Can you trust Internet marketing companies? | MJAImpressions

SEO Expert and Social Media Gurus

As a business owner or marketing specialist on the search for an internet marketing company, its guaranteed you'll become inundated with a plethora of internet marketing companies when searching in Google. Search for Vancouver internet marketing companies or Toronto internet marketing companies, and you'll get results ranging from the best in town, to the contractors using contractors using contractors.

How do you weed out the reputable from the good, and the good from the bad, such as those online marketer car salesmen?hard selling marketing info products and?solutions, and the red flags of guaranteed results, self-proclaimed gurus, 600 guaranteed 'qualify' backlinks, and the alike?

This post is intended to help provide you a guideline to evaluate and develop a short list of quality internet marketing companies.

One of the first challenges when searching for a good internet marketing company is your preference of a their business being local or global. You can find excellent global internet marketing companies, as well as solid local internet marketing firms, such as the few marketing agencies found in Vancouver and Toronto. But mixed in those search results you'll find the graphic designer pushing the up-sell service of SEO, or the india based internet marketing agency promoting the cheapest services in town (you get what you pay for).

One such example comes to mind of a client of ours who first initially decided to go with another internet marketing agency with SEO experts. After about a week, we reconnected with the client and found they went with the other company simply for the price and delivery. In this case, for a few hundred dollars, they would deliver top Google keyword results within 2 weeks. The client came back to us to inquire why they didn't see any results from the service they hired. After a few minutes we soon realized the client bought into a software service that spams out link development on anchor text keywords. A deeper review showed the vendor had spammed every category of the clients business, 90% being completely unqualified keywords, links on low quality sites, link farms and the alike, and most?surprisingly?inbound linkage from sites that are themed on illegal and unethical adult entertainment. ?The client in this case was lucky not to get delisted from Google, and soon realized his few hundred dollars were better off spent at the bar.

Situations like this happen more often than not, and below we've outlined a few key indicators to use to weed out the bad, and develop a high quality short list of internet marketing companies. (update: the above example is 100% accurate, where the client ended up coming onto our internet marketing services. The results we attained for them exceeded their expectations and has been a long term client of ours now for 5 years.)

To help build a short list of the ideal fit for your business needs, consider these conditions to narrow your results.

1. Local vs global internet marketing companies
1. A local marketing firm such as a Vancouver internet marketing company may offer personal touch of meeting a real face behind the agency, but this should not deter you on the quality of the agency. For example, there are a select few Vancouver internet marketing companies and Toronto internet marketing companies who've catered to national Canadian brands, and even global brands and delivered excellent results for clients. Your decision to go local or global will become a personal preference, but in?today's?age of technology and doing business, using an internet marketing agency in another province or state or country should not sway your opinion of quality.
2. Guarantees
1. Common red flags are internet marketing consultants or companies offering guarantee's on results. It's ok to abide to certain guarantees around quality of service, but promises of top search results in Google or traffic are cautionary flags to watch for. What you should look for, and builds onto the next point, is the agencies history and past client results. Go beyond reading their testimonials and seek performance reports (if available due to confidentiality) or give their other clients a call. Why watch for this? Can an investment service guarantee X% gains in your portfolio ? No. External market and environmental factors play a role in its performance, but through proper strategy management, you're more likely to put your money with a trusted company that has a history of performance.
3. Expert SEO, Social Media Guru & the Car Salesman
1. Search in Google and within a few seconds you'll find a number of 'self proclaimed' seo experts, social media guru's, etc. Typically these individuals will take a course, or read a few internet marketing resources, try a few projects and voila - they're now an expert. If you're seeking an internet marketing consultant who is an expert in their field, or an SEO expert or social media consultant, revert back to #2 above and look for reputation and results. To many business owners and marketers fall into the trap of a good sales pitch, guarantees for cheap and magical internet marketing software that will make them rich. If its sounds to good to be true...it typically is.
   A simply way to evaluate internet marketing companies and experts is to consider your professional and what makes someone an expert in your field. I'm sure a few answers that come to mind is a) time, b) experience, c) results, d) education. Since the online marketing world is a rapidly evolving industry, at times (d) won't be as much as heavy weight in your evaluation vs. (c), especially since there are over-night schools available now offering a social media MBA and degree in internet marketing that simply is a few courses in 'theoretical' how to's and strategy but no real hands-on experience with results to support their experience. Just remember, look at internet marketing companies and the seo experts with the view of any other industry and what makes them the top in their field. Would you hire a carpenter straight out of school to build your home? Would you hire a?layer?also fresh from school or with a losing track record? Probably not. Invest in quality services, and you leverage a lower risk with potentially substation results and performance.
4. Jack of all trades
1. When you build a new home as an investment to build and sell, you would typically proceed with hiring a professional architect to build the plans of your home, an expert contractor to build and construct the home, an expert plumber and electrician to plumb and wire the home and real estate agent with a good track record to market and sell the home. Each trade should know a little bit about each area so that it all fits and flows together. So when you build a new online business, do you let your graphic designer to also program and build the technical solution for it, and then use them to provide search engine optimization and other online marketing strategies - PPC, email marketing (and maximize inbox delivery), affiliate marketing, social media, etc.? Unfortunately many take this approach and find later the flaws and errors with hiring the jack of all trades. The graphic designer may have exceptional design skills for your web design, but lack in quality programming to build the site with an SEO framework, let along the proper and latest methods of SEO and other marketing disciplines. Look for a web designer who has strong relationships with an expert SEO consultant, and ask the questions described above. Alternatively, there are a few, for example, vancouver internet marketing companies that offer inhouse experts in each related field. Using an an internet marketing firm that provides the inhouse expertise, and AGAIN, backs it up with tangible results, will help you in qualifying your internet marketing company.
5. Price - Is cheap really good?
1. In our business, we tailor internet marketing strategy to the clients goals and expectations. And at times, this doesn't come cheap depending on the client and their expectations (cash strapped but want it all). We work with the client to understand their budget range, and deliver a solution that can fit within this financial expectations, with a longer term view of where and how they can invest into the future to build on the foundation and results. The idea is as new revenue comes in, its can ?be reinvested back into the strategy to build on the results for greater future revenue. Makes sense, but more often than note, there are those prospects who have expectations that they can get it all, and with minimal to as little investment as possible. They'll compare to internet marketing companies that offer 'similar' services for a fraction of the cost, or software that will do the same thing. More than 90% of the time, if the price sounds to good to be true, then it its. And for us, I hate to say it, its turned into a bit of a decent referral business where some clients decided to go the route of price, get the results we had expected, and come back as our arms are always open to help. Lessons learned the hard way...but when researching internet marketing companies, don't always look at the price tag. Comparison shop for due diligence and keep the other points in this post weighted in your evaluation, and remember, at the end of the day, regardless of how much is being invested, if the internet marketing company has a history of strong performance, you should get back your investment plus the dividends. But a good internet marketing company will be transparent with you on this point of course.

With the above in mind, lets look at the criteria to qualify a good internet marketing company.

How to Qualify Internet Marketing Companies

1. Proven Results
1. Ask for a short list of use-cases from actual projects the internet marketing company has done that aligns with your goals. If your goal is to find an SEO expert, then seek the companies results they've done in building organic search engine traffic for clients. If building brand awareness through an holistic internet marketing strategy is your goal, again, ask for examples where the internet marketing companies have done this for other clients, and their results. Keep in mind however many results may be retained as confidential due to client confidentiality and privacy policies, but a good internet marketing company understands the huge value of referral business, and will seek a happy inbetween with the client to privately share the results with certain non disclosures in place.
2. Customer Referrals
1. How much of the internet marketing companies business is driven by referrals? Word of mouth is powerful, and the volume of referrals is typically attained from great customer service, quality of work and results.
3. Client Satisfaction
1. This builds on #1 and #2. Where past client expectations satisified or exceeded? Every clients internet marketing project or campaign may have different expectations. Building brand?awareness, increase website traffic, improved conversions, increase customer lift on repeat / cross-sell / up-sell online sales, increased open rates and click thru rates, increased chatter in the social media space, more sign ups, search engine market share saturation and increased results, etc. etc. Different approaches to internet marketing strategy to garner different results for clients, all which should be tailored to the clients individual goals, objectives and expectations.
4. Endorsements
1. Do the internet marketing companies publish or privately provide testimonials or endorsements? Are you allowed to validate them? Just because a testimonial has been published, doesn't mean the internet marketing company is a perfect fit for you. Why? Remember #3 - every clients expectations and needs can be different. Customer service or account management may have been great, but what did the results produce?
5. Innovation
1. If you browse Toronto internet marketing companies or Vancouver internet marketing firms, ask what was they're most recent innovative project for a client? There is one thing to offer the norm, and another that demonstrates to clients the internet marketing company is on top of the latest changes and trends in online marketing, and execute creative and innovative online marketing strategies for clients. So does the agency follow the same beaten path, or attempt to blaze new paths? W ho would you want working for you?
6. Honesty & Relationships
1. Like marriage, online marketing is about honesty and?commitment, and just as in business ethic classes, the same holds true for digital marketing.?The high competition in the online space and the constantly evolving market and technologies, you should look for a 'partner' vs. contractor who fits the above points. One off projects can work, but most such as traditional SEO and social seo need a long term commitment to get the most profitable results. Added to this is the honesty of the marketing agency. If they're experienced, they should have some understand of what will work and won't work, and where best to use your marketing investment to attain your expectations and results.
2. Transparency is also an important ingredient to add. Is the internet marketing firm using an ethical approach to your marketing? Are they using blackhat SEO that could get your site reputation hurt and de-listed, or a rented email list that flags your domain and IP as a spammer and impact your email reputation and future inbox deliver? Are they advising a auto blog strategy and understand the impacts of Google's Panda update, or guiding you on a long term engaging content strategy?

The above should help you develop a high quality short list of internet marketing companies to consider for your next project, or manage your online marketing. If you do not trust the internet marketing company after looking into it, find one you do trust - look at referrals. If it seems a marketing firm has all its bases covered, but you still feel uneasy about the company, then continue to search, ask questions, or even baby step your relationship with the company to pilot test their services on a small portion of your project to get more familiar with their level of service, quality and how the manage their clients.

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