So what can Agencies do to either avoid these issues or at least lessen the potential of them during the project? There are many and you are likely already familiar with some, but let’s take a minute to look at 5 basic ways we can help ensure our client’s needs are top priority while working in a way we, SEO professionals, can do what we do best.

1) Weeding out potential clients in the sales process that are not a good ‘fit’

No one really wants to turn away business, but after a few “problem” clients it doesn’t take long to notice certain patterns that almost always convert clients to unhappy campers once the project gets underway. Red flags include clients wanting to rush through the process, clients who want premium services on an underfunded budget, and clients who only want to sign a contract for X amount of hours but we know good and well it could easily take double that to produce the results they are expecting. Finally, often times we speak with potential clients who have unrealistic expectations; they are competing for highly competitive keywords and expect immediate results.

Lesson here – it will probably save an Agency a lot of time, headache and money to tell a client “we’re not a good fit for you” rather than bringing on these type of clients time after time, which easily can end in both sides being unhappy. Of course, whether to bring on a potentially problem client has to be looked at objectively and quantitatively rather than from the perspective of “I think this client could be a pain in the ass.” Bottom line… propose a clear and concise contract, explaining it thoroughly to the client during the sales process and reiterate it during the initial project kick-off call, making sure all parties are on the same page with goals & expectations.

2) Kick-Off Meeting

It is essential to setup a kick-off meeting between the key players of your team and the Clients at the onset of a project. Face to face is preferable, but video or phone is the majority of what we do at seOverflow given our clients are all around the US and world!

This initial meeting will start the relationship building that is all-important in short and long term projects. Second to the sales process, I think this is the most important juncture where an Agency can contribute significantly, and positively, to the client’s overall satisfaction of the project. You’ve got to connect with the client and communicate everyone’s needs during this call. You not only get to know who you will be working with but you will learn what their company’s needs are; today’s needs, next month’s needs, and long term needs/goals. If all goes well you’ll probably find things your client didn’t know that they needed; if not in the kick-off meeting definitely somewhere later in the process. When this happens the client knows you’ve got their best interest at heart and they aren’t just another project of the month.

The final details I cover in a kick-off meeting are some of the specifics of the contract – the scope of work. It is helpful to reiterate the numbers of hours to be worked, deliverables, time frame, et cetera. This will help prevent problems later on and is another step to wash away assumptions and setup clear expectations for both parties.

3) Phone calls

I am the first to attest it is so much easier to send a client an email than to call them on the phone. Yes, the majority of my correspondence with clients is via email but there are times when a phone call could prove more beneficial. Good times to call your clients include:

- If you haven’t heard from them in a while or they are non-responsive to email
- If something exciting or new has happened; an increase in rankings, traffic and/or conversions for example
- To clarify technical issues that could be better explained via phone
- To schedule a meeting

I could add a lot more here but you get the point. It’s about connecting with our clients in a more personal level. Not only are you connecting interpersonally with them, it is more organic and you may end up talking about or resolving a few other issues that would not have come out of a single email.

4) Transitions/Hand-Offs

At seOverflow we have a soft transition from On-Page SEO to the Link Building side of things. It is important for one or more of the On-Page team to join the transition meeting into the Link Building phase. This is a great time to not only introduce new members of the team, but to be a familiar voice and to answer any lingering questions before the client transitions into a new phase of the project. Clients don’t necessarily want to feel shuffled around. If they know they have at least one person who has a pulse on the project they are much more open to staff changes.

5) Communicate, communicate, communicate

This isn’t really a step; it should have been present from the beginning; through the sales process, kick-off meeting, emails and phone calls, and project transitions. It is much easier to talk about something before it happens, than to talk about how to fix something after it happens – be proactive! Remember, your clients are human beings just like you. Sometimes they will have a bad day, sometimes they will forget deadlines or meetings, sometimes they will mess something up – it’s ok. As long as there has been a strong foundation of communication throughout the project everything should be alright. You can always reschedule meetings and make new deadlines; you cannot, however, gain trust or active and willing participation from a client if all you do is send boiler plate emails and not engage the human side of the relationship.

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Of course, not all content needs to “sell” in terms of inquiries or transactions, but for content designed with lead generation in mind, there should be some accountability or you won’t have anything to count.

While deciding the creative on your next infographic, the viral hook of your next video or which awesome thought leaders will be in your next ebook, step back for a second and consider these basic and often overlooked considerations for aligning content with marketing objectives.

1. What’s the primary brand objective for this content? How will successful discovery and consumption of this information move the reader along in the sales funnel?

2. Who is the audience? What problem does this content help them solve? How does this content help them break free of the status quo?

3. What will be used as the hero? How will readers seem themselves in the content and how will it empathize with their situation and goals?

4. What is the unique selling proposition in the content? What’s different or more valuable than others? How is that story being told?

5. What’s the primary offer? Secondary offer? What other actions are available to support all interest levels?

6. After the reader takes action (share, subscribe, register, download, inquiry), what happens next? How will you nurture communications for the reader to become a buyer, a customer and a referral to others?

Many companies getting into the content marketing game do not have the presence of mind to focus on producing content that aligns with the buyer journey. The experience of creating content is so new, the focus is often on quantity, vs. meaningful information that contributes to moving prospects along the sales cycle.

This is why you often hear things like, “We started blogging, creating videos and white papers, but we’re not getting any leads.”

Content Marketing means creating content and media around a certain topic for a particular audience that will inspire action. What many companies are doing is simply creating “more” content and calling it content marketing. That’s where the disconnect lies.

Are there other fundamental questions about content marketing planning that should be included in this list? How are you solving the disconnect between content quantity and content accountability?

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If I had more clients I’d invest in professional marketing, but with so little money coming into the business, it’s hard to justify.

Less rare than you imagine

Whilst you may think that statement is extreme in its lack of business acumen, it’s based around a belief that many small business owners have, regarding investing in expertise.

For example:

• Web designers get inquiries from small business owners, who claim they can’t afford a great website, when their current, poorly designed site is costing them a fortune in lost business.
• Accountants talk to prospective clients, who are needlessly wasting thousands a year because their accounts are being poorly handled – yet these prospective clients claim they can’t afford a better accountant.
• Garage owners often speak with people, who refuse to invest in inexpensive car maintenance – only to see the same people return with expensive problems, which could have been avoided.

It isn’t that these business owners can’t afford the expert help they need, it’s that they consider it less important than the other things they spend their money on.

It’s what we do with what we have

Whilst some people, like Seth Godin and Sir Richard Branson, start off in business with a wealthy family behind them and world-class connections, most of us start with very little. It’s what we choose to do, with the little we have, which makes all the difference.

You can tell a great deal about a person’s chances of building a successful business, when you look at their priorities.

For example:

• When we place the desire to have lots of expensive holidays, above the need to invest in our business, we will eventually find there are no more expensive holidays.
• When we ‘invest’ £5 a day visiting a coffee shop, yet claim we can’t afford a new company website, we will soon find we can’t afford to spend £100 a month on frothy coffee.

These small, daily decisions are extremely important. They are what set the sail of our business and ultimately direct us – either to success or to the recurring frustration that comes from a lack of progress.

Have you experienced people who refuse to invest in what they need? Share your thoughts with a comment.

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Before I began my copywriting agency I used to work in a traditional office environment, actually is was a bank. Needless to say due to the nature of the work I did, remote working wasn’t a consideration. Being in amongst my colleagues meant that there were always people to ask for advice, always someone to bounce ideas off and a real camaraderie. Granted, at times it could be a noisy and distracting place to work, but on the whole it seemed beneficial.

Then I went out into the big bad world of business alone. Suddenly, rather than being surrounded by friendly faces I was on my own. Overnight I had become the boss, financial controller, marketing director, sales executive and customer service officer – quite a leap. But more than that, I’d gone from an office of 20 -30 people to an office of 1.

Now my colleagues were virtual and could only be contacted by Skype, email or phone. None of these are exactly difficult to use, but it wasn’t quite the same as being able to turn around and speak to someone on the desk next to me.

To my surprise it didn’t take me too long to get used to this new working environment. As I became a competent tweeter my network widened even further to include other professionals with expertise in areas that I knew nothing about.

Although the buzz of a hectic office was gone, I found the silence comforting and beneficial. So much so that now, should I have a second person in my office, it is very annoying and makes it very difficult for me to concentrate on what I’m doing.

Home or away?

Whether you should or should not allow your workers to do their jobs remotely comes down to the business you’re in.

If you’re working with confidential information then it’s a no brainer, unless you want sensitive data left in the back of cabs or on trains. But if your workers are doing a job that doesn’t demand high levels of security, that doesn’t require them to work constantly within a team environment, then why not let them work from home?

Some companies argue that it is beneficial for their staff to work within their team, so they have people to refer to because it enhances their knowledge and will help them to become better employees. OK, for some that might be true, but for many people the option to work from home at least once or twice a week would benefit them greatly. And it they’re happy and it makes their lives easier, surely that will bring benefits to the company too?

After a quick glance at the i newspaper at lunchtime, a story about Yahoo! caught my eye. Apparently they have banned their staff from working from home. A memo was sent by the company’s head of resources told Yahoo! staff that they had until the summer to migrate back to the company HQ in Sunnyvale, California or forfeit their job amid mounting concern that workers were “hiding” from bosses who had lost track of who was supposed to be where and doing what.

The memo went on to say “to become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side by side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people and impromptu team meetings.”

The article then goes on to say that in response, Richard Branson commented that “If you provide the right technology to keep in touch, maintain regular communication and get the right balance between remote an doffice working, people will be motivated to work responsibly, quickly and with high quality.”

Over to you

Whether you’re an employer or an employee we’d love to hear your thoughts on this issue.

Do you wish your company would let you work from home? Perhaps you’d prefer to remain in the office?

Whatever your thoughts, air them in the comments section below – I’d love to see what you have to say on this issue.

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Customers are what keep your business afloat, so you constantly need to be out there drumming up new business.

But what’s the best and most effective way of doing that?

Sure, you’ve got your website, email marketing, brochures and other online marketing strategies, but are they the most effective?

Frankly, no.

The most powerful tool you have in your marketing armoury is a happy customer because they’ll head off and tell their friends and colleagues about you – and that’s the cheapest and most effective form of marketing I know of.

So how can you generate more referrals? Well, the best way is to give your customers something to shout about and that comes down to good old-fashioned customer service and going that extra mile.

Education, education, education

Educating your customers is one of the best ways to make yourself stand out from your competitors. I’m not just talking about blogging and article writing here, which as we all know helps cement your reputation as an expert in your field.

Education should also become part of your company’s culture – whenever you have a new customer (or a returning one for that matter), teach them about your product, show them how to get the most of it and make sure they know you’re there for any questions they may have.

Keep talking

You’ve already shown them your door is always open; so now make sure you keep them informed about every stage of their order – when it will be received, if there’s a delay tell them what the hold up is and when they’ll get it. Keep them informed about what’s happening in your business, if you’re bringing out a new model or a new product, tell them about it.

A regular newsletter is great for this, but make sure it’s personalised and the content is relevant to that customer.

Go the extra mile

We all love surprises, so make sure you surprise your customers. It can be an unexpected gift, a little something extra in their order (it doesn’t have to be much, Wiggle.com always send out a small bag of Haribo with all orders), perhaps a free sample of a new product you’re introducing. Whatever it is, it will bring a smile to your customers face and give them something to tell their friends about.

Make sure you know what’s happening

Too many companies grab orders, send them out and then forget about them.

Be different – follow up every order to make sure your customer is happy. If they are get a testimonial, if they’re not find out what went wrong, put it right and send them a ‘thanks for letting us know and we’ve now put it right’ gift.

Even a simple hand written ‘Thank you’ card with your order makes an impact.

None of these ideas have to cost the earth and by making it part of your company’s culture, it will become second nature.

The result will be very happy customers who come back time and time again with their friends in tow. So if you want a never-ending referral machine, start using these techniques and make your company stand out as a champion.

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Well, no more. It is time to embrace our smallness. People want to know who they are doing business with, even when they are buying a product. If it is good enough for American Express, it should be good enough for us. As you know AmEx started Small Business Saturday in 2010 to promote shopping at small businesses the day after Black Friday. There is a trend towards supporting small, independent and local businesses because studies have shown more money stays in the local economy.

Place your bio on your website, tell the story of why you do what you do. Post your picture on your website so customers recognize you when they meet you. In the business-to-business world, where I spend my time, I realized a long time ago that I am my service, since I am the one who performs the service. Customers want to know who I am beyond the service provided. This is just one of the many reasons I love social media. It allows me to show both my personal and business sides.

If you are a small business owner, I want you to take a look at how you are marketing you and your business. Are you sharing your passion and background? Why not? Get out there, embrace and celebrate your smallness!

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Despite blogs and websites flooded with advice for content marketing and consultancy groups that can handle it on behalf of the clients, companies are still awash in buzz word philosophy that is not grounded in actual practice. Here is a look at a few specific ways to improve content marketing and make the most of its benefits for your business:

• Customize goals. What works in one capacity may not translate to another medium. Each individual audience must be assessed and the best possible use of metrics must be in place. For example, the content of an email newsletter should address specific company changes, products and promotions while Facebook updates should address industry issues as a whole. Websites, on the other hand, should have a classic, timeless approach that works for any visitor, any time of the year. This does not mean that your site cannot have any interchangeable information, but that the core goal of the site should reflect a company snapshot and not individual initiatives. Sit down with marketing teams to develop an overarching theme for content marketing and break that goal into smaller, customized campaigns. If you own a small business and do the content marketing on your own, follow the same advice and seek outside help from experts if needed.
• Prioritize delivery methods. Many factors affect the impact of content marketing in each medium. Industry, client base and even geographic location influence how your promotional information is received by potential and current clients. In most cases, it is not wise to divide marketing time and resources equally. The best way to know which areas deserve the most attention is through measurement tools. You also want to know what it is you are trying to measure. Direct sales? Brand building? Client interaction? Social media following growth? Based on your content marketing goals, put metrics in place to decide if they are being met and which forums are the most advantageous.
• Develop a calendar. As mentioned in the IMN study, half of respondents reported no official content marketing schedules in place. Goals with no tangible plans are like ships with a destination but no map for navigation. Marketing teams must develop a calendar well in advance when it comes to content campaigns. Just like anything in a business, these calendars will need adjustment based on real-life circumstances but put the basic steps in place. Write an editorial calendar that includes email newsletter releases and topics, goals for social media follower growth by month and frequency of email campaigns. Include any content marketing in which your particular business takes part. Make this calendar available to those outside the marketing team to give all employees a better idea of what to expect in the coming months and what image your business is trying to convey.

Content marketing deserves a prominent place in your business operations. Do not leave any opportunities for improvement on the table. Make the most of your content marketing campaigns through planning, customization and prioritization.

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There I said it.

I have a confession to make. My office used to be plastered with sticky notes and piled high with notebooks that contained things I wanted to do.

But I quit trying to do battle with a to do list a long time ago. No matter how you try to gain control, you won’t win.

It will.

I had to laugh when I was looking around the web to see what was available on this topic. People are searching for management tools, software, templates and instructions — all to manage a to do list!

Sad, isn’t it?

This video contains a true story of a women who was so overwhelmed with (and tied to) her to do list, she just didn’t want to let go. I offered a solution that shocked her and suggested an alternative way to deal with her business.

Take three quick minutes to watch the video below for a better solution.

If you can’t see the video, click here.

So what do you think?

Is your to do list an effective tool or one that serves only to slow you down? How do you manage it? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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If people are asking you for help with Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, reddit, blogging, Tumblr, WordPress, or anything else, you’re ready — to charge people for your time, expertise, insight, and creativity. Remember, 10,000 hours signifies mastery of the sort that is considered world-class — do you need to be the best in order to make a living?

No, you don’t.

You also don’t need to know the answer to everything in order to be ready to go pro. Your friends are resources as is the Internet and your larger social network. With experience comes an innate body of knowledge; however, don’t be fooled. Medical doctors and lawyers don’t know the answer to everything, either; case in point: House. They don’t know any of the answers, at first — but they puzzle it out.

And you can, too.

While 10,000 hours of increasingly-challenging study of the viola da gamba will probably get you to Carnegie Hall — practice, practice — is your goal, indeed, transcendent mastery or are you happy to play well enough that you can make a living being a musician?

Additionally, I believe that people are a little misinformed about Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 Hour Rule. It’s not like Scuba diving or flying an aircraft: the 10,000 hours of mastery are not accumulated like number of dives or flight time. That 10k is not billable hours you burn through by punching time-cards.

If you are, indeed, pursuing mastery (of social media, marketing, PR, light aircraft, diving, or the viola) then you need to constantly step it up. In order to become a master, you need to not only put in the time — of course, there are no short cuts, it’ll still take you all of those 600,000 minutes — but you need to constantly challenge yourself, take risks, try something new, innovate, interpret, create, expand, and move well out of your comfort zone.

The violinist Jascha Heifetz didn’t earn his 10,000 hours playing Chopsticks. There was a little Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky thrown in there. Maybe some Franz Liszt and Niccolò Paganini; Arnold Schoenberg and Béla Bartók for good measure.

And back to the Viola da Gamba, if you want to take a hint from Yo-Yo Ma, cross-training doesn’t hurt either. Other instruments and styles of music allow you to expand your experiential horizon while giving you a wider base upon which to do your pattern-recognizing and problem-solving.

If you haven’t read Outliers, Gladwell brings up the Beatles. They accrued their 10,000 hours by performing live in Hamburg, Germany, over 1,200 times. Not by practicing part-time but by really getting out there are working. They were professional musicians while they became masters. And you should, too, even if it’s in Hamburg brothels and flop-houses and not at Edelman or Ogilvy — that will come.

When artists and businessmen annoyingly talk about how important their suffering, depression, mental illness, and failure were to their ultimate success, I believe that some of the most important hours of those 10,000 hours are the hours when you really want to break that Stradivarius fiddle over the music stand — but don’t. Or do, but persevere. I believe that those manic all-nighters when you’re swept away by the Muse or just focused on solving an impossible riddle are essential to the craft; however, that’s not instead of practicing 8-hours-a-day, it’s in addition.

So, please don’t waste any more time with this article. You have 10,000 hours of something to pursue right now — and not for free. Please do not let Mastery get in the way of being better than the idiots around you. And remember, just because you think something’s easy or simple in no way means that it is — it’s only easy for you. Other people either don’t care enough to do the work like you have, don’t have your gift and natural affinity, or they’re just too dim.

Good luck and if you’re going to aspire to mastery, take advice from John, Paul, George, and Ringo: do it for money, do it in Hamburg, and do it in brothels. Viel Glück, mein Student, und gute Reise!

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For some time now I’ve been preaching the idea of a “total body of work” approach to content for marketing purposes.

Waking up each day and deciding what you might blog about is not a sustainable content strategy – even though many a blogger makes it look so.

The publishing that we must do today requires us to think like, well, a publisher. We must develop a clear set of topics or chapters that make up the foundation content for trust building and SEO impact. We must determine a monthly theme and schedule for addressing each chapter. We must commit to regularly scheduled features.

And, perhaps most importantly, we must develop a mentality that habitually urges us to consider every word we publish or plan to publish as part of a giant Erector set or content that can be used and reused in many ways.

Every press release, blog post, video, article and presentation must have intended uses beyond its obvious initial outlay and it must be an interchangeable element in the total body of work.

It’s simply too costly to produce content with any other view.

I once had a conversation with Josh Waitzkin, eight-time National Chess Champion and author of the Art of Learning and he told me that he got to the point where he no longer saw a game as it was because to him the game always looked as though it was going to be many moves ahead.

I think that’s how content must be viewed – not as something just for today, but for moves ahead.

The process starts with questioning that must evolve into an unconscious way of thinking.

• How could I expand this blog post as a series of posts?
• How could I rework this content into other formats?
• What would make this content worth paying for?
• How could this content be reworked for real-time consumption?
• What did I learn while creating this presentation?
• How could I package this content to share it with a different market?
• If I were writing a book would this content belong in that book?
• What content have I already written that could form the basis of an eBook?
• How can I share this content in a way that helps me learn?

Below are five content development habits that you must employ in the creation of your content strategy and production of your body of work.

New medium

I’m often asked to present a specific topic to a group. As I create or develop my thoughts for a series of slides I write a blog post or two from my research, record a screencast of the presentation, upload my slides to Slideshare and have the video transcribed into text.

There is very little additional work on my part to create four and five pieces of content from the act of discovering what to include in a 90-minute talk.

New form

I’ve produced dozens of eBooks over the last few years and 100% of the content for these compilations has been drawn from my blog posts. Now, understand that this doesn’t happen by some form of chance.

I plan and write my blog posts with these eBooks in mind. This requires a longer view of both blog post topics and the chosen topics for eBooks, but when you understand that this long view is required, it’s actually quite freeing.

Getting in the habit of creating an editorial calendar in advance, with your cornerstone topics always in mind, can be a great aid.

New purpose

One of the most puzzling aspects of content is consumption – meaning how people choose to get, read, listen, watch or otherwise digest it.

Understanding that people have distinct preferences in this category opens the door to an interesting aspect of repurposing.

I have a podcast that’s free to subscribe to, but hundreds of people have paid $2.99 to download the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast app (iTunes link) from iTunes because of the added control it gives them.

I have a great deal of content that is available on my site for the taking, yet people are eager to pay $3.99 on Amazon for the package that gives them the content in the form that is delivered to their Kindle reader.

New time frame

This one is a bit mind bending for some, but you have to think about real-time and long-term in the same context.

I tweet as I write something that I think is poignant and again as I write things that seem confusing. People consume this content in a far different manner than, say, a full blog post, but the engagement is incredibly instructional.

Social media is the ultimate real-time content package and this is how you tap it.

New audience

My blog readers and my newsletter subscribers are two very different groups. Sure, there’s some cross over, but some people prefer email newsletters and some won’t read anything that’s not in their RSS reader.

When you understand this fact you can begin to explore the various methods of reaching people in their preferred environment.

Giving away content in the form of a free Amazon eBook is a great way to reach new audiences. Creating workshops and making them available as a Udemy course is a great way to reach new audiences. Reworking your ten all time best blog posts and offering them as guest posts on other blogs is a great way to reach new audiences.

Once you start to think in this vein you’ll never look at a blog post or PowerPoint deck in the same way.

This post is sponsored by Viewbix – Easily add apps and calls to action to your video.

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