To prevent emails from going to spam, ensure your email list is clean and consists of opted-in recipients. Craft a clear, engaging subject line without spam triggers. Maintain a consistent sending schedule and sender name. Include a plain text version of your email, and make sure the HTML is clean and error-free. Lastly, always provide an easy unsubscribe option.
Email marketing It’s been over 50 years since the beginning of what would become the digital mail, or email, and it’s probably not going anywhere anytime soon.
One of the oldest pieces of digital infrastructure on the Internet, the email remains the tried-and-true way of sending and receiving both personal and commercial information. With that undying relevance comes the similarly immortal relevance of email marketing.
That’s right, email marketing still matters in 2021. And it probably matters more than ever, as digital marketing techniques took center stage for many industries surviving the pandemic and using emails as one of multiple ways to advertise products and services online amid an e- commerce boom.
But just because email is near ancient (in Internet terms) doesn’t mean you can rely on the same old techniques that might have worked with commercial emails in the 90s and 00s.
Major email providers, including Google, Yahoo, and AOL, have gotten much better at recognizing and flagging spam over the years, protecting consumers from trillions of unwanted messages year after year. Here’s how you set yourself apart from the bots and make the most out of your campaign.
Focus On Quality, Not Quantity
This goes for emails and subscribers alike, but it’s arguably even MORE important for subscribers.
There’s going to be a threshold for how often you can send your subscribers something before they start to get fed up with the rate at which you’re pushing content, sales, or other marketing media, and following your metrics closely to observe jumps and drops in click-through and opening rates can help you figure that out for your audience. But cultivating a quality audience is even more important.
One way of making sure that you’re getting subscribers who are actually likely to care about the content you put out (or the product you sell, or the services you provide) is to make it even more of a privilege to follow your newsletter and receive promos and updates. You can do this via a double opt-in function.
Instead of just typing their email into an annoying pop-up window, and getting a piece of unread mail every day of the week until it eventually lands in spam automatically, giving readers of a post or potential buyers the option to provide their email during checkout for new updates or products, or new blog posts, gives you the ability to send them a confirmation email that requires them to click a link or tick another checkbox on your website to make sure that they’re interested in your marketing campaign.
Remember, you’re not trying to trick people here. Email marketing has legitimate value as one of the easiest ways to update and notify subscribers about new products and content they genuinely care about. But if you try to just get your emails out to as many people as possible, regardless of what they really want, you will eventually end up in the spam folder.
A double opt-in function makes sure that most of the people who sign up for your emails end up opening them, and even clicking through to your website again.
Sanitize Your Database
It’s not enough to cultivate an email list or database of emails that want to read your content or receive your news and marketing. You need to make sure you’re keeping that list updated. Various email marketing tools help you ensure that your emails aren’t being sent out to dead emails anymore, but beyond that, give subscribers the option to opt out of your content (or stop sending it after a certain point) to avoid ending up on a deny list.
Furthermore, it’s really important that this is YOUR email list. What this means is that probably the easiest way to get flagged as spam is to buy email lists or use shared lists. Even worse would be scraping for emails using automated tools. These types of bots and third-party email list sellers are often going to be a sure-fire ticket to the spam folder.
Why bother throwing money out the window? You might not have as big of an email list if you grow it organically, but let’s remember that it’s more important to prioritize quality over quantity, even when working through your list of recipients.
Authenticate Your Sender
What this means is to ensure that the IP sending your email is authenticated via a list of IP addresses allowed to send mail from your website domain, via your DNS records.
Most email marketing tools help you do this and will walk you through the setup (and remind you if you haven’t done it yet). This is important. It’s a clear red flag and a sign of phishing if an email is sending mail from your domain but hasn’t been authenticated through your DNS.
Aside from authenticating your sender, remember to check for real-time address validation (to avoid sending mail to dead emails, which can be a red flag for a lot of email providers).
Obey the Law
The best way to prevent emails from going to spam is to obey the laws in place relating to email communications. Did you know that there are more than a few pieces of user privacy legislation that govern commercial emails targeted towards some of the biggest markets on the planet, including the United States, Canada, and the EU? CAN-SPAM, the GDPR, the CCPA, and the CASL all have clauses dictating what does and doesn’t count as spam, and privacy laws around the globe are booming in general.
While following their guidelines isn’t guaranteed to keep your emails from landing in the spam folder, they can be an additional hurdle to worry about. These are hefty pieces of legislature, but thankfully, there are plenty of articles online giving the quick gist of them, as well as more lengthy breakdowns that avoid pouring over every last detail.
A few tips you can gleam from each of these laws are as follows:
Make it easy to unsubscribe from your promotional mail.
Authorize your senders.
Be transparent about your sending practices.
Give users control over how their personal data is stored and used by you (and, in turn, by your email marketing). More importantly, give them the clear option to opt out of any user data being stored.
Provide Options and Control
If your website already provides login functionality and allows users to create and adjust their profile, even if it’s just to keep track of their orders, browse personalized suggestions, and cash in promo codes, you can take things a step further by providing mailing preferences in the user settings page.
These could be anything from letting users control how often they receive mail from you, to controlling what kind of mail they want to receive (just product info, general sales, specific discounts, other newsletters and content), and so on.
If you want to make the most out of this feature, be sure to tell your users about it when they’re signing up for your newsletter. Remember, one of the most important factors behind whether or not your content ends up in a spam folder is whether people are bothering to open it. Giving them the option to opt out of mail that doesn’t interest them reduces the likelihood of your sender ending up in a deny list.
Email marketing is a world in and of itself, and these are just a few simple tips. But it’s often the fundamentals that count the most.
There’s a lot more to running a successful email campaign: from writing beautiful copy, to keeping your emails light and relevant, personalizing your marketing material automatically, reviewing your email performance metrics, making the relevant adjustments, and more. Get in touch with us if you want to step up your email marketing game.
There are a number of key factors that contribute to email marketing results. This includes everything from the content of your email to the way you format it.
In this article, we will explore some email marketing tips that can help you boost your email marketing results.
Does it make sense to send the exact same content to people who haven’t made their first purchase and people who are longtime loyal customers? No! Doing so is a major missed opportunity.
Many of today’s email marketing platforms make it easy to segment your list based on a number of parameters, including:
When choosing the email marketing platform you want to use for your company, pay attention to the available integrations. Find something that integrates with programs and platforms you’re already using to not only make your segmentation and personalization efforts easier but to streamline your overall workflow.
You can also use APIs to combine as many of your databases as possible to give you the largest amount of data to work with for personalization purposes.
2. Make Use of Animated GIFs
Animated GIFs have been popular on social media for a while now, and we see lots of brands including them in their email marketing strategy, too. They are a wonderful way to further illustrate your point, add a bit of humor or add some visual flair to the content. After all, visual content increases the desire to read by 80%, and though Google Trends shows animated GIFs piqued in December 2018, the graph below indicates they are still popular.
3. Add Images and Video
Images and video provide a break from standard text, and have been known to help boost engagement rates. If you take the time to make your content shareable on social media, your images and video are much more likely to be shared with others, which can help grow your subscriber base.
4. Adjust Send Frequency
You’re just getting started with email marketing, you may think that you should only send a message when you have news to share, specials or sales, or announcements about your company. This approach isn’t the best one because your e-mail newsletter should be considered a way to build relationships with your followers. Every time you send one, you have the chance for them to go from a satisfied customer to a dedicated fan. If you consider your newsletter some things that may annoy or distract them, then you will be less likely to send quality newsletters more often.
Consider your newsletter as something that adds value to your subscribers’ lives and something that they should look forward to. Send it on a regular basis, even every weekday, perform surprisingly well because subscribers learned to know when they can expect it and add it to their daily reading.
If on the other hand, you are sending your newsletter once or twice a month and suddenly start sending it 5 days a week, it’s easy to get carried away. And it’s also easy to fall into a trap that backfires.
People would like to get regular content, but they don’t want to be inundated when they are trying to spend time with their families or take time to relax. Limit your newsletters to weekdays or late on Sunday nights, and no more than once a day, unless you have a real reason to send more often. This approach prevents the newsletter from being so scarce that people forget about it while also keeping it from being so available that no one feels compelled to open it at all.
Following the KISS rule ensures that your readers can focus on the content. If your formatting clutters your newsletter, it may stop the readers from seeing the value it offers. If you feel like your formatting may be causing your engagement to drop, try to limit your newsletters to one or two photos or animated GIFs within simple HTML.
6. Split-Test Until You See What Works Best
Split testing isn’t just for your website. You can use it to test your subject line, layout, content, and even your send dates and times.
Like with your website, you’ll want to run one split test at a time so you can get a better idea of how each tested element influenced your results.
After a series of tests, you can, in theory, develop the perfect recipe for your audience. While you can follow general guidelines based on available research, it’s important to remember that what works for one business or industry may not work for another.
Improving your email marketing results may be as simple as changing the time of day or the day of the week you send your email. It may mean resending the message to the people who didn’t open it first, using a different subject line. A quality subscriber list doesn’t happen overnight, and it can take a while to find the balance between your content, sending times, and all the other elements that influence engagement. Aim for improvement with each issue, and you’ll get to where you need to be.
Conclusion
Email marketing can be a highly effective way to reach out to customers and prospects. However, in order for email marketing to be successful, business owners need to focus on the results and experiment.
The more you experiment with your email marketing strategy, the more success your business will enjoy.
If you need help with your digital marketing strategy, reach out to Sachs Marketing Group for a consultation.
There are several top influencer marketing platforms to tap into this year. Leading influencer marketing platforms include AspireIQ, Upfluence, and CreatorIQ, offering tools to connect brands with relevant influencers. These platforms provide analytics for campaign tracking, influencer discovery tools, and ROI measurement capabilities. They cater to businesses of all sizes, facilitating effective influencer partnerships that align with brand values and marketing goals.
With the rise of the internet, new marketing practices are developing at a more rapid speed than ever before. Keeping up with the latest digital marketing trends is important to any business that wants to remain relevant and competitive. One trend that has been used consistently to deliver positive results is influencer marketing. In this practice, companies collaborate with individuals known as influencers to promote their brands in creative ways that resonate with potential customers.
Influencers can help your business to create a buzz, reach a wider audience and increase engagement. All of these things have the potential to help you reach your marketing and sales goals. In order to connect with relevant influencers, your best bet is to connect with an influencer marketing platform. These platforms can provide a number of resources to assist you in getting the most from your work with influencers. Along with matching you with the right influencers, a quality platform can also provide campaign monitoring and measure return on your investment. Keep reading below to some of the top influencer marketing platforms to tap into in order to make your collaborative efforts run more smoothly and become more successful.
IZEA is one of the originators in the influencer marketing sphere. They’ve been around since 2006 when they began paying bloggers to create content on behalf of brands. Because of this long history, IZEA is a platform you can trust. They have perfected the art of creating and managing influencer marketing campaigns. They can also help you to analyze and amplify your campaigns. IZEA’s platform allows you to connect with influencers within your preferred demographics. They also give you a convenient dashboard to manage every aspect of your campaign, from influencers to payments. You’ll love that you can measure influencer performance in real time across various social media platforms.
AspireIQ seeks to help businesses identify influencers relevant to their niche. They ease this process with their recommendation engine that helps you connect with influencers similar to ones you’ve already engaged in campaigns with. In addition, they offer a unique feature that lets you see which influencers have been successful in other campaigns. Through the AspireIQ platform, you can also manage your communities and track how your campaigns are performing. Task automation for things like making payments, content reviews and product tracking is also possible.
Upfluence is powered by AI, artificial intelligence. It has the unique benefit of allowing you to search for influencers based on social media platform. You’re able to check out the accounts of individuals on the channels that are most relevant to your audience and customers. In addition, Upfluence pre-screens their influencers in order to determine the quality of their engagement and reach. Those wishing to work with global influencers are in luck, as Upfluence’s database contains professionals from 150 countries around the world. They have an extensive filter system that lets you search by various demographics and performance indicators, including engagement rates and geolocation. You can measure your ROI, obtain real-time updates and send bulk emails with their software.
Tapinfluence was founded in 2003 working specifically with brands and bloggers. They now connect with various types of creators and tout themselves as the world’s first Influencer-Generated Content Engine. This platform provides you with in-depth information on potential influencers of interest. You can check out such stats as their audience reach and the real-time cost per engagement (CPE). Their system can assist you in such aspects of influencer marketing as campaign briefing, content creation, communication, promotion and review.
Tidal Labs is a platform that automates workflow related to your influencer marketing campaigns. They have a robust AI-powered database that gives you the power to filter results in order to find the perfect influencer for your campaign. Automation is the name of the game. You can get so much more done in less time such as information gathering, product distribution, amplification of influencer content and payment release. Also, it’s easy to edit and rate influencer content quickly through the use of this system.
Grapevine is a marketing platform that lets you tailor your campaigns in ways that best reach and engage your targeted demographic. You can find popular and well-performing influencers in your niche, scale your influencer programs as needed and measure your most relevant analytics. Grapevine staff have already vetted the influencers they promote, so you can feel secure in the quality of your relationships. In addition, Grapevine gives you a direct line to influencers to ease the negotiation process.
Captiv8 claims to be “revolutionizing how brands connect with the world.” And they give you the tools to do just that. First, they help you connect with the influencers who can best promote your business in the most relevant ways. A particular advantage of this platform is the ways in which it helps you track advanced metrics like sentiment analysis, EMV and deep engagement data to give you a broader picture of your ROI.
As with other influencer marketing platforms, Trackr offers solutions to help you with a multitude of tasks. They stand out from the pack in a couple ways, though. You can get a look at the audience insights of individual influencers in order to determine which ones fit your most important campaign requirements. In addition, Trackr lets you track online conversations so you can validate the ways in which influencers engage with their followers.
Ambassador considers themselves to be a referral software platform. Their system can help you with referral marketing, affiliate marketing, influencer marketing and partner marketing. So, this platform is a fabulous choice when you’re looking for a comprehensive all-in-one solution for your marketing needs. Ambassador allows you to conveniently track all the advocates you partner with in one simple dashboard.
You have a lot of choices when it comes to services to help with your influencer marketing campaigns. These are simply some of the best influencer marketing platforms around. Check them out to see which one might be a good fit for your needs.
As a business, community outreach is crucial to connecting to your local area. Developing a community outreach program not only helps to increase awareness for your products and services, but also strengthens your brand. Interacting with the local community gives you a chance to build and nurture relationships with consumers, rather than marketing at them.
Work With a Cause Close to Your Heart
While it helps to work with a cause somehow related to your industry, sometimes it is better to choose a cause that’s close to you for personal reasons, or one that resonates with your potential customer base. You aren’t locked into working with one specific cause – you could always create a program that rotates through local organizations that need your help.
For the best results, you should align your activities around your target market and brand image. Develop a multichannel approach so you can reach all the audiences you want to market to while magnifying influence and exposure.
Before you make any choices, take a look at your competition and see what, if any community outreach they are doing. You don’t want to just double their contribution to the same organizations or sponsor the same events. You’ll want to do things differently to make sure you stand out from the competition. You can find out what kinds of things they are doing in your local community simply by looking at their website and looking for signs of them around your local area.
Sponsor Local Charity Events
There are a variety of local events to host, sponsor, or otherwise support. Get in touch with city officials to learn about upcoming events that make sense for you to sponsor. Sponsoring events gives you a chance to put your brand in front of a lot of people.
Our philanthropic efforts include support for the Grossman Burn Foundation, a non-profit for healthcare that includes financial aid, education, and safety for those who have suffered from burns. They provide local and worldwide support.
In addition to our donations there, we also donated our services to the Center 4 Special Needs, a non-profit organization in Ventura, CA. This charity focuses on providing financial support, resources, and other services to families with children who have developmental disabilities or other special needs.
No matter how you choose to do it, incorporating charity into your business model isn’t just good for community outreach. It’s good for the community you serve by providing help for those in need. Just be sure your motivations are in the right place – focused on giving back to the community, rather than doing it for the advertising and the tax write-off. If your audience suspects you’re not operating from the heart and you have ulterior motives, you’ll damage your reputation.
Get Involved with Local Schools
Partnering with schools or educational programs can help you connect with community leadership.
You can team up with local schools to create a program that teaches students about what it is like to work in your industry and run a business. A program like this gets your name in front of the community and spreads awareness of your products and services.
Alternatively, you can set up a scholarship fund for students who are enrolled in programs related to your business’ field of work. This can boost your link building efforts because you can get links to your website from .edu domains to boost your website’s SEO. Here at Sachs Marketing Group, we offer an annual scholarship for anyone who is in a general marketing program at an accredited college.
Start Mentorship or Internship Programs
If you’re a startup on a budget, recruiting the right talent can be difficult. Internships allow you to recruit fresh faces to join the company to help you grow (and if you can afford to pay, that’s even better!) Students will learn how the business works in a hands-on way and gain experience they can use later. Creating an internship program gives you a chance to get your business in front of a younger generation who may be interested in working in your field. When you create a great experience for them as an intern or through being their mentor, they will champion for your business with the people they know.
Invest in Swag
When you sponsor events, another way you can increase brand awareness and start building relationships with potential customers is through promotional products. Options are nearly limitless and really only dictated by your industry and budget. It’s a good idea to create branded things that people use every day, such as pens, cups, tote bags, etc. If it’s not something they’ll use, it’ll end up in the trash.
Even if someone doesn’t need your services now, the recognizable branding will help you keep your message consistent so they’ll remember you when they need your services, or someone they know comes to them looking for a recommendation. When the number of people who use your brand grows, you’ll be able to create brand ambassadors who are out there working to spread the word about your company.
Leveraging community events in addition to other traditional marketing strategies gives you a great way to promote your brand to people who otherwise may not have heard about you. Adding community outreach initiatives to your overall strategy will bring in new leads, sales, and ultimately, more people who will love your brand. Make community outreach a continuous part of your effort and your will create a steady stream of new relationships and brand awareness that will keep you growing until you become a permanent beloved fixture in your local community.
There are several tips to help you get the most of your email campaigns. To maximize email campaigns, segment your audience for personalized content, use engaging subject lines, and ensure mobile-friendly design. Regular testing and analyzing open and click-through rates help refine strategies. Incorporating clear calls-to-action and valuable content like exclusive offers, educational material, and engaging stories improves engagement and conversion rates. Consistent, yet non-intrusive, email frequency is key.
Some say email marketing is dead, while others maintain it is alive and well. I’m in the alive and well camp, because data shows email marketing generates $38 for every $1 spent, giving it an astonishing 3800% ROI, which means it remains one of the most effective marketing methods available. After all, active email accounts were expected to hit 5.6 billion by 2019.
Understand the 3 Types of Messages You’ll Send
There are three types of messages you’ll send to your list over the course of their time as a subscriber. Understanding which ones to use and when will help you develop a better strategy.
Marketing
These emails are promotional or informational messages you send to people who’ve asked you to keep them updated. These are often prospects, clients, affiliates, vendors, or reporters. Marketing emails may include a variety of content, but are generally used to send sales promotions, newsletters, press releases, announcements, surveys, and follow-ups.
Transactional
These emails are automated and triggered by customer activity. These include welcome messages, order received/tracking, received payments, registration confirmation, etc.
These messages have great potential because if a customer gets one, that means they’ve done at least one action on your website, and are likely to engage with you again. These are trusted emails meaning they generally have higher open rates. As such, there are plenty of opportunities for cross-selling and engagement.
Operational
These emails contain important information about your business, such as maintenance plans, holiday hours/closures, or changes to your service availability. You may be tempted to skip sending an operational email if you think it won’t have an impact on your sales, but for the sake of trust and engagement, it’s important to be consistent.
Though these messages may come across as strictly informative, they can be created in a way that improves your sales and image. For instance, if your service will be down for maintenance, taking the time to describe the updates you’ll be doing is a wonderful way to remind your clients of the value you provide.
Make Messages Personal
Write each message as if you were talking to one person only in your email. This strengthens the emotional connection between you and your list members. The majority of email marketing tools allow you to use shortcodes to indicate where you want to refer to the subscriber by name, which can help.
It also helps to segment your list so you can send more personalized messages to each part of your audience. For instance, you’ll want to send different messages to current clients than you would be sending to prospects, and you’ll send yet another message to people who have recently left your company, or abandoned their shopping cart. Segmentation ensures everyone gets the appropriate message for their place in the sales funnel.
In working to create a personalized email experience, it’s important to also consider your audience demographics. Promotional emails were the most effective method in influencing millennial purchase decisions – with 68% saying promotional emails impacted their purchase decisions on at least a few occasions.
Encourage Readers to Respond
In each email message you send to your list, encourage the readers to reply to respond to the email. They can use the reply to give you feedback about your products or services, express concerns, ask questions, etc. The key is to make sure people know you’re using email as the two-way communication channel it is intended to be.
Whether you personally reply or not is not the issue – just make sure someone in your company takes the time to craft a personal response to each message. Ideally, your customers will be thrilled if the response comes directly from you, so make sure you are ready to reply to the messages if you ask people to engage. If people take the time to reply to the message only to have it ignored, you can bet they won’t continue to engage with your emails.
Focus Efforts on the Subject Line
The subject line is what is going to capture your reader’s attention and entice them to click the message to open it. And while you want a good open rate, it’s important to remember that a good open rate won’t necessarily mean a good conversion rate. People will open your email and read it, but that doesn’t mean they’ll take the time to buy whatever it is you’re trying to sell them, or go on to your website to learn more.
Your email subject line should use power words and pique curiosity. There’s no need to follow meaningless stats about the optimal length of a subject line. Everyone’s audience is different, so what works for you may not work for someone else. Don’t be afraid to experiment to learn about your audience response.
It may feel like cutting off conversation by giving your readers the chance to opt out, but if a user wants to remove themselves from your list, and cannot do so easily, they’ll simply flag your email as spam. This will cause problems for you in the future because your messages could skip people’s inbox and end up in spam, even if they have subscribed to your list. Plus, this is an FTC requirement for compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which outlines regulations for email marketing.
Test, Test, Test
Test various elements of your email marketing campaign with split-tests. You can test elements such as subject line, send time, copy, placement of images, and more. The more testing you do, the more you learn about your audience and how to elicit the response you want.
Provide Value
Most importantly, whatever you’re sending your list must provide value. If you’re not providing value to your subscribers, there’s no reason for them to stick around. You must provide information that sticks with them to keep your business in their mind, whether it’s educational, marketing messages about the products you offer, or operational messages about your service.
The money is in your list. Plan your content in advance, and continue efforts to grow the list no matter what else you have going on. Your email marketing strategy should fit right into the rest of your digital marketing alongside social media, SEO, paid advertising, and more.
Gene: The Challenge Assumption’s podcast is brought to you by Dolphin Consulting – your source for the latest sales and marketing techniques and training in any industry. Visit DolphinConsulting.org today.
Eric Sachs: I just happened to run into a guy who was complaining that he was losing his business. I asked him why and he said, “Well, no one can find my website.” When I realized that maybe there was a business here, maybe I can do this for a living instead the jobs I was applying for that I really didn’t want, the biggest rewards in life are often realized by people willing to take the biggest risks. To me it was a risk.
Gene: I think it’s the number one cause of divorce, actually, is what they say.
Greg Davis: The Lexus helped, probably…oh, that was me.
Announcer: Coming to you live from the Americana Studio [indiscernible] [00:00:43].
Gene: We’re not live. This is a podcast. They’ll listen to this weeks later. Can you try it again?
Announcer: All right.Coming to you from Americana Studio is Austin, Texas. This is Challenge Assumptions, helping you build your committed tribe and grow your company, with your host, bestselling author, Greg Davis.
Greg: Wow, Gene’s joined in. Welcome to Challenge Assumptions Radio. He’s challenging the assumption of who’s the host and who’s not.
Gene: How you doin’, Greg?
Greg: Good. Entertaining sales. This is radio where we take your ideas and content seriously, but not ourselves. You bastard, you’ve never done that. What’s up with you today? Did you have your coffee again?
Gene: I had some coffee today.
Greg: That’s excellent. That always makes for more fun…lots of “coffee” as a stimulant apparently. I’m not sure what it is.
Gene: Hey, now.
Greg: Hey now, yes. We’ve got a great guest on today who’ll be joining us in a moment.You mean I chime in? I may chime in early. We’ll see. Eric Sachs, with Sachs Marketing Group, or SMG. Very cool. Very cool.
Gene: Very cool. Very cool.
Greg: [overlapping] [00:01:47] These guys claim number one in SEO, I think. It’s the NCO company. What I find interesting for a major company like them – [indiscernible] [00:01:55] 5000 company – is they actively promote searching out business for any range of business, any size of business, which you find that’s unique among your larger companies.
They’ve advertised in Time’s Square, again, [indiscernible] [00:02:09] 5000, and have some really interesting promotional efforts. I’m going to play you one. This is going to be very romantic. I think you’ll like this.
Gene: All right. Let’s see.
Greg: Here we go.
Woman: Help. Help. I’ve spent so much money for SEO and digital marketing services and my product still can’t be found online.
Announcer: Well, this sounds like a job for SMG guy.
Greg: SMG guy.
Gene [chuckles] [00:02:36] Welcome to the show, Eric. How you doing today?
Eric Sachs: I’m doing great, thanks. How are you?
Greg: Good. Are you the SMG guy super hero?
EricSach: I guess, yeah. We call him our avatar.
Greg: Okay. Have you worn spandex before?
Eric: I have not, but one of my employees dressed up as the SMG guy one year for Halloween.
Greg: Excellent. Did you actually make that a sort of promotional effort, where…?
Eric: Oh yeah, it was on Instagram and Social. It’s actually a girl, she had kind of a sexy SMG thing going on.
Gene: Usually the mascot…the gender never matches, it doesn’t matter, right?
Eric: Yeah, I don’t…[overlapping] [00:03:03].
Gene: [overlapping] [00:03:08] college mascots, or whatever.
Greg: [overlapping] [00:03:08]
Gene: You’re out of California, Southern California?
Eric: We are, yeah. Southern California, specifically West Lake Village, kind of a suburb of Southern California, north of the main downtown Los Angeles area.
Gene: So I think…what…our eighth person from Southern California in the room?
Greg: I guess so. I don’t know. [laughs] [00:03:30]
Greg: Apparently all the business is happening in Southern California.
Gene: Is business good in Southern California? How the hell could it be with the very high taxes?
Eric: It’s definitely an expensive place to run a business.
Greg: Basically you grew up there so that’s why you’re there, right?
Eric: I did, yeah. I was born and raised in Hollywood and then I moved out to the suburbs when I got married and my first child, and been here ever since.
Greg: What first interested you in marketing? How did that evolve in you?
Eric: I was in the mortgage space for about 12 years, and then late 2006, or early 2007, the mortgage space was in turmoil and the writing was really on the wall that I probably wasn’t going to be able to make the income that I was used to for very much longer. So I started, sort of in a panic, reaching out for something to supplement my income.
I was still employed in the wholesale lending space, but I really needed something to supplement my income and I needed something that I thought would be passive, because I was still working. So I sort of self-taught myself SEO, and Lite WebDesign, and I became what’s called a publisher and affiliate marketer.
I signed up with Amazon and a couple different affiliate networks. The approach was build a couple websites, do some SEO, get them to the first page of Google, and when people found my sites and clicked through they’d be redirected to Amazon, and if they bought the product, I’d get a check for $.25 or something. That’s really how I got my start.
Greg: Doing your own websites, then?
Eric: Yeah. That was right around the time we were switching to Blu-ray from disc – from CD to Blu-ray. Blu-ray was all the rage and there was a lot of different Blu-ray players that were being purchased. I just bought up a bunch of domains for Panasonic Blu-ray players and built various small little WordPress sites.
Then, when people searched for that specific Blu-ray player, they’d find my site on the first page of Google because of the SEO work I was doing – anywhere they clicked on my site, they’d go to Amazon. If they bought the player, I’d get a percentage of the sale.
That’s sort of Affiliate Marketing 101 and that’s, really, how I got my start and started building my skill set in the space.
Greg: How did you hear about that potential, that opportunity – you were in mortgages, so that doesn’t seem like the SEO world.
Eric: Just searching around for ways to make money on the Web. It was clear to me at the time that no one really went to the phonebook anymore for services or products, so I knew that the Web was where it was at. I bought a $99 teach-yourself-SEO program, at the time, and studied, and listened to the tapes, and watched the videos, and taught myself how to do some WordPress. That’s what started it off.
I think at the pinnacle I was maybe making $1000 a month off my sites, but it was passive, and I was able to still continue to work in the mortgage space until the bottom finally fell out.
Greg: That’s an interesting lesson to meet anyone out there…that you were able to find something new, not that many years ago, really. What do you think, about 10 years, roughly?
Eric: About ’07.
Greg: If you were to be in that similar position now, what do you think there is out there that’s similar for an opportunity?
Eric: Again, it’s going to be something web-based. There’s a lot of people that learn some web-based skill, whether that’s web design, or conversion optimization, or maybe graphics design, or copywriting. Whatever floats your boat, you can usually make some money at it on the Web.
Greg: I was going to say big data, possibly. I don’t know. Does that work, Gene? Does that make sense to you?
Gene: Well, big data implies big, so unless you’re going to buy up a whole bunch of computing power and process data through databases, it’s probably not going to be a sideline passive business to get an extra $1000 [overlapping] [00:07:37]
Greg: So small data would be a better approach?
Gene: Yes, Greg, small versus big.
[overlapping] [00:07:45]
Greg: Probably selling like a product manufactured in China via, like, Facebook ads would probably work.
Gene: That’s actually a much better idea than big data.
Greg: Okay. [overlapping] [00:07:53]
Eric: [overlapping] [00:07:543] Sure, finding a product and maybe drop-shipping, that would work.
Greg: For you that evolved, though, into something much bigger. How did that take place?
Eric: It’s an interesting story. As I mentioned, the most I was making was maybe $1000 a month. Then the mortgage industry continued to decline, and ultimately I found myself, through really no fault of my own, unemployed and unemployable in the mortgage space because all of the big lenders were filing for bankruptcy.
With a resume that said mortgage lender for 12 years, I really had nowhere to go. I was at an all-time low in life. We were hiding our car from the repo man. I was writing bad checks at the market for diapers and formula for the baby, and negotiating with my landlord to not evict my family and I, and on Government aid. It was really bad.
I just happened to run into a guy who was complaining that he was losing his business and I asked him why. He said, “Well, no one can find my website.” I said, “I can do that, I know how to do that.” He said, “Could you do it for me?” I said, “Sure. Would you pay me?” He said, “Yeah, sure. Why don’t you do a proposal?”
So I went home a had no idea what to put down on a proposal, I just sort of winged it. I had no idea what to charge. I didn’t want to charge too much and take the chance of them saying, “No.” I didn’t want to undervalue the service, so I thought $1000 sounded reasonable.
Did a proposal, created a PDF, sent it to him in an email. He called and said, “Come get a check.” He became my first client. Again, I was not building a business, I was surviving. My wife and I went to the market and we bought some groceries and I was continuing to work on my resume and interviewed for jobs during the day that I really didn’t want, but I needed something.
I had my wife in my ear saying, “You need a job. You need stability. You need insurance,” and at night I’d work on his SEO.
Gene: I think we’ve all had those wives.
Eric: Yeah. [chuckles][00:10:02] I actually still have her, so it worked out.
Gene: We don’t.
Greg: Yeah, we don’t.
[laughter] [00:10:07]
Eric: Long story short, he got great results and he was really happy and he salvaged his business. He ended up not having to file for bankruptcy. He referred me to someone else, and that person referred me to someone else.
Greg: And his name was Jeff Bezos with Amazon. No?
Eric: No. Not quite that a success story, but he is still in business, and, interestingly, he’s still our client seven years later.
Greg: Very good.
Eric: It was at some point, I think around three or four clients that I realized that maybe there was a business here. Maybe I can do this for a living instead of the jobs that I was applying for that I really didn’t want. Again, the wife chimed up and said, “No, no, you need stable employment. You need insurance.” But, I wanted to take a chance.
There’s a quote that’s helped me in the past in similar situations, that goes something like, “The biggest rewards in life are often realized by people willing to take the biggest risks.” To me it was a risk to invest 100% of my time in this, but I was willing to take the risk.
Slowly, but surely, got my first office. Got too busy, got my first employee…
Greg: You talked about taking that risk and there was some difference of opinion between you and your wife. Did you ever contemplate that it might lead to the end of your marriage? Did you sense that the risk might be that involved?
Eric: Yeah, absolutely. At that time my marriage was rocky anyway because financial instability tends to wreak havoc on relationships – or at least it did mine.
Gene: I think it’s the number one cause of divorce, actually.
Greg: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. So she wasn’t real thrilled with what was going on to begin with, and then to try to get her buy-in on, “Well, I’m just going to work on my computer for a living,” was really a hard sell. What helped me was by pointing out that the stability that she was seeking in a “job” was not very stable, as evidenced by me losing my job in the mortgage space.
I had that stability and the rug got pulled out from under me, so maybe this was an opportunity for me to create my own stability. With that, ultimately… I don’t know if she ever, officially, bought into it, but she’s, in hindsight, sure happy now that she did.
Greg: The Lexus helped, probably. Oh, that was me. Gene’s fired a lot of people over his career…
Gene: Yeah.
Greg: …from industries in a similar fashion, where they’re sort of forced out of an environment that they’re in. A lot of times they often come out the other end much stronger and more committed to something else that’s a better fit.
Gene: I think that’s true for a lot, certainly not all people. Some people were in jobs that they got lucky to get into and so when they lose that job they are not going to replace that with anything better.
I think for most people who are talented and who have ambition in life, they, quite often, end up in a job – and this does not sound like this is the case when the whole industry turns down – quite often people end up in jobs that are not an ideal match for them.
In those scenarios they may not want to take on the risk of quitting and trying to find something else, but if they’re working in a job they’re not very well suited for, there’s certainly a much higher chance they’re going to be let go.
But, when they are let go, it is an opportunity for them to find a job that’s a lot more suitable to where their talents and their interests lies. When they do, it quite often ends up being much better for them. I think the story I’ve told…a couple years back I was visiting Dallas and I had lunch with one guy that I fired from one company, and then dinner with a different guy I fired from a different company.And they were both happy to meet up with me and chit-chat with no ill feelings, because they were both in better situations a year later than they were in the time when I had to fire them.
Greg: What I found interesting in your earlier answer, Eric, is that your perspective now is really fully committed to opportunities on the Web, so there must be something that’s a great fit about that for you because you’ve not gone back to mortgages and said, “Let’s figure out how to make the mortgage industry change by changing it to fit the Internet,” or whatever may be.
You’re really focused on this area in your life. Why do you think it’s a good fit for you?
Eric: I heard early on that the average number of careers in a person’s lifetime is three. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but in my case it absolutely has been true. Mortgage was my second career, this is my third.
What I really enjoy about what I do now is how intricate it is, and how fluid it is, and how ever-changing it is, because we’re at the very cusp of evolution as things change, as Google refines their algorithms, and so forth, and what worked a month ago, six weeks ago, and what were considered best practices in digital marketing then have evolved and are different today.
My job is, really, to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s going on now and to make adjustments accordingly on behalf of our many clients that put their faith into us. I really get a kick out of doing something with my computer and having it benefit my client.
So, that when someone searches for a service or a product in Google and my client is on the first page, at the very top of the page, and they’re growing their business as a direct results of our efforts, that’s really rewarding.
Gene: I find that interesting that you said you actually like the changes in your particular industry because it’s engaging. Have you considered that those changes, the Google constantly updating their algorithms, do you think that makes your industry more successful? Because things are constantly changing, so people need to update and adapt to those changes.
Eric: I become more necessary, right? Ours is a recession-proof industry because the Web is where it’s at, no one’s going to phone books anymore to find their local barber, or a plumber, or a restaurant, it’s all web-based. As a business, you either have an online presence or you have a failing business, so we’ve become extremely necessary.
As evidence, it’s an interesting side note, one of our clients recently had a bit of a fall-out internally and they lost 90%…the way that they were generating their revenue was lost. I actually they were going to cancel our service. Instead, they doubled down, which I thought was really brave and forward-thinking of them.
They actually increased their campaign in light of the financial downturn that they had and so I think that’s representative of what a lot of businesses think – is that we have to invest in the Web. What’s the alternative?
Certainly, you could buy a billboard, but I think the Web is really where it’s at.
Gene: I have a…I guess it’s a must-ask question, because you’re the guy for that topic. Bing versus Google – why is Bing still around – and are they worth advertising on?
Eric: I would say, to answer the last question first, there’s certainly some value in advertising on Bing. Google obviously has market share by a long shot. When we optimize for our clients, we optimize for Google exclusively, and whatever happens with Bing and Yahoo is just sort of icing on the cake.
There’s still an audience for Bing and Yahoo, but it tends to be – I hope I don’t get myself in trouble here – but it tends to somewhat generational.
Gene: I was going to ask about that. Maybe it’s actually a benefit because you can say that ads targeting people in their 60s all go to Bing, predominantly because it’s where [overlapping] [00:18:35]
Eric: I wouldn’t say all of them, but yeah, a larger portion of them. If you were targeting Millenials you’d be on Google and, moreover, Snapchat, as opposed to Facebook. So there is a generational component to this stuff.
Greg: I found it interesting that you said that things are changing every six weeks, because we probably, about six weeks ago, had an SEO company on, as well. It’s been awhile. There are, definitely, some things you’re doing differently.
We’re going to go to break now, but when we come back we’re going to find out what makes Sachs Marketing Group one of the leading SEO companies in America.
Announcer: This segment is brought to you by the Sales Builder System, the innovative 12-part system for improving your company’s sales process. Check out SalesBuilderSystem.com for more information.
Greg: We’re back with Sachs Marketing Group, with Eric Sachs. We were talking earlier about being on the Internet and the fact that no one’s using the phone. I got the phonebook delivered yesterday, by the way. Do you still get that?
Eric: I probably take it from wherever it’s in – the little bag – and put it directly in the recycled bin.
Greg: That’s what I did, too.
Eric: I’m not sure that’s a worthwhile investment for anybody.
Greg: Unbelievable.
Gene: Do they have to keep making them? I mean, shouldn’t there be an opt-out of the thing, or something?
Greg: I don’t know.
Gene: I’ve thrown away for the last, at least 10 years without looking at it.
Greg: We could save the environment if we would stop…
Gene: Whatever. Somebody’s obviously making money on this so they’re still doing it, but…
Eric: That’s the thing. People are buying ads, so as long as people buy ads, they’ll keep printing them? Who looks at the phonebook?
Greg: Of all the audience out there, we’re definitely not on the leading edge to say, “Bad idea – yellow page’s ads.”
Gene: I think it’s been a bad idea for at least 10, maybe 15 years.
Eric: Unless you’re advertising for your retirement community. People who are in that age demographic might still [overlapping] [00:20:31].
Gene: I suppose if…
Greg: Does your mom?
Gene: Yeah, I can’t imagine.
Eric: No, I…
Gene: His mom’s like our age, dude.
Greg: His mom is not our age.
Gene: Well, close. At least 10 years.
[laughter] [00:20:43]
Gene: You’re not that young, Greg.
Greg: [laughs] [00:20:44] Maybe I should ask my parents if they use the phonebook. What is the newest thing in SEO, though, Eric? What are you guys doing now that’s unique?
Eric: WiFi enabled vehicles, with ads, in cars. You’re going to be driving along and you’re going to pass a Subway sandwich shop and something’s going to pop up on your screen for $4 off for a foot-long sub.
Gene: I’ve had that happen. That is so annoying. But, I have totally had that happen.
Greg: They’re also going to advertise free yoga mats because that’s what they make their bread out of, so you get them both at the same time. Not a sponsor at this point.
Gene: We’re going to sued for that.
Greg: At one point there was a yoga mat chemical, but I’m sure it’s changed.
Gene: A yoga mat chemical.
Greg: In the bread in the Subway buns.
Gene: What?
Greg: The yoga mat chemical was in the…
Gene: What is the yoga chemical? How do they make a chemical out of yoga mats?
Greg: No, the chemical used to make yoga mats…
Gene: There are a lot of chemicals used to make yoga mats.
Greg: …should I be needed to clarify…
Gene: I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Eric: I think we’re getting off subject, guys.
Greg: Yeah. So you’re driving along in your car, Eric, and you get an advertisement for a yoga mat…I mean a Subway sandwich.
Gene: Oh my God. [overlapping] [00:21:58]
Eric: We’re becoming more mobile. Everyone’s got a Smartphone, everyone’s got a tablet, and now cars… So, that’s kind of where we’re headed. There’ll always be desktop computers, certainly, but Google, not long ago implemented a mobile-friendly algorithm, and now if you’re website is not optimized for every screen size, you’re not going to be found very much. That’s kind of where we’re headed.
You asked two questions, one was what are we doing different, or I think it was, maybe, how are we differentiating ourselves, but certainly where we’re headed is very much mobile-based.
Gene: That makes a lot of sense. Does that affect your overall strategy, or does that affect the specific segment of the market that you’re strategizing for? Is mobile something…I guess my question is is there anything the people aren’t using for mobile for forsearching?
Eric: We could have another conversation about generation because there is certainly a generation that’s not using mobile, but if you’re under, gosh, I don’t know, 50ish, you’re probably using some mobile device, whether it’s your phone or you bought a new car that’s WiFi-enabled. You may not intentionally use it, but it just sort of happens.
Like someone said that an ad kept popping up and it was annoying. You didn’t intend to do that. It’s just the wave of the future.
There’s new technology now for…have you seen the VR goggles, virtual reality goggles?
Gene: Yes.
Eric: Not just as a gaming system, but you can now shop at Nordstrom from home using your VR goggles and, figuratively, walk around the store and pick up items and decide to purchase them from your house. It’s getting kind of crazy.
Greg: That’s an interesting step, because I’ve always seen the online space as lacking that, so if you add in the virtual reality component…I guess you could add in music. Smell may be the last thing to come across.
Gene: Taste.
Greg: Well, smell and taste [overlapping] [00:24:16]
Eric: I wouldn’t be surprised[overlapping] [00:24:18], you know?
Gene: Very attractive sales assistants.
Greg: They could be in the VR, right?
Eric: It’s [overlapping] [00:24:22].
Greg: That’s what I mean.
Gene: Oh, so they would all be very attractive.
Greg: Yeah. Yeah. That’s what I mean, because you only use one set of people for the whole country [overlapping] [00:24:30] Nordstrom.
Gene: One attractive set of people.
Greg: It might be the same person.
Gene: That’s what I mean. I set of…
Greg: Cameron Dias would be serving you all the…I’m a very old to be saying Cameron Dias.
Gene: Yeah, you are an old man if you…
Greg: Like, Brittany…no, not Brittany Spears. Nothing against Cameron Dias. Let’s not insult anybody now.
[overlapping] [00:24:45]
Greg: I still like her, still a lot.It used to be Madonna. I had the Madonna poster in college.
Eric: Ahh.
Gene: Yeah, I don’t know who that is.
Greg: She’s the Mother of Jesus.
Gene: Brittany’s grandmother? That’s awesome.
Greg: Madonna’s the Mother of Jesus, don’t insult her, please.
The VR experience is pretty neat that it allows that… I guess we’re off topic there.
Gene: Let me talk about something other than SEO. Your company is a marketing agency. Do you do phone marketing, do you just do SEO, and how big are you guys?
Eric: We do. We handle anything under the digital umbrella, whether that’s search engine optimization, SEO, SEM – which is search engine marketing, which refers to Google AdWords, and paid ads, social media development, as well as web design.
If you come to us as a business just starting out and you need a website, and you need full social media, and branding, and SEO, we can handle anything that’s digital.
In terms of how large we are – we’ve been around just under seven years. Large by employee size, by revenue…? I’m not sure how to answer that.
Gene: Whatever you would consider size [overlapping] [00:26:04].
Greg: Gene does a lot of company audits, so he would love for you to just reveal everything in your books now.We’ll go over operating capital, and…
Eric: We’re growing exponentially year after year. The Inc5000 thing was last year and they measure growth rate. We’re a few million dollar a year company, from one employee working in my house at night to now…I think we’re at 19 or 20 employees – and about $3 million annually in gross revenue.
Greg: You make a big case for the fact that you do not outsource offshore at all…all your employees…You even have the American flag on the – Gene might appreciate this – the American flag on one of your cartoony ads on the web site.
Eric: The digital marketing space is largely outsourced to other countries. Not to knock outsourcing…
Gene: Oh, feel free.
Eric: I’ll try to tell you a little anecdotal story. I hope I don’t take too much time. About two-and-a-half years into the business… Keep in mind I didn’t have a business plan, a marketing plan, I had no idea. I was just doing it to survive and then it sort of evolved. I didn’t plan it out very well. I just made decisions that I thought made the most sense.
To me it made sense if someone was going to pay me to do some work, it made sense for me to do that work. I didn’t even think to send it somewhere else to be done. I just thought I need to do it. If I’m too busy to do it, I need to hire someone to help me do it. That was my mindset going in.
About two-and-a-half years into the business we were contacted by our merchant provider who runs all of our American Express, and Visa, and so forth. He said, “Eric, aren’t you a SEO firm?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “But you’ve never had a charge back,” meaning none of my clients had ever disputed a charge.
Gene: Wow. Very unusual
Greg: That’s incredible.
Eric: I didn’t think it’s that big a deal. I thought it just made…yeah, isn’t that how it’s supposed to be? He said, “Yeah, that’s great, but we have a ton of other SEO firms on our books and all of them, without exception, regularly charge back month-after-month, so what are you doing different?” Honestly, I didn’t know. I had no idea.
But, I wanted to find out so I started doing research. I did a lot of competitive analysis and I met a lot of people, and I found that there’s a kind of standard… Certainly not all of my competitors, I don’t mean to disparage all SEO firms, but there is a real common approach in the digital marketing space that’s based largely on client acquisition.
There’s usually a call center, and you bring clients in, the pitch is “Hey, we’ll get you to the first page of Google in 90 days.” Then you outsource the work to another country like Pakistan, India, or Philippines, where the economy’s so different – it’s pennies on the dollar – so it’s a very profitable model. Then, if they leave after 90 days, that’s fine. You’re just going to replace them with new people that you promised 90 days to. So, it’s about a 90 day retention based on client acquisition kind of a model, and it’s really profitable because of the outsourcing.
Ours is completely different, not because I wanted to be different, but because I had no idea that model existed. It’s probably a good thing, because that’s probably what I would have done had I known.
So instead, I did the work myself. I hired people to help me; I was really transparent and honest, and set very realistic expectations. I would never tell a client 90 days because I don’t have a crystal ball, I don’t know what’s going to happen in 90 days.
We, to this day, don’t have a call center or a sales guy. All of our clients come through me, the CEO, and we just do really good work. We don’t require contracts with our clients, so they can leave at any time.
Gene: That’s interesting and one that I’ve never heard of, that I can think of, at least companies I work with or talk to. Do you mean even on month one…like someone could just say, “Give me a month, and I’ll see what I think of the work you do.”
Eric: Yeah. It’s never happened. But, yeah, technically they could leave at any time.
Gene: You’ve never heard of this Greg?
Greg: No one I’ve talk to that offered SEO, or that I’ve used SEO…
Eric: Our first client ever, that guy seven years ago [overlapping] [00:30:19].
Gene: Oh, SEO. I was going to say… I’m chiming in because that’s essentially what I do for my consulting.
Greg: I’m not talking about all business in the world. I’m not to saving I go to 7-Eleven and buy milk and they’re, like, “Thanks for signing the contract. You going to buy milk here every day for the next six months?” I just mean in terms of SEO companies, it’s definitely very common.
I get it. There’s some amount of time it takes, maybe it’s 30 days, maybe it’s 90, but what protection does a… The first company to do the website– I say company loosely – dude… Dude I met that did the website for Dolphin, I didn’t have the option a month in to say, “Well, your work sucks,” but that was, maybe, my conclusion.
It’s not that you should expect results in 30 days, by any means, but at least that’s giving someone an opportunity to say, “Okay, I’ve seen the work you’ve done in the first 30 days and here’s what I think of it. I’m continuing, or not.”
Eric: I think it’s really important. I don’t want to lock somebody in contractually to pay us month-after-month if they’re not happy and if they’re not experiencing return. I’m confident enough in what we offer because we’re not outsourcing, because we’re doing the work in-house, under our roof, we have complete control of the quality of work that’s being done.
I know that we’re good at what we do and that our clients grow their business as a result of our efforts, so it makes sense that they’ve stayed with us as long as they have.
Here we are at year seven. Still, we’ve not had a single charge back. We don’t have a single negative review on any online [indiscernible] [00:31:58]. You can’t find anything bad about us and it’s because we really bend over backwards to service our clients and make sure that they’re growing their business. It’s a formula that’s working.
Gene; So, you’re not doing reputation management to delete all the bad publicity.
Eric: No, you know…
Greg: They offer that service, apparently, but they may have done their own.
Eric: It’s a really good point because our online reputation is almost suspect, I would offer, because there is not anything negative. It looks a little good to be true. I almost want somebody to go on Yelp and say that I took two hours to return their call, or something negative, because I get it. I know that it looks like we’re developing online reputation fictitiously, but that’s absolutely not the case.
What we’ve done is we’ve partnered with, for example…Trustpilotis sort of industry standard for online reputation because it’s really, really difficult to do a fake review on Trustpilot. If you get a negative review on Trustpilot, there’s no way to remove it. We’ve decided to use Trustpilot as our main review aggregate or source, to show that we really do have…
To prospective new clients we’ll give phone numbers. You’re welcome to call our existing past clients and so it’s actually true. It’s not smoke and mirrors.
Greg: I want to get into some of the mechanics of what it is that you do. I found it interesting on your site – on the very first page…I guess what I would assume is the call-to-action button… Of course it says award-winning SEO company for any size business, but I guess the call-to-action is “Be Happy.”
Eric: Yeah. It’s a little experiment that we’re running. If you read the “Be Happy” section, it’s really just an overview of how we got started.
Greg: I’m clicking now. I’ve decided I want to be happy…actually just decided. Go ahead.
Eric: In a nutshell, it just tells a story. One day I met a guy who was complaining that no one could find his website and he wasn’t happy. I told him I could help him and I did, and he was happy. Then he referred me to people, and then they were happy. If you want to be happy, give us your name and your number and we’ll call you.
It’s a really simple message, and I think it’s kind of cute artwork, somewhat reminiscent to TheGiving Tree, if you guys are familiar with that book. We sort of patterned the artwork after that.
Gene: Absolutely. That’s terrific.
Greg: No idea. Gene, of course…
Gene: Yeah, of course. Greg doesn’t really read.
Greg: Oh my God, I do read. I do read some things.
Gene: Sports Illustrated, baby.
Greg: No, I don’t read that. There’s nothing to read. It’s called “Illustrated,” Sports Illustrated. What’s there to read?
Eric: Aaaand, we’re off the rails again.
Gene: I only read things that are online, because I’m a new-ageMillineal-era person.
Greg: That’s right.
Gene: I read the phonebook, myself. But that’s just me.
Greg: That’s kind of a test, but certainly the use of an emotional word, that must be consistent with some strategies that you guys use in other campaigns or with other companies.
Eric: Yeah, down to the colors. Nothing is a guess. There’s color theory that goes into web design. That burnt orange color that you see is the best converting color on the web. If you look at PayPal, or Amazon, or any other major e-commerce site you’ll see that same color.
There’s a method to the madness, if you will. Because we don’t have a sales staff, we don’t do any outbound, we, literally, wait for our phone to ring, and it does. It rings off the hook. It rings because we get a lot of referral business and because our website generates a lot of business for us.
Greg: So that’s a good sign if an SEO company uses SEO to get business. How do you find the clients that aren’t in Los Angeles?
Eric: They don’t visit us, first of all, so that’s one of our differentiators. Because we have an office, and because we have people here doing the work, we love hosting meetings with our clients to come in and see us, and meet us, and see what we’re doing. Generally, the clients that we have on the East coast, or Virginia – we have several clients there – we have some clients, really, all across the Nation, but they typically don’t show up in our office. That’s really the difference.
Greg: You also have an area on your website entitled Social Media Development. I guess that’s doing social media work. I’m [indiscernible] [00:36:21] about the word “development.” What are you doing in social media work? This is the age-ending question we’re always asking. Where does social media work and where does it not?
Eric: What we do is a bunch of different stuff. We do very traditional social media development which involves us managing our clients social channels – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, in some cases, LinkedIn – really, whatever is applicable for their particular market, or their product, or their service.
We’re building their brand on social channels. We’re building their fan base. Getting people to like their page or follow them on Twitter, or on Instagram, or link up with them on LinkedIn. Then we’re putting content in front of their audience that would resonate with their audience in an effort to drive revenue for our clients.
That’s really traditional social media development. Build the brand, build the fan base, engage with your audience via social channels. Then we do some outside-the-box social media development, as well.
We work with what we call influencers. Influencers are people that have an existing audience that’s attentive to the content that they share on their social channels. If we have a restaurant, for example, that sells, let’s say, Vegan food, here locally, and we can connect with, and collaborate with an online influencer in the food space who has an existing audience that’s attentive, we can leverage that to drive his or her audience into our client’s restaurant.
Greg: How do you convince the influencer to work with you?
Eric: A bunch of different ways. Certainly we’re not above “paying to play,” so money does change hands. In some instances the influencer is smitten by the product or the service and they’re willing to do it gratis.
In some cases we make our own influencers from [indiscernible] [00-38:24]. Ninety-ish percent of what you see on the Web is maybe not exactly what it seems. So that person that you’re communicating with is saying you should try out this particular product or service, may not be a real person, may be managed by a team.
Greg: I think you’re being generous with 90%.
Gene: Because your cynical.Let me ask you a question that is a little more challenging assumptions, I guess. What do you guys…
Greg: That was a pretty good one, by the way. He just unveiled…took the covers off.
Gene: That was, actually, pretty good.
Greg: Now you want the panties off, too?
Gene: That’s right. What do you guys not do? If somebody comes to you and they want to do a lot of marketing, what do you either outsource or what do you recommend somebody else for them to go use?
Eric: We wouldn’t outsource anything. If it’s not in our wheelhouse, we would suggest they find somebody else. It’s anything offline. We’re not a PR firm, we’re not arranging trunk shows for people, we’re not arranging speaking events, we don’t do any type of offline public relations related work.
Greg: Some businesses are a better fit for that?
Eric: I would say yes.
Greg: What would that be?
Eric: Clothing lines, they need to get Carrie Underwood to wear their blouse and walk around at a party and take pictures of her. We’re not going to call Carrie’s people. That would be an offline effort.
Gene: Okay. Presumably, the same thing with traditional media – TV ads, radio ads, that kind of thing?
Eric: That’s not in our wheelhouse. You’re absolutely…radio, TV, billboards, bus stop advertising. If it’s on the Web, we’re the resource for it, and if it’s not on the Web, we would try to fit you with somebody else that would be better suited to help.
Gene: Do you have partners that you typically work with on that, or do you just not get to ask those questions very often?
Eric: Yeah, on a case-by-case, but the vast majority of the people that come to us really come to us for digital. It’s clear that’s what we do. Sometimes there’s some crossover. A client maybe designed a new product and there’s first to market, so they’ve got the burden of education to let people know this product exists.
So we’re doing our best in terms of the website and the social media, building the audience, building brand awareness on the Web.But maybe they need some additional, like an infomercial, or maybe a billboard. It’s really not our area of expertise.
Gene: Right. The video aspect opens up another question, which is if it is online, so you’re going to want videos for…whether it’s YouTube, for the SEO in YouTube, or their website in general, do you guys do video production, or do you also recommend somebody else for them to do that?
Eric: I have two partnerships in place. I guess you could call that outsourcing, but not really because they’re local. I have one partnership in place for what we call “explainer videos,” which are oftentimes either cartoons or a whiteboard-type of video where someone’s drawing as there’s a voice-over. We do those.
We also do actual video where a film crew shows up and you’ve got a script, you’ve got sound, you’ve got lighting, and so forth. There are both types of videos on our website. We have resources for that, but we don’t actually do them ourselves.
Greg: For people out there that are looking for what marketing works well, if you could give an avatar, if you want to call it that, give me a couple examples of a type of company – even a specific example – of a company that’s good for SEO versus good for social media versus video marketing, or something like that.
Eric: I would say if it’s good for SEO, then it’s going to be good for social media and video marketing, because it’s all sort of the Web. If the company is a good match for web-based marketing, then that’s going to encompass both SEO and social media.
There’s a crossover that exists today between what happens on social media and what happens in search results that didn’t always exist. It’s relatively new. There’s a concept that if your friends like something, there’s a good chance you might like it, too.
If you’re connected to people on social channels and your activity may actually influence what they see when they search for stuff in Google, believe it or not.
Greg: How does that connection, then? Are you saying…which influences the other?
Eric: Let’s say you and I are friends on Facebook and Twitter, and we follow each other on Instagram, and we’re in each other’s Google Plus Circles, and I’m shopping for, let’s say, a classic car and I find a website that I really like and I share it on my social channel, like people typically do.
Six months from now you decide to look for a car and you do a search, there’s a good chance, assuming you’re logged in and we’re connected, that the website I shared today will be on your search results a few months from now when you do a search.
It’s a function of how social media has really bled into the SEO space.
Greg: That’s not a bleed from an organic result, that’s a bleed of some sort of data connection, right?
Eric: Yeah, it’s the fact that you’re logged in – and keep in mind, you have to be logged into your Google account. A lot of people are when they do searches. If you use Chrome as a browser, for example, most people will be logged into their Gmail account, and if we’re connected through Google Plus, then that’s how that connection occurs. I guess you’d call it somewhat organic.
We’ve sort of strayed from the question. My point is that if someone is a good fit for us, they are a good fit for social media development, as well, and video, as well. In terms of what types of companies, gosh, I would say almost every type of company that either sells a product or offers a service.
We will work with pretty much any company. There’s a couple markets that we won’t work in – gambling and the adult entertainment industry – is not somewhere where we’ll go as a firm. Other than that…
We have some niches that we’ve developed, sort of organically. We didn’t necessarily intend to specialize in a particular market, but we have a ton of clients in the drug/alcohol treatment space, maybe because of our proximity to Malibu and a lot of them are in Malibu. I’m not really sure how that happened.
Greg: [laughs] [00:45:14] Well, okay.
Eric: And some others – some home improvement, we have some attorneys, doctors. Our book of business is pretty representative of a ton of different types of industries…shipping companies. The list goes on.
Greg: Again, one thing I’d say that I thought was unique at the top is that you guys at least advertise that you…any sort of size company…you guys are interested in and work with those types of companies. How low does that price get? If someone’s like a solopreneur – one person company – or a very small company, is there a price range for them, too, or is there a limit to that?
Eric: Yes there’s a price range, and yes there’s a limit. That’s evolved. When we started out it was “Gosh, we need business. We’ll take anybody.” As we become more successful, we become a little bit more selective about the clients that we’ll work with.
At the same time, I try not to turn anyone away. At the point I’m turning someone away, it’s because their budget is such that I know that I’m going to need more resources to be able to be successful for them. They’re offering $200 a month, let’s say, and I know that it’s just going to cost more than that.
So rather than take their $200 a month, knowing they’re going to cancel in 90 days because they’re upset with me, I’d rather just have them a little irritated that I’m turning them away now, than angry with me 90 days from now when they’ve spent $600, now, and they haven’t gotten anything for that money.
Greg: What do you think the biggest mistake people make when they look at doing SEO for their company is? Or doing social media for their company, for that matter.
Eric: There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors. We sort of alluded to that when I was talking about the standard approach to help marketing companies market their services. There’s a lot of deception and lies and misrepresentations. I would say the mistake that people make is not fully vetting, or fully making sure that the company that they’re going to be partnering with is really able to do what they say they can do. It’s just really unfortunate.
It’s been my goal, and if you follow me on any of my social channels, or follow our blog, there’s a common thread, and that’s to try to bring some integrity to this space that’s so lacking that. I can’t do it all on my own. I do the best I can.
Gene: I think your growth is a testament to your doing it. [chuckle] [00:47:49]
Greg: That’s a problem we see. It’s bold and brave of you to say, “I’m in an industry that lacks integrity and doing the best I can in that space,” and passionate for it.
Eric, it’s been great having you on and learning about, really, how companies can better evaluate what they’re doing in Internet and digital marketing, and thanks again for being on the show.
Eric: Thanks for having me, guys. It was a great time and thanks for listening to the story. I really appreciate it.
Greg: Thanks so much. That was Challenge Assumptions.
Announcer: As always, the Challenge Assumptions podcast has been brought to you by Dolphin Consulting. Whether you need to improve your operation’s efficiency, or grow your revenue, visit DolphinConsulting.org today.
Please don’t forget to subscribe to the show via iTunes and like us on Facebook. Until next time, remember to challenge assumptions.
You may think the keys to business success are quality products and services, or good marketing and promotion. The real key to success? Strong customer relationships. And one of the best ways to foster these relationships is through transparency.
Keep Your Word
Whatever promises you make your customers, be sure you can hold to your word. If that means carefully promising only what you know you can deliver, so be it. If you fall short, customers will feel taken advantage of and lose their faith. 62% of global customers report they’ve stopped doing business with a brand after a poor customer service experience, so keeping your word is paramount to keeping customers happy.
Mistakes happen, so if there’s a reason why your products or services aren’t going to be delivered as expected, reach out and keep the customer informed, offering something to compensate them for the delay.
For instance, if Amazon determines a shipment will not be delivered in the promised timeframe, they email their customers to let them know. If a prime customer reaches out to customer service and expresses dissatisfaction with the issue, the usual response is an additional month of free Prime services for their trouble.
Be Honest About Everything, Including Mistakes
Be upfront about everything, including your pricing and billing structure. Explain the costs, fees, and deliverables especially when it comes to enterprise level SEO. Keep invoices clear so as to reflect the specifics of everything delivered, and clearly explain your terms. This can help overcome any dissatisfaction regarding vague bills. Being honest and upfront about any key customer pain points can improve overall satisfaction.
No business is perfect, and when a mistake happens, it can be tempting to hide from it and deal with the fall out later. But, the sooner you communicate about a mistake on your part, the better your customers will respond. Explain the problem in a truthful manner, while offering an explanation for what happened and why, what you’re doing to solve the problem and prevent it from happening again in the future, and offer a resolution your customers can live with. You want your customers to understand that you’re about taking action – not that you’re hiding from your mistakes.
In 2013, Target suffered a database hack that left millions of customers’ personal and financial data exposed. The company’s CEO at the time, Greg Steinhafel resigned in the aftermath – but not before a forensics team was hired to investigate how the hack was achieved. Once it was determined malware had ben installed on the system, it was removed, and the public was notified of the breach. In response, the company invested $100 million in upgrading POS technology, after the decline in sales because of the breach lead to employee layoffs. Ultimately, Target offered free identify theft protection to customers in an effort to restore customer faith, and agreed to settle a $39 million dollar lawsuit with several U.S. banks as a result of the breach.
Listen
Listen to what your customers have to say. 64% of customers say sales people ignore them, and 66% say they have to ask for the same information repeatedly. When customers don’t feel heard, they’re going to respond with complaints, and worse, possibly leave your business for the competition. But, when a customer feels like someone is listening to what they have to say and doing their best to take their thoughts into account, they’re much more likely to stick around.
Be Responsive and Timely
Respond to customer emails and phone calls as quickly and efficiently as possible. And where social media is concerned, 32% of customers expect a response within half an hour, while 42% expect a response within an hour. 57% expect the same response time even outside of normal business hours. Act fast, or risk upsetting customers.
Inform Customers of Change
If something is changing within your company, be it good or bad, tell your customers in a timely manner. They’ll learn to trust you and what you have to say because you’ll make it clear that you value them enough to keep them informed.
Remember, Communication is a Two-Way Street
When a conversation is one-sided, it loses value, and becomes lost in the sea of millions of other conversations taking place at any given time on the Internet. Not only should you be listening to what you customers have to say – you should respond to it and allow them to engage with you. Let them know what you, or your company is doing to improve their experience now, and in the future.
Say Thank You
One of the easiest ways to show appreciation for your customers is with a simple thank you, or other gesture of gratitude. When customers know you appreciate their business, it helps keep them engaged in the future. Say thank you with a discount code for a future order, a free month of service, or even a handwritten thank you note sent with their order.
Why Transparency Matters
Being completely transparent with your customers helps you in three key areas:
Trust: Gaining customer trust is paramount to the relationship. When buyers make a purchase from you, they want to know they’re making a choice that aligns with their goals, and personal or charitable interest. You cannot buy trust – you must earn it. To earn that trust, you have to make sure customers understand exactly what it is they are buying, by providing that information up front, and means being honest at every opportunity.
Loyalty: Brand loyalty can be difficult to earn, but by establishing a connection with your customers, and doing things to empower your customers whenever possible, you can foster that sense of loyalty. Customers who know they’re doing business with a company that is completely transparent about everything from manufacturing practices to marketing, will naturally become more loyal to them. Take for instance, Lush Cosmetics – a global brand of handmade, all natural bath and product products. They’ve built their brand around core values customers love – ethical sourcing ingredients to protect animals and the environment, minimal packaging, and many vegan products. They also have products specifically designed to support charities in line with those values.
Empowerment: With the Internet, customers are now more empowered with their purchasing decisions than ever before. There’s no longer a limited number of big brands to work with, but a seemingly endless array of small businesses to choose from, all just a search and a click away. No longer are they limited by what’s available in their local area – they can order products and services from across the globe, should they see fit. We are in the age of the customer, where their journey is taking place more frequently without communicating with another human. In fact, by 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship without human interaction.
Transparency is often feared because of the open and honest stance it requires. But, customers are shouting about what they want – and if you’re not paying attention, you’ll get passed up in favor of the competition. Allow your customers to make better choices, and you’ll be greatly rewarded.
If you have any recent experience building relationships with transparency, please share about it in the comments section below.
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