. Many companies will go right up to the curve and quit as soon as it gets too scary, but then slide back down because it was not measurable enough. A wise SEO knows that a business should push far enough up the bell curve to get the best results, but short of the point of diminishing returns.

If your SEO tries to take you to the shallow end of the bell curve because they are afraid to tell you what it will really take to make an optimal impact, then they are not doing their job properly. Many SEO dread trying to explain the vast difference between doing something and doing something well. In fact, it’s largely why I made the announcement that I stopped taking clients (it’s worth a read, by the way).

If an SEO is unable to explain the value of your strong commitment to their work, and if you are unwilling to hear it, don’t bother. Whether they realize it, they are doing you a disservice and they are lying to you. Fire Them! You can probably achieve mediocre results all on your own, so you shouldn’t be paying somebody else. Fire the SEO, and consider spending the money on an exorcism and perhaps a lobotomy – for you and for the SEO!

It can take a lot of climbing to reach the profitable part of the bell curve, but there is always a point when it becomes relatively self-sustaining. If you keep struggling just to stay on the shallow end of the curve, fire your SEO!

How to Fire Your SEO

I mentioned the matter of firing your SEO. Beyond the incinerator, the wooden stakes, and shoving them off a high cliff, there are other practical considerations. This is a tricky matter, because they have your passwords! You should change them … all of them. Even if you are the one trying to handle your own SEO like the dentist who went to dental school to fix their kids’ teeth – don’t trust the SEO. Any person who does not grasp the importance of this information should not have access to your company website.

If you want to get a better understanding of SEO, there are some basic lessons you should know. It doesn’t come without effort, but if you’re serious enough to read this far, you’re probably serious enough to read these valuable SEO lessons and subscribe for more to come.

Marketing your business should never be left to a roll of the dice, or just getting lucky that you landed the right SEO with the right skills, and who is generous enough to give you success on a minuscule budget with halfway mentality. You should take it very seriously if you expect to see results.

Remember, I’m not telling you this to sell you anything. I’m telling you this because I witness too many people with their heads up a dark place and I don’t want my readers to be among them.

You are not stupid. Don’t act like it with your search engine rankings.

Photo Credit:
Fire Breathing by Luc Viatour via Flickr

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7 Things I Love About My Next Marketing Job

I consider myself lucky to be looking for a new job in marketing. That may sound completely insane to millions of people looking for work these days, but I’m inspired by it. I’ll tell you why.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – I’m not good at everything, and I don’t want to be. I am good at marketing, and that’s where I want to focus. It is best to have focus in any career, and perhaps this will get you thinking about a closer focus on your best assets and interests, too.

I’ve been the CEO of companies for a very long time. It is not because I am good at everything to do with a business. It is because I did an exceptional job of marketing communications – enough to build a successful corporation.

Some people have questioned why I would ever want to make a career change, but I have some excellent reasons. Being at the top of a corporation has its perks, but when it comes time for the tough decisions, they often land on the CEO’s desk. For example, in 2009, when suppliers began to falter and it was time to decide whether to pump my own money back into the company to preserve many people’s jobs a little longer, I did it. I made the decisions that a “better” CEO would never have done … and it cost me millions. I don’t want those decisions, because they hurt me, and they don’t focus on my best assets.

I guess I could call this writing my occupational therapy. It’s helping me to further define where I’ve been, and where I’m going. It’s forcing some of those tough questions that I never really put my finger on before. I believe it will even help me with better direction when I go to interview those lucky folks who seek to hire me. If I do this right, it may get you thinking about what you love about your work, and what you would rather leave behind.

Here is my list of seven things I love about my next job in marketing. I will begin with the three things I will be the most joyful to dismiss from my current role in marketing. This is not intended to be negative about my current work, but rather a forward look at what I will love about my next job role. It adds emphasis to why I made the decision to seek a new career adventure.

Number One Love About My Next Marketing Job: No More Apathetic Clients

As I make my move away from providing marketing services as a consultant, leaving apathetic clients in the past is my biggest relief. I will never – and I mean never – subject myself to explaining the benefits of marketing to another person who is any of the following:

indifferent about their business objectives, or refuses to define their business objectives.
too paralyzed by fear to make good business decisions.
convinced that marketing is an expense rather than an investment.
a big talker who is actually flat broke and trying to impress or mislead me. Only real data is allowed here.
wasting my time. I am entirely done with that. My time is worth a lot of money, but its value is greatly diminished when I waste it with people just because I’m nicer and more considerate than they are.

Number Two Love About My Next Marketing Job: Ignorant Clients Be Gone!

I think I may whistle and skip my way into the office an hour early every day for this one.

I will never be asked to speak to somebody who has not already been vetted and prepared for the valuable information I will share with them. I will never have to entertain the bottom of the barrel. That’s because my new employer will realize I’m far more valuable to the company when I’m not trying to slit my wrists with paper cuts from the 45 page proposal that I spent three weeks researching, or thrusting forks into my eyeballs when I look across the table at the zombies who just didn’t get it.

If dealing with apathetic clients is like setting me on fire, then ignorance is like throwing tequila at my flaming corpse and calling it a party.

I have often said that when it comes to marketing, there are no innocent victims … just ignorant ones. Nearly anything a person could ever hope to know about our world is on the Internet. Yet, I find that many people will still try to hide behind their ignorance as a shelter. Who are they fooling, anyway?

What’s worse is that in order to be ignorant in this great era of information, a person has to be apathetic, too. If they actually care to know enough to save their own skin, they can pick up a mouse and know it in an instant. The trouble here is that so many want-to-be clients don’t comprehend the value in paying somebody who knows the right questions to ask … so they hide under their ignorance blanket.

Here are some of my most polite answers for those ignorant people:

No! You cannot increase your return on investment without an investment. Please slap yourself for me.
No! It is not a good idea to spend more on telephone book advertising than on the Internet.
No! You should not use a personal Facebook profile for your business. It is foolish and will eventually get your account deleted.
No! Becoming popular on Twitter, alone, is not a marketing strategy. Twitter is not a magic wand.
No! Marketing online is not a technology job!
No! I will not choke you until you turn blue for being ignorant, but mostly because I don’t want that on my résumé.
No! You may not have another free consultation. Do you swipe the whole tray of free samples at the grocery store, too, deadbeat?

Number Three Love About My Next Marketing Job: Dishonest Clients Turn to Dust

I will never be ripped off for the value of a new luxury car again! Oh yes, that actually happened in my former professional life.

I guess I can sum this one up pretty quick with the words “Suture Express“. That’s the name of a company where the CFO (now CEO), Bryan Forsythe, claimed the check was in the mail (for weeks) and ripped me off, but then tried to pay me off later to take down what I wrote about them because my marketing was too good. Marketing Lesson Learned: Don’t hire the best marketing guy you can find, but then rip him off when it’s time to pay the bill. Even the best reputation management cannot make up for decisions that bad.

This one is a case study in what not to do if you ever want to market a business online. Just see how many nice things show up in the first page of Google when searching their company name. When I say this one is a case study, it really is, and it’s been referenced in keynotes at industry conferences. It is a case study that I will never need to address in my next marketing job – not a chance!

Number Four Love About My Next Marketing Job: A Great Team

I feel fortunate for my knack at finding the right people for the job. Knowing how to recognize and delegate to the best people for the task at hand has served me exceptionally well in my career. They don’t always need an MBA or a perfect résumé. They have to be right for the responsibilities they are given.

The think tanks are built in! A skill that I very often embrace is putting together think tanks of bright and talented people who can imagine the right questions and think their way through to solutions as a group. Ideas are fun to produce and shape into works of art. Thinking and being with thinkers creates great passion for me.

I look forward to working with a team where I can make magic happen and we can be glad to see each other every morning. That’s worth more than money alone, and that spins my turbines!

My new office will come complete with thinkers to put into the tank, and will also enjoy the benefits of my existing network of great thinkers.

Number Five Love About My Next Marketing Job: They Will Love Me, Too!

I am a highly dedicated person, and I take a lot of pride in doing things the right way. When I consider my new adventure, it is important that my new employer recognizes my dedication to their success. Likewise, they will be dedicated to my success.

I don’t just skip around to the next great thing in my career. I have three more kids and many more years of experience than I did the last time I changed jobs. I am not wishy-washy about my work, and I don’t plan to leave anytime soon.

My next employer will appreciate my dedication, and they will notice very early that “This Murnahan guy doesn’t think like those other applicants. He has something special in mind.” They’ll be right, too. I have some very special ideas in store for my next employer – and they will love it!

Number Six Love About My Next Marketing Job: The Location is Amazing

As I discussed this with my wife, we realized that the location of my next marketing job will be incredible. We will enjoy a great city that is mostly new to us, and we will discover many amazing things to do as a husband and wife with three brilliant kids. We will see our new adventure with amazement, and we’re each very excited to know where it will be!

Number Seven Love About My Next Marketing Job: I Get Paid for This!

With all the great things that come with my next marketing job, I’ve got to say that getting paid for doing what I love is fantastic! I’ll probably be paid a whole lot. It will not match my previous seven digit earnings, but it’s going to be a nice income for doing the job I would choose if all jobs paid exactly the same thing.

There you have it. That’s the list of seven things I love about my next marketing job. Do you have a list burning to get out? I know I could sure go on with a Top 100 list. For now, this one feels like a great start. I hope it will help you to think about your own list.

I have just one more thing to add. If you have a good lead for where I may find my next marketing job, please introduce me or pass this along to others. Perhaps it will eventually land on the right desk of that one special person at that one special company for me. Thank you kindly!

Pssst! Here are links to my résumé and a little more about me.

Photo Credits:
LOVE Park sign by Brandon Weight via Flickr
punks in love by Patrick via Flickr

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Search Engine Optimization is Not a Technology Job!

Whether you work in a large corporation or a small company, this applies to you. I am going to explain why SEO is far more than just the technology it makes use of. If you think SEO is a technology skill, or worse, you are guilty of leaving your SEO to the IT department, duck and take cover! This may hit you between the eyes.

Did somebody ever tell you that SEO is a function of IT? If so, I want to explain how terribly misinformed they truly are. If you believed them, this may be upsetting, but at least it’s the truth.

First, allow me to break away from the acronyms for a moment. “SEO” stands for search engine optimization, and it involves the art and science of helping websites to rank in the top of search engine results for given search keywords. “IT” stands for Information Technology, and one way to look at it is the people who help keep your computer network running, and who you call if your email stops working.

I just dramatically understated each of the skills involved, but that gives you an idea to start with. What I hope to explain in a way you can appreciate is that IT is a technology skill, and SEO has more to do with people than it does computin’ machines. It is a marketing skill that makes good use of technology, and not a technology that makes use of marketing.

A surgeon uses scalpels, but is not defined as being in the scalpel industry. Similarly, a search engine optimizer uses technology, but should not be defined as being in the IT industry. Use of technology is just one subset of SEO skills.

Sure, there are important matters of technology involved, such whether to use www or no www and how to do a 301 redirect, or the very important difference in a slash or no slash at the end of your web address. That is just SEO at its most basic level, but if you want to rank well in searches, there is a whole lot more to it.

How the Absurdity of SEO Being a Technology Skill Began

Search engine optimization, in its earliest days, was looked at as something to do with computers. It was all a part of that new Internet craze that told everybody to have a website. Companies who wanted a website needed “computer people” to make it happen. After all, the Internet runs on computers, and having a website was a pretty technical thing.

Websites really are very technical when they are done well. Most people who look at websites don’t understand all the programming that goes into it, the security features, or the server architecture that it all runs on. So, it looks really technical to them, and for many people it implies that everything surrounding it surely must be technology-oriented.

Let’s take another look!

Why Do Companies Have Websites?

Let us consider the most common reason any company has a website. It is to emphasize the assets of their business. Websites are built with technology, but their most common purpose is marketing. Whether that marketing is just to share information for free, increase sales, or impress investors, it is still a tool of marketing and communications. There are very few cases where a company will create a website “just for the heck of it” or to intentionally waste money. There must be a reason, and that reason almost always has its roots in being more visible to others.

Doesn’t this begin to sound a bit outside of the scope of those “computer people” who keep your email working? Sure, there are many aspects of SEO that require technical skills, but definitely not the kind that fit into an IT job role. Save your IT people for something more up their alley.

Many SEO professionals have been falsely embedded into IT departments, and they simply do not belong there. The most important and effective job functions of effective search engine optimizers have little to do with computers or technology. Sure, we know a lot about technology, because we have to, but that is not our most valuable asset. Again, I submit that a surgeon may know a lot about her scalpels, but that does not make her a “scalpel person”.

Here are a few basic examples of how technology is a part of SEO. See the articles as follows:

There must be at least a squillion more technology matters related to SEO. I think I’ve probably written something about most of them over my 15+ years in the industry. Even if you put them all to perfect use, it will never make up for the importance of understanding how to make things more marketable.

I’m not trying to fool you into thinking technology does not matter. I mean, I did write those earlier technology-related articles about SEO, and many more. I also have a significant amount of proof that I know the job of SEO. The technology does matter … a lot … but it will not trump the other magic that a truly talented SEO professional brings to the equation. Those things include defining what moves people to action, analyzing demographics, psychographics, geographics, and deeply understanding Internet usage on the human level. It also requires analyzing the competition and knowing what makes you the stronger competitor.

The many non-technology creative marketing assets of a good SEO professional with measurable marketing talent are vastly more valuable than any amount of technology.

Understanding SEO as a Hybrid Skill Set

Most companies understand that when people search the Internet for something, it is good to be found at the top of the list. People start clicking at the top of the list, and not at the bottom. So, it makes sense, right? The difference a few spots down that list can make is astonishing. See “Improve SEO Return on Investment (ROI) With Simple Math” to understand the difference.

It is a bit harder to understand SEO as a hybrid between multiple departments within a company. It involves defining and distilling the best assets of a company into something people will love. It involves putting those things to work on the Internet where people will see them and link to them from their websites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, social bookmarking sites, and more. It involves making a company popular based on its own previously hidden merits. Within the mix, there is technology, but the technology is just to support the awesomeness. The awesomeness is not there to support the technology.

It may help to consider that the single most prominent factors for top search engine ranking is the number of other websites linking to yours, and the quality of those websites. You don’t get those links from technology, you get them from people who think you’re amazing, and you get those people by repeatedly doing amazing things.

Reciprocal link exchanges are a bad idea, and you don’t have enough friends to link to your website to outrank any significant competitors. It’s going to take more than that, so isn’t it wise to at least have the right department handling it?

Why was this stuck in my craw?

I recently wrote a proposal for a company that I really like. I like them because of their industry, and I like them because I know I can do amazing things for them. When I discovered that they are relying on the IT department to handle their SEO efforts, it made my stomach hurt.

I don’t take on projects if I am not 100 percent confident that I can help them. In this case, there should be little wonder why their websites have a miserable response. They just don’t know how much they don’t know. I hope to fix that!

Photo Credit:
Washington State Cage Fighting Championships by Kelly Bailey via Flickr

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Strategic Marketing Failure: Are You Giving it Up Too Easy?

Good sense tells us to not give it all away upfront. If you kiss on the first date, anticipation often fades, and there may never be a second date. It may get you into their fantasies, or even into their bed, but this will seldom get you into their hearts, where trust and loyalty thrive. I find it easy to apply this to concepts of marketing.

I really believe in giving away a lot of great ideas for free. Sharing useful thought is one of the best reasons to blog. In fact, there should be little wonder why some of the most popular blogs are popular. It is because they are giving away great information that people want.

A free sample is great, but can it go too far? I believe it can, and I think it is likely why there are so many people like my example of “Pete and The Amazing Pee-Pants Pizza Parlor” in my recent article titled “Marketing Clients vs. Crybaby Sissy Bed-Wetters“ who think marketing should be cheap … or free … and easy.

The concern of giving away too much information for free is not limited to my field of marketing. There are a good number of idea-based and information-focused industries where there is a legitimate need to balance enough information to show credibility without inspiring people to do it themselves or shop for a “cheaper” option. Of course, there is always somebody to do it cheaper, but shoppers often forget there is a difference between good and bad in any industry.

There is a line to be drawn between sharing concepts, and giving away the things which should and must be paid for. It is a blurry line for some people. Of course it is very blurry from the client side, but I also find it to be blurry for people on the selling side.

People Understand Value of Items … But Ignore the Value of Information

Information is one of the most valued assets to a company. So how can it be so easy for people to neglect this fact from a buyer’s perspective?

I think of it along the lines of a recent freebie I received from Subway. Subway sent me a $10 gift card to try out their new pulled pork sub. When I used that freebie, I bought more than $10 from them. I’ll go back, too. It was a freebie associated with a promotion through Klout, a company I wrote about recently, and it gave me incentive to walk through Subway’s door, become a more active customer, and potentially bring others.

Since they are giving away tangible goods with a defined cost, people understand they cannot just give away the whole restaurant. When the freebie is something that comes right out of somebody’s thoughts or research, there is a common perception that it does not still have a cost. I guess you could think that way, but when my three kids get hungry because Daddy gave away the whole restaurant, I am inclined to disagree. There is a cost, and there is a point when you have to stop giving everything away. I know that point, and I intend to illustrate it.

Try Asking Somebody Close Enough to Know

When I recently asked my wife for her opinion of a project I am strongly interested in, she said something I guess I should have expected. Her chilling words were “You know the routine, Mark. You give people enough information that they think they know all they need to go shopping for somebody to do it cheaper.”

Of course, I stammer to inject the notion “but they cannot implement it like I can, and they can’t make a meal from a free sample of caviar.” Yes, and I can make that argument until I am blue in the face and holding my breath for the next soul-sucking chance to send another great marketing client to the wolves for a price comparison. It does not change the facts.

You see, I am literally the guy rocket scientists ask when they need a better strategy. They are in an industry that sells flights for over 200 million dollars per seat, and mistakes in their industry are expensive. These are bright people, but social media strategy is not their area of expertise. If I give them a big hunk of brain candy to munch on, it is easy for them to imagine that mister “SuperheroUnderpants” marketing guru in his mom’s basement can do the same job by promoting them on his MySpaceyTwitterBook.

The reality is that far too many of the people I share my brain-samples with use what I give them and go shopping for price. Sure, I can resent that, but it is my own fault. I kiss on the first date, like a sophomore girl hoping to be loved. Actually, I think I do worse than that … I get naked for the whole football team to come and enjoy. I do it all the time, but I am a lot better about it than I used to be. These days, I at least get them to buy me dinner and a movie before I strip myself naked.

I Hate Marketing Marketing!

I love marketing, but I hate selling the services of marketing. I am over-the-top, and almost autistically good at marketing “something else”. I can prove it, and I have earned millions of dollars because of it, but asking me to sell it is like asking to borrow a couple of my teeth.

Yes, marketing is awesome fun, but it feels like a daily trip to the dentist for a colonoscopy to promote and sell it. This is why I have often explained that When I Go to Hell, They Will Have Me Selling SEO.

I can man-up enough to admit that it actually made my chest hurt as I internalized my wife’s insight, but not because it was insulting or untrue. It was very true, and she went on to remind me about other stunning examples when giving too much killed my hopes. It has not just happened once or twice, either. Somebody attempts to brain-rob me every day, but I stick up for myself these days. It is because I have learned the hard way, and forgone great projects and sent them to SuperheroUnderpants who will work for a case of Red Bull and a pirated copy of the next Nintendo game.

A True Story of Giving Too Much for Free

One such project was with a company where I really felt I belonged. I already felt an emotional attachment to the brand and the people. In fact, I was prepared to uproot my family and move to a different city for them. We were already shopping for schools and homes. I wrote about it in the article titled “99 Percent of Marketing Fails, But Eleanor Can Fly!“ and a follow-up titled “How Good SEO Becomes Great SEO: Feed the Gorillas!” It was the perfect scenario … or so it seemed.

Where the ugly part came in was after I returned from our meeting in Chicago where they had wanted me to bring my vision and build a new marketing crew for them. As I look back, I suspect that even before my plane landed, they were seeking somebody who would try and implement my ideas for a fraction of the salary. They found one, too … but wait for the real kicker!

That “somebody” totally destroyed the campaign, and in fact, destroyed it so badly that it is hard to even describe. Let me give you the quick version. They sent a $70,000 motorcycle and a $5,000 guitar on tour with a Grammy award winning band to promote a giveaway. It was to have a significant social media marketing push behind it, and the company said they were very dedicated to my ideas. They already had a significant investment leading up to it. How significant? They bought the company that made the motorcycle, because they thought it fit well with their brand … the brand that I was to build.

Now get this: By the time they gave away that $75,000 in prizes, their Twitter account had under 350 followers, their Facebook account had about the same, and their YouTube account did not have a single upload. Not one video of the band, the motorcycle, the fans, the guitar … nothing!

They failed, and I know, with mathematics and two decades of very successful experience on my side, that they caused their own demise. Although you could call me guilty for not explaining that great plans fail without implementation and the right crew, I don’t feel guilty. I just feel bad for giving too much for free.

Defining Free vs. Paid Knowledge

Each of us will have ways to define giving away “too much”, but here are a few of mine. I hope they will inspire you to think about yours.

First and foremost … a client only needs to know enough about me to realize that I have sufficient marketing creativity, experience, and talent to make them more successful. Period! If they are unwilling to consume enough of my freebies to realize these things, they will not be the kind of client I can work with, because they will second-guess my advice. That is a true recipe for failure, the likes of which I refuse to be a part of.

Another key is anybody indicating they are still shopping around for price. When that is the case, there are no freebies beyond my blog. If they are looking for price above value, they are not the paying type. Even if they pay, they will stand in their own way. They simply are not ready. They are the ones who search Google for “How much does SEO cost?” (where I am listed on the top), and then email me because they were too rushed to get numbers to actually read the correct answer. If they don’t hire me today, they will come back in a year or two, jaded by the failure I tried to warn them about. Both scenarios are like a bad case of herpes … I don’t put my love there!

If they say they are interested in meeting in person, that is not going to happen without their dollars. I don’t pack bags for free. If somebody needs to shake my hand, they need to pay me for it. They are a buyer, and I am not about to turn them into a looker. There is always a reason to ask me to meet with them, and it always involves custom brain-work. The custom stuff is never free.

I have a long list of things which define what is free versus paid, but I want to know what you think.

Should We Give Away Less Brainflow?

It really isn’t so different from the restaurant or sporting goods store giving away a freebie. It cannot all be free, or the company is not sustainable.

I will never stop giving away free ideas, but those are the ones like the $10 Subway gift card to bring buyers through the door. I give enough that people understand my knowledge, creativity, and credibility. I also do it for the people who need help, but cannot afford to hire my services, and I feel good about that, too. I believe in altruism, but I also recognize that even Mother Teresa, Ghandi, and others do things for well-intentioned but calculated reasons, and that altruism in its purest sense, is not what people told you.

I have learned the hard way. If you are giving away something better than the stuff other people are selling for money, you will damn yourself to lackluster clients if you cannot bring them to understand that there is a lot more where the freebies came from … and it’s for sale!

I know that I’m not alone in this battle. I’ve heard it from many respected others in my line of work. If you can relate to this, I want to hear your stories. I would also love to hear from you about where you draw the line between free ideas and the ideas you count on to buy your lunch.

If you are giving away too much, I’d also be curious to hear how your back feels after sleeping on the couch because you bought into the myth that information is “free”. I’m sleeping in the big bed tonight. Later sucker!

Photo Credit:
Birthday Present by Christopher Matson via Flickr

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Do You Accept SEO or Social Media Marketing Contracts Under $10,000?

I could sit here at my computer all day and tease people who are willing to take on small contracts in the field of SEO and social media marketing, or the clients willing to pay them. Many of those clients are broke, and there are a lot of bad people with an SEO and social media flag waving to attract the last of their money.

Giving them a hard time can be very fun, but it is not really all that productive. After all, there is a huge majority of small businesses who seek somebody to help them, but do not have the needed resources for a grand entrance to the online market. There are also some talented marketing minds who like working with small or short-term contracts. I prefer to help bring them together.

I don’t accept those contracts, but not because I am an arrogant jerk who thinks he knows it all. I don’t arbitrarily look down upon those companies, and I don’t automatically look down upon the people serving them. It is just not my market, and I turn away business every day because of this.

If you accept small projects in SEO and social media marketing, I have some free leads for you. I don’t mean just a bunch of shabby sales leads from people hoping to spend an hour of research online to find a free website that will earn them a squillion dollars. I mean real companies hoping to make an entrance to their market.

This does not mean that I am a bad option, or that I am expensive. I return huge profits for my clients, and I am worth many times my rates. It also does not mean that you are bad, or “cheap”. We all have our market space here, and mine is in long-term and well-funded strategic projects. In fact, you can use me as an example to show your potential clients that you are not just trying to rip them off. It really does cost a lot of money and work to create success. Bigger success takes bigger experience, bigger money, and bigger strategy. Those are the projects I accept.

I believe that we both have a similar challenge of building confidence in customers. I even expressed some troubling truths only a few days ago in a long-winded article about a short-sighted customer who has done business with me for years. Check it out for yourself: “Marketing ROI Factor: Are You a Client or a Customer?”

In reality, the upfront cost of an optimal campaign in SEO or social media is prohibitive for the majority of companies. Sure, if they could pony up the money for a well-researched campaign, they could turn over their investment at a much higher velocity. As it is, they will have a higher opportunity cost by cutting corners, but that is often the only option. It is an option that you may be able to deliver.

Even when the cost is not the biggest hurdle, putting money into an online marketing campaign is a damn scary proposition for many companies. Even when and if they can swing the money, they will dip their toe in to check for sharks before they go swimming. It is frequently not the best option, but it is a popular option. Again, it is an option that you may be able to deliver.

Note: Sharks are my friends, and whales are my clients. The other fish are looking for you. You like fish, right?

People probably ask you a lot of questions about this industry. You will sometimes need a third-party resource to help make your point. I am happy to help you ease their tension, and to help them make better decisions. My blog is always here, and there is a lot of useful information in my archive. I don’t even want a finder’s fee to send paying customers your way, or to help you explain the benefits of SEO or social media marketing to your customers. Not at all, because if you have a small budget to work with, the last thing you need is to spiff me with money.

I love spiffs, but I prefer to pay them rather than receive them. Reference my article earlier this year titled “SEO and Social Media Reward: $5,000 for Introduction“. Yes, I really do prefer to pay you a $5,000 finders fee than for you to pay me a hundred. I am a money-spending madman like that. 😉

The Caveat … Yes, The Fine Print

The first thing to do is add your comment here on this article.

Of course, I don’t just want every cockroach in the Twinkies dumpster to hold out their hand for a free crumb. I want to hear from people who actually have a quality value proposition. The big catch is that for each person with their hand out, I will be watching. Yes, I will be looking at you, and judging you. I intend to provide a small degree of vetting. If I like what I find, I may put a spotlight on you in a follow-up article.

Because we are talking about people who looked to me for help, I am not about to mess up my reputation by referring them to somebody who will rip them off. I will watch my server logs to see how much and how long you have read my work. If you have been reading, and if you have subscribed, it is far more likely that we share similar principles. I will also notice if you have been a blog troll or lurker. If you are a non-communicating type of person, start communicating, and stop hiding in the shadows if you want my referral business.

Very Important: I will notice whether you are honest with your comment, and with your communications elsewhere on the Internet.

I welcome you to add your comments to explain your value. Feel free to spam all you like. If you seem spammy to me, I have a delete button for that. I tend to react pretty abruptly to people who annoy me. For example, don’t even think about commenting with your favorite keywords in place of a name. I am looking for people … real people with real names … who want more business.

The upside of my offer is that if you are legitimate, I would like to help my readers with appropriate options, and for us to possibly work together for mutual benefit. I am serious when I say that I want quality people to refer small project business to. If you are good and honorable, we may work together a lot in the future.

I have assembled a phenomenal team for producing massive success, but there never seems to be enough marketing talent to trust with the smaller projects.

I would also ask that in the event that you are ever over your head, that you consult me. You may find that you have enough resource to help that whale of a client after all.

Other Cost-Related Articles
Although it may seem hard to turn away a client only because of their budget, there are minimums I simply don’t work below. For more thought-provoking articles on the cost of SEO and social media marketing, and perhaps help with explaining cost to your clients, I offer the links as follows:

Photo Credit:
Broken Piggy Bank by Images_of_Money via Flickr

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