Welcome to Advance Your Agency, a series devoted to helping digital marketing agencies grow and succeed. “Employees leave their managers, not their companies.” It’s one of those quotes that we often hear, or see plastered all over LinkedIn, but probably don’t know whether to believe. Yet, the statistics suggest that managers really do hold the keys to an employee’s engagement at work. In the US, a study by DDI found that 57% of people leave managers, not companies. It’s similar in the UK, too, where a study by Totaljobs found that almost half (49%) of employees in the UK leave their jobs because of their line managers. Furthermore, Gallup found that 70% of team engagement is determined solely by the manager. And, in the UK, another study conducted in late 2022 found that employees who feel well-supported by their line manager are 3.4 times more likely to feel engaged at work. Here’s an overview of what I’ll be covering in this article:
The world of digital agencies isn’t immune to this phenomenon. If you’re running an agency, or even just managing an individual, you need to understand the impact you can have on their engagement. If you mismanage someone, it could spell disaster for your agency. How Managers Make the DifferenceI’ve always been a firm believer that your experience in a workplace is largely determined by the manager you have. But the concerning thing for many agencies (and something which has probably led to the stats shown above) is the varying styles and abilities of those placed within these all-important people-management roles. Agencies, in particular, often have issues with progression. They fall into the trap of “progression=line management”, rather than just increased responsibility as a reflection of their experience. This can often lead to incredibly clever people doing something they just aren’t good at or don’t want to do—managing people—simply because it’s the only way for them to move ahead in their business. Our direct managers have such an influence on the way we work. They provide our sense of purpose, direction, and autonomy. Plus, they support our professional development. If they aren’t equipped with the skills to effectively deal with people, then this can have a major impact on the experience we have at work. Yet with Gallup finding that only 20% of employees ‘strongly believe’ that they are managed in a motivating way, it shows that managers get it wrong far more than we may think. The Pandemic Made This Even WorseA lack of proximity and distance from the wider organization means that employees with particularly poor managers are struggling even more since the pandemic. A shift towards far more remote and hybrid working has meant many develop closer ties with those they immediately work with, but looser connections with colleagues in other teams or departments. The result? More day-to-day exposure and reliance on the line manager. And if they aren’t great at their role, this impacts the experience of the employees reporting to them in a staggeringly negative way. Marketing agencies make up one of the prime sectors that can work fully remotely or with effective hybrid working. But if an agency isn’t careful with how they implement this, they can cause real issues for employees and managers alike. How to Create Better ManagersSo, we’ve established that managers play a crucial role in employee engagement. But, what can be done to make them better? Determine Whether It’s Something They Want to DoThis is the first question that really needs answering. Is managing other people something that they actually want to do? In far too many organizations and especially digital agencies, management is the main step to higher seniority. Many accept that this is what they will have to do to achieve more status and gain a higher salary. But being a good individual contributor on a technical or practical level does not equal being a good manager. They are completely different skill sets, with behavioral traits like empathy and adaptability far more important than the technical skills that they may have previously relied upon. I would always urge any organization to not put employees into management roles if they don’t want to be spending a large portion of their time dealing with people and motivating them to become the best they can be. That’s quite the problem, so how do you get around it? Establish Different Progression TracksSet up and showcase progression tracks that don’t rely entirely on managing people. Have one that includes management, but also one where your employees can simply become more senior as an individual contributor. This means that star employees have options about how they develop in your organization, and they don’t feel ‘forced’ into a management route if this isn’t something they will enjoy, or don’t have the natural skillsets to take on. Set Clear Expectations and Make Them AccountablePeople who do want to go into management need to clearly understand what is expected of them. This means ensuring that they are accountable for performance around various people-related metrics. These include things like employee satisfaction and engagement scores, probation pass rates, retention, and promotion rates. All managers should have relevant goals set for their performance in that role, and be reviewed against them throughout the year. Encouraging them to constantly reflect on their experiences and iterate their approach as they learn to deal with new situations and challenges will help to equip them to approach them far more effectively in the future. Afford Them the TimeA common complaint I hear from managers, especially in organizations where their people management standard is not particularly high, is that they don’t have the ‘time’ to deal with people matters alongside their day-to-day work. In agencies, where so much of an employee’s time is billable, giving managers the time to manage is often treated like a luxury. Yet managing people takes a huge amount of time and effort—and even more to do it well. In fact, once a single manager gets to the point where they are directly responsible for anything upwards of five people (and certainly once they reach seven), management pretty much becomes a full-time role in itself. I have to stress that time spent on ‘managing’ is an investment in the future of others. As we have seen, managers have the potential to have a huge impact on employee engagement and happiness; this ultimately hits the bottom line through reduced employee churn, more focus, and a better quality of work. As such, it’s crucial that managers are afforded the time to focus on developing their employees. Expecting them to deliver the same amount of ‘work’ as before is only going to end up creating a bad experience for your team. Provide Them with TrainingOffering support in the form of training and coaching helps you to develop the skills and confidence of your managers. It also indicates to the rest of your organization that you’re willing to make the investment in improving everyone’s working lives. As mentioned earlier, many end up in management positions with little to no prior experience or training to get them there. This makes it crucial to introduce them to a range of concepts that they may not have dealt with before, such as having challenging conversations, theories around human motivation, fostering psychological safety, and diversity and inclusion. One-to-one coaching can also be a highly effective way to get your managers chatting to someone about certain challenges or situations they have faced, and reflecting on how they have dealt with that experience and what could be done differently next time. The overall aim here is to empower them to ‘own’ their development as a people manager and increase accountability for their performance within that role. Creating better managers benefits everyone, from the top to the bottom of the business. Whether that’s helping people advance, or creating a better culture. We’d love to hear from you in The Local Pack or on social media about your thoughts about the manager’s position in improving employee engagement. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/OrSvN4G Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/
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You’re about to sign on the dotted line with a new client, but you’ve got that gut feeling. What if I get burned again? What if the client drops me within two weeks? What if I have another stressful period where clients don’t understand what I’m doing? It’s okay to feel like this. We know there are some experiences working as a local SEO freelancer, consultant, or agency that cause a great deal of stress. However, there are also really great experiences that can make you truly enjoy work. These are what we call ‘green flags’; the signs you might see in a potential client that indicates whether the two of you are a good match and if there’s potential for a strong working partnership. 1. The client follows your onboarding process to a teeThe clients who collaborate with your onboarding processes effectively are the ones to look out for. They don’t ghost you for a few days when they’re meant to be giving you access to their Google Business Profile and Google Analytics account, and they don’t ask about cancellation processes as soon as they’ve signed up. In our Facebook group, The Local Pack, Melanie Diehl shared one of her big lessons from the past year.
2. They don’t shy away from telling you their budget and their long-term business goalsThey don’t try to get your price down or get you to do more work for less money. They don’t err on the side of caution when it comes to marketing budgets or suggests they might only have enough budget to pay for a short SEO campaign. They’re willing to invest in marketing and they understand how essential local SEO is to their business. It’s great when a client is open with their plans and wants you to join them for the ride. 3. They show they trust you and your local SEO skillsIt’s great when a client is genuinely trusting of your skills. They respect your experience and the success you’ve had with other clients. They’re excited about how you can help them. They might share an idea or two, but they don’t tell you how to do your job. They give you a clear brief and are open to hearing about your priorities and strategy for their local SEO campaign. They listen to what you say and implement your findings. Marina Milutinović also shared her experience in our Facebook group, saying she loves when clients participate in the work they do:
It’s also great when the client commits to collaborating with you. Reuben Colazo shared his positive experience with clients, saying:
4. They wait for your updated monthly reports about project progressWe know that SEO is a slow game, but do our clients? The best clients don’t ask why they’re not number one in the map pack after two weeks but show they’re interested in the work you’re doing to get them there in the meantime. In a recent post on The Local Pack, we learned some awesome ways to get clients on your side with reporting progress. Stefan Janjić Lozo suggests:
Magen Hyatt also shared:
5. They genuinely show interest in you as a person, and support your businessThey treat you as a human and understand your limitations, your work schedule, and you as a person. They’re not calling at all hours, demanding you answer their questions. They enjoy your catchup meetings with you and demonstrate good rapport. They might even give you a testimonial to say how amazing your work is. When a client has a positive attitude, you know they’ll be easy to work with! 6. They respond to your emails quickly and efficiently (and they pay their bills on time!)It’s great when you get a timely response from your clients, and you’re not spending all of your retainer time chasing them for the answers you need. They answer your questions without going around them and help you make quick decisions about what you need from them. A bonus is that they pay their bills on time, so you can actually eat and pay your rent that month! What do you think?What are the green flags you look out for when signing a new local SEO client? Share your ideas in The Local Pack! We’d love to hear from you. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/usGzerF Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Feedback from your customers can be a treasure trove of helpful information. It may help you uncover demand for new products or services, for example. It could also shed light on recurring complaints or perhaps even confirm the need for additional features. A customer satisfaction survey is the easiest way to gauge how your customers are feeling about your business. That could mean rating the customer support they have received, describing how they feel about your products and services, or sharing their experiences of your brand. If you already know how to ask for reviews and get reviews on a regular basis – perhaps as a result of using a review management software – you’re in a great position to begin sending out customer satisfaction surveys. Don’t worry if you are new to this type of feedback though as we’ll be sharing plenty of good customer survey examples and useful tips throughout this article. What is a customer satisfaction survey?To put it simply, a customer satisfaction survey is a questionnaire that you ask your customers (both past and present) to complete. Sometimes also known as a customer feedback form, the survey guides customers through a series of questions about their experiences with your business. These questions give your customers an opportunity to tell you more about their overall experience. As well as sharing how they feel about your business, it’s also a chance for customers to express what they particularly appreciate, what they would like to see more or less of, and what causes frustration or disappointment. How does a customer survey differ from a review?It should be noted that a customer satisfaction survey is different from a consumer review. Although some review platforms may ask a consumer to rate a few specific aspects of your service (such as the cleanliness of the hotel room or overall value for money), a consumer review is a broader, freeform comment. The consumer won’t be prompted to reply to carefully considered questions about a range of business aspects when writing an online review. They’ll simply leave a short comment, often with a star rating, which sums up their experience publicly for others to see. By contrast, a customer satisfaction survey guides the consumer through a set of very specific questions. Often you’ll have a specific goal in mind with a customer survey, where you want to address a particular issue or get feedback around a service or product. Customer service survey question examples could include things like ‘how likely are you to shop with us again?’, ‘Did we resolve your complaint within an acceptable timeframe?’ and ‘What can we do better’?. These are questions that you wouldn’t expect to be addressed by a consumer asked to leave an online review. What’s more, this type of feedback is intended to be used internally, rather than shared publicly on review sites. Rather than helping other consumers decide whether or not to use your business, survey responses help drive decision-making and improvements within the business itself. Why They Are Useful For Local BusinessesThere are no two ways about it: customer feedback is vital for local businesses. But, why? If you’re already meeting your sales goals and have good client retention rates, you might think you have your niche cornered. You may think that as you’re already doing well, you don’t need customer survey questions to tell you what your customers are thinking. Nothing could be further from the truth. Regularly gathering targeted feedback via satisfaction questionnaires gives you the data you need to make data-driven decision-making. The client input you receive through this process can guide your decisions so that they’re perfectly aligned with what your customers specifically want and need. This feedback could be useful in product and service development – asking real customers what else you can do to support them, or what other features would be helpful to them means you’re better placed to deliver on that need. In doing so, you can set yourself apart from the competition and become the go-to in your local area. Source: BrightLocal Academy Customer Survey Being able to tap into authentic experiences across your business can also help pinpoint areas where change must be made. If feedback commonly cites frustration with slow customer service responses, for example, that’s an indicator that you need to revisit current processes or consider expanding the customer service team. While this may feel like criticism, in practice it gives you the opportunity to address pain points. In turn, that can help to reduce customer churn, increase retention, and deliver an even better experience to every customer. Tips for creating customer satisfaction surveysWhen approached correctly, satisfaction surveys can bring you closer to your customers, enhance product and service delivery, and fuel company growth. You may be wondering what questions to ask in a customer survey so you can get started immediately. But before you do, read our following tips to get your strategy right before you hit that send button. Have a Clear ObjectiveThe best customer survey examples all have one thing in common: they are focused on a specific objective. Therefore, a clear idea of what you want to discover will help you ask the right questions. This means that the insight you gather will be useful and help you achieve your objective. For example, if you would like to reduce customer churn, you could ask questions about what you could have done better. This will help you to pinpoint stumbling blocks for customers that you can address to boost retention rates. Don’t Gather Unnecessary DataGathering unnecessary personal data can inhibit respondents. For example, they may feel they don’t want to share specific details due to privacy concerns. You also risk recipients being reluctant to share genuine opinions if the survey isn’t anonymous. Certain questions may also overstep personal boundaries, such as asking about gender, salary, contact information, religious beliefs, etc. Audit your questionnaire and remove any request for identifying data or personal information that isn’t strictly necessary. Source: BrightLocal Academy Customer Survey Write an IntroductionBegin your questionnaire with a short introduction. Explaining the purpose of your survey upfront increases the likelihood of useful responses. If you do need to gather personal information, use the introduction to explain why you’re asking those questions and how you will handle that data. Ask Specific QuestionsQuestions that are too vague or too open-ended will likely generate non-specific answers. To ensure feedback is valuable and gives you the insight you can work with, ask precise, specific questions. ‘What did you think of our service?’ might seem quite specific, but if we consider it a little further, it becomes clear that this question can be interpreted in several different ways. One person reading the question could understand that you’re asking for an overall opinion of their experience buying from you, including things such as shipping speed, quality of product, and value for money. Another may understand the question to be asking only about the customer service they received. A better option would be to ask, ‘How would you rate the quality of this specific product?’ or ‘Did our customer services team resolve your query?’. Ask Different Types of QuestionsHaving different types of questions will give you a much richer pool of feedback to learn from. The best customer survey examples use a mix of open-ended questions and those that can be answered with a yes/no response or a rating out of five. The yes/no or star rating questions make it easy for you to see, based on an average of all responses, whether your customers are happy, what they enjoy, and what they don’t like. If you were to ask your customers, ‘Would you recommend our dry cleaning service to a friend?’ simply counting up the number of yes versus no responses will allow you to conclude that ‘9 in 10 customers would recommend our service to a friend’. Questions that allow the customer to provide more detailed responses give you deeper insight. For example, asking something like, ‘What did you most enjoy about our service?’ or, ‘is there anything we could do differently in the future?’ can prove useful. Here, you’re giving the recipient space to share their opinion. This is a good way to draw out suggestions and extra details that you may not have access to otherwise. Allow Respondents to Skip Irrelevant QuestionsDespite your best efforts, it could be that some questions aren’t relevant to every recipient. Allowing respondents to skip irrelevant questions can remove friction and reduce frustration. It also means you aren’t in danger of gathering inaccurate or untruthful responses simply because the recipient had to answer to move on to the next question. Be ConsistentA consistent rating scale system will make it easier for your recipients to share their opinions correctly. Giving satisfaction scales to grade responses is common in customer survey questions. A commonly used satisfaction scale is:
If you adopt this scale for your survey, ensure that the scale follows the same order each time and is presented in the same way. Changing the order of satisfaction levels could lead to the recipient choosing an incorrect scale by mistake. Source: BrightLocal Academy Customer Survey Don’t Make Your Questionnaire Too LongIt’s important to strike the right balance when writing your questionnaire. Too many questions, and your recipients are less likely to complete it. But conversely, asking too few questions won’t generate much helpful insight. There’s no hard and fast rule when deciding how long your survey should be, but 60% of people say they won’t complete a questionnaire that requires more than 10 minutes of their time. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself if a question is truly necessary. Don’t include it if it isn’t vital to achieving your primary objective. There’s one more thing to keep in mind. Research suggests that respondents spend less time per question when the survey is long. This indicates that longer questionnaires generate lower quality and less considered responses. Conclude With an Open-ended QuestionHaving an open-ended question such as ‘is there anything else you’d like us to know?’ gives the respondent a space to share information not covered by your questions. Source: BrightLocal Academy Customer Survey Choose an Appropriate MediumTo maximize the number of valuable responses you receive, you’ll need to consider the medium you use for distribution. The option you choose should ensure maximum convenience for your recipients. Email: Email is one of the most popular survey channels. You can embed questions within an email or use the email as an invitation. In that case, you’ll provide a link within the message body to the survey. Text: A text message-based survey could be appropriate if your customers routinely deal with your local business via SMS messaging. In-app: Does your local business have an app to manage bookings and reservations? You could embed your survey within the app, allowing users to give feedback after a certain period. Website: Another option is to host your survey on your website and invite your customers to share their opinions after they check out their cart. In-store: Tablets at the point of sale can provide a convenient way for customers to share their feedback with you immediately. Don’t feel that you must limit your survey distribution to one channel. Combining channels can boost participation rates. For example, an SMS prompt after an email invite has gone unanswered may improve survey response rates. Segment Your RecipientsCreating customer segments can improve satisfaction survey results. You may already have those customer segments set up because of other marketing activities you’ve carried out. Email lists, for example, are commonly segmented to allow more targeted messages to be sent to customers. Segmenting your lists means you can be very specific about the questions asked. Targeting questions to smaller pools of customers also enhances the quality of the data you receive back. Think About Your Survey Invitation WordingHow you ask your recipients to complete your survey is almost as important as what you ask. That’s because the wording of your invitation will determine whether that customer then continues to complete your feedback form. Begin by personalizing your message so the email addresses the customer by name. Next, it’s important to outline how the survey will benefit the recipient. This could be as simple as stating that responses will be used to improve the products and services you deliver to them. If your survey is being sent to only a small segment of customers, highlighting that within your message creates a sense of importance. Note how the recipient has been selected and is one of a select few invited to share their opinions and experiences. Giving an estimate of the time required to complete the questionnaire is a trick often used in the most successful survey examples. Finally, remember the importance of a compelling subject line, so your invitation is read. Source: BrightLocal Academy Customer Survey Email Consider Offering an IncentiveUnlike reviews, you can offer incentives to customers to encourage them to share feedback via your satisfaction survey. This could be an entrance into a prize draw or a discount code for money off their next purchase with you. 14 Customer Survey Example QuestionsWhen it comes to what questions to ask in a customer survey, there’s an almost unlimited number of options. The specific questions you include will depend on your objective and who the survey is going to. These customer survey example questions can be used to form the basis of your own satisfaction form. 1. On a scale of 1-5, how happy were you with [name of product/service]?This question gives you a clear idea of satisfaction levels for a particular product or service. A low score indicates that something isn’t quite right and that further work needs to be done. 2. Which three features of [name of product/service] are most helpful to you?This is a great question to ask before product development or updates take place as it allows you to hone in on what your customers consider most valuable. 3. Does our [name of product/service] represent you good value for money?Budget is a significant consideration for many local consumers. Tracking whether your business continues to be considered a good value for money option can improve client retention rates and reduce churn. 4. If you had to choose an alternative local [name of product/service], who would it be and why?This question can be a useful source of competitor intel. You’re asking your customers which of your local rivals they are also aware of and what’s most compelling about those alternative options. Information gleaned here can help you address gaps and maintain your competitive advantage. 5. Why did you choose our [name of product/service] rather than a competitor’s?Similar to the previous question, this is helpful for competitor benchmarking. The responses should tell you what customers most appreciate about your offering and what differentiates you from rivals. These are your differentiators. Once you know what they are, you’re better placed to leverage them in customer communications. To widen the gap, you may also want to build on these differentiators in future product and service development. 6. Which other [name of products/services] did you consider before choosing ours?While you will have an idea of your competitors, this may be different from what your customers consider being alternative options. Asking this question could reveal alternatives that you weren’t aware of, such as new entrants to the local market, that warrant further investigation. 7. If you could change one thing about our [name of product/service] what would it be?This question can play a direct role in your product or service development. It highlights unresolved needs and opportunities to serve your customers better. The most common responses should be implemented as quickly as possible. 8. How can we improve your experiences with us?This is an open-ended question that could throw up lots of interesting responses. These answers should give you an idea of what customers want and expect from you. With that knowledge, you can work on delivering those desired changes. 9. How likely are you to return to our [website/physical location]?This is a good barometer of how you’re performing overall, as it speaks to customer intent. 10. Did you find it easy to locate what you were looking for [in-store/app/online]?Offering a superior customer experience is critical to securing repeat business. Customers who find your website difficult to navigate, or find it hard to locate items in-store, are likely to want to avoid repeating that experience. The responses you generate here could highlight customer friction and help you make a plan to make the path to purchase more straightforward and streamlined. 11. Was our customer service team able to resolve your problem?When it comes to customer service matters, you’ll want to know that your team is delivering. Asking if queries were resolved speaks to the effectiveness of your service. 12. Did we respond to your query promptly?Today’s consumers expect increasingly fast responses from customer service teams– a study found that nearly half expect a response in fewer than four hours, while 12% expect a response in less than 15 minutes. This question helps you to judge how well you’re meeting those expectations and whether additional team members or a more streamlined process is required. 13. Is there anything else you’d like to add?This question gives the respondent space to provide additional feedback they’d like to convey. This is a great question to include as it could reveal valuable information not covered by the questions you’ve asked. 14. We may contact you to discuss your responses. Is that ok?Asking if you can reach out for a further conversation allows you to have a deeper conversation and discuss any interesting responses further. Or to clarify comments that you didn’t understand. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/6mjp8Xx Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ You literally can’t do digital marketing without people—but somehow, even in today’s modern world, most agencies forget that. That top-down lack of empathy and understanding isn’t anything new, it’s “a tale as old as time” (ok, come on—most of you would be sorely disappointed if I didn’t have at least a few movie references in here). As the inimitable Ruth Burr-Reedy always says, “it’s called show business… not show friends”—but that doesn’t mean that people aren’t important. Most agencies completely forget that they can’t do anything without their employees. Digital marketers have been commoditized. I’ve worked at several agencies over the last 20 years—and for most of them, people didn’t matter. Everyone was just a number on the P&L sheet:
I’m not going down the “it’s cheaper to pay more to retain employees than hire and train new ones” road. I’m not going to spout the standard BS about how company culture matters. I’m not even going to share self-care tips to help y’all be in a better headspace. I am going to tell you how to get into the right mindset to make all this stuff work.
I’m incredibly blessed to work for a visionary agency owner. Mark Bealin, founder of SearchLab, is not your standard agency owner. He puts his people before anything else. Not only has he built a stellar agency based on hiring the right high-level talent—he’s done it with the right people-focused core values. I’m here today to share a little about how our agency does things differently, and why I think it’s the key to long-term success… But even if it’s not, it’s the key to doing things the right way. As you read through this brain dump, don’t holler at me about how you do the same thing. If you do things as we do, this post isn’t meant for you. Virtual high five, amigo! Thanks for being awesome. Really, this is meant for all the other people out there who are either doing it wrong on purpose, doing it wrong without realizing it’s wrong, or who are thinking about building an agency in the future and want to do it the right way.
It’s worth mentioning that COVID-19 and the explosion of remote work has only made the problem of poor agency management worse. For a lot of agencies, as long as the work’s getting done, employees are out of sight, so they’re out of mind. There’s a ridiculous amount of research that’s been done in recent years that shows that remote workers are prone to high anxiety, feelings of isolation and loneliness, depression, distraction, lack of motivation, and general malaise. Again: not really going there with this post. It’s all been covered ad nauseum. I’m here to champion the fact that there’s another way. I’m here to share that a people-first mentality actually equates to better results for clients… and a better bottom line for your agency. If you’ve seen me speak at any event before, you know I’m all about sharing actionable tactics—so I want to try to steer away from the 10,000-foot view here. I want to share real-world examples from my own experience. So that, hopefully, you can either shift your perspective and start to give a shit about your team or, if you’re building a team in the future, that you start with the right foundation. It’s Not About Culture, It’s About MindsetA few years ago, I worked at an agency that was a sub-section of a larger company. The SEO office was at a separate location, and it was built out to be “cool” so it would contribute to a great “culture” (please read the words in quotations with sarcasm). We had a massive break room, a huge couch with an Xbox, a shuffleboard table, and even a nap corner. We had a huge drop-down screen to run team events and training. From the outside, it seemed like an awesome place to work. But the owners wanted a better bottom line, so we were forced to hire cheaper team members with less (or no) experience. Some of those people truly were rock stars and are still killing it in the SEO game today. But we started to have a big problem: we were training other agencies’ employees. It was a revolving door of team members. The cheaper we skewed on hiring, the more likely it was that those people left once they finished training and got a bit of experience under their belts. Raise percentages dropped, and the problem got even worse. Every time I brought it up, the owners told me to deal with it, because we had no problems hiring new people to replace them. Clients got frustrated at the turnover and morale dropped. It wasn’t a good situation. They didn’t care about the people, they just cared about the bottom line. And that wasn’t an isolated situation—it happens all the time with agencies that grow. The more you grow, the easier it is to lose sight of who’s allowing that growth to happen. Mental Health Shouldn’t Be a Scary TopicIsolation does some crazy stuff to your brain. Why do you think they have isolation cells for misbehaving prisoners? They’re already in prison, but being shut in a cell by yourself is far worse. Now that most agencies have gone remote, everyone’s in their own isolation cell. As agency owners and leaders, it’s our obligation to understand that and to help people lessen the impact of not being in a face-to-face office situation every day. Yet, so many agencies don’t care about mental health, or at best are terrified of talking about mental health. If the topic is even vaguely alluded to, it’s “hey, you need to go talk to HR about it” (and then it’s lost forever in the HR black hole, and nothing ever changes). That’s why SearchLab has been such a shocking departure for me. I had just been suddenly let go from a new agency (through more non-people-focused leadership decisions) and was looking for a new home. One of the guys who was going to be speaking at the State of Search conference in Dallas reached out and asked if he could take me to lunch the day before the conference to chat about coming to work there. That lunch changed my life.
Mark Bealin is the kind of guy that pretty much anyone who knows him would take a bullet for. Within maybe three or four minutes, it was obvious that this was a totally different approach to running a business, much less a marketing agency. He talked about true work-life balance. About how money wasn’t as important as having happy employees that truly enjoyed their jobs. About how he wanted to be the one to change people’s lives, help them get houses, help send their kids to school. It wasn’t about hiring me to build the agency to make bank. It was about hiring me to build an agency of awesome people who love what they do and enjoy doing it—but to also give people a better life outside of work. Instead of shying away from the conversation or just giving up, Mark asked if they’d rather just take a leave of absence and come back in a few months when they felt more comfortable. They were shocked that it was even an option, and took us up on the offer. So now that I’ve rambled for a lot longer than I probably should have, let me get to the point: You have to focus on your people. Period. Top-down or Not At AllManagers and team leads can talk about culture and inclusion all day long, but if it’s not part of the lifeblood of your agency, it doesn’t make much difference. Everyone from the top down has to be a part of making that change. I’m not talking about the normal BS of touting that you’ve got work-life balance. Or that you’ve got a “sweet culture, bro”. I’m talking about a complete shift in point of view. At SearchLab, we have several core values that we live by daily:
That’s five core values, and really only one has anything to do with the standard “snappin’ necks and cashin’ checks” mentality that most agencies have. So before this becomes a blog post that’s got more content than the entire BrightLocal site, let me share some of the things we’ve done. Tactics for a People-focused AgencyWhen COVID hit, we went remote, like everyone else. Before COVID, everyone but me and our developer worked in the Chicago office. We adjusted quickly to remote life and realized we could hire remote workers without any problems. Pretty quickly we became a widely distributed team (we tripled our headcount during COVID, so it was a lot of growth). We realized pretty quickly that we had to invest a lot of time and effort into recreating the in-person-ness and connection that we were lacking. We’ve honed it over time, and while I’m positive that there are improvements we can still make, I think we’ve got a pretty good system in place. True Focus on Work-life BalanceVolume isn’t important to us. Could we make more money if we made our people work longer hours? Sure. But life isn’t all about work. We make sure that workloads don’t exceed 35 hours a week. Standard hours are 8 to 5 central, five days a week. We even tell our clients that we’re only available during that window. Some agencies let people work whichever hours they want, as long as work gets done. We tried that, but then saw people splitting their workload to a few hours a day, but working every day. Breaks are important, so now we don’t let people work over the weekend. At SearchLab, you actually get in trouble if you do weekend work. That’s you-time, not work time. Unlimited Time Off, Done ProperlyWe’re always looking for ways to make our employees’ lives better, so last year we switched to unlimited time off. We already had an incredibly generous time off policy when I started: from Day One at SearchLab, employees would get three weeks of time off and unlimited sick days (that didn’t count against time off days). But we knew we could do better, so we switched to unlimited days off. (Personally, I’m most excited about this because it’ll make it much easier for me to be on Survivor someday soon…) But then we noticed something… people were actually taking less time off. When it’s a “use it or lose it” situation, you feel like you have to take the time off. When you can take off whenever you want for as long as you want, it becomes less of a priority. I’m actually building a system right now to monitor when people take time off. Once I get it finished and working, we’ll actually require employees to take time off if they’ve gone too long without doing so. Hiring the Right People for the Right SeatsIt’s hard to hire without bias. Sure, we look at skill sets, but your own personal biases will influence who you hire. For example: if you’re a more social person, you end up hiring people you want to hang out and have a beer with. That doesn’t always work out, though. About two years ago, we started churning employees. Even with the focus that I’ve talked about so far, people were leaving at a pretty high rate. We’d get comments like “you worked me too hard” or “you micromanaged my schedule” or “tracking hours is too controlling”. We didn’t understand the comments, so we found a solution that helped us be better at hiring the right people. We started using a system called Culture Index to help us hire the right people for the right seats. Far beyond the personality tests a lot of companies use, it’s a system that uncovers how people’s brains are hardwired. Thanks to Culture Index, we now know how to better communicate with applicants, and more importantly, we know if someone is hardwired for success. If someone’s hardwired to be more of a “go with the flow” person, they’re probably not a great fit for the repetitive, task-based nature of agency life—even if they’re super social and interview like a rock star. It’s one of the biggest game-changers we’ve implemented. We’re Not Afraid to Pay MoreDollar-focused agencies look to hire cheap. We look to hire expensive. We’re responsible about it, obviously, but we typically pay more than other agencies pay for similar roles. Experience is worth paying for, and I’m not interested in SearchLab being a training ground for other agencies. If we pay better, we get a higher quality of people to join the team, and they’ll typically stick around longer. … and We’re Not Afraid to Keep Paying MoreWe’re not afraid to keep paying more, either. I read the other day that the standard raise in today’s world is something like 3%. That doesn’t even cover the increase in the cost of living. We give aggressive raises to reward people for rocking awesome work. And again, that makes people happier and keeps them around longer. Zappy Hour and Goofy Get-togethersWe wanted to figure out how to recreate those watercooler moments while remote working. Those random conversations that happen that aren’t about work really help connect team members and help everyone to get to know each other better. Since everyone is remote, we can’t do the “let’s all go to happy hour together” thing. So instead, we have a weekly Zappy Hour (‘cause it’s happy hour on Zoom… get it?). People can grab their beverage of choice and just hang out together. We even had some team members start curating playlists for each week’s Zappy Hour, so everyone’s involved in the background music. We try to schedule goofy meetings periodically as well. (I don’t want to brag, but I’m pretty awesome at most of the Jackbox games.) We purposefully mix up the groups and teams each time so everyone gets to hang out and have fun with different people. And yes, all of this is scheduled during work hours—not after hours, where we’d take people away from personal time. Weekly One-on-ones and Team MeetingsGetting work done matters, too! We couldn’t do any of this if we didn’t have happy clients. So we have weekly meetings for each team, along with weekly one-on-one meetings for each team member and their direct supervisor. A face-to-face chat over Slack or Zoom is so much better for personal connection than a typed email or Slack message. Sharing Profits with the People Who Helped Us Get HereI mentioned before that our owner isn’t only focused on profits, and he’s serious about that. We set up a profit-sharing bonus with the entire company: every month, a set percentage of the profits is dropped in the bonus pool. Every June and December, that bonus pool is distributed among the team, based on a simple seniority-based point system. Everyone gets extra money for summer vacations and Christmas presents, but more importantly, everyone has skin in the game. Hard work and happy clients mean more money in everyone’s pockets. Handing Out Even More MoneyThe salaries, generous raises and profit sharing weren’t enough for Mark, though… he still wanted to do more. So last fall, he and I worked out a retention bonus program for our employees. We’re a boutique setup, so each team member “owns” a set number of clients and does everything for those clients. For each month that they don’t lose any clients, money is funded to a separate bonus pool (which also pays out in June and December). Team leads and managers get to play here too, even though they don’t have accounts—they get funded when the team members they’re in charge of don’t lose any clients. Not only did this help us give even more to our team, but it’s also refocused everyone on customer retention. Keeping clients happy keeps them around longer, which puts more money in everyone’s pockets. We’re Not Stopping There…Like the movie Popstar, we never stop never stopping. Because our team is more important than anything else, we’re always looking for ways to make our team’s lives better, both in the (virtual) office and at home (the “at home” after the home office). At the end of the day, we’re only around for a short period of time, and there are a million-bazillion things that are more important than work. Like Myles said in the first piece in this series:
via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/DJe5FHc Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ We’ve given Local Rank Tracker a major upgrade, and when we say major, boy do we mean it. Say hello to Local Rank Tracker 2.0. That’s right, it’s so major we’ve cracked out the two-point-oh, something we don’t do lightly at BrightLocal. Now you’ve got the same unbeatable accuracy of Local Rank Tracker with even more insights and a whole new look. What’s new, at a glance:
Game-changing insightsDiscover 6 ways Local Rank Tracker will make tracking and understanding rankings easier than ever.
This is the biggest single update to Local Rank Tracker since its launch over a decade ago, but that doesn’t mean it’s been gathering dust on a shelf. A lot of the recent updates have been under the hood, with performance in mind. We cut average report run times from 14 minutes to a speedy 4 minutes, for starters. Then in recent months, we added brand new metrics like Average Google Position, Keyword and Positional Movement, and Local Pack Coverage to offer even more insights. These changes helped improve the foundations of an already solid tool. But, for Local Rank Tracker 2.0, we rolled up our sleeves, took your feedback on board, and took a running jump forward. All Your Insights in One PlaceOver the years we’ve added numerous features to Local Rank Tracker. Some you might have completely missed. And that’s on us. We hid powerful features and insights away in modals and tabs. But not anymore. Now we’ve bought all your ranking insights into a single dashboard. Your new local rankings dashboard gives you everything you need at your fingertips. View keyword groups and benchmark against competitors without leaving the dashboard. And, if you don’t want this visible in external reports, just select “Hide section”. Not only that, but we’ve improved how we display your data. Now you will see historical ranking performance for each keyword in a handy graph. Spot fluctuations or trends at a glance. Simplified DataLocal Rank Tracker tracks a lot of data! There are Google Organic, Local Packs, and Google Maps rankings. Plus, Desktop vs. Mobile rankings. It lets you track rankings for your Google Business Profile and websites. And the visibility of your listings on third-party sites. That’s already a lot of data, and we haven’t even mentioned Bing yet! While all this data is essential for gaining a deep understanding of a business’s overall search visibility, we realized that it was too much information to digest at once. Rather than trying to cram all that information into a single rankings table, we’ve split out ranking types to provide more clarity. You can still quickly compare rankings across each result type. And now you can get a deeper dive into each tab, which has allowed us to surface even more insights than ever (more on that in a minute). Clearer Results: Compare Website vs GBP RankingsThe Local Pack can cause all sorts of ranking confusion. Does it count as organic? Is it your website, or your GBP? Historically we reported Local Pack rankings as part of organic results. But, we realized this caused more confusion. We mixed together the rankings of two entirely different entities; your website and your Google Business Profile. Both of these have completely different local ranking factors, using their own unique algorithms. Local Rank Tracker 1.0 muddied the waters by blending the Local Pack with organic, making it tricky to compare and analyze rankings. This made spikes or drops from algorithm updates hard to dissect. To make sure we got this right, we talked to you, our customers about how you wanted to see your results. When asked, 66% of our customers said they’d prefer to track rankings by splitting out their GBP and website, as opposed to by the search engine (e.g. Organic Vs Maps). So we did! We’ve now created a clear distinction between your GBP rankings in both Local Pack and Local Finder Results, and how your website is ranking in organic desktop and mobile results. Now you can quickly assess whether your GBP or website ranking more accurately. Check whether one is lagging behind, and prioritize your efforts accordingly. This has also allowed us to offer much deeper insights across each ranking type. Track Local Pack rankings more easilyLocal Pack is now its own search result type in Local Rank Tracker 2.0. We know how important it is to claim these positions to increase traffic and leads so made it easier for you to track. This pairs well with our recently added ‘Local Pack Coverage’ metric. Now you’ll be able to quickly see which Local Packs you’ve already claimed, which you might have lost, and which you need to target. Go deeper into your website ranking insightsYou’ll also get even more insights on Organic SERPs and your website rankings. Know which SERP features to targetSee exactly which SERP features are shown for each keyword in organic results. You’ll know precisely which queries trigger a Local Pack, knowledge panel, video result, or ads. And we’ve added filters so you can isolate the keywords for each SERP feature and come up with a plan of attack to claim more of them. See which pages are rankingYou’ll now clearly see which page on your website is ranking for each keyword. Spot issues where the wrong page is ranking and focus your efforts. For example, you might see that your homepage is ranking for service-related keywords instead of your dedicated service pages. This can be the springboard for further investigation and on-site optimization. More intuitive and insightfulAt BrightLocal, we take pride in providing the best tools for local SEO. That’s why we’ve put in the hard work and taken your feedback to heart to create Local Rank Tracker 2.0, a tool that’s more intuitive, insightful, and valuable than ever before. You can see the benefits of all these improvements from today. And we’re just getting started! Our team is committed to continuous improvement and is already working on exciting updates to make Local Rank Tracker even better. New to BrightLocal? Try Local Rank Tracker and all our tools with a 14-day free trial. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/GHTB7sm Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Ever wondered why your listing info gets changed without your knowledge or consent? Unauthorized changes (such as a change to the business phone number, name, category, or opening hours) can lead to big issues with ranking and tracking—not to mention the confusion and frustration it causes customers when seeing the wrong information about your business. Our research revealed that 63% of consumers would stop using a business if they found incorrect information on a business listing. That’s a lot of potential business to miss out on. Since having details on your listings changed without your knowledge can be harmful to your business in more ways than one, it’s important to figure out where they’re coming from. Over the past decade, the local listing landscape has undergone a significant transformation. Previously, there were hundreds of sites where consumers could discover local businesses. But four publishers—Google, Apple, Facebook, and Bing—account for 92% of consumer engagement in the local listing space. Think of these publishers as your digital storefronts. It’s crucial to keep them up to date and protected from rogue edits to maintain your brand reputation and provide a great customer experience. The problem with these four publishers is that they are most susceptible to changes. Typically, listing sites will only display the information that you enter. However, Google, Apple, Facebook, and Bing, get their business data from other places, too, and will automatically update your listing with the information if they believe it’s correct. Why is data consistency important? Data consistency is an important part of Google’s local search algorithm, which means that building local listings with consistent name, address, and phone number (NAP) on your Google Business Profile and other online directories can influence your local rankings. Having consistent NAP is also important to the user journey, as online directories aren’t just used by search engines—they’re used by humans, too. Where do Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, Facebook, and Bing get their data from?Local listings get their data from a variety of external sources, including data aggregators, third-party apps, and user-generated content. Here’s a breakdown of where each of the four most influential publishers—Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, Facebook, and Bing—get their data from: 1. From UsersIf a user thinks a listing has inaccurate information or the business should be removed, they can suggest an edit or flag it for removal. User edits come in handy if a customer visits your company online and finds that your opening hours, or other information, is missing or incorrect. On the flip side, competitors can also suggest edits if they find out you’re violating the publisher’s guidelines—or simply want to harm your business. 2. From Your WebsitePublishers are constantly scraping your website to try and figure out what your business does, and sometimes they can get it wrong. For example, here are BrightLocal we write a lot about cleaning up and building citations. If this was all we wrote about, there’s a slim possibility that Google might scrape our website and think that we offer cleaning or building services and add those to the list of services we offer in our GBP. It’s unlikely, but stranger things have happened to businesses in Google Land! Thinking about changing your business name or address? Your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) should be consistent everywhere they are online and match the legally registered name of the business. If you’re planning on changing your business name or address, follow these four steps in this order to ensure you don’t run into any trouble with updates or verification:
3. From Third-party AppsIt’s likely that you’ve given quite a lot of third-party apps, such as Yext or Semrush, access to your listings over the years without even realizing it. Some of them you probably don’t even use anymore. Apps like these can be set up to push data to your listings. For example, if you moved and forgot to update your address in Yelp, Yelp could push your old address to your Apple Maps listing because that’s what they think is right. It’s worth noting here that Apple Maps currently relies heavily on Yelp to provide data, so if your Apple Maps listing is incorrect, go and check your Yelp listing. It’s a good idea to check what apps have access to your publisher accounts. Make sure you either remove the apps you don’t use, remove the authorization to push data, or make sure all the information in those apps is correct. 4. From Another Manager or OwnerIt’s important to periodically review all authorized users and remove old employees and users you don’t recognize from your publisher’s user list. Any user could make edits at any time without your knowledge so you need to make sure that only people you trust have access and can make changes. For example, in your Google Business Profile Dashboard, click the three dots in the corner, then ‘Business Profile settings’. Click on ‘Managers’ to see who has access and can edit your listing. How to Stay On Top of Unauthorized EditsNow we know where the top four publishers get their data from, we can work out how to keep on top of them. ManuallyMost listing platforms will send out alert emails to the managers and owners of the listing when something has been updated, so one way to stay on top of changes is to check that email account regularly. You may also receive notifications (if you have turned them on) to alert you to possible updates. AutomaticallyThere are tools out there that can instantly alert you to any alterations to your listings, so you can take action before it affects your customers. Our tool, Active Sync, does just that, providing you with a smart way to manage and protect your online listings on the platforms where your customers discover, evaluate, and engage with your brand the most. Find out more about Active Sync here. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/r3f1tFX Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/
Got a burning question about your local SEO campaigns? Our Local Search Clinic is open! This time, we’ll be joined by Elizabeth Rule, SEO Analyst at Sterling Sky to answer your questions.
via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/w2IbZ17 Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ This year, we were proud to sponsor Women in Tech SEO Fest 2023 which took place on March 3 in London. With talks around SEO and data, content, careers, and more, it was an amazing day full of knowledge and inspiration. During the day, our roving reporters took the tiny microphone to hear the big ideas from those at the event. We asked everyone to share their top tips and advice for SEO at the moment. Here’s what they had to say…
via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/0XahASu Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Picture this: you’ve got a big jar of cookies for the whole office. But there’s a problem. You work with the Cookie Monster and they got to the jar first, leaving everyone else without a crumb. That’s kind of what’s been happening with SMS Credits in Get Reviews. They all sit in one big pot and it’s not uncommon for one hungry client to use them all up. It’s frustrating for everyone else and it can be costly for you. Fear not, because we’ve just released our new SMS Credit Allocation! With this new feature, you can manually allocate credits to different clients and locations based on their typical usage. That way, everyone gets their fair share of cookies–I mean, credits–and nobody is left short. And that’s not all–you can also keep track of how many credits each client or location is using, so you can top up those who need extra before the month is up. You’ll be one smart cookie. Watch this bite-sized video to see how it works. Keep your clientss credit cravings satisfied and more dough in your wallet with SMS Credit Allocation. Okay, now I’m just hungry. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/2sLoiZD Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Local digital PR is a vital resource for small and local businesses. Earning organic links and online coverage has become a vital part of SEO—digital PR placements are even endorsed by Google, as they always emphasize the importance of earning links over building them as a great way to rank higher in SERPs. Local digital PR can be the booster jet that launches your client’s business from the shadows to the top of the local search results. To work alongside your current efforts and local SEO tools, here’s a rundown of what local digital PR is, how it can help your client’s business to grow, and how you can measure its success. What Is Digital PR?Digital PR is the combination of traditional PR and an SEO strategy that works to increase a brand’s online presence. With its roots in link-building (or even link-earning), the practice looks to secure relevant media coverage and backlinks to a site, to improve the site’s ranking on the SERPs. Brands and businesses of all sizes employ digital PR strategies. While it originated as a way to generate links, and so boost ranking positions, it has broadened into an effective marketing strategy to improve public perceptions of brands and heighten visibility. In other words, the perfect mix of SEO and PR. A successful digital PR campaign will earn topical links to your client’s site from relevant publications which can help to elevate their ranking positions and experience, expertise, authority, and trust (E-E-A-T). How Is Local Digital PR Different?Local digital PR differs from other types of digital PR because of its focus. Rather than trying to boost a brand or business in front of the whole world, it focuses on where that brand operates. This way, the added awareness will be more meaningful, often directly translating into leads. While international links will still help local businesses shoot up the rankings—and contribute to a healthy link profile—it is the targeted aspect of local digital PR that works so well alongside your existing local SEO efforts. While the campaigns themselves can be national, they are designed to establish a business as an expert in a local geographic area. This is done through gaining links from local publications, boosting SERP position generally, and ensuring the website ranks for local keywords. Any good SEO company should be able to do it, but it’s often best performed by a specialist local SEO company. Creating a Digital PR StrategyIn most cases, a digital PR strategy will highlight ideas and plans to secure external links, gain off-site coverage and boost brand awareness. Technical audits, backlink profile analysis, and competitor backlink investigation are typically included in local digital PR strategies in the analysis phase. We’d always recommend performing research on what you need to do, before going full steam ahead. Cornerstones of an Effective Digital PR strategyThere are many aspects of a solid digital PR strategy, each worthy of dedicating time and attention to. Identifying Target PublicationsNot all links are created equal. Links from high authority websites are always appreciated, but aren’t super helpful if they’re not from a relevant website. Links from websites that are relevant to your client’s niche will always be more beneficial because they tell search engines that your client’s website is an authoritative one in that industry or for that topic. With local digital PR, you can add another layer here, too: localization. While a link from a high authority international website would do amazing things for brand awareness, it may not do quite as much for your local visibility. For instance, if you’re a restaurant looking to improve your local rankings, getting a link from a local press site or blogger could do more for your SEO than a link from a huge international news site. The sweet spot would be a site that’s local to your area and thematically relevant to your niche. This is why digital PRs will target specific outlets, to ensure they are sending the digital PR campaigns they create to:
Decide on Your Target PagesOnce you’ve identified your target publications, you’ll want to think about the pages of the website you wish to target. Links to the homepage are, relatively, easier to earn. But links to deeper pages, where product pages and content reside, can be more valuable in terms of SEO. By encouraging links to deeper pages, search engines more easily crawl the whole website, and are more likely to rank them for niche searches that are relevant and that the page seeks to answer. It also helps pass authority and equity to deeper pages that are more likely to convert customers. You will need to consider that some publications may not link to deeper pages, and will only offer homepage links. Others may not link at all, or only supply ‘no-follow’ links. This doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying to target specific pages, though. Consider Your Target Anchor TextAnchor text is the written part of a hyperlink. It will fall naturally within a sentence, but when clicked it will take users to a separate webpage. A great tip for SEO and digital PR is to use the keywords for the page you’re linking to as the anchor text. This tells both search engines and users what the page is about, but also has the extra benefit of helping search engines to categorize the page. An effective local digital PR strategy will include campaigns to target different anchor texts. For example, while you may target your client’s homepages for most of your digital PR efforts, you can make sure you keep a healthy link profile by including variations of the anchor text. By including the links you desire with targeted anchor text within a press release, you encourage journalists to simply use it the same way. Out-and-out asking for specific anchor text can get a bit murky, as various laws and Google link spam guidelines touch on this. Many journalists and writers may not like it either, so using optimized anchors in your outreach can give them the gentle nudge they may need without having to specifically ask. Create Story-first Content IdeasBefore you’re able to send out any digital PR campaigns, you need to come up with ideas first. These need to be interesting enough that your target publications will want to cover them, but also relevant to your client’s niche to help boost their authority. We’d always advise you to think story-first when you’re creating an idea, rather than format first. Rather than thinking ‘We need an infographic!’, think ‘What would resonate with our target audience?’ or ‘What would our target publications, and their journalists, find interesting?’. Then, once you’ve worked this out, you can consider the type of campaign you’ll want to create and whether you’ll need to get things like data. Do You Need Data?Data isn’t necessary for all digital PR campaigns, but it can provide the basis for great ones. Data-focused campaigns offer irrefutable information on compelling topics. There are generally three types of data campaigns:
Each of these will come with its own advantages and disadvantages. Often this could be cost or lead time, which is why internal data can be so useful. Create Graphics or VisualsGraphics and other visuals, like tables, are a great way to provide information in an accessible way. Reams of numbers and jargon can be mind-boggling, but a cleverly designed graphic can hold all the same information and look great at the same time. Whether it’s graphs and charts to show the data, tables with all the data laid out clearly, or images that drive a point home—visual aids draw attention and help to keep it. A clear and simple data visualization can be the difference between a passing mention in a piece and a proper feature with a link, where they’ve sourced the image. So always consider that, too. Not only that, but in some cases, a truly beautiful data visualization could be the reason you get links at all. A bit of design flare can make a real difference. Craft the Perfect Press Release or Outreach EmailPress releases are packets that digital PRs send out to journalists. They include a summary of the information and the data, as well as pointing toward any particularly interesting findings. Journalists can use these directly to craft their articles, though usually, the press release provides a link to further information. Press releases themselves aren’t quite as widely used as they were. Some digital PRs opt for a shorter and punchier outreach email that gives the receiver as much information as possible up-front. It’s down to you to decide which you think is better. Some publications will prefer a press release, for instance. Perform Your OutreachOnce your campaign is ready, and you’ve written your press release, it’s time to send it out. Even the most brilliant digital PR campaign, rich in data and insight, needs to be seen by the right journalists if it’s going to do what it’s created for. This is why digital PR experts will curate a list of contacts while the campaign is still being developed, so they will be able to send it out as soon as it’s ready and the information is at its freshest and most relevant. Companies that specialize in local digital PR should have studied the local area, picked out publications where the target audience hangs out, and tailored their outreach to these to provide maximum SEO and awareness benefits. A good campaign may even have multiple angles that let you tailor specific stories for each individual publication or niche that you outreach too. Different Types of Local Digital PR CampaignsExpert CommentExpert comments are pretty much what they sound like. They are a comment from an expert in the industry being discussed. This could be a case of the CEO of a cleaning firm offering advice in an article on tackling carpet cleaning, or a manicurist offering tips on caring for dry cuticles.
In this example of an expert comment, the experts at Construction2Style offered advice and styling tips for a post by MidWestHome called “2022 Ideas to Steal”. Their advice focused on wood, in particular a brand of furniture that uses wood, and how it benefits their clients and themselves. This helps to establish Construction2Style as experts in home decor and house styling while earning a link back to their own website. So, not only is their website positively affected but their brand reputation too. Reactive and NewsjackingReactive campaigns, also known as newsjacking, are digital PR campaigns that piggyback onto current news or events. This could be a chocolate company reacting to Valentine’s Day, or a sportswear company taking advantage of the Super Bowl.
In response to the warmer weather returning, the experts at First Choice Environmental released an infographic on battling pests in the garden. This also leads to data-led digital PR campaigns, as it contains both expert comments and some useful statistics. This led to more links for First Choice Environmental, as well as establishing themselves as experts in their local area. The ideal reactive local digital PR campaign focuses on your client’s realm of authority and expertise. This typically takes advantage of trending news or holidays, and pairs this with information only experts in your client’s industry would know. An example of this kind of reactive, and local, digital PR campaign is the one below, on how damaging pumpkin guts can be to drains and pipes. It is reactive because it was created in response to a national holiday or occasion—in this case, Halloween.
The plumbing experts at Roto-Rooter released a statement, advising the public of the dangers of flushing pumpkin guts down the drain. By writing about Roto-Rooter in conjunction with some important keywords, it establishes them as experts in the area. It also results in their website earning more links and more traffic, and has the benefit of directing customers to the expert they need if they do flush pumpkin guts down the drain. Product PRDo you think all those lists of ‘the best pillows to buy 2023’ are all just organic? I mean, in some cases they may be. But the reality is that many lists just like that one will include PR products and a link back to a product or category page. This will often work in a similar way to expert commentary or reactive PR. Often a journalist will put out a request for products, whether that’s the dehumidifiers or places that do afternoon tea in a particular city. Then PRs have an opportunity to submit their client for consideration. Many people do this proactively, which is a staple of more traditional PR. Sending out gifts and samples or inviting people along to try out an experience or meal can get you featured when these sorts of lists are created. This can get you links to product or category pages that would otherwise be awkward to create, and it’s not just limited to people with physical products. Data-led Campaigns and ReportsA data-led campaign focuses on information or statistics—this can be from a survey, scraping websites like Twitter, or from reputable external sources. This could be a review of hygiene ratings in local restaurants or sentiment analysis of the nearby green spaces.
In the above example of data-led digital PR, or content marketing, Blacktower US Financial Management Group looked into which US states were best to retire in. By looking at the crime rate, the average age of the population, cost of living, life expectancy, and property prices, they ranked US states from best to worst. A data-led campaign brings a multitude of benefits. For one thing, providing data that no one else has brings exclusivity, so even competitors will link to your client’s site if the information is compelling enough. Being so heavily data-focused makes the content more believable, even though the information may be surprisingly astounding. As with any statement in the modern age, you need to bring the receipts to back it up. This also makes the content more interesting and compelling. Providing new, highly relevant data also shows your client as actively contributing to their industry, establishing themselves in the eyes of audiences and Google as thought leaders. A thoroughly researched data-led campaign can end up being cited long after your outreach phase has ended, gaining links over years rather than just weeks. Examples of these kinds of campaigns from BrightLocal include their annual Local Consumer Review Survey, which doubles up as a valuable industry report offering unique insights into consumer reviews, and a piece that can attract links from respected publications. Another is BrightLocal’s Big Brand Review Showdown on which states prefer McDonald’s or Burger King, based entirely on Google reviews, which taps into a slightly more wide-appeal, consumer-focused type of data-led campaign. Benefits of a Robust Digital PR StrategyCredibility is hugely important to any brand, including local businesses. In today’s digital world, most of that credibility needs to be established online. Gone are the days when you’d hire a service or make a purchase based solely on word of mouth--87% of consumers used Google to evaluate local businesses in 2022. Google is becoming smarter every single day, whether it’s shutting down fraudulent business profiles or fighting against disinformation. It’s more able to filter out any dodgy businesses, so it’s important to differentiate your client from their competitors. If you can showcase on your client’s website all of the wonderful publications and outlets that they have been featured in, your client will gain instant credibility with all site visitors. 1. Digital PR Increases Online PresenceImproving credibility is just one of the benefits a robust digital PR strategy can bring. A great digital PR strategy will also grow your client’s online presence, making it easier for customers, old and new, to find you. Digital PR uses proven SEO techniques to rocket your client’s brand up the SERP and into the spotlight. The higher a SERP position, the more likely a result is to be clicked. 2. Digital PR Improves Brand RecognitionDigital PR doesn’t just improve a website’s standing in terms of SEO—it can also be used to boost brand recognition across the board, whether that’s by getting your brand’s name into national papers, or ensuring their status as an expert in a certain area. 3. Digital PR Provides Audience ConnectionDigital PR can be laser-focused. What we mean by that is, you can target the exact audience or demographic you want, and tell them exactly what you want them to hear. This helps your audience to understand exactly what your brand is about and what to expect from you. 4. Digital PR Drives TrafficAs your brand is noticed more and regarded as an expert, more people will visit your website. This begins a cycle of more websites linking to yours, which only boosts your SEO and SERP standing, which leads to more visitors to your website. How Digital PR Ties In With Local Link BuildingLink building is the process of earning links to your client’s website from other websites. Digital PR is just one way to do this. Digital PR is a process of truly earning links, by providing useful or interesting information that others will want to write about and share. The idea is, when they share this information, they provide a link to its source—your client’s website. Local digital PR and link building go together like peanut butter and jelly, and the same is still true when it comes to local link building. The tactics just shift slightly. By focusing efforts on publications, outlets, and other trustworthy resources in a specific area, a brand gains credibility and authority in that region. Whether this is a full on-site asset, laden with data, on a local-area-based blog, or an expert comment in the local paper, getting your client’s brand name out there works wonders. Which Metrics Should You Track in Local Digital PR?Historically, digital PR has focused on links and links alone. While counting the number of links is still important, there’s a lot more to digital PR success than sheer volume—there’s a lot more nuance than that. Keyword RankingsImproving a brand’s or website’s SEO is one of the primary reasons that digital PR exists and is practiced. A healthy backlink profile is the stuff that SEO dreams are made of! Relevant links are the bee’s knees. When a website ranks for the keyword they are targeting, the cycle begins. The higher the ranking, the more likely the website is to be referenced and linked to. Social Media EngagementIf the digital PR campaign you’re crafting for your client has a social media element, then tracking social media engagement is vital. The specific metrics vary depending on which social media you will be focusing on. For Instagram, likes and follows will be the most significant. On LinkedIn and Facebook, shares come into play more. Overall, tracking the audience size and the number of impressions, as well as what sort of post earns more impressions, will be vital to ensure further success. Keeping an eye on social media is also important if you’re relying on potential customers to perform social media searches to find your client’s business! Leads and ConversionsIt’s not always the case that blog posts and social media lead to sales, but it can happen. That’s why it’s important to use Google Analytics to keep track of your client’s leads and conversions. By monitoring those who come onto the main campaign page, and seeing the pages they navigate to next, you can keep track of campaign successes. Referral TrafficLinks are awesome in helping your client’s site rank for the keywords important to them, but that’s not the only benefit to measure. What is also important is the number of people who click on those links, also known as referral traffic. Referral traffic will indicate how many real human customers out there find your campaign interesting, and monitoring things like bounce rate as well as referral traffic will give a clear picture of that. Inbound LinksThe number of total inbound links a campaign earns (and the number of referring domains they come from) is one of, if not the most, important metrics to measure. By monitoring the backlink profile for a campaign, you can track how many links are earned. This can be used as a metric for success. It’s also possible to monitor the quality of the links earned. The key for any campaign is to look beyond the sheer number of links. You want to aim for links from the target sites you identified earlier, then measure all links by their value to the website you’re working on, asking yourself how relevant they are. Are they in the right niche and the right location? Don’t always simply look for overall stats like domain authority when you’re performing local digital PR. You need to look at the whole picture. Some niche local sites may have lower overall authority but incredibly high relevance to your local area and industry. Related: BrightLocal’s Guide to Local Link Building This backlink profile also allows monitoring the sentiment of those linking to your client’s website. Are they waxing lyrical about the amazingness of the campaign, or are they saying “look what these clowns did”? Google doesn’t seem to care either way, but it can help to know how people feel from a traditional PR standpoint, especially if they’re your client’s neighbors and potential customers. Local Digital PR for Your ClientsLocal digital PR can have an incredible impact on your client’s website standing and business overall, and there are many approaches to get there, to suit all brands and businesses. Whether your client is a local gym that wants to do a data-led piece on how much protein that protein products actually contain, a hairdresser who wants to jump on a reactive about Zendaya’s latest look, or a therapist who wants to lend an expert comment on Christmas stresses, the benefits of local digital PR will ensure an ROI. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/yr29qh4 Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ |
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April 2023
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