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What Makes A Great Automotive SEO And Digital Marketing Company?
Each year it seems like hundreds of new digital marketing companies spring up and then disappear. As business owners or internet managers or marketing directors, we see hundreds even thousands of e-mails in our inboxes and solicitations on LinkedIn each day promising everything from “Top Google Placement” to “High Lead Conversion” to “Social Media Optimization.” But how do you separate the hidden gold from the snake oil?
Hard Work – The only real guarantee
Beware the “guarantee!” This is the first sign of snake oil. In online marketing there are NO guarantee’s! THERE ARE NO GUARANTEE’S! Professionals dealing in various online marketing strategies know this all too well. What we attempt to do is a form of manipulation:
# SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
We attempt to create content and links in an effort to “manipulate” search engines to display a favorable result for our clients.
# SMO (Social Media Optimization)
We attempt to create compelling content that people will find interesting or entertaining to “manipulate” popular opinion of a business, organization or person.
# ORM (Online Reputation Management)
We attempt to create compelling, favorable, content in high volume in attempt to “manipulate” search engine results and public perception about a companies public face.
Theory – an “educated” guess
In the end what every online marketing company does is put into practice generally accepted theory about what works and what does not. It is important to remember that any way you slice it, its a gamble and as such, there can be NO guarantee’s. Instead, what you should look for is transparency. Ask to see what one month’s work looks like for an existing client. If this cannot be shown in it’s entirety because they don’t want to give up their “secret sauce” this should serve as a red flag. The real secret sauce is hard work and creating HUGE volumes of content and links.
For example, last month Wikimotive’s client, Woburn Toyota received the following work:
# 54 Classified postings
# 33 Press Release Submissions
# 31 SlideShare submissions
# 78 Social Bookmarks
# 18 ScribD pdf’s
# 25 Directory Submissions
# 31 Optimized Videos
That’s an average of 9 pages of content being created every day, every month or over 3,200 pages of content each year!
3 Main Components Of A Great Digital A Marketing Company
There are certainly a number of components that separate a good digital marketing company from a great one. But the top 3 components to look for are: Integrity, Transparency, and Leadership.
# Integrity
This is pretty self explanatory, but instead of calling the #1 “poster child” client that the vendor gives as a reference, ask for 5-10 and take the top 3 right off the list. Most companies only call 1 of the given referrals and its usually the referral that is most likely to give positive feedback. Call 3 or 4 and start at the bottom of the list and work your way up.
# Transparency
Ask for proof. Remember, there is no secret sauce. If they’re doing something they wouldn’t want you to see it means 1 of 2 things: either they’re doing something that will likely not have longevity (Scary) or they’re not actually doing anything! (WORSE)
# Leadership
More than just a company that does a job you need a company that is an industry leader. Most digital marketing strategies are based on theory, but who makes the theories? Industry thought leaders! People like Wikimotive’s President, Timothy Martell. People like PCG Digital Marketing’s CEO, Brian Pasch and people like TK Carsites JD Rucker.
What makes greatness is in the forging of the path. For 2011 Wikimotive’s Timothy Martell throws down the gauntlet by indicating that ORM (Online Reputation Management) will be 2011′s game changing marketing component. Find out why in next article at http://www.wikimotive.net!
About the Author
Wikimotive is dedicated to providing the latest automotive SEO, Social Media Marketing, Facebook Marketing, Search Engine optimization techniques and online marketing best practices and services.
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