Have you heard of the skyscraper technique for SEO? Chances are, you’ve seen this technique being promoted, but you’re not sure if it will work for you. 

The great thing about skyscraping is that it can work for all kinds of businesses if you follow the correct process. Once you understand how the skyscraper technique works, you’ll see how it can help improve your backlink structure and increase the number of visitors to your website. Read on to find out how!

What Is The Skyscraper Technique?

The foundations of skyscraping were laid out by Brian Dean from Backlinko. Over the years, other SEO experts have written about the skyscraper technique and how it works. 

The skyscraper technique is an SEO tactic that uses research and link building through blogger outreach. The technique revolves around finding popular articles on the subject you want to write about, select one of those articles, and see how you can create your own better version of it. This can mean using different types of media, creating infographics and so on.

Make sure that you are actually creating something better, not article spinning. You need to create something new that has the potential to get you to the first spot on SERPs (search engine result pages). 

Why Should You Use The Skyscraper Technique?

There are three main reasons why you should use the skyscraper technique in your content strategy. 

First of all, if you choose a popular article that ranks high, you know there is demand for that specific subject. Analyze why that content is so popular, for example, does it use established sources, does it solve a problem for the readers, etc. Make sure to keep the same search intent on the new piece you are creating. 

Secondly, if the first article was popular, this means that there is a specific audience that is interested in this specific topic and will be interested in what you have to say. If your article makes the subject exciting and up to date, you can easily get the links you need by reaching out to those that are already linked to the first article.

Lastly, if Google ranks that original content high, by creating something better and more interesting, you get a chance to outrank it with your new piece. So, if you do it right, you have a decent probability of ranking on the top of the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) for the same keywords.

Okay, so you might be asking yourself: is it really that easy? Well, as usual, the devil’s in the details. We’ll go through the steps you need to take in order to successfully create a skyscraper article. 

How To Make The Skyscraper Technique Work For You Using SERPed Tools

Now that you know what skyscraping is all about, let’s get technical: what do you have to do in order to use the skyscraper technique for SEO – and increase your traffic? In this section, we’ll explain how to make skyscraping work for you using SERPed tools. 

1. Find Skyscraping Opportunities

To find the ideal article to try this technique, we recommend using SERPed’s Ultimate Research tool. 

First of all, on the Tools menu, select Ultimate Research.

This will show you the list of previous searches. In order to search for a new keyword, click the blue “+” button at the top right.

We recommend using a keyword that’s highly specific to your niche. In this case, we went with “skyscraping”, for obvious reasons.

To start your search, click the big Search Keyword button. On the results page, you’ll see similar keywords. In order to find article ideas for each keyword, click on the three-dot button at the right of each result.

Then, select Launch Keyword Analyzer from the menu that appears.

This option will open a menu with a few important metrics for the keyword.

Scroll down and you’ll see a few websites that rank for that keyword:

Check each of these websites on the list for the usual metrics: Alexa Rank, Moz Rank, Domain Authority, Page Authority… Once you have taken a look at the articles, we recommend checking the backlink profile for each page. To find these backlinks, click on Backlink Explorer on the Tools menu, under SEO Analysis.

Once you open that tool, you’ll see a list of previous searches. To start a new backlink profile check, simply click on the blue “+” button at the top right.

On the next window, you get to choose to see the backlinks for a single site or a competitor analysis using Backlink Gaps. Since we already have a single URL to use (the one from the original article), we’ll pick the first option: Single Site.

Then, paste the URL you want to check:

Now, click on the Explore Backlinks button.

The result will be a list of the backlinks for that article, and you can filter them by Citation Flow, Trust Flow, or the anchor text. It takes a while to analyze all the results, but you can export them using the option Export To .CSV by clicking on the three-dot button on the top of the list:

Exporting the file to .CSV will enable you to segment the links according to the values of each field, making it easier to spot the backlinks you should go after.

2. Create New Content

It’s not always easy to create new content, especially if you are competing for the first spot on SERPs. There are many ways of creating new material for a well-known subject, but they all fall within four categories: 

• Length. If the average article is 1000 words or less, write 1200 words. If it lists 20 items, list 50, and so on.
• Depth. If there is a way to go into more detail, go for it.
• Design. If the text can be summed up in an infographic for easier interpretation, why not?
• Freshness. If the article has been written a while ago and is no longer up to date, create fresh content by updating the information that was available before.

This does not mean that by following the four categories, the article is going to land you the first spot on Google SERPs. It also does not imply that you have to do all this in order to create your masterpiece. You should put a lot of effort into every article you create, but remember that content for SEO is both a science and an art.

Another tip is to check your other competitors to get a feel of what is working or not. Don’t just use one article as a source; check out what is out there and match your search intent and subject with the different content available.

This also works for your old blog content; a way to repurpose old material is to join two different articles that are incomplete by themselves but fit together perfectly. This is a great way to give your old content a new life. 

3. Reach Out For Possible Backlinks

This is the bit that can make or break your skyscraper technique for SEO. 

A great part of your time spent on this technique is selecting the ideal websites to request backlinks from. First and foremost, go after the authority links from the article you selected in the first step. 

Authority links have a higher Citation Flow and Trust Flow (metrics from Majestic, but you can check them using SERPed as we mentioned above). Of course, some backlinks seem suspicious immediately, especially if they’re in a different language from the original source content and the anchor text reads weird. 

Once you have your list of the ideal websites to ask for backlinks, you need to contact the webmasters. For these contacts, the right message is essential.

When crafting your email messages to send to website owners, make sure you personalize each message accordingly. Don’t just create a template and replace the name of the person you’re contacting. 

We recommend taking a look at your backlink prospects’ profiles on LinkedIn, check other articles they published that are related to your subject… Make sure you know enough about the person you are getting in touch with. 

The biggest mistake when contacting website owners is approaching everyone with the same email content. Every webmaster has different goals and points of view, and you need to respect that – this is the best thing you can do to make sure your outreach efforts are successful. 

Wrapping Up

There’s a lot more to be said about the skyscraper technique, but this is only a short guide that will help you start using skyscraping for SEO. 

It’s not easy to reach the top when it comes to SERPs, but it is possible. Nonetheless, it’s not something that happens overnight, so we advise you to be patient and keep on improving your content. 

We’ll soon have another article that will help you improve your old blog posts, which will also help you climb up the rankings. 

If you have any questions, or would like to add something to this guide, feel free to use the comment section below or reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. 

The post The Skyscraper Technique – A Quick Guide appeared first on Serped.com.

Setting up a successful digital agency is tough.

But with the help of a well thought out marketing plan, the odds of success can be improved.  

In this post, we’re going to take a look at how you can create such a plan.

We’ll cover the fundamentals, as well as some of the common pitfalls you’ll want to avoid.

We’ll even review some of the additional details that can have a big impact on the success of your agency, such as the use of a business plan, for instance.

By the time you finish this post, you’ll have a clear sense of what needs to be done, both from a marketing and business standpoint, to ensure the your digital agency succeeds.

Let’s get started!

The Fundamentals of Creating a Digital Agency Marketing Plan

There are a lot of digital agencies out there – so it’s understandable if you’re feeling a little bit intimidated with all the competition.

But with the help of a reliable marketing plan, it becomes much easier to stand out.

So what does it actually take to create an effective marketing plan?

To begin with, you need to decide what kind of customer you want to work with.

You can do this by creating something known as a ‘Customer Persona’

Source

A Customer Persona is helpful, because it lets you gain clarity as to who you want to work with, as well as the challenges that this kind of customer is facing. You can then use that information as part of your marketing efforts.

Only 44% of B2B businesses use Customer Persona’s and so by creating one, you’ll already be putting yourself in a better position than the competition.

Gaining clarity on who you want your customer to be, also makes it easier to work out how you should go about reaching potential clients, in relation to your marketing efforts.

For example, you’ll now know which keywords you should target in an AdWords campaign or which audience you should be targeting in Facebook, when trying to reach your ideal customer.

Once you’ve decided on the kind of customer you want to go after, you also need to focus on the problem you want to solve.

By defining the specific problem your digital agency will solve, your marketing will produce better results. .

That’s because by taking this step, you’ll now have a clear benefit that you can use to persuade potential clients. Your marketing efforts will now pack more punch, since it becomes easier to promote the benefits of working with your agency.

Ideally, you want to be as specific as you can when defining the problem you solve. By doing so, it will seem as though you have a custom solution for a certain kind of customer, of whom operates in a certain kind of industry.

For instance, if you were going after dentists, they might have a problem generating appointment bookings.

If you know that’s a challenge they’re facing, you can position your agency as a company that can help solve that specific problem. You’ll communicate this in your marketing, by suggesting how your digital agency can improve the number of bookings a dentist can attract.

Taking the time to tailor your solution is vital, especially when you consider that 81% of businesses would pay a premium for a solution that is based on industry experience or is specific to a certain industry.

You then need to think about the the kinds of channels you want to use to market yourself.

Are you going to use PPC or are you going to rely on SEO and strategies that are more reliant on ‘Content Marketing?’

Once you know which channel you’re going to use, it becomes easier to create a plan tailored to that specific channel, of which will draw the attention of your ideal client, generate leads and produce the best possible ROI.

Should you Spend a Lot of Time on Creating a Digital Agency Business Plan?

Whilst this post is focused mainly on the topic of creating a marketing plan, it is still worth talking about the importance of a business plan for your digital agency.

Why?

Because for most companies, the marketing plan is just a section within a larger business plan – though it is still often one of the most crucial sections.

The problem, however, is that digital agencies operate in a very dynamic industry.

There is always a lot changing, in terms of the solutions that can be offered to clients (based on what changes there are in the marketing world) and how you should be pricing such solutions.

And so whilst a business plan can be helpful, you shouldn’t live and die by one. In fact, it’s because of the static nature of business plans, that some people even think that they’re a waste of time.

Such sentiments don’t seem that ridiculous either, when you look at the numbers.

For example, an author who studied entrepreneurs, found that 70% of those whom successfully sold their business or ‘IPO’d,’ did not have a business plan.

If Facebook came out with a new feature tomorrow, that would be a game changer for one of your clients, would you not offer it as a service because it’s not in your business plan?

Of course not!

And that’s the problem with a business plan – it can ‘box you in.’

Therefore, for the most part, you really just need to focus on answering the questions that were asked of you in ‘marketing plan section.’

Provided you know who your customer is and what you want to do for these customers, everything else should remain pretty fluid.

Should you Use Ad Agency Website Templates For Your Digital Agency?

As with all kinds of businesses, there’s a good chance that you’ll need a website sooner rather than later.

After all – where are you going to direct all of those potential clients that you’re trying to market to, right?

The problem, however, is that getting someone to design a website for you can be expensive – and it can also take a lot of time. Because of this, it can be a good idea to make use of a ‘website template’ instead.

Now, you might have reservations about using a template, but biting the bullet and using one might be best for you when starting out.

For one, using templates is cheaper.

After all, you can pick up an amazing template for under $100.

Site’s like Template Monster, can help you find the right template for your needs.

On top of that, templates can be installed and customized relatively quickly.

If you don’t consider yourself to be tech savvy, you can just hire someone from Upwork.com, and they’ll be able to get it done for you.

It’s worth mentioning that you shouldn’t really worry about someone else using your design.

With so many website templates in existence, there’s very little chance that your prospective clients will have ever seen the template you’re using, elsewhere.

And in any case…  Once your digital agency starts making some money, you can always hire a web design firm to help you create something that’s custom to your agency.

Conclusion

In this post, we’ve looked at how you can create an awesome marketing plan for your digital agency. We even touched on some other important, but related issues, such as how much time you should spend on building a business plan.

Either way – what you need to do now is take action. Use what you’ve learned in this post and make use of it. Only then will you be able to get the results you’re after, and benefit from all that we’ve covered in this post.

Don’t worry if about getting things wrong. Provided you just get moving, everything else can be corrected along the way.

Good luck!

The post How To Create A Marketing Plan For Your Digital Agency appeared first on Serped.com.

With 88% of B2B marketers using content marketing, there’s a good chance that you might have taken a leap of faith and started a content marketing campaign of your own.

And whilst that can be a good idea– how do you know if your content marketing efforts are actually working?

After all, content marketing can be time-consuming and often expensive – so you’d be forgiven for wanting to figure out if you’re going about things the right way.  

In this post, we’re going to review some of the metrics that you can use to work out how well your content marketing is going.

We’ll explore how you can adopt a data driven approach and use certain metrics to improve the effectiveness of your content marketing campaigns.

By the end of this post, you’ll know which metrics matter when it comes to content marketing and how you can use such metrics to optimize your campaigns.

Let’s begin!

Understanding the different types of metrics

We’re going to review four ‘types’ of metrics you’ll want to pay attention to when it comes to content marketing – 

• Consumption
• Engagement
• Social
• Conversion

Different pieces of content, are suited to different types of metrics.

Appreciating this point, will reduce the odds of you creating content that doesn’t help you move closer to your content marketing goals.

For instance, you might be looking to achieve great ‘social’ metrics.

With that in mind, you’ll need to create content that lends itself to thriving on social media.

Creating a post that highlights the benefits of your product compared to the competition isn’t likely to do as well on social media.

A ‘list’ post, is, however, would be well received on social media.

On the other hand, a comparison post would succeed in driving conversions – something that would be hard to achieve with a standard list post.

And so when you understand this concept, it becomes easier to figure out how you should shape your content marketing plan, based on what your goals are.  

If you want to create content designed to produce specific metrics, it’s worth taking some time to understand the Buyer’s Journey, and how you can map your content marketing plan to the Buyer's Journey of your ideal customer.

Consumption metrics

Consumption metrics are just that – metrics that tell you how people are consuming your content.

If most of your content is on your blog, Google Analytics can help you monitor your consumption metrics.

Within Google Analytics there are two key ‘consumption’ metrics you want to monitor – 

• Pageviews
• Unique visitors (also known as Users)

The Pageviews metric will let you know the number of times a particular page has been viewed.  

You can find it in Google Analytics by selecting ‘Behavior’ and then the ‘All Pages’ option.

This metric lets you work out which content is being consumed the most.

If you find that a particular page is drawing a lot of attention, it suggests that there is a demand for the ‘kind’ of content on that page.

When developing your content marketing plan, you can then use that piece of content as inspiration, when deciding on what kind of content you should be creating in the future.

The unique visitors (or Users) metric, lets you figure out how many unique individuals are visiting your site.

You can find it by clicking on ‘Audience’ and then ‘Active users.’

This metric is important because it lets you observe the overall popularity of your site.

If you’re not generating an increasing number of unique visitors/users, it means that your content isn’t getting the exposure it needs.

In most cases, if your consumption metrics are poor it’s because of one of two (or even both) reasons – 

1. You’re not promoting your content enough
2. You’re not creating content that people care about/will be interested in consuming

If you’re looking to promote your content, there are two approaches you can use.

One option is to run a paid traffic campaign.  

You can do this with the help of Facebook Ads or Google AdWords.

With such platforms, you can achieve a lot of exposure with a little ad spend.

There’s also the option of finding people who’ve shared similar content in the past and then letting them know you’ve created something related.

Because these individuals have shared content in the past, you know that they’ll share your stuff if they find it to be good.

If you can get your content in front of them there’s a good chance that they’ll help it get more exposure.

7 Content Promotion tactics that helped us grow our traffic by 63% in 60 days. Check it now!

If your target audience doesn’t find your content interesting, you need to study what’s already working.

You’ll be able to tell if people aren’t interested in your content by checking your engagement metrics, of which we’ll cover later.

One way you can create content that people will find interesting, is by researching existing examples of content within your niche, that have been widely shared.

All you need to do then, is create something better, based on the proven topic, and promote it using the strategies mentioned above.

You can find examples of popular content using Buzzsumo.

Note: There’s also a third reason why consumption might be low, of which relates to SEO.

Low consumption levels can sometimes be attributed to the lag time, between publishing content and the time it takes for SEO to talk hold.

If consumption metrics are poor, but you’re relying on people to find your content via a search engine, don’t immediately jump to the conclusion that your content marketing is failing.

Even if you create awesome content – it can still take 6-8 months before you begin to generate a steady stream of traffic from the likes of Google or Bing.

If your content is mostly video and it is hosted on YouTube, you’ll just want to keep track of the views that your videos are generating.

If it isn’t hosted on YouTube, you can still make use of the other metrics we’ve covered.

Engagement metrics

Engagement metrics are helpful because they let you know if your content is connecting with the people consuming it.

Engagement is important because it means that you’re establishing a strong relationship with your audience.

Focus on engagement, not on vanity metrics. Strong engagement metrics = a strong r'ship with audience.
Share on X

Developing a strong relationship is key, because it helps improve the odds that those consuming your content will become fans of your brand and then eventually customers.

In some cases, even if consumption rates are high it all counts for nothing if engagement metrics are low.

On the other hand, if consumption metrics are low but engagement metrics are high, it’s often a sure sign that you’re onto something powerful.

Examples of engagement metrics are – 

• Comments
• Likes (YouTube or Social Content)
• Average Session Duration

Comments are a great way to measure engagement.  

More often than not, if someone has consumed a great piece of content, they’ll want to let you (and the rest of the world) know that they appreciate what you’ve created.

Think about how much content an individual consumes over the course of the day.

If someone has taken the time and effort to write out a thoughtful comment, it’s a sure bet that they found that piece of content engaging.

Likes can also be a good way to measure engagement.

Whilst this could also be counted as a social metric, it often provides more value when classed as an ‘engagement’ metric.

Keep in mind that because it’s easier for people to ‘like’ a piece of content, than to leave a comment, likes can give a ‘big picture view’ of how engaging your content is.

Comments let you know in greater detail what people found engaging about your content but likes will let you know whether or not you’re on the right track.

Average Session Duration lets you know how long someone has spent on your site, after coming into contact with an initial piece of content.

This metric takes into account all interactions that someone has with your website, before 30 minutes of inactivity or until the day ends.

The graphic below does a good job at showing what a ‘Session’ might look like.

Source

You can find Average Session Duration data, by going into the ‘Audiences’ section in Google Analytics.

If someone finds a piece of content to be engaging they’ll be more invested in your brand.

As result, they’ll likely click around your site and consume other pieces of content – therefore producing a ‘long’ session duration.

The caveat here, is that you need to make it easy for people to move around your site and find other pieces of interesting content.

Consider using a sidebar that lists the top content on your blog and remember to link to other pieces of content on your blog, when writing your content.

If your content isn’t achieving high engagement metrics, you need rethink the needs of your target audience.

As mentioned before, that might mean reviewing existing pieces of popular content, of which is produced by companies that share the same audience as you.

Content engagement can also be impacted by the way you’re presenting your content.

If your content doesn’t have enough images or paragraphs, it will be seen as unappealing.

Following this, people won’t want to engage with your content, because it can seem like too much work.

Social Metrics

With social media playing such a big role in the distribution of content marketing, it would be a mistake to not monitor the social metrics of your campaigns.

You’ll want to keep an eye on the following, basic social metrics – 

• The number of times your content has been shared to social networks
• The kind of engagement it receives on individual social networks

You’ll also want to monitor which social networks are driving the most traffic and ‘click throughs.’  

Using Google Analytics, you can identify which social networks are driving the most traffic.

Log into Google Analytics and go into the Acquisition section, under the ‘Social’ option.

You can use this information to help dictate which social network you should focus.

Identify which network is providing you with the most ‘organic’ success and then consider running a paid campaign on that network.

This campaign could be designed to either promote your content, or grow your audience on that network (say by promoting your Fan Page, for instance).

This can be a good way to double down on any success you’re currently achieving.

Another way you can improve your social metrics is by engaging with the audiences you have on your social media profiles.

This will help establish a better relationship with those audiences.

If you can improve the quality of the relationship your audiences will take greater interest in your future social media posts.

This can help improve the most basic social metric – how many times your content has been shared.

Conversion Metrics

Whilst the other metrics we’ve covered are nice, it’s the conversion metrics that will help you figure out if your content marketing is producing a return.

In fact, if you take a look at the chart below, you’ll see that generating leads is one the main goals for B2B Content Marketers.

Source

Conversion metrics let you know how many people are entering your ‘funnel’ because of your content marketing.

Conversion metrics might include – 

• Opt-ins
• Calls Booked
• Sales

You may want to segment how you collect leads, so that it becomes easier to figure out which pieces of content, are driving which conversions.

One way you can do this, is by having separate lists for each piece of content, even if your ‘opt-in bribe’ remains the same

In doing so, it is easier to identify which pieces of content are driving the most conversions and also the most sales.

You may even want to consider the idea of having specific phone numbers for certain pieces of content.

If your conversion metrics aren’t up to scratch it can be down to a number of reasons.

On the most basic level, it may be that you’re not giving people a good enough incentive to opt in.

Referring back to the Buyer’s Journey – it could also be that your content isn’t doing a good job at convincing people they should buy from you, when they’re in the ‘Consideration’ stage.  

If all your other metrics are good, but your conversion metrics are poor, it could be that your funnel simply isn’t doing a good enough job at converting people.

Conclusion

In this post, we’ve taken a look at the metrics you can track to assess the effectiveness of your content marketing.

When you have access to certain metrics, it becomes easier to create a data driven content marketing plan, of which has a higher chance of succeeding.

So even if your current plan isn’t bringing results, all you need to do is review the numbers and let them tell you where you’re failing.

Though it sounds simple, it could mean the difference between success and failure, when it comes to your content marketing.

Best of luck!

The post Content Marketing Reporting: Data-driven approach to optimize your content marketing appeared first on Serped.com.

I’m sure you’ve thought the exact same thing:

Finding a profitable niche is hard.

In the beginning you have lots of good ideas. But, there’s always that little bit of doubt in the back of your mind, isn’t there?

You know, the one that says, “…but, is this going to make me any money?”

And it eats away like a cancer at your ideas.

Meaning you probably never get around to starting that side hustle, or blog, or affiliate site you’d always talked about doing. But what if there was a way to prove a niche was profitable before you started?

That way you could minimize your risk and maximize your results, and make an informed decision on getting started.

Well in this article I want to show you exactly how you can do that in just a few simple steps using the SERPed tool. So if you want to find profitable niches and make the right online business decisions, read on…

What You’ll Learn…

• The truth about choosing a niche
• How to find precise traffic stats and what it’s worth
• A one-click solution to analyzing keyword difficulty
• How to decide if a niche will give you the right return on investment

To complete this tutorial you’ll need access to the SERPed SEO suite of tools. You can apply for access right here.

A Quick Note on Choosing Your Niche

Most internet marketing sites will tell you that you can’t (or shouldn’t) choose a niche that you’re not an active part of every day. But, you know what?

You can.

Great business ideas come from identifying a problem and trying to solve it. And, if you identify a problem, and can come up with a site that provides a solution, then you go for it.

I find it hard to believe that your local mattress salesman has a ‘passion’ for mattresses. Or that your local greengrocer has a ‘passion’ for cauliflower. So why must the same apply on the internet?

What’s important is that you learn as you go and eventually hire people to help you where you need it.

Okay, that being said, let’s move onto the first step to identifying your profitable niche…

Step #1: Perform A Quick Google Trends Search

Google Trends is a great tool that shows you the current interest around a topic (and where that interest comes from). Which means in a few searches you can decide whether a niche is even worth exploring.

For example, I know Colin (the big dog here at SERPed) needs to improve his French, so let’s explore this niche and see if I can create a niche site that will benefit him.

If I put Learn French into my local Google Trends it comes up with this page of results:

So I can see that while there is interest it has been decreasing over time, at least in the UK. But does that mean the niche isn’t profitable? Not quite.

Because if you scroll down the page you can see where learn French is profitable.

This give you some vital information about how to target your niche site. For example, based on this data alone, I could target a site at:

• Helping Canadians learn French
• How to learn French in the UAE
• Where to find learn French in Kenya
• The Irish Guide to learning French

Just to spin a few creative variations off the top of my head. So maybe if I had an initial idea to turn this into a UK site, maybe I should think about retargeting with a .ca or a .ie extension.

However in this step we’ve found that learning French has potential to be profitable. But now it’s time to swap over to SERPed and do some deeper research into the niche.

Step #2: Look For Related Keywords

The next step is to view what people are searching for around that keyword, and how many searches they’re getting per month.

This step will indicate how many potential people this site will reach per month.

In the SERPed tool head over to the Ultimate Research tool which you can find under tools > keyword research > ultimate research.

Here you’ll be able to find out a lot about the niche itself, gather lots of related keywords, and decide if the time invested is going to be worth the outcome.

Once in the tool select the short keyword, like “learn French” and select the database you want to look for. I’m going to continue with the UK right now.

That’ll take you to a page with all the related results to the keyword you’ve searched. You’ll get a lot of keywords here, so it’s best to apply a filter to make sure it’s niched down as much as possible.

You can do this by selecting, Include > Keywords > Equal To > [Keyword]. For example I wanted to make sure I only got French results here, so my specific target became that:

And as you can see from the top result there are a lot of searches for this keyword, although as Google Trends said, it’s decreasing:

But there is quite a high traffic value there (more than $1 per person). And there are a lot of related searches that really boost up the amount of searches per month.

With the top 10 alone we’re looking at 30,000+ searches a month here before we get to the long tails in the next section.

What I also find works here is if you take a few of the keywords and run them through Amazon or Google to see if there are any products you can be an affiliate for (or use an Amazon Affiliate link).

Like these products on Amazon:

Or like Rocket Languages French that I found, which also has a lucrative Clickbank Affiliate scheme:

With the results here I can see that learn French isn’t going to make me a huge profit through affiliates right away. But there is potential there for volume of products to create a relatively good income.

There’s also extras that I could offer: advertising for teachers and schools, custom affiliates with language learning schools or products to name just a few.

So this niche is shaping up pretty well for me so far. But, again, let’s take it one step deeper.

Step #3: Look For The Long Tail Keywords

Short keywords show you whether a niche has potential. But, long tail, specific keywords make up around 70% of searches. And the longer and more specific they are the more likely they are to convert.

SERPed has the ability to let you drill down as many keywords as you want while providing accurate information at the push of a button. Meaning you can find profitable keywords with a precise level of searches.

This step really gives you an idea about what products you’re going to be able to sell more specifically and lets you forecast a little on your income.

Let’s go to the root keyword of Learn French and drill down. You can do that by going to the cog wheel button, clicking, and selecting the Get LongTail Keywords button:

Then choose the database and make sure all of the information is correct:

That’ll then show you hundreds of results that relate to that keyword, which you’re able to sort by the metrics that matter to you.

Because I’m worried about the level of traffic this Learn French site will get (because it’s evidently going to be a volume niche) I’ve sorted by monthly searches.

Here you can already see the basis of a lot of content ideas, as well as potential affiliate products. For example, ‘Learn French podcast’ or ‘learn French by podcast’ could shape into:

• [X] Podcasts You Need To Learn French
• How I Learned [X] In French Using [Y] Podcast
• Can You Learn French With A Podcast? Today I Review [X]

There are some cool affiliate options, too. Like this one from Radiolingua French:

Again not earth shattering but enough to say there is money in the niche (especially if people are willing to fork out money on courses).

What is also great is that if you click on a keyword you’ll be given an instant analysis of what ranks where and how competitive that keyword is, while still on that results page:

This is a moderate keyword so it wouldn’t take a lot of effort to rank for it, but I need to ask the question of if it’s worth my time and effort to do so.

But with the ease of this tool you’re able to assess lots of keywords before you even try and put any effort into them. And letting you focus on keywords you can get results with at the start of the life of your site.

What Do You Learn With This Process?

This is a pretty simple process to follow, but it allows you to make a lot of informed decisions before you invest your time and money into your niche site.

So, what have I learned from this process, and what should you learn if you follow it too?

• Learn French isn’t a ‘trending’ niche but it maintains a high level of interest
• I’ll get best results from targeting Canada, African nations or Ireland
• But there is still a lot to be gained from the UK audience
• There are affiliate products across the board; but I’ll need volume to make a lot of money
• There are a wide range of keyword difficulties but many with profit are easy to rank for

That allows me to make an informed decision on whether or not to start this niche site.

Right now I know it’d be a good side niche site, but I wouldn’t make it my entire focus. If I wanted a complete niche site that makes my entire income I’d need to look at expanding to learning more languages. But I could definitely make $500-$1000 a month here for not a lot of work.

When you run this test you’re able to make similar judgements about the niche you want to get into.

But what you’re really looking for is:

• How much traffic does this niche get?
• What is that traffic worth?
• How good are my affiliate options?
• Do I need volume, or can I make a lot of money from just one sale?
• How competitive are the keywords?
• Will I get the right return on my time (or money) investment?

And if you tick all of those boxes and find you’re onto a profitable niche, you’re even able to use SERPed to buy a domain there and then to buy the right domain that fits the keywords you’re targeting.

Don’t forget! To get access to all of this data you’ll need access to the SERPed tool. You can apply for membership right here.

The post Struggling To Find Your Profitable Niche? Here’s The 3-Step Secret To Find One. appeared first on Serped.com.

Imagine knowing every piece of the puzzle.

Imagine being able to know, step-by-step, what you need to do to start your digital marketing agency. Get your first clients. And, attract the talent you need. How great would that be?

I know how it feels to sit there at the bottom of the mountain. You have no mentor. No guide. And, honestly, no idea what you're doing. You just turn up every day and hope to god you get one step closer to, well…wherever it is you're going.

It's scary as hell.

But it doesn't need to be. It is possible to take your digital marketing agency from where you are now – just you, sat in that chair, looking at this screen – to six or even seven figure heights.

You just need to know the pillars of success. Those simple and easy steps that will take your agency to new heights. And, that's exactly what I'm going to show you in this article.

What You'll Learn

By the end of this article you'll have learned::

• The Complete A-Z Guide Of Starting Your SEO Agency
• Tried And Tested Pillars From Current Industry Professionals
• How To Start Your Agency From The Second You Close Your Browser
• No BS Information To Help You Break Your Limiting Beliefs

And, if you click the link below, you can get a complete checklist of these steps. Allowing you to follow all of these steps in real time and move at your own pace.

Actionable Goals

First, let's talk about who do you want to be?

In order to be the resounding success that we both know you can be, you're going to need clear goals to work towards. Because, as the advertising legend Paul Arden once said, “Without a goal, it's hard to score”.

And there's a lot that's been said about goal setting. Hell, throw the term into Google and you can enjoy 8,590,000 plus results on the topic. But there's one element that SEO's always forget to do and that's this:

You need to reverse engineer where you want to be. Let me explain…

Let's say you've started an agency – we'll call it SERPed Heroes for now – what's the finish line for you?

• How much money do you want to make?
• How many clients do you want to have?
• What type of clients do you want to work with?
• How many employees do you want to have?

Once you know your end goal you can work backwards and create goals that fit your chosen pathway. Also, check out these employee onboarding checklists to help your HR efforts.

For example, if SERPed Heroes wanted in five years:

• To Make $500,000 a year
• Work with 20-25 clients
• Work with clients in the Health Sector
• Have 10-12 Employees

You could look at how to reverse engineer that into goals and actionable steps.

And once you have your end result, it pays to set your business goals using SMART. Because, as boring and unoriginal as it sounds, it works at all levels. If you've never set a SMART Goal, here's how it should look:

• Specific: Be clear about what you want to do. Replace vague terms like, “be the best in the industry” with “Generate $500,000 in sales from health sector clients”.

• Measurable: This is answering the question, “How will I know when I've achieved it?”.

• Aspirational: This is normally Achievable, but as research from Locke and Latham found, having aspirational goals here is far more beneficial. Try adding 20-25% onto what you think you can achieve, and you'll find you're hitting goals faster than ever.

• Realistic: By the same token, know what's in your reach. Landing $500,000 worth of work probably won't happen in your first year. But, over five years, why the heck not?

• Time Bound: Set a clear, specific, time frame to achieve your goal in. This can be short, medium or long term, depending on the goal you're setting.

So, based on the reverse engineering you read about a minute ago, here's how a SMART goal for SERPed Heroes might look:

To land one client in the Health Sector that pays $2000 – $3000 per month by the end of the fourth quarter.

You can then start to break that down into specific, actionable, steps, which we'll look at more in-depth later.

Get More From This Step

This awesome video from Entrepreneur shows you exactly how to do what you've just learned in this step.

Build Your Brand Identity

Okay, you've just looked at what you want to achieve, now let's look at who you want to be.

There are lots of reasons you need to have a clear brand identity. In fact, most of them are well known cliches like, “People buy from people they like”. But there's one often overlooked, but incredibly important, reason that ties them altogether.

As Lois Geller once put it in an article for Forbes, “A brand is a promise”.

It's a promise you have to keep every single time someone uses your service. For example, SERPed Heroes would promise to…

“Create Search Content for the Health Sector that: adds value to users, generates income and is managed in house to save you time”

From this promise you could start to create a solid brand identity that suggests this promise to your clients. You can create:

• Logo's
• Slogans
• Tone of Voice
• Downloadable Content
• Services and Products

That's all based around this promise. Want a real world example? Take a look at Search Engine Land. What's their promise?

The deliver the latest SEO news and how-tos in short articles that are easy to read. That's what you expect from them every single time you visit. So if that's what you're interested in, you'll keep coming back as long as they're keeping it.

Don't get too caught up in your brand identity, either. It's important, but at the start you need to be responsive to what people want. Maybe there is an aspect of your brand that people resonate more with. Pay attention to the data and adjust accordingly.

Get More From This Step

Check out this video from Dan Martell. He takes you through some simple steps on what branding is, and how to stand out in your marketplace.

Capital, Do You Need It?

Starting an agency feels like it should be expensive, doesn't it?

That if you're going to get this business off the ground you're going to need a lot of investors and money. After all, you need to spend money to make money, right?

Wrong.

Firstly, check your ego. A lot of the time you want money because you don't want to swap your time for free. You want to get paid for everything you're doing. So, if that's the reason you think you need extra capital, you definitely don't.

Secondly, six figure businesses have been known to start for as low as $62.50. And, a lot of agencies start off as just a single person, like Mike Ramsey's Nifty Marketing, and end up as million dollar agencies.

He started off by taking clients on a Freelance rate, then growing his agency from there. One step at a time. Until he reached where he could hire someone. That's those goals, and actionable steps, coming in.

There are ways you can cut costs, too.

For example, you don't need every SEO tool under the sun. You could spend $2000 – $3000 a month in recurring costs just from these tools. Half of which, you'll never even use. Instead choose one or two tools that do everything you need them to do.

There's also the problem that having investors and partners detracts from your ownership of the agency.

The more people that are putting money in, or are sharing your company, takes away from what you actually own. You'll find the most successful agencies are the ones who knuckle down, go independant and turn themselves into a success on their own.

Get More From This Step

This post from Start Up Bro's documents how you can start a business for under $100, with advice from experts in lots of different fields. It's worth a read if you really need to bootstrap to start.

Click here to read it

Develop A Business Plan (But Not How You'd Think)

Business Plans are hard to make in the world today. Damn, just take a look at how often Google updates itself, as well as all the channels you use to market yourself.

A five year business plan which used to be easy to implement in the 80's. 90's and early 2000's is almost impossible nowadays. As I type this, for example, millions of people are sending Snapchat's that didn't even exist five years ago.

So why the hell would you be able to predict, and plan, what you're going to do with your Agency every minute, of every day, for the next five years?

Don't even bother.

Instead, once you have your reverse engineered goal, you should look at actionable steps that can help you achieve those goals for this year and into next year (at a push).

Let's head back to the SERPed Heroes goal before, Obtain One Health Sector Client, here's how that could break down into actionable steps:

• Goal: Obtain One Health Sector Client
• Attend Five Local Health Sector Conferences
• Find (Or Create) 10 Health Sector Connections
• Create Downloadable Health SEO Content
• Find A Health Sector Endorsement
• Create Health Sector Portfolio Piece

This is suddenly more achievable, more realistic and it does something else important…

It stays flexible and is easy to adjust to what happens along the way. Which, as you saw earlier, is important in today's SEO environment.

You need to know what you want to achieve – that's the business plan – but you need to remain open, and not rigid, against change.

Get More From This Step

I'd recommend you go out and pick up a copy of the book, Rework, by the founders of 37Signals It's one of the most forward-thinking books on starting your agency.

Expertise – Who Do You Need?

Let me tell you about one thing that kills lots of Agencies…

One person trying to do everything. Why does it kill them?

Simple. You're just not good at everything. Don't fight it, it's a good thing.

If you're the SEO Guy you're probably not that savvy with sales techniques, business management, finding clients or networking with people at conferences.

If you're the Business Guy you're probably not good at keeping up to date with Google Updates, Backlinking Strategies, understanding what SERP's are or knowing that a Panda update isn't the local Zoo adding more animals.

You may have some skills that crossover, but being good at all of these is beyond you. Especially in practical application.

Before you launch into becoming an Agency you need to find out what your – or your current team's – strengths and weaknesses are. Then decide if you need to hire someone, or bring someone in as a partner, accordingly.

If your head is full or Algorithms, maybe you're going to need to pull your MBA Student Buddy in to come and help you set up.

If you want to start an Agency and don't care about learning in the trenches SEO, you're going to have to find someone who is.

This is a highly personal subject, so I won't tell you what to do or who you are, it's up to you to be honest and find where you're strongest and weakest and build accordingly.

Get More From This Step

Self awareness is one of the key components for success. Because once you know who you are, you know who you can hire to cover your weaknesses.

This video from Gary Vaynerchuck hit's the nail on the head:

Find Your Value

If you've ever listened to an old school marketer they'll tell you that you need a Unique Selling Point (USP) to differentiate yourself. But that terminology can he hard to get your head around. So here's how you should look at it instead…

Where can you add value to someone that your competitors can't?

This can be anything that sets you apart. Do you:

• Create content only for a specific niche?
• Do you generate reports differently?
• Do you have a tried and tested strategy (with results)?
• Are you exclusive to clients over a certain budget?
• Do you focus on X, Y or Z that nobody else cares about?

Knowing this – and how it resonates with your potential clients – can help set you apart and make customers more attracted to you in the long run.

Get More From This Step

Fizzle wrote an evergreen guide to finding your Unique Selling Point. It's stood the test of time and is super easy to wrap your head around.

Click here to read it

Generate Unique Content

You're at risk of becoming just another SEO Agency.

As I type this, in a coffee shop in Manchester, England, I'm within walking distance of at least 10 different digital marketing agencies. And these are just the ones I know about. So, on top of adding a different level of value, you also need to separate yourself from the competition.

The best way to do this is content.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of SEO Blogs, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages trying to get themselves heard. But most of them are creating the same content over and over and over again. What can you do differently?

• Do you run experiments on your blog?
• Do you expose claims from other SEOs?
• Do you have a YouTube Channel where you try challenges?
• Do you interview people about the SEO challenges?
• Do you hack the strategies of Google's top ranking competitors?
• Do you find back-doors where small businesses can outrank the Fortune 500?

The Skyscraper method may be effective. But, it's the strategy everyone is using right now.

If you want to make a splash and get your Agency noticed you need to do the opposite of what your competition is doing right now.

Get More From This Step

Okay, there's a little bit of extra reading here. Check out these articles to help you create better, more unique (or at least, successful) content:

How To Create Unique Content To Build Your Blog's Authority by ProBlogger

Why Most “How To's” Suck (And How To Write Great Ones) by SmartBlogger

How To Use Udemy To Create Dozens Of Content Ideas by Nichehacks

Have An Epic Portfolio

Actions have, and always will, speak louder than words.

If people see that you've worked with, and delivered results for, a brand that they know and trust, they're more likely to buy from you. Because if they trusted you enough to work with you, why shouldn't they?

Now if you don't have a portfolio yet, don't worry. That's easily remedied. You can simply try and do some free work for people (and build some good relationships while you're at it) to get these. Or, you can compile a list of previous projects your staff have worked on in the past as a placeholder until you've got some agency work under your belt.

A portfolio is now considered a minimum requirement for an agency to have. So, it's essential you get one in place. A good portfolio is made up of:

• Headlines and shorts snippets
• Further, in depth, result case studies
• Testimonials from clients
• Future goals and targets for that client

Showing people that not only you can deliver the results, but you will continue to deliver them to people continuously.

Get More From This Step

Your portfolio is unique to your agency. Your brand, your style of work, it all needs to become part of the portfolio.

This next guide is designer for people looking to be hired and what should be in their creative portfolio. It's aimed at freelancers, but the lessons carry across to agencies looking for clients too.

Click here to read it

Invest In Yourself

You read about Capital earlier and whether you need it or not. But you should always have a budget for self development.

You already know that you can't be good at everything. However there are parts of your business you need to get better at if you're just starting out.

It could be brushing up on your SEO skills; it could be learning how to generate leads; it could be sales; it could be people management or whatever it is that goes with your business.

You can find courses on almost everything on Udemy, or you can take a stroll down to your local bookstore. But having a budget to invest in yourself, or your team, is paramount to grow further.

Get More From This Step

Hongkiat put together an great list of Udemy courses for Budding Entrepreneurs.  You don't have to take them, but one can't hurt, right?

Click here to read it.

Join The Local Community

Working in the Internet Industry it's normal to focus all of your: networking, lead generation and content efforts on the online world. But by doing that you're missing out on the easiest way to build your business at the start.

Because, while you're searching for hard to access leads on the Internet, you're driving past hundreds of easy to access leads on your way to work. And, just because they're local businesses, doesn't mean they don't have a big budget.

For example, if I was started SERPed Heroes right now, I'd:

• Find local businesses in my Area
• Contact all of them
• If they didn't respond I'd go to their offices and schedule a meeting
• Attend local business meet ups
• Find conferences, events and forums happening in the local community
• Ask everyone I know if they, or anyone they know, needed SEO Services

Now the important note to make here is that you need to join the community and do some of the above:

• Provide value (this is easy locally, you'll be in the minority as an SEO)
• Show your different content
• Help people with their problems

Don't go straight into the sell. Don't be there to make money. Be there to get to know people, talk to them and become a long term part of that community. That's when you'll start to see real sales.

Keep It Simple For Your Clients

For all the years I've worked in SEO, I've learnt one incredibly valuable lesson:

Your clients don't give a crap about SEO.

At least, they don't care – even a little bit – about the technical Jargon that you love to use. Because it doesn't mean anything to them. So, don't try and sound smart or intimidating by using it.

You may not think it, but this is a technique a lot of SEO's employ to get clients.

Instead here's what they do give a crap about:

• Results
• Cash
• ROI
• More Traffic
• More Customers
• Less Worry

So find a way to explain it to them in terms that they do understand. Want an idea? Here's an exercise you can do right now…

Go to Google, choose a niche, and find a company on the back of the results. Like this:

I found this site, Health+Care, which is a medical conference in the UK.

Now with the company you've found, and I'm going to do it with you, I want you to figure out what their dream situation would be. If everything in their life would go to plan, what would happen?

For Health+Care that may look something like this:

To have a completely sold out conference of the UK's best health professionals. They'd have completely subscribed exhibition lists and attract the most important speakers from around the world, as well as the attention of pharmaceutical companies.

And, once you have that, you can flip it on it's head; what's the worst situation they could find themselves in?

That might look like a little like this:

To host an event that is undersubscribed, costs more money to run than it makes, doesn't get any media or professional attention. Not having enough funds to run another conference, and going out of business.

Remember, stop what you're doing and make these notes for the page you've found right now. Because once you know these dreams and fears you can begin to frame your SEO – both for sales pitches and for showing results – in a way they understand.

• “By getting more backlinks we can increase how many people see your event”
• “By guest posting here we can target people more accurately”
• “When we target these keywords we put you in front of people who will want to advertise at your event”

Now they're methods a business owner can get behind.

Get More From This Step

Learning to separate features and benefits is a key skill to learn. So, there are two tools you need for this step.

The first is this post from Copyblogger that asks, “Does your content pass the forehead slap test?”, and shows you how to extract benefits from features.

Click here to read it

The second I'd recommend is to buy this book from Andy Maslen called, Write To Sell. It's the best book on copywriting I've ever read and makes all of your writing much better. It taught me everything I know about keeping it simple.

Look For Ways To Save Money

There are certain parts of running an Agency that, on the surface, feel costly:

• Marketing
• Advertising and Exposure
• Finding Clients
• Providing Customer Service

Sometimes it feels like you're looking down the barrel of a big dollar shaped shotgun, doesn't it? Yet, with the right mindset, you can find ways to do all of this cheaply.

Look at using sites like UpWork to build a team of Customer Service reps that can work for $5-7 dollars an hour. Or, look for different hacks and methods to get Facebook Ads down to 1c per click (or like these guys who got $0.0005 per engagement).

And, as the old saying goes, Marketing is like sex (only losers pay for it). Find ways to build word of mouth, marketing that you can rely on. Offer unique sales points, add a value that nobody else can, or provide a service that people will scream about. It doesn't have to cost you anything, but it can drive you a tonne of business in the long run.

Get More From This Step

Entrepreneur put together an awesome resource of 50 ways to save money in your business. Bookmark it and look for how you can take a chainsaw to your business expenditure.

Click here to read it

Make Connections In Person

Earlier in this article you learned about getting involved in the local community. This point looks at the topic in a much broader sense…

When I broke into the SEO field I was given a timeless piece of advice that has never failed me. And, I want to share it with you:

Meet all of your potential clients in person.

That's right, meet every single one of them in person. Because that's how you start to forge relationships that last.

In an online industry that sounds against the grain. You should be able to just send out emails, catch people on social media – or through Facebook Ads – and drive a tonne of clients your way. But, that's not the way it works, at least not until you're an established SEO agency with a track record.

That involves:

• Going to conferences
• Going to events
• Attending parties for their favourite charity
• Playing Golf with some Darren who you met at a networking event
• Going and sitting in their office and showing them what SEO is
• Having a Skype session where they can see you on their screen

This is the most overlooked method of getting new clients in our entire industry. Many SEO agencies fail on this pillar alone.

Because when someone can look you in the eye, feel like they know you and get to like you, they want to spend money with you over someone they don't know.

You and I both know all of these businesses you interact with – either in the next six months or the next six years – will need SEO services. You just have to be the person the person that was friends with them before they realised it.

Get More From This Step

Kieth Ferrazzi wrote possibly the best book on networking when he penned, Never Eat Alone. It's easy to read and really easy to implement.

Nurture Them

Don't treat that point like the hard sell though. Once they say they don't need your services, don't fall off the face of the earth, like when a guy or girl at the bar tells you they're not interested right now.

Keep in touch. Check in. Ask the questions. Find out how their kids soccer practice is going. Take an interest in them as a friend.

Just because they don't need your services doesn't mean that they don't know someone who does. Who better to refer than their new SEO friend?

Get More From This Step

Hubspot put together a great guide on lead nurturing and keeping people in your funnel.

Click here to read it

One-Step Marketing Principle

Want to know why people are skeptical about your SEO agency?

It's because there are thousands of horror stories on the internet about how an agency took a company, spammed the hell out of them, took their money and left them to deal with the ruins of what was their website.

The number one way to stand out in SEO right now – and this is the best marketing principle you can employ – is to show you care about your customers.

That has to show through in your content. In your tweets and facebook updates and emails to clients and anything they can possibly come into contact with.

The intimidation of SEO algorithms doesn't work any more. The black hat approach to getting clients has overstayed it's welcome. The way to create an SEO agency now is to create one that cares.

Get More From This Step

Help Scout wrote a phenomenal post on how to get your customers to fall in love with you, and how you can demonstrate just how much you care, right here:

Click here to read it

Positivity In Adversity

Okay I'm going to change the pace just a little and hit some of the wishy washy, real life, stuff right here…

The road to a 6 figure agency is long and hard.

There's no overnight success. No short cuts. No hitting and hoping. Just hard work, late nights, blood, sweat and tears.

But you have to keep a positive attitude throughout it all. If you're starting an agency, you have a vision of what it is that you want to achieve. And, you have to keep that positive mental image of it for as long as possible.

As one of my mentors once told me, “Why get frustrated with no's? They're just stepping stones to your next yes”.

Who knows, your biggest hit could be just one more rejection letter away?

Get More From This Step

Let's get inspirational, shall we? Here's a list of 16 extraordinary success stories who failed spectacularly before they made it to the top:

Click here to read it

Quote The Right Price (For You)

Pricing is often the most asked question I get from start-Up Agencies. You've probably thought it yourself:

“How do you set prices that make me money but don't scare away potential clients?”

Let's be clear here…

Pricing shows how you value yourself to your clients. And, nothing is more valuable than yours (or your employees) time.

If you're starting from the ground up as a one person agency, it can feel more comfortable to charge $40-$60 an hour, or to take on clients for $300-$400 a month, because you can still make a great living doing it that way.

But, if you want more from your business, you can't stay that way.

Take a look at the Nifty Marketing example again, when he upped his prices to a minimum $100 per hour, he noticed he started generating more interest, attracting better clients, making more money and growing faster. Because he started attracting the right people for his agency.

Instead of looking it as pricing clients out you need to look at it as pricing the wrong clients out. Because if you keep taking jobs at the lower rate, you'll find yourself overworked and underpaid compared to where you want to be.

Get More From This Step

Check out this episode of The Fizzle Show where they talk about how to price anything for your business:

Recognise (And Plan For) When You'll Need Employees

There will come a point where you need employees. If you're committed to your goals and your business, you will outgrow the ability to do work just on your own. A six-figure one man band might be a good dream, but it's highly unlikely you'll do that and keep any quality of life.

But the key to making sure your business survives the need for employees is to scale how, and when, you hire them. This will vary from agency to agency, and the type of service you offer, but I find a good way to survive these transitions is to work in these steps:

• Just You: Start out as just you, knuckle down, and complete as much work as possible.
• Freelancers: When you build up enough, look to outsource work to Freelance SEO's. It could be specific tasks for a project, or full projects for themselves that you take a percentage of.
• Part-Time Employee: You either do this as a freelancer, or in-house. Take someone on a permanent contract for x,y or z requirements each week. This way you get used to paying out a salary, while not having too many overheads.
• One Full Time Employee: Once you're making enough money, take on a full time employee to alleviate your workload. And, to allow you to bring in more custom because you can effectively do double the work.

You could, theoretically, stop here and become a successful six figure agency. At least at the lower end of the six figure world. But, if you want to keep growing to get towards those top figures, you'll find there's a point where you need to take on even more employees.

It's possible to plan out when you'll need employees by your earnings, too. Which would look a little something like:

• Just You: $30,000 – $50,000 a year
• Freelancers: $50,000 – $80,000 a year
• Part Time Employees: $80,000 – $100,000 a year
• Full Time Employees: $100,000+

This will change from agency to agency, and the amount of work you feel people can handle, but putting it in these terms let's you have a rough idea of when you'll need to start looking at taking someone on the books, and how much you can allow for it.

But, as with everything in SEO, timing and precision are key here. Don't start with employees from day one; and make sure you don't go too long without taking someone on board.

Get More From This Step

For some additional reading, you can check out this guide from HubSpot on, When Should Your Agency Hire Its Next Employee?

Click here to read it

Study The Art Of Sales

Sales is the bottom line for you. I'm yet to meet a successful agency owner that couldn't sell their services.

But, sales is hard and scary and tricky…I get it. That leaves you two options to work with:

• You can hire someone to sell for you
• You can learn to sell for yourself

Like all things in business you can either spend time doing something, or spend money getting someone to do it. The choice is yours.

Now become a salesperson isn't an overnight strategy. It takes time, and practice, and dealing with rejection. But you have to know how to do it.

Think of all of the components of sales and break them down:

• Communication: How good are your communication skills?
• Product knowledge: How well do you know what you do?
• Emotion: How well do you transfer emotion from what you do, to what they want?
• Relationships: How well do you create, and nurture, relationships with people?

These are just a handful of the components. And, as I spoke about way back at the start of the article, it comes down to being self aware enough to know what you can (and can't) do.

Get More From This Step

This is by far the best video I've found online about sales. It comes from seasoned professionals, and it's actionable straight away.

Track All Of Your Results

Everything your agency does, at any point, track it.

Firstly, understanding the data allows you to adjust and grow your business based on what works. Being able to develop a strategy is of an importance I really can't stress enough.

Secondly, it can become the portfolio piece that lands you a new client. There's nothing worse when you're pitching than not being able to demonstrate your value with real results.

Get More From This Step

The best data tracking and management software I know about is Platform.ly. They're waiting-list only, but once you're in, you can automate all of this stage.

Understand The Boring Stuff

There are some back of house bits of business you really need to understand, too. Here's the top three you need to learn…

Reporting Tools

Although clients may not be that interesting in the ins and outs of your practices (at least at a technical level), you have a duty as an agency to deliver reports of what it is you're doing and the results you're getting. You'll also want to track all of these things internally, too.

I'd recommend starting with Microsoft Office Software to begin with, like Excel, because you can add your own branding and keep all of your files saved permanently for backup. Google Docs is a good second option, but you run the risk of things getting messy and disorganised quickly.

Bookkeeping

You don't need to be a fully chartered accountant to do this. But, you need to keep tabs on what you make, what you spend and where all of your money is going.

It helps to use invoicing software like FreshBooks or Hiveage to keep track of your invoicing. While a simple spreadsheet of your monthly incomings and outgoings can work wonders to making sure you know where all your money is at all times.

And, you know, it always pays to not run up a tab on the company credit card either.

Budgeting And Forecasting

This is the final step, but it's one of the most important. Knowing how your business is going to grow over the next year, both in how you want it to grow and how it looks like it will grow, are big factors in your success.

There will come hard times, and there will be good times. Knowing when each of them is going to happen is important to managing your time, money and finances. This is also the ‘measureable' part of the SMART Goals you set right back at the start of this article.

Get More From This Step

Here's three separate articles on how to get better acquainted with each of these topics:

Top Reporting Software by Capterra

How To Bookkeep by WikiHow

12 Best Tools For Budgeting by Inc.

Very Early On, Decide What's Important

Do you know how many conversations I've had with people about the importance of letterheads and signatures?

Stop it.

Stop it now.

From the beginning decide what's important for your business. Decide what is going to get you the biggest return on investment and grow your Agency.

Once you have paying clients you can worry about your logo and a mascot for your blog.

Get More From This Step

Check out this article from Brian Tracy that gives you the five key questions you need to ask to set your business priorities.

Click here to read it

Watch What Your Clients Respond To

Pay attention to your client's behaviours – both potential and current – and see what works well when you interact with them, and what falls on deaf ears.

Found a particular email, pitch, phone call or product is getting the most attention? Adjust and act on it.

Don't worry about vanity metrics – like traffic and likes on Facebook – instead look at what converts and drill down to get even more from it.

Get More From This Step

This little known article on LinkedIn is a real gem for understanding client behaviour. Especially as it pertains to sales. Double win.

Click here to read it

eXplore New Techniques

I'm allowed one that doesn't fit exactly, right?

Always looks for new ways to market and grow yourself. Innovate. Try new techniques and use new tools to see what gets results for you and your clients.

• Create a Periscope Q&A
• Build an SEO-Geek Snapchat Feed
• Create and brand an SEO Technique
• Design a coffee-break podcast about small business SEO

Do something to get you out of the old SEO mould and innovate on the old things you've done. Just because nobody is doing it now doesn't mean it should be done.

Get More From This Step

This is one of my favourite concepts from Seth Godin called, The Purple Cow. If you're not familiar with it, watch this video:

You Should Be Proud Of What You Don't Do

Be proud of what your agency doesn't do as well as what you do, do.

If you try and offer everything you'll find yourself at the careers office with all of the other Agency owners who tried to be a people pleaser.

Don't take on clients in a specific industry? Be proud of it.

Refuse to work for less than $50 an hour? Be proud of it.

Don't work on Sundays? Be proud of it.

Get More Out Of This Step

Just read this post. Go ahead and read it.

Click here to read it

Zone Out On What Your Competitors Are Doing

What you don't do is as endearing to a potential client as what you can do.

Instead of worrying about what someone else is doing, focus on what you should be doing.

This is your agency.

This is your chance to make your mark.

Stop worrying what everyone else is doing and think about what you need to do to get better.

Get More From This Step

Watch this episode of the #AskGaryVee show from about 1:00 inwards until he stops talking about ignoring your competition. It's a brilliant twist on the old strategy. And, one I personally employ.

That's All, Folks…

Phew! Here you are. You made it right to the end.

Now, it's over to you! How are you going to get started on your agency? Our suggestion would be with a subscription to SERPed.net – your all in one suite of tools

The post The Foolproof 26 Step Formula To Start Your Own Digital Marketing Agency appeared first on Serped.com.

Nothing feels worse than staring at a blank screen.

The blinking cursor almost seems to mock you, doesn't it?

As a fellow blogger, I know how frustrating it feels to try to create inspired blog content when your idea well runs dry.

It's even worse when you've got a client breathing down your neck.

But, I also know the elation, joy and utter relief of filling that well with a flood of prospering, attractive blog post ideas.

Follow these tips to never run out of new, helpful blog post ideas again.

01: Zero in on Pain Points

Pain points breed blogging profits.

Pain points also supply you with an endless flow of good client blog post ideas.

Find reader pain points by asking your friends and followers questions related to their biggest problems on:

● Twitter
● Facebook
● G Plus
● LinkedIn

Simply ask what your readers are struggling with and observe responses.

For example I asked this question on Facebook, which got an intriguing response:

That planted the seed for one of my most-read articles of the year:

And, if you don't have the audience to ask, use social media to find the problems people have.

If you need to create content for the Real Estate niche, you can search topics like, House Buying Problems on Twitter and see what people are talking about:

There's an unlimited amount of blog post ideas you can create based on these pain points.

02: Meditate Daily

Did he just mention meditation on a marketing blog?

Yep.

When the blog content idea well runs dry you’re simply suffering from a mental block, aka “writer’s block”.

Meditating for 5 to 20 minutes daily helps you to dissolve blocks and create new ideas.

While you're always looking for tutorials, case studies and marketing-style information to give you ideas, you forget that you already have a tonne of ideas.

They're just locked behind that writer's block, stress and a pressure.

Hands down, meditating every single day for years helped me to write 10,000 words daily – or more – during a 3 month stretch in 2015 when I wrote and self-published a 6,000 word eBook every day.

I churned out 90 eBooks in 3 months because I had no mental blocks to eBook ideas.

Find a quiet spot.

Focus your attention on your breathing.

When your attention wanders note the object of your attention (a thought, feeling, memory or sensation) and move your attention back to your breathing.

Sit for at least 5 minutes in the morning.

Allow in a torrent of prospering blog content ideas.

03: Read Voraciously

Read about your niche.

It's hard to generate client blog post ideas when you're not active in their niche.

It doesn't matter if it's yours personally, or your clients, either.

Reading exposes you to creative ideas, stokes your imaginative juices and dissolves writer’s block swiftly.

Take the time to read PDF's, free eBooks, blog posts, articles, press releases and other content that's available in your niche.

Who knows, it may just be the spark that sets off a flow of content ideas.

04: Become a Comment Lounge Lizard

Hang out on niche specific, authority, well read blogs.

Trawl through the blog comments section.

What do readers share?

What are they struggling with?

What help do they need?

List pain points (similar to tip #1).

Build your blog content on these pain points.

Example: if one commenter on Pro Blogger expresses frustration with establishing a blogging schedule I will write and publish a blog post on Blogging From Paradise about how to set up your blogging schedule.

You can apply this to all blogs in every niche, too.

Fish in a barrel, easy peasy stuff here.

05: Chase the Tail on Google

If you're really struggling for client blog post ideas, think about one of the reasons your clients came to you in the first place – to rank on Google.

Use a tool like SERPed to find all of the long-tail keywords that relate to the topic you need to write about.

If you were to search, German Language, you could see a set of results like this…

From here you could create at least five new pieces of content:

• 100 Meme's Only German Language Learner Would Understand
• How To Create German Language Memes
• What Is The Best German Language Translator You Can Use?
• Google vs Dict.cc vs Microsoft Translate – Which Is The Best Translator For You?
• How The German Language Alphabets Compare To Others Around The World

Build blog post ideas based on these long tail keywords and you'll have content that's Google Friendly and doesn't require any extra effort to think of.

6: Spot Niche Trends

Identify trends in your niche by following trusted blogs relevant to your blog topic.

Observe frequently covered, recent topics.

Publish blog content related to these ideas.

Do not copy titles or plagiarize any portion of these blog posts.

Use these topics as a starting point.

Put your spin on these ideas by covering the topic with your own writing voice.

Looking for content ideas for your blog?Here are 52 ideas you can use to create fresh content.

7: Write 1000 to 2000 Words Daily

Many famous bloggers have written about how having a writing habit has helped them skyrocket to success.

So, form a writing habit.

Open a Word document.

Write 1,000 to 2,000 words related to your niche daily.

Don’t publish these words to your blog every day.

View some of these sessions as “writing practice.”

Flex your mental muscle by never missing a day of writing practice.

You’ll work through writer’s block eventually, your idea well will never run dry and all the bloggers who rarely practice writing will wonder how you pulled a rabbit out of the hat.

8: Dovetail on Old Blog Posts

I often dovetail blog content ideas on old blog posts. What do I mean?

One month I may cover a topic like “How to Market Your Blog the Right Way” and a few weeks or months later I may publish a post titled “How to Market Your Blog Effectively on Facebook.”

This is how you dovetail.

Take the seed of an idea from your older blogs posts – or once you've written for other clients – and turn it into a new post.

Each blog post contains an unlimited amount of idea seeds for you to pluck and grow into new blog post ideas.

Try taking a section, or paragraph, from one of your older blog posts and turn it into a standalone piece.

You've already done most of the legwork!

9: Take Short, Frequent Breaks from Your Writing

Writer’s block is a tension-filled energy.

Taking a 5 to 10 minute break from your writing every 50 minutes dissolves this tension.

Take short, frequent breaks from writing your next blog post to ease mental tension and to create eye-popping, attractive content.

Fill your idea well.

Take a break.

Do you follow these tips?

What tips can you add to this list?

The post 9 Ways To Create Scintillating Blog Content For Your Clients When The Idea Well Runs Dry appeared first on Serped.com.

It’s hard, isn’t it?

You’re so focused on your clients marketing, making sure that they get what they’re paying for, that, well…your marketing falls to the wayside. It’s just hard to find the time.

But, don’t worry, finding time just got a whole lot easier.

Blogging is key to your Agencies marketing success – if you’re not sure why read on to find out – and this article just took the sting out of creating content for it.

In this post, you’ll find at least one year's Digital Agency blog post ideas you can use right now. All you have to do is choose a type of post, then write content that fits it.

Nothing else. No strings attached.

So, if you want to supercharge your content marketing, without having to come up with any ideas for blog, you’re in the right place.

What You’ll Learn

In this article you’ll learn:

• Why Your Agency Needs A Blog
• 52 Blog Posts That Are Proven To Attract, Engage And Retain Clients
• How To Become A Thought Leader In Your Niche
• Proven Articles You Can Follow To Slash Your Content Creation Time

If all of that sounds good to you, go ahead and read on. But I’d recommend bookmarking this post, because it’s a long one.

Oh, and I say at least a year's worth of content because if you only manage one idea for each topic, you have one post a week for a year. But, the more ideas you come up with for each topic, the more content you can use. Winner.

But first, let’s answer a pressing question…

Why Does Your Agency Need A Blog?

There are four important reasons your agency needs a blog, which you can read about below. But, if you’re already sold on why you need a blog (or already have one) you can click here to jump to the content ideas.

Reason #1: To Keep Existing Clients

Keeping your current customers is as, if not more important than, getting new ones. And having a content-filled blog is the ideal way to do it. Why?

Because showing that you’re consistently involved, and innovating, in your niche can be the difference between a client staying with you, or heading to a more forward thinking agency.

Let’s look at an example.

Go Fish Digital pride themselves on their backbone of “Thought Leadership, Applied”. And, if you head to their blog, you can see all of their thought leadership posts…

At least once a week they’re sharing innovations and thought-leader ideas about the industry. Whether that’s about: Search Marketing, Social Media or Online Reputations.

And, the blog posts themselves come from their staff, like Bill Slawski who also runs the SEO by the Sea blog.

This shows to an existing client that they’re always pushing to deliver on what they’re doing in-house. That their staff are always growing and innovating and pushing in their field. And, that they’re going to get what they’re paying good money for.

It’s also a great resource to direct your current clients to when they have any questions or queries, too. Making it an all inclusive services.

Reason #2: To Get New Clients

As important as it is for you to keep your existing customers, you're still going to want to get new ones.

Your blog is your trademark content. It’s the feel of your brand. It’s the face behind the logo, as it were. And if someone comes along and sees your content, and likes your brand, they’re going to be much easier to convert.

Let’s see this from a few different angles…

Ryan Stewart, of the Webris Agency, used Guest Posting as an integral tool for growing his agency.

Now, while this link building tactic is great for Search Engines, it doesn’t do much for the humans who have to click the link. But, having a blog on your agencies site can do wonders to capture those potential clients who do click through.

They see his blog post on a site that they like that answers one of their major questions:

Then they click through to his agency site and see he has a blog that answers even more of those questions:

And they feel like they’ve stumbled on to someone brilliant. They may only join the mailing list. They may only want your push notifications. But, if you capture enough people with good content, you’ll find yourself with a new customer.

There’s also the SEO Benefits of generating new leads. You’d do it for your clients, so why not it for yourself, too?

Let’s say I’ve heard about link building for the first time. I’d search along these lines:

And, like most people, I click on the top link because I trust Google implicitly (or that’s just what normal, non-marketing, people do):

That takes me to a page that is up to date, answers my question (there or there about) within a second or two and they even mention business owners at the bottom of the page.

The chances of me paying attention here – reading the content and wanting to find out more about the company who wrote it – is pretty damn high right now. I might even get an audit from them, just to see how much working with them would set me back.

And these are just two ways you can use your blog to get new clients. There are tens, if not hundreds, more ways to do it too, just using your blog.

Reason #3: To Up-Sell Your New Services

You’ve just seen how having a blog can show your existing and potential clients how: innovative and forward thinking you are. Now, you can combine all three to get them to buy your brand new services, too.

Every day Search – and marketing in general – changes. There’s every chance that people outside of your industry aren’t up to date.

Let’s say you’ve seen an increase in how Social Media converts for clients in your industry. And, you know how to get results. But, many of your clients don’t have your social media package.

You can blog about the benefits of Social Media on SEO and let your clients know that, now, you do have a social media package that they could be part of.

Also, you can be strategic with this and, if you have a new service launching in the next few months – let’s say you know in April but it’s not launching until September – you can start posting more content around that topic, and then use it to upsell to your clients at the time of launch.

Reason #4: To Position Yourself As A Voice

This is great if you want to be the head of your agency and become a thought-leader, or a pioneering voice, in the field you specialise in (be it SEO, or Medical Marketing or wherever you sit).

As Gary Vaynerchuk often points out:

“You’re only one piece of content away from what you want to happen, happening”

And by consistently sharing content – especially through blog posts – you’re able to keep chipping away at becoming a heard, much loved, voice that cuts through the noise in your niche.

I mean, just take a look at Brian Dean:

He’s built an entire personal brand – that has in turn grown his company, Backlinko – through consistently blogging about SEO.

This has allowed him to create an agency where people come to him to buy services, instead of him trying to sell himself.

All he has to do is create good content, over and over again, which appeals to his audience. Then he just cashes in.

There’s no shortage of opportunity to become a voice in SEO (or marketing) either, so why not take your chance?

Your 52 Digital Agency Blog Post Ideas

In this section, you’re going to get 52 of blog topics that you can use on your blog to get big results. And, you’ll never have to think of blog ideas again. Let me explain a little how this is going to work…

First, you’re going to see a headline, that looks like this:

[Number] Ways To Get [Result] By [Action]

The words in the square brackets [like this] can be substituted for anything you feel fits there. For example:

10 Ways To Get More Traffic By Link Building

3 Ways To Get More Facebook Likes By Boosting Your Post

8 Ways To Be More Productive By Using Free Tools

Or, you’re going to see a style of post, like this:

Create A Competition

These are topics, or actions, that are really intrinsic to your agency and need a little more thinking. But, are still insanely easy to run.

Secondly, you’re going to see a description of posts like this. And, information on how to write the post – no matter what you choose – for the best effect. For example:

[Number] Ways To Get [Result] By [Action]

These topics work best when used to add or remove something from your reader's life. For example, how can they add more money to their back pocket, or take away stress from their day?

Finally, you’ll see example posts you can read and use as templates for your own content. These are the best, easiest to replicate in style, posts you can follow and use.

Thought Leader Posts

If you want to be a stand-out voice in your niche, these are the types of topics you should be thinking about writing.

#1: What I Think About…

As a thought leader, you should have your ear to the ground and be aware of the latest revelations. So, what’s new, and what do you think about it?

Try taking a quote, an industry idea, or significant change, and writing your content around it.

For example, Gary Vaynerchuk (from the earlier quote) wrote this post when Instagram changed their logo:

And it got a lot of engagement when it was first posted on his site and when it was later moved to Medium.

For this one you just have to speak your mind and let people know what you think. Occurrences like this happen every day, so go to town and share what you think.

#2: [He/She/They] Said This, But Is It True?

There are other voices in your niche that people are listening to. But, do you agree with them? Let everybody know.

Neil Patel did this perfectly when he wrote about Guest Blogging. In the wake of Matt Cutt’s exclaiming that Guest Blogging was dead as an SEO strategy, he wrote a post all about it:

And, the post is still getting comments almost two and a half years onward. If you can speak your mind, and back it up with evidence, you’re onto a winner.

#3: How [Company] Got [Result]

Whether your agency is your niche, or you work in a particular niche with your clients, there are always companies that do well and those that fall flat on their face.

Highlight why you think either outcome happens.

Referralcandy wrote an excellent guide on how Snapchat became the billion dollar success that they are in the social media space.

You could look at this from lots of different angles based on what’s happening in your niche at this time, too. If your agency is focused on retail companies, for example, you could write stories like:

• How Nike Firing Their CEO Lead To Better Female Engagement
• How Dr. Martens Reinvented Hipster Footwear Marketing
• How Levi’s Jeans New Campaign Make Them $15,000,000 In One Week

I’ve completely made these up, but you get the picture. Find a big name people love. Dissect what they did. Put your spin on it.

#4: Why A New Topic Is Good Or Bad

Something new in your niche? Explain why you think it’s a good or bad idea.

Let’s look at one topic from both angles, Facebook Boosted Posts. It’s not new now, but time-warp with me for a second.

There are an entire group of people who hate Facebook Boosted Posts. They think Good Advertisers don’t use them, and they don’t need them. Like 3q Digital write here:

But, there are also people who believe that they're a good idea. Like this guest poster at ProBlogger wrote:

Choose your side. Prepare for battle.

#5: [Company] Just Did [This], Here’s Why It Doesn’t Matter (Yet)

Did someone just make a change in your niche? Tell everyone about why they shouldn’t give a crap, yet.

Bill Slawski does this a lot over on SEO by the Sea. Google file for Patents all the time and he writes about it, explaining the possible implications, but why you don’t need to get worked up yet.

#6: An Open Letter To…

Letters are fun and can be written to anybody. Got a bone to pick with your former self? Want to tell an industry leader to shove his ideas up his ass? You’re in the right place.

I’m going to jump out of the industry and back to my homeland of England for this one. In the middle of the EU Referendum period, University Professors wrote an open letter to voters. Now, I’m going to avoid taking a stance here because it doesn’t matter in the realm of this article. But, it’s a good example of an open letter you could write…

#7: Here’s What I Learned At [Event]

As an agency leader it’s a good idea to attend events – either personally or virtually. And, your blog is the perfect place to document what you learned while you were there.

For example, here’s a neat little post from the Equator Agency from what they learned at the Brighton SEO Event:

#8: Does [Blank] Really Impact [Blank]?

You’ve spent your time in the trenches. You know what works and what doesn’t. Talk about your experiences.

#9: Pick Out A Liar In Your Industry

Okay this one sounds harsh. And, it is. If there’s someone in your field you don’t agree with, you can go right ahead and tell them and galvanize an audience in the process.

For example, take a look at this post from the Fitness Industry. Bret Contreras has had enough of Charles Poliquin’s claims and he decides to take him to task…

You maybe don’t need to go full tear-down-everything-they-believe-in, but pulling someone up on their crappy claims can generate a lot of interest in your blog. And, new customers to boot.

#10: Take A Clear Stance On A Hot Topic

Being a voice means taking a side. Which side are you on, and why?

Here’s Ryan Stewart back again on why you need to stop selling SEO services:

Already disagree? I think you just found your first post.

#11: The SAQ Post

An SAQ post is a Should Ask Question post. What questions should people in your niche be asking?

If you feel people are looking at a problem from the wrong angle, or they need a new point of view, here’s you chance to share it.

In this post, the User Testing Blog posed 71 questions that marketers should be asking for better results. If that doesn’t get your creative juices flowing, I don’t know what will.

In-House Topics

Transparency is important in Branding nowadays. Clients like working with real people, with real lives, who they can connect with.

In House, posts can let people in through the front door of your agency and show them the back of house goings on. And, make you much more accessible.

Here’s how to do it…

#12: Let A Staff Member Write A Post

The best people to showcase your agency? Your employees. If they’re engaged and motivated, they’ll love your brand. Making them perfect ambassadors.

Now, what’s on their mind is pretty unique, but ask them what they’re interested in and if they want to write about it.

Like Stealth Creative did by letting this Intern write about their first day:

It’s honest. It’s real. And, it’s a brand builder. Use it.

#13: This Year’s Goals

Transparency can come through making an open commitment to your customers, too. So why not share what you want to achieve for them, and for you, on your blog?

The Groove HQ blog is built entirely on this concept. Their goal is to make $500,000 a month in monthly revenue. And their blog documents every step of the way.

Or, if this doesn’t work for you, take the Nokia approach and just share everything you want to achieve.

#14: What We Learned From [Time] Doing [Activity/Job/Test]

These posts are excellent. They give your customer a huge insight into your life. And, you can share some valuable, raw and real, takeaways with them too.

I once wrote a post like this called, What I Learned From Writing 325,000 Words In 12 Months, Becoming A Professional Blogger & Building A $3,500 Per Month Business. It went down a storm:

What have you been working on the last week, month, quarter or year that you can share with people?

#15: A Day In The Life Of [Blank]

This is one of those articles that screams branding. Can people see exactly what happens with one of your employees every single day?

Show your clients a day in the life and, not only will they connect with you, they’ll see where they’re spending their money too.

Or, ake the Buffer approach and show people who do that job what they should be doing with their time.

Either way, it’s a value adding blog post.

#16: How We/I Use [Blank] To [Get Result]

Got a process that’s unique to your business? Share it so your clients, or audience, can get results too.

Matthew Woodward often does this with his favourite tools, like how he uses IFTTT (If This Then That) to automate his workload:

#17: Case Study: By [Doing This] We Saw [Improvement]

Case studies on your own clients, or side projects, are fun to engage people and provide value.

Canva teamed up with BuzzSumo to create this epic post about how images help people get results. And, even if they’re not always their own pictures, it still fits perfectly with their bottom line.

#18: [Number] Habits Of [Your Agency] Employees

Habits posts are a staple, and people still like to read them. What does it take to work at your agency? Let the world know.

Here’s a great post from The Muse to give you some ideas.

How To Posts

How To posts are one of the mainstays of the internet. If people are searching, they’re often trying to solve a problem.

But, like Jon Morrow over at Smart Blogger points out, most How To posts, well…suck. Because the original versions have all been done, to death.

So with your How To posts I’d recommend you either show one of these three aspects:

• How to do it differently: Show an unorthodox way to achieve a result. Do you know how to use crossword puzzles to get more YouTube traffic? Write about it.
• How your agency does it: Show how you do it, with your mark, in house. So it can be seen in action and working well.
• How to solve a new problem: You can outdo the old posts by using speed to get to a new issue. Got a client sticking block that only you know how to solve? There’s your post.

Other than that, you can still tackle any subject you want, just be sure to attack it from one of these angles.

#19: How To [Blank] Like [Blank]

People are aspirational and they have heroes. In this post you can show them how to be exactly like their heroes.

Here’s an excellent example of this. How would you like to sell your products and services like Steve Jobs? Well, by reading this post from Copyblogger, you can.

Written in 2011 this post still offers value. Because Apple are a giant, Steve Jobs is a legend and people want to sell more products. It’s even generated a big discussion in the comments and lots of social shares:

The question you need to ask is, who do your customers care about, and how can they be like them? Here’s a few off the top of my head examples to get your juices flowing:

• How To Present Like Tony Robbins
• How To Brand Like The Yankees
• How To Build Links Like Brian Dean

If you’re not sure, just go ahead and ask them, what’ve you got to lose?

#20: How To [Blank] From [Desirable Location]

Not everyone likes working from the office. I’m sat here in my bedroom, looking at an iMac, quite happy with the choices I made that took me here. Can you offer a better solution for people for their lives?

As an agency, this may feel a little out of your area, but this doesn’t just mean, How To Work From Paradise, style posts. Here’s a more practical example.

Check out this WikiHow article on How To Blog From Your Smartphone.

It’s a simple concept but it solves a big problem for a client or customer who really needs to manage their content on the move. And, there are a few more variations you could look at to.

Do you outsource? How to hire new employees from your sofa. Do you sell on social media? How to sell products from Instagram.

Be creative and find a new way of tackling an old problem.

#21: The One Secret To [Blank]

If you’ve paid attention to the 20th and 21st centuries for more than say, like, 45 seconds, you know that everyone is looking for that one pill, or key, or cheat code, that will help them unlock a better life. So, give it to them.

Posts like these work well when it’s a big sticking point. For example, in this post about leadership from Inc.

They don’t just show you how to be a leader; they show you how to be a great leader. That’s a big change for someone who wants to lead in their company.

And, what’s the secret? Well you’ll have to read it to find out. Then you can find your own secrets to share with your clients and customers.

#22: How To [Blank] and [Blank]

Do you remember when you were a child and your parents said, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too”. Well, now you can show people exactly how they can do that.

Take a look at this article from Bidsketch, where they show you the real online dream of how to work less and earn more.

Are there any issues in your niche, or that your agency can solve, where your client can have the best of both worlds? If so, get it written and get it published.

#23: How To [Blank] With/Without [Blank]

These posts are some of the best How To posts in the world. You can simplify someone’s life in the time it takes to read one blog post. How wonderful is that?

Now the key here, as I mentioned earlier, is to do this differently and show a new angle. Instead of sending you to a blog post for this one, here’s a great example from Tim Ferriss on How To Peel Eggs Without Peeling Them:

See how it’s different to any other article on How To Peel Eggs? That’s what you need to aim for.

#24: The New Way To [Achieve Something]

Industries are every changing. And, you need to stay at the top of your game. By showing people how to tackle an old problem in a new way – like in the example above – you’re going put yourself in a good position to generate a ton of new leads.

Or, if you’re speedy, you can write a brand new guide based on a concept people haven’t got to grips with yet.

One of my favourite examples of this comes from the Retail Industry. Folding clothes can be time-consuming and annoying. So, how can you fix it? With this new folding technique that lets you do it in two seconds:

Again, you may think this is out of the remit of your agency, but is it? If it’s something your clients care about, then you should definitely share it. You might just be the first people to bring it to their attention.

#25: How To [This] As A [Type Of Person]

What kind of person is your ideal client? Is she an introvert? Is she an extrovert? Is she a do-it-yourself businesswoman or is she a team leader who likes to delegate? The variations could really be endless.

But by writing articles focused on how she operates can strike an emotional chord and engage her.

This post from Reelseo, about how to be a video marketer as an introvert, is a perfect example.

Products and Tools

#26: The Tools We Use To Run Our Agency

Posts like this go down well for a few reasons.

Firstly you show people more about your agency and what you do on the day to day. Secondly, you provide solutions to readers with problems. And, thirdly, you’re able to connect with all of the brands of the tools you use.

Take a look at this example post from Stencil (formerly ShareAsImage):

It’s not just an insightful post that provides value. It’s also a traffic magnet. Just look at how many social shares this one post got:

Impressive, right? Sounds like it’s time to dig through your toolbox and share some of what you’re using.

#27: Review A Product Your Clients May Want

Think there’s a product your customer – or other people in your industry – may be dying to get their hands on. Why not review it and tell them if they’re spending their money wisely?

I may be bias, but this is a great review template to help you put together your product review.

#28: [Number] Products That Are A Waste Of Time

I’ll never forget the time a potential client asked me why blogging was better for his business than his subscription to the Yellow Pages.

Sometimes your customers are just out of the loop and aren’t looking forward; they only look backward. So, if there are some tools in your niche that people don’t need, why not share your thoughts about them?

A great example of this comes from Lifehacker. In this article, they point out products you don’t need to buy because you already have them in your home.

Are there any tools your clients don’t need because they already own the alternative? Or, are there any tools they need to get rid of because you’re doing it for them? Get writing about them.

#29: Here Are The [Number] Tools/Products Your Favourite [Type Of Person] Uses

Coming back to their favourite person/people in their niche, are there any tools they use that your clients could also use?

Here’s an example from Seth Godin to give you an idea:

Photo Posts

Image based posts have a great potential for getting shared, engagements and just showing a slightly funnier side to you.

Let’s explore, shall we?

#30: Meme Collections

Memes are a great way for people to express themselves. They’re all over the internet, usually copyright free, and if all else fails you can create them yourself.

Take a look at this post from Fusion Yearbooks about the most accurate memes for teachers:

It shows some of the most relatable teacher memes, with a few witty comments underneath. Like this:

Think about the industry you work with and the day-to-day that they face. Think you can entertain them with it? You’ve got a perfect post.

#31: Helpful Infographics

Infographics aren’t as powerful as they used to be. But, they still make for good content that you don’t have to create yourself. Winner, right?

The best place for this is Pinterest. Go over there and search your topic and see what you can come up with, then put it back on your blog.

This blog post from Yesware just took a few simple sales infographics; they added their comments are them, and then they published the post. Simple and easy.

#32: Idea Posts

Do you appeal to a specific person who needs inspiration? If so, idea photo posts can be a great way to get their creative juices flowing.

In fact, this technique has become a mainstay on big blogs, especially in the design niche, like Canva’s Design School. They often show ideas in images, like this post about fonts, to provide inspiration…

Using beautiful imagery, like in the picture below, can also boost social shares. Wonderful.

Video Posts

Just because you’ve got a blog doesn’t mean you can’t harness the power of video, too. Here are a few ideas to help you tap into it.

#33: Compile Videos That Help Your Clients

Video round-up posts are great. You can put together great content – from the funny to the inspirational and the educational – and give it to your audience with a bow on top.

Just like this post from Entrepreneur that shows the essential TEDTalk’s they need to watch:

#34: Talk About A Video You’ve Seen

Seen a video worth talking about? Now’s your chance to break it down.

Take a look at this post from Search Engine Watch where they break down a video from Matt Cutts of Google.

Find a video people are talking about, or need to talk about, and weigh in on it. Straightforward and easy to do, right?

Curated Content Ideas

Content Curation – finding content around the internet and sharing it for people to read – is an often overlooked strategy. It almost feels like cheating because it’s not your content. But, if you can provide answers to people, they don’t care where it is.

So if you, or your customers and clients, are active in a particular field, or all care about a specific topic, you could create so much quality content here.

#35: This Month In…

What’s happened this month that’s worth people knowing about? Go out and read the major posts on your topic and see what’s worth sharing.

You can use literally anything your audience cares about. The posts don’t even have to be long, either.

Matthew Woodward has been doing his post, The Very Best Of Internet Marketing, for 34 months now, and it still gets a lot of engagement for no more than 600 words of content.

You can easily curate all of this content using RSS Feeds like Feedly, or see what’s trending on blogging platforms like Medium in your topic.

Small investment, big gain.

#36: Influencer Quotes

You may have seen these types of posts on some of your favourite blogs. They’re easy to curate, and you can even just ask someone for a quote if your need to.

Just take a topic in your industry and ask the big names what they think of it. Like, when we asked 45 experts to share their best SEO techniques on the blog:

It got a heck of a lot of engagement too. As well as 12 comments, there were 735 social shares too.

#37: Interview Influencers

There is almost always an influencer in your niche looking to promote a product. Why not do a simple value exchange where you interview them on your blog?

Instead of showing you a site that has an interview on it – I mean, you’ve seen an interview before, right? – I’m going to suggest you read this post about how to interview influencers, from getting the interview through to asking questions and what to do afterwards.

#38: DJ Some Of Your Old Content

When I bought Ryan Holiday’s book, Growth Hacker Marketing, I was surprised to find out that it had started as a short article on his blog. Then grew to a longer one. Then an eBook. And then a fully published, international, print book that’s now sitting next to me as I type.

But you’d be surprised how often this happens. It just takes a little DJing. What do I mean?

In the same way that a DJ takes a song and remixes it, you can do it with your content. For example, this post from Gary Vaynerchuk started as video, then became an article, and swapped hands like that over and over again.

If you’ve said something before that’s no longer true, or, if there’s a point you’ve made in the past that’s even truer now, update the post and change it and reiterate what it is that you’re trying to get across.

It can start from a sentence, or it can be from a whole article. The choice is yours.

#39: Get Guest Posters

Want to increase the authority of your post and engage people? Look no further than getting people to guest post on your blog.

Ask people – industry professionals, up and comers, bloggers – and see if they want to speak on your agency blog. Trust me, there is always somebody.

#40: Answer A Quora Question

Quora is a great source of content ideas for you. People are asking questions about your niche all the time. Like seriously. All. The. Time. So, why not answer one on your blog?

Take one of the questions and craft an answer on your blog. Then, you can answer the question on Quora with your blog post and get some traffic, too.

Here's one answer I put on that turned into a Travel Blog Post:

#41: Create A List Of Must-Read eBooks

Reading lists capture attention, and though I’ve never been quite sure why, there is no doubting they’re effective.

You can do this from your must read books. The books your employees are reading based on different topics. Or, the books your clients need to know to get great results.

Here’s a great example from Magnet4Blogging that shows bloggers the books they need to read to get great results. Maybe you need to buy a couple too?

#42: Create A List Of Must-Listen Podcasts

As above, so below…

#43: Must View Slideshare Presentations

Slideshare is a great way to create content. And, if you have a customer or client base that likes presentation, you’re in luck.

Find all the best, relevant presentations for your audience and put them all in one post, like this from Hubspot:

And, because you can embed them into the blog post, your post becomes the resource and not the original SlideShare. Neat, huh?

#44: News Story Curation

Final one here. Is there industry news that your clients need to know about. Well, now’s the time to curate it and send it to them, via your blog.

Using a site like AllTop you can find the latest news stories in any industry and turn them into a blog post.

Other Post Types

#45: Write A Manifesto

Does your agency truly have a why? You know, that driver that gets you all out of bed every day? If so, share it with the world. It could be the best lead magnet ever.

It doesn’t need to be long. It just needs to be true.

#46: [Number] Mistakes That Stop You From [Desired Outcome]

People make mistakes every day that they’re not even aware of. Can you help them catch them?

Focus on mistakes that are fixable. For example, having a messy desk is fixable. Being short isn’t. See what I mean?

Here’s a great, slightly emotional, example from Forbes.

#47: Are You Safe From [Blank]?

Want to get someone’s attention? Ask them if they’re safe from something.

If someone walked up to you in the street and said, “Are you safe from burglars in your home?” chances are you’d feel some form of emotion. Like, why the hell does this guy think your home is at risk?

But you get my point. People care about their safety. And if you know about a problem, and have a solution, this kind of post can get them to pay attention.

You can word the title differently to fit your needs, like this one from SmallBizTrends.

#48: Did You Know [Blank] Is [Blank]?

This is a fun one to explain because you can either highlight someone’s fear, or play to their ideal situation, too. Let me give you a few made up examples to show you what I mean.

• Did You Know Dried Pet Food Is Killing Your Dog?
• Did You Know Being Positive Is Proven To Boost Your Income?
• Did You Know This SEO Agency Is Ranked #1 In America?
• Did You Know Your Audience Is Bored With Your Blog?

This may seem like a newspaper headline – and it is – but you can vary it fit what you need it to. Especially if there’s a startling fact. Like, how readers in India were surprised to understand their iPhone was doing this:

They even went the extra mile to provide the solution.

Think outside of the box and look at what’s going on in your niche and how you can use posts like these to get people interested.

#49: The Seasonal Post

The seasons aren’t just for retail sales and putting up the prices of drinks. You can use them to create stellar, engaging content for your audience, too.

Try to explain what life is like at your agency around the holidays. Or, explain how to prepare for a season in a business. Maybe you could try showing different trends that emerge based on the seasons. Perhaps it’s a new year's resolution your making. Damn, if you’re really stuck, you can just wish everyone a jolly good time.

#50: The Debater

It’s no secret that people like to use the internet to debate – Donald Trump, anyone? – and your blog can be the perfect place to start an open discussion about a topic.

Now, this can feel risky, but I’m not asking you to start a debate about something off brand. Instead, go to a place like the Inbound forum – or other industry forum – and find out what people are talking about.

Then you can move the conversation to your blog and post the question to your audience. You can even provide your side of the debate if you like, like this post from KISSmetrics:

#51: Challenge Post

Challenges can get people involved like no other kind of post. Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge? Or, the 22 Press Up Challenge? They took off like nothing else.

It doesn’t just have to be a challenge that other people take, either. You can take on your own challenge – like I have done in the post below – and let people follow along.

#52: Run A Competition

Competitions still work. Believe it or not, it’s a way engage lots of people still. Heck, as I type this, I’m entered in three or four blog competitions to win new themes and subscriptions to products.

The type of competition you run comes down to you. Maybe you have a spare access code to a tool. Perhaps you have t-shirts and agency memorabilia to give away. But, whatever it is…do it.

You can add subscribers to your list (if you have one). Generate lots of new leads. And, generate some buzz about your agency. It’s always a win.

Here’s a post to help you run an effective competition, from start to finish.

Wrapping It All Up…

Man, that was a big list of article ideas to write. Hopefully, you’ve found enough content to power you forward for the next year (at least).

Where are you going to start first?

What content ideas have you tried so far?

Let me know in the comments…

The post 52 Copy And Paste Blog Post Ideas For Your Agency Blog appeared first on Serped.com.

You've probably read a lot about pitching for digital services, right?

Hell, just a quick search of How To Pitch For SEO Clients brings up 373,000 different search results. And, it's been covered by some of the best in the business. You have an almost endless supply of client pitch articles. So, why the hell am I writing this one?

Because on a regular basis I still receive cold SEO sales pitches like this:

Which either leads me to believe that a) you're not reading the information that's out there, b) you're not applying the information that's out there or, and the worst, c) the information out there is failing you.

And, for all three of those reasons, I've decided to write this article for you to learn how to pitch to a prospective client that works better than your typical elevator pitch. To give you a new, different angle on pitching, and a more practical guide that you can implement now.

More to the point this article is no bullshit, I'm not going to pull any punches. Because if you do it like the client pitch above, your pitches suck and here's exactly why…

The Harsh Truth About How To Pitch A Client

If you're in SEO, or have a digital marketing agency, you're in sales.

I'm yet to meet a single SEO who is successful who couldn't sell his or her product or service to a potential customer.

And, I know, it might not be what excites you about your business. Perhaps you're enthralled by the nitty, gritty, in-the-trenches technical stuff. Or, maybe you're in love with seeing the results happen right before your eyes. But sales is an essential part of your business. And, you might not always have the resources to hire someone to do it for you.

So it's time for you to learn how to do an effective marketing pitch. You need to know what it takes, until you can hire a salesperson, to get clients under your belt and write sales pitches that people want to read, and reply to.

The 7 Deadly Mistakes You Make In Your Pitches

01: Your Focus

Look, I don't want to lecture you. But the problem with almost all SEO client pitches is that they're focused on you and your marketing services. What do I mean?

You tell prospective clients about:

• How good your business is
• What your business does
• How much you can charge me for your services
• The features of your digital marketing services

None of which is exciting, or interesting, to a potential buyer reading your client pitch. Especially not if you cold email, from a contact form, without any interaction beforehand (more on that later). I don't give a crap about your SEO service, or how good you think you are, or how different you think you are from the rest.

I care that you prove to me that you're different. I care about you showing me what you can do for me, not, as your pitch would suggest, I can do for you (or your bank account).

In short: you're not providing me with value.

02: You Make Stupid Claims

Okay, I'm going to apologise right now for my energy on this particular section, but this rant needs to be had. When you pitch you make some god awful, plain stupid, claims. Take a look at this line from the pitch I mentioned earlier:

“Here are a few reasons we are not your normal SEO agency.

Our Search Engine Optimization and Marketing services are designed for success”

Yeah, no shit. The fact that you started an SEO service implies that you were built for success. You didn't start the service, and try selling it to business owners, to be a shitty SEO, did you? Also, are other SEO agencies not designed for success? I must have missed the meeting where everyone else agreed to engineer for failure in their business goals.

These claims are a waste of time, and energy, for both your ideal client and you.

03: You Go Straight For The Wallet

Asking for money, before you've sold to me, is a sure fire way to get me to close your email. Same goes for any client. For example, there are just 58 words in the example pitch before they try to charge me $1500 a month. Which means that all I know by this point is that they are an SEO company, and they want to charge me a lot of money each month for something.

That's like sitting down in a restaurant and the waiter saying, “Give me $70 and we'll bring you some food” without ever showing you a menu, telling you what food you'll be getting, or if you even like that food.

You can't pitch me a price until I know what it is that I'm buying.

That's why sales pages never tell you what it'll cost until right at the end. They make you an offer – based on the value (and desire) they've just created – and you're more inclined to purchase.

04: You’re Ambiguous

SEO is a concept that people don't tend to understand. Or, at least, can't manage for themselves for a long period of time. But that doesn't mean you can't be specific in what you say.

All too often pitches sound like:

05: You Focus On Features…

I touched on this earlier, but it's a point you really need to understand.

The features – the parts that sound sexy to you – of your business don't excite me. As a potential client, who probably doesn't understand SEO that well, there's no room to tell me about what makes up your business.

Here's an example from a different pitch I was sent:

“I'm able to achieve results like this by using many white hat SEO methods including web 2.0 creation, article creation and submission, creating articles and backlinks on wiki pages, social bookmarks, forum profiles and blog commenting.”

These are what an SEO should be doing, sure. But your potential client may have no idea what they are. In fact, I can almost guarantee they have no idea what they do, or why you would be doing them. So you can't sell them on these features because they mean nothing.

Instead – as we'll cover in the next section – your digital marketing strategies have to focus on what these features can do for the other person; they create an effective pitch.

06:…And Information I Don’t Care About

I keep referring to this example pitch, but that's because it's rich with information on what you shouldn't do. Here's, by far, the most pointless line I've read in a pitch for a long time:

“We are an extremely low turn-over business and our costs go up significantly if we loose clients within the first year so we have a large incentive to keep you happy and keep you on-board long-term”

So what? I don't care about your business's turnover, gross profit or anything else. You should have a desire to keep me on board because you love what you do, and you want to provide me with results. Not because I'm going to make it easier for you to go on vacation next summer.

07: Typos

Finally, and let's make this abundantly clear in a sexy little sound bite:

Typos cost clients.

If you don't take the time to proofread, or spell-check, your emails, you're not going to get any attention. If you can't do it in your sales email, what leads me to believe you're going to take care in the work you do with me?

Okay, That’s The Hard Bit Over…

You still with me? I hope so. That's the hard, real-truth bit over. Don't worry, it all gets better from here on out as you let your creative juices flow. So, let's look at what it takes to create a real, successful pitch that ideal clients and business owners want to listen to.

Don’t Go In Cold…

My biggest tip – and one I learned the hard way, trust me – is to not go in cold when you're trying to pitch. As Gary Vaynerchuk points out, constantly, you live in a world where you're only a tweet away from the people you want to connect with.

If you find a site, or person, that you want to pitch to, go the extra mile by connecting with them first. Try to build a relationship so that they at least know your name when it pops up in their inbox.

This is particularly effective if you know who you're trying to pitch to (not go for a beer know them, but know their name – more on that in the next point) and can get their personal feed.

A simple way to do this is to check their feed and look at the last 10-15 tweets they posted. Then, start a conversation. It's really that simple.

Now, to be clear, I don't want you to start a conversation about SEO. Start an actual conversation like you want to become friends with them. Have a bit of banter, chat and get into their heads as a name they'll remember.

If they have a blog, you could even do this with blog comments too. The more your name shows up, the more likely they'll be to open your email when it lands in their inbox.

I originally wrote this paragraph saying that this step isn't really essential. But, in fact, it is. You can land contracts on a cold pitch. I've done it. But it's much harder work than going in with a relationship established. So where you can, build that relationship with someone.

The Most Important Checklist Before You Write

There are a few extra elements I suggest you put together before you even think about writing your pitch to business clients. They'll make pitching easier, allow you to craft more effective emails and boost your response rate.

This list should be personalised to each potential client. And, some of the concepts are covered below, so don't worry about filling in this checklist before you carry on with the rest of this post.

• Have you made contact with this person at least three times before? (Twitter, LinkedIn, Blog Comments etc.)
• Do you have the correct email address to pitch to?
• Do you have the person you're pitching to's name?
• Do you know who their competitors are?
• Do you have a valid, tangible reason they need SEO?
• Do you have social proof of your SEO results?
• Do you understand the benefits of your service to the person you're pitching?

By having all of these in order, especially before you pitch, you can begin to create an easy cold email template to create sales pitches from.

#1: How To Write The Perfect Pitch Introduction

The introduction to your pitch is an area you need to focus on. Why? Because that's where you're going to grab people's attention and get them to listen to what you've got to say. This is your foot in the door.

Be Personal

The first step here is to be personal. Like, extremely personal. I know if an email lands in my inbox that says, “Hey James” in the snippet I'll actually open it. (If it doesn't I feel like you're being lazy, because the name of my site is JamesWritesThings and my name is actually in the title).

The same goes for most of my friends in business circles, too. By adding their name in the email subject or in the snippet, you'll boost the rate of people opening – and responding – almost instantly.

Making an email personal takes a lot of hustle though. Because the name isn't always apparent though. Especially if you're pitching to a business or company. So, what can you do if the name doesn't stand out to you?

I'd recommend looking around their site for an about, or background page, like this one below. It may not have everything you need, but there are clues there that you can find, like the social networks they're in:

Failing that, give them a search on LinkedIn and look for their main business page. They may have a list of employees there. If not, look at the Others Also Viewed section on the sidebar. Jackpot, we found a full name.

If you still can't find someone's name, try finding active social network accounts or social media profiles connected to their business page using a software like ClearVoice.

This might seem like a lot of work. It is. Tough shit. But finding someone's name can make all the difference to getting your email read and giving it an interactive element.

If you want to make sure your pitches work, use SERPed to evaluate your leads' websites so you can offer personalized feedback. Having detailed ideas about how to improve your customers' business helps you getting their business.

Get To The Point

This doesn't mean you should go straight for the wallet. What I mean here is that nobody wants your life story. You don't need to write an excerpt from your autobiography, you just need to explain why you're writing. Why, in their busy schedule, they should stop and read your cold SEO sales pitch.

How you get to the point is completely personal, but this has two benefits for you:

• It shows respect for the person receiving the email
• It keeps the responses you get targeted and more likely to buy

For example, when writing your email if it looks like this:

The person reading this client pitch knows exactly why you're getting in touch. You're a freelance SEO, and you want to know how they feel about the way they're performing in Google. They know you're not here for charity, and if they don't care about Google, they can decide almost instantly to not respond to your personal pitch.

The Open-Ended Question

Notice how the question in that last picture of an effective marketing pitch is open-ended? It doesn't require a Yes or No answer, it needs someone to think about their response. This creates a more emotional connection, and attaches the reader to your personal pitch somewhat.

Now, this example pitch is for a smaller, local business. But if you're an agency the same principle applies, the question may just change slightly. They may not know – or care – how they're performing. But, they may know that they're not happy with their current SEO service, so you may want to change to, “How do you feel about your current SEO service?”.

#2: Start Providing Value After The Introduction

That's the intro taken care of. Now it's time for you to start adding real value. This is where you have to start focusing outwards and on the client, not on what you do for a living. Let me show you…

Find Your Benefits

As you read earlier, nobody cares about your features. They care about what your product or service can do for them. Like how you don't care about what goes into your coffee, you care about the fact it's going to make you more alert and taste nice. But the big question here is how do you turn your features into benefits?The most simple way to do this is to write down all of the facts about your service, and create a bridge between those facts and how they impact your clients. For example:

In the space between I want you to imagine, if you will, that the words, which allows you to, are written. That's what takes you straight to the benefits of your features or facts. Your list will be completely unique so I suggest you spend some time working on this. Because, the bigger the list, the more you can tailor them to the potential client you're pitching.

That last point is the most important. Because, they're going to respond even more to that. For example, I saw that Debonair Languages were hiring on LinkedIn, so I put a benefit in there that directly links to that.

Have A Tangible Reason For Pitching

It's a big waste of time pitching people who don't need SEO services, or aren't in as much need as someone else might be. So putting in some leg work before you even pitch them is a great idea. Like performing an audit (you can do that in SERPed by the way).

This also gives you a reason to pitch them that can get their attention. For example, if their site isn't optimised for mobile – another SERPed tool shameless plug here – you can let them know that's going to be an issue.

But, also, having something like a PDF report to attach to your email can make a world of difference. Because you've provided them with value. You're telling them, “Hey, no matter whether you buy from me or not, there are some issues you need to fix!”.

Sometimes, you're going to need to do this. You need to show them now how you can help them, but why they actually need your help.

Find Their Competitors

This is something I learned from a mentor long ago. And, it's stood me in great stead with pitching ever since. By finding who someone's competitor is, you can put yourself in a position of leverage and knowledge.

By doing a little research I was able to find out just who Debonair Languages are in competition with. And, that they were making a few mistakes too. So there was room for Debonair to capitalise and become more competitive, if not overtake them, with a few consistent changes.

Now this may be a bit of a sexy copywriting magic but it really plays to emotions. If the recipient is an opportunist they'll see somewhere they can pounce. If they're a pessimist they'll be hit with the fear that they're losing out to the competition.

And – here's a bonus – you could find someone else worth pitching to if this one all falls through and turn them into current clients. Win, win, win, right?

#3: Provide Social Proof

You know what businessmen hate? Talk.

They cannot stand people who just run their mouth and don't provide data about what they can do. Without social proof from loyal customers, everything else is just words. It needs to be in your pitch.

For example, here some (fictional) social proof that I've created for this pitch:

Yours needs to be, well… not fictional. But it definitely needs to be there. Create some case studies and show what your work can do.

Now, I hear you saying, “But I don't want to guarantee something I might not deliver”, after all you can't really guarantee anything in SEO can you?

Well, look at it differently. You're not guaranteeing results, you're guaranteeing that you're not a cowboy looking to make a quick buck. You're showing that people have trusted you with their site, and their results in organic traffic (and, sometimes, foot traffic), and you've followed through.

#4: Sign Off Confidently

You have to be prepared that some people won't get back to you. But, don't let them know that. Instead sign off like you're going to hear from them no matter what.

The most simple, effective way I know to do that is like this:Don't drain their time. Don't ask them to contact you. Let them know that you're available and that, if they want to, they should get in touch with you.

Don't drain their time. Don't ask them to contact you. Let them know that you're available and that, if they want to, they should get in touch with you.

#5: But, What About The Subject Line?

This is important, but don't over think it. I've found that asking questions is the best way to get people to open. Here are a few to choose from:

• Freelance SEO opportunities?
• How do you feel about your Google Rankings?
• Did you know your site is missing this?

People are used to spammy email headlines so try being direct, honest and straight to the point in your client pitch.

Time To Pitch!

Okay, it's over to you. Time to take these ideas for your cold SEO sales pitch and make them your own for your digital marketing service.

Questions, comments or anything to say? Let me know in the comments…

If you'd like to create an effective SEO strategy about how to do cold calling, and pitch to clients, use SERPed to get the SEO details you need: keywords to target, the right domain to buy, and more.

The post How To Pitch For New Clients (And Actually Get Responses) appeared first on Serped.com.

I'm sure you'll agree with me when I say:

It's always exciting to see new research into Google.

There's something about being given an extra level of clarity that's just, well…addictive.

It's easy to get swept up in this excitement, and addiction, and lose sight of the bigger picture. It's easy to take this new research as fact and make it into your new law. Hell, it happens in every niche around the world. But there's something important you need to remember:

Unless it comes from Google, it's not fact.

And, it all needs to be questioned. Which is exactly what we've done for you with Brian Dean's 1 Million Search Result Analysis.

Understanding What We’ve Done…

Brian’s research is really thorough on this topic. I mean, one millions results is nothing to be sniffed at.

But, as with all data from third-parties that aren’t Google, there’s still no saying whether it’s 100% accurate or not. Although, the results do line up with popular belief about search.

In this article, then, we’ll explore:

• What the results mean for you as an SEO
• What actionable steps you can take to implement it
• Whether it’s essential for you to actually act on any individual step

If that sounds good to you, read on and learn how to maximise this data, for the best results you can get…

Result #1: “The Number of Referring Domains Has a Very Strong Influence on Rankings”

“Backlinks remain an extremely important Google ranking factor. We found the number of domains linking to a page correlated with rankings more than any other factor.”

In an SEO climate where the question, ‘Is backlinking dead?’ is constantly thrown around, it’s good to see that all of your link building efforts will actually pay off. Because, as Brian pointed out in his research, it was the biggest correlating factor.

Now, looking at this through a no-hat lense, that means that getting links through any and all means available to you should be your first port of call for any site. Old, new or otherwise.

That means:

• Guest Blogging
• Paid Links
• Private Blog Networks

Are all still fair game and beneficial for your site. Regardless of what Matt Cutts says on the topic.

But that doesn’t mean that any link back to your site is going to pay dividends for your search rankings. As Rand Fishkin of Moz points out, “Backlinks that scale easily and that don't also add value for searchers have been dying for a long time.” And, they’ll continue to kill your site if you keep building them.

So while you should be focusing on getting as many links back as possible, that doesn’t mean you should get any link that’s possible. Because your brothers Bait and Tackle website just isn’t relevant to your clients car rental business. In fact, there’s also the argument that low-authority but relevant links are better than slightly higher authority, but irrelevant links.

The key tip here, then, is to focus on:

• Building a diverse set of inbound links
• Getting them from relevant sites even if they’re lower authority than you’d like
• Where your competitors are getting links from and building them from those sources

Result #2: “Authoritative Domains Tend to Rank Higher in Google’s Search Results”

“Our data also shows that a site’s overall link authority (as measured by Ahrefs Domain Rating) strongly correlates with higher rankings.”

This result doesn’t just prove that domain authority is important for you, it also proves that Google is bias against you. Let me explain…

Think about walking into a shopping mall when you go on vacation. What do you look for? The shops you know and trust, or the ones that you don’t? The latter, always. Because you want to know that you’re buying from a reputable source. The same with choosing food in the food court, you look for somewhere you know won’t give you food poisoning.

Google seems to work in the same way. If you search for, say, Digital Photo Frames, the top results are the biggest retailers that sell them. And, the same goes for any product you search:

Because Google wants to be seen to be providing you with not only the most relevant, but the most trustworthy content in your eyes, too. Which means they’ll often rank shit content from a big brand ahead of the quality content from your small business.

Let’s take a look at this search for ‘How to build your social media following’. The number one result comes from Forbes:

Where the content is really light , and, frankly, pretty useless as a number one ranking; ‘Follow like minded people’ isn’t exactly a wake up call for changing your social media strategy, is it?

While much deeper on this fourth page is this post from Wishpond that outlines 60 actionable ways to increase your social media following, with examples and guides:

Buffer, the dedicated social media blog only comes in at number four, which is completely absurd too.

But this also proves Brian’s theory that, “the domain that your page lives on is more important than the page itself”. So building your overall site authority is key to getting higher rankings, and ranking first, if you’re in competition with the big vendors (of content, products et al.) might not ever be an option.

Result #3: “Publishing Comprehensive, In-Depth Topical Content May Improve Rankings”

“We discovered that content rated as “topically relevant” (via MarketMuse), significantly outperformed content that didn’t cover a topic in-depth. Therefore, publishing focused content that covers a single topic may help with rankings.”

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that, while the data is convincing, it’s inconclusive .

It’s true that since the Hummingbird update Google can ‘understand’ your content much better. And, semantic search has brought about a new way of looking at what makes content ‘topical’.

But, as the graph itself shows – and as the examples he used in the article show – as long as you have domain authority and relevant backlinks, you can still rank on the first page with less in-depth topical content.

There’s also the fact that topicality, like relevance, can mean many different things to different people.

Now, I’m not a big Matt Cutt’s proponent, I don’t find everything he says to be trustworthy. But something that does seem to ring true – as marketing principle as much as anything else – is when he said:

“If marketers focused more on relevant content with the user in mind, or focusing more on the reader in general, work as an SEOer becomes that much easier”

Meaning that the content you create should match the content your audience has become accustomed to. It’d be odd, for example, if Buzzfeed started churning out 1,800 epics every week, when you were just looking for a quick laugh about your home town.

So, while there may be correlation here, I don’t think it’s causation. And if you keep working on building accessible, easy to crawl content that is relevant and linked to by authorities, this factor won’t matter too much.

Result #4: “Long-Form Ranks Higher in Google’s Search Results Than Short-Form Content”

“Based on SERP data from SEMRush, we found that longer content tends to rank higher in Google’s search results. The average Google first page result contains 1,890 words.”

The long form vs short form copy debate is one that has waged war on the Marketing and Advertising worlds for years.

It used to be that before the internet age anything over 500 words was long form copy. In fact, even just recently, I’ve had conversations with exec’s who think 800 words is still too long for a blog post.

And, as Copyhackers point out, Seth Godin outranks God with super short content:

Now, let me take off my copywriters hat and look at this from an SEO point of view.

Long Content does perform well. It’s always performed well. But, what counts as long content?

Boost Blog Traffic, OkDork and Matthew Woodward all create long content regularly. But it’s often in excess of 3000-4000 words. While sites like Buffer create content that’s 1,250-1500 words, and occasionally up near that 1,800 word mark.

But then there are also sites, like BuzzFeed and Jeff Goins and Chris Guillebeau who create content between 200-1000 words and still rank highly as well.

That would suggest that there has to be a good mix of them. And, it would be interesting to see what the Median and Mode numbers of the content were as well. So as to get a bigger, clearer picture than just the average.

However this result is going to tell people that they need to focus on 1,800 words or above for their content, which I don’t think is true. The lesson here is something different:

You need to create the longest, relevant content to your audience.

For example, look at the self help site Tiny Buddha. Their articles are between 800-1,500 words, as per their submission guidelines.

Now, they don’t need to write 3000 word epics, because that’s too long for their audience. Nobody in their audience wants to read a blog post of that length, on any of these topics. They want a quicker, insightful boost of motivation and to then head off back into their work.

But a blog like the Canva Design School one looks for an absolute minimum of 2,000 words for the authors.

So the Tiny Buddha 1,500 word post would still be short form content to them, and any competitor sites in the same niche.

The point I’m making, which I hope is abundantly clear, is that long and short form comes down to your audience. Especially as Google doesn’t actually have an opinion on long or short form content, at all.

If you’re creating relevant, linkable content that boosts your position as an authority in your niche – and is the best you can possibly produce – that fits your audience and your niche, you get to decide what long and short form content is. But always go for the longest you can.

After all, I doubt there are many Dog Walkers writing 1,800 word blog posts or on site content, but they’re still ranking for their terms, aren’t they?

Result #5: “HTTPS Is Moderately Correlated With Higher Rankings”

“HTTPS had a reasonably strong correlation with first page Google rankings. This wasn’t surprising as Google has confirmed HTTPS as a ranking signal.”

As Brian pointed out, there’s a huge push from Google themselves for people to HTTPS domains. And, while it may not be the biggest ranking factor now, it’s definitely going to be one in the future, consider Google official endorsed it as a ‘signal’.

But, this begs the question for you, “Do I need to make the switch to HTTPS?”, which I’m going to answer for you now:

Yes.

The big worry here is that, because moving to HTTPS is like switching to a completely new domain, it’s going to negatively impact your SEO. That, for all intents and purposes, you’ll lose the SEO you have in place. But, as Google themselves have said:

“Over time, we may decide to strengthen [HTTPS as a ranking signal] because we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web”

So at some point it’s probably going to negatively affect your SEO. At least right now you have the power to control what happens. And, yes, it will be time and labour intensive. And you’ll have to get someone to reach to get every link pointing at your site updates and changed. But, the words, “Suck it up!” come to mind. It’s better to do it now than have rankings stripped from you after an algorithm update.

And, if you’re outsourcing this work, it’ll be cheaper now while it’s not in demand.

Google has their own guidelines on this here. But, you should read this article from Branded3 for a more layman's-term outline of these considerations, too.

Result #6: There is No Correlation Between Schema Markup and Rankings

“Despite the buzz around Schema, our data shows that use of Schema markup doesn’t correlate with higher rankings”

While Brian might not have found any benefits of using Schema Markup, there are other studies that suggest that it does.

For example, as SearchMetrics discovered, sites with Schema Markup rank four places higher than those without it. As well as the fact it’s been alluded to on many occasions. And, they can be quoted as saying:

“Structured data markup” is a standard way to annotate your content so machines can understand it. W hen your web pages include structured data markup, Google (and other search engines) can use that data to index your content better, present it more prominently in search results , and surface it in new experiences like voice answers, maps, and Google Now.”

And, as Bill Slawski of SEO By The Sea noted, Google have been filing patents on how they can reduce duplicate content by using Schema markups. Which means that while Schema Markups may not help you get onto the first page, they’re probably going to become a much bigger ranking factor in the future.

One of the big problems I encounter with SEO – especially those I come into contact with using SERPed – is that they focus on the here and now. What will get you rankings today? Instead of looking at SEO, and ranking sustainability as a whole process.

Schema Markups:

• Make pages easier to crawl
• Improve semantic search
• Add (perceived) relevance and topicality to your pages

So don’t write them off based on this data. I’d recommend that you keep using them, or start incorporating them now, because while this data shows that they won’t boost your rankings right now, they won’t hurt them either.

Result #7: Shorter URLs Tend to Rank Better than Long URLs

“I typically recommended that people use short URLs for the sake of better on-page SEO”

There’s nothing to contest here, really.

Shorter URLs outperform longer URLs, it’s pretty simple. And this probably shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to you as an SEO. Because they’re easier to interpret and understand by Google.

Now, Brian’s article offers a tutorial on how to shorten your links in a WordPress site, so I won’t repeat it. But what if you’re not on a WordPress site , and you use a competitor like Joomla!, Drupal or Jekyll? Luckily, I’ve got you covered here:

• How To Create A Short URL In Joomla!
• How To Create A Short URL In Jekyll (Here And Here)

But, sadly, I couldn’t find a comprehensive link shortening strategy for Drupal. The only thing on offer is creating links like Bit.ly does, but aren’t permanent to your page.

Result #8: Content With At Least One Image Ranks Higher Than Content That Lacks an Image

“Content with at least one image significantly outperformed content without any images. However, we didn’t find that adding additional images influenced rankings.”

From a pure SEO point of view, I’d agree with this statistic. That you need at least one image, well formatted, to get a ranking boost. But don’t let this statistic hold you to just one image. Because having images can do so much more for your content.

For example, Canva and BuzzSumo research found using an image every 75-100 words can have a big increase in your social shares:

And there’s the fact that image captions will get read 300% more than any of your body copy. So, if you’re trying to keep people on page and reduce bounce rates – which appear to be directly correlated with rankings, regardless of what Matt Cutts says – they’re worth adding throughout your posts.

If you’re creating longer copy – as suggested in the a point above – adding more images makes the content less intimidating and easier to read or understand. So, more people can take the value from your content and link back to it.

Result #9: Using An (Exact) Keyword in Your Page’s Title Tag Has a Small Correlation With Rankings

“Despite Google’s many Penguin updates, exact match anchor text appears to have a strong influence on rankings“

Every year Google edges closer to Semantic Search and away from the, “Hey, is this keyword on that page?” mindset of years gone by. And, while keywords will always be important, it’s the way you use them that will change as time goes on.

As shown here, the exact match keyword in your title is nowhere near as important as it was five or six years ago. Now, Brian says here:

“Including your target keyword in your title tag may help with rankings for that keyword. However, because of Semantic Search, the impact doesn’t appear to be nearly as great as it once was.”

While I agree with the sentiment, I think it needs to be said that you should drop keywords from your title tags at your own risk. I’d suggest that you just make a shift to long-tail keywords if you’re not already. Meaning, the need to put in high traffic keywords has decreased, but the need to drive organic traffic through keywords in general hasn’t.

Result #10 + #11: More Total Backlinks (From Authorities) = Better Rankings

“We found that pages with the highest number total backlinks tended to rank best in Google.”

Okay, this doesn’t need much explanation from me. This is one of those unwritten rules of SEO that we all kind of go, “Well, duh!” to. But it’s nice to have a little more confirmation of the fact.

But, remember, your links need to be quality, relevant and (preferably) from authorities in your niche. That doesn’t give you a free pass to go and start spamming again.

As is shown by the correlation between link/domain authority and higher rankings:

If you want to know how to build some stellar links you can check out our articles on the subject here and here.

Result #12: Low Bounce Rates Correlate With Higher Google Rankings

“We discovered that websites with low average bounce rates are strongly correlated with higher rankings.”

I wanted to act a little surprised with this result, but I really can’t. While there has never been an official correlation with bounce rates and rankings, I’m going to go out on a limb and just say that’s one of Matt Cutts’ lies.

Bounce rates have to have some impact on rankings, it just makes sense.

Let’s look at the higher levels of personalisation that come with every important update. Having bounce rates to indicate whether your site is right for a person or not was always going to impact whether you show up in their rankings. And, SEO doesn’t happen in a vacuum, does it?

Now, not everyone who visits your site is going to find what they want. So, you’re never going to achieve perfection in this, either. But it’s definitely a great indicator. Meaning if you do want to compete at the top, you’re going to need to focus on this a whole lot.

That's All, Folks…

Phew.

Okay, you made it through all of that article. Hats off to you!

But now I wan't to know – what do you make of Brian Dean's results? 

Let me know in the comments…

The post What Brian Dean’s 1 Million Search Result Ranking Means For You appeared first on Serped.com.

Starting a digital marketing agency can be confusing, can't it?

There just aren't any good resources out there to show you how to do it. You're stuck between the rock of outdated advice, and the hard place of short posts without any depth. And, it's damn frustrating.

You want an actionable, in-depth, piece of content from someone in the know. Is that too hard to ask?Nope. Not anymore.

In this article you're going to learn 21 steps every start up digital marketing agency needs to take, at some point, to get on the road from zero to six figures.

Now, there is no cookie cutter way to start an agency, and this article doesn't try to give you that. Instead this is all the steps you must take, but they need to be done in your wa, according to your type of business. They need that bit of magic only you possess to turn them from words on a page and into tangible income.

But if you're ready to turn your agency dream into a financial reality, read on:

The Basics…

These first few steps are your foundation and platform. Everything you need on how to start a digital marketing agency on, and secure your success further down the line. This is the advice you need, but a lot of work down the line.

#1: Get Positive…

Okay, I'm going to get the wishy washy, feel good, stuff out of the way to begin with. And while it might feel a little like fluffy content, let me tell you why it's not:

The road to a 6 figure digital marketing agency is long and hard.

There's no overnight success. No short cuts. No hitting and hoping. Just hard work, late nights, blood, sweat and tears.

But you have to keep a positive attitude throughout it all. If you're starting an agency, you have a vision of what it is that you want to achieve. And, you have to keep that positive mental image of it for as long as possible.

As one of my mentors once told me, “Why get frustrated with no's? They're just stepping stones to your next yes”.

Who knows, your potential clients could be just one more rejection letter away? Being a digital marketing service provider is not easy, but there are some key steps we'll show you that can make your journey less turbulent.

#2: Set Clear Goals

In order to be the resounding success that we both know you can be, you're going to need clear goals to work towards. Because, as the advertising legend Paul Arden once said, “Without a goal, it's hard to score”.

The fact you're here, and looking to starting an agency, suggests one of your goals is money, and that sweet six-figure agency status. But your goals and selling propositions can be anything else that excites you or drives you forward.

In all honesty, you should be taking what Google executives call Moonshots. Where you don't look at goals in terms of attainable, you look at them as aspirational. Where you set yourself something above, and beyond, what you think you can achieve.

But on a more actionable level, it pays to set your business goals using SMART. Because, as boring and unoriginal as it sounds, it works at all levels. If you've never set a SMART Goal, here's how it should look:

• Specific: Be clear about what you want to do. Replace vague terms like, “be the best in the industry” with “Generate $100,000 in sales from retail companies”.

• Measureable: This is answering the question, “How will I know when I've achieved it?”.

• Aspirational: This is normally Achievable , but as research from Locke and Latham found, having aspirational goals here is far more beneficial. Try adding 20-25% onto what you think you can achieve, and you'll find you're hitting goals faster than ever.

• Realistic: By the same token, know what's in your reach. Landing $1,000,000 worth of work probably won't happen in your first year. But, over five years, why the heck not?

• Time Bound: Set a clear, specific, time frame to achieve your goal in. This can be short, medium or long term, depending on the goal you're setting.

So, if you were going to start an agency today, your SMART Goals might look like:

• Get $200,000 worth of SEO contracts from retail clients in six months
• Have a team of 10 workers on $30,000 a year each by March
• Build to 10 clients at an average of $10,000 a month in one year's time

While you might not know your exact goals right now it's important to take the time to figure this out. They'll give you a lot more focus and direction, and help you maintain that positive attitude, even at the toughest times.

#3: Find Your Focus

Goals allow you to focus your time and effort. But, this level of focus is about who you're going to focus those time and efforts with. This step is where you get to know your audience, your potential clients, who they are and what makes them tick.
A great brand – as you'll read about next – delivers a specific set of ideas to a specific type of person that could be a part of potential customers. And, it's your job to decide who you're trying to appeal to.
Now when you're at the beginning of the road, it's tempting to try and appeal to everybody. Because you want money in your bank account and clients under your belt. Feeling that way is totally normal, so don't worry about it. Just don't give in to it.
Try and answer these questions to give yourself a little more focus and clarity on what it is that you're trying to build, and who for:

• What is your niche? Who is it that you want to work with, and why? Is it small independent businesses, Fortune 500 companies, fashion brands? Knowing this will help you narrow down where you go looking for contracts.

• Who do you want to appeal to? Are you here for the geeks, the wizards, the whizz-kids, the hardened professionals or the new kids on the block? This will help you find the people you'll associate with, and how you'll begin to build a loveable brand.

• What makes you unique? There are thousands of agencies out there, so what is it that makes you different? What do you (or will you) value, care about or do differently to others?

Analysing who you are, and what you bring to the table – whether that makes you a digital content agency, advertising or otherwise – is a key step in building a profitable brand. As SumAll CEO, Dane Atkinson said to Business Insider, ‘learn to say no'. Say no to things that don't fit your focus, or your goals, and you'll be a success in much less time.

Finding your focus includes finding the right keywords to target in your content. You'll find SERPed.net has great tools to help you with this, including a keyword analyzer and, keyword clusters, and more.

#4: Build Relationships

If you really want to start selling digital marketing services, you're going to need to reach out to your target market and offer help and value through your online presence.
Maybe you see a company who is ranking poorly for a search term they shouldn't be. Or, you see someone talking about being penalised on social media ads or Google Ads campaigns. And, perhaps someone has asked a Quora question you just know the answer to (which is great for your content marketing). These can all be ways of offering help, providing value, and getting a foot in the door for potential clients – while positioning them at the top of your sales funnel.
These conversations are how you build leads for your potential clients. How you get yourself an appointment to pitch to the marketing department. And, how you grow yourself to become a successful business in digital marketing services.
Think of all the industries you want to work in, where your audience spend their time, and look for people you'd like to work with, and create a list or a spreadsheet of them all. Then reach out to them.
Don't try to sell to them straight away, just look for ways you can offer value or connect with them.

#5: Create A Clear Brand Identity

There are lots of reasons you need to have a clear brand identity. In fact, most of them are well known cliches like, “People buy from people they like”. But there's one often overlooked, but incredibly important, reason that ties them altogether.
As Lois Geller once put it in an article for Forbes, “A brand is a promise”.
It's a promise to deliver a service that people can trust. One that they like. One that associates with them. One that they know will deliver them results each and every time. There will be people that don't like your brand as well, but screw them. That's the sign of a good brand.

When you're branding you need to decide:

• What your promise is: What do you and your audience value? What does your brand stand for? Pick your fight and run with it.

• What your voice is: This is by far the most important one for me, especially for a digital agency. Who does your tone of voice appeal to? The way you'd speak to a young technology startup is different to how you'd speak to an established retail chain. Establish who it is you're talking to, and how you want to speak to them.There are two great articles on tone of voice here, and here.

Once you have that, you have a foundation to start building your logo, slogan, domain name and everything else that makes a brand tangible.

#6: Don't Imitate, Innovate

The greatest risk in the world is not taking any risks at all. And, if you're going to be a successful agency, you need to get used to taking risks and putting your neck on the line. Don't be afraid to overhaul, change or challenge anything in your niche.

There's also a lot to be said for running with ideas you're scared of. That pitch, or that idea, that you love…but you're scared your client won't like. It's these ideas that often end up being the most successful and leaving the biggest impact on people.

Instead of trying to blend in and see what other agencies are doing, and how you can mimic it, look for ways you can innovate. Take what they've done and build on it. Or, turn it completely on it's head and give it your own spin.

There are people out there who will love your ideas, and what you're trying to achieve. With the right focus and goals, you'll have no trouble finding them, either.

Getting It Off The Ground…

Okay, once you've nailed the basics of starting a digital marketing company, it's time to turn this from wonderful idea into tangible agency. These steps all take time, but they're going to form the backbone of your business. And, there's a couple of money saving tips here, too, to make sure you get off to a good start financially.

#7: Get Yourself Online

Okay, I'm not going to teach you to suck eggs here. You're in internet marketing, and you know you have to have a website to start generating income and grow your online presence. But, what you don't have to do is break the bank. Make sure you're set on your marketing budget.

The first thing you think about when you think of your site is how it looks. Is the design sexy enough? Are my buttons shiny enough? Do my images leap off the page? And, that's because it feels like design is important. That's why designers can charge over the odds for even the most simple, template built websites.

What's truly important – and a realisation that will save you a lot of money – is that you value function first. Heck, some of the most popular million dollar websites, are ugly as hell. But they generate income because they're simple and easy to use.

When you're starting out, then, focus on getting the essentials locked down – your own domain and branding – then worry about the design later. Agencies have started on free WordPress themes and gone on to be giant successes, so there's no reason yours can't as well.

#8: Create A Killer Portfolio

Actions have, and always will, speak louder than words. Which is why having a strong, result driven portfolio is paramount for generating new business and honing in your digital marketing skills.

If people see that you've worked with, and delivered results for, a brand that they know and trust, they're more likely to buy from you. Because if they trusted you enough to work with you, why shouldn't they? 

Now if you don't have a portfolio yet, don't worry. That's easily remedied. You can simply try and do some free work for people (and build some good relationships while you're at it) to get these through a small client base. Or, you can compile a list of previous projects your staff have worked on in the past as a placeholder until you've got some agency work under your belt.

A portfolio is now considered a minimum requirement for an agency to have. So, it's essential you get one in place. A good portfolio is made up of:

• Headlines and shorts snippets
• Further, in depth, result case studies
• Testimonials from clients
• Future goals and targets for that client

Showing people that not only you can deliver the results, but you will continue to deliver them to people continuously.

#9: Decide If You Really Need Extra Capital

Starting a digital agency feels like it should be expensive. That you're going to need to lots of cash, investors and pre-saved money to get everything off the ground. But, if you're thrifty, you can start an agency quite cheaply.

Six figure businesses have been known to start for as low as $62.50. And, a lot of agencies start off as just a single person, like Mike Ramsey's Nifty Marketing, and end up as million dollar agencies. The key is to understand what is essential for you as a start up, and what isn't.

For example, you don't need every SEO tool under the sun. You could spend $2000 – $3000 a month in recurring costs just from these tools. Half of which, you'll never even use. Instead choose one or two tools that do everything you need them to do (or you can use SERPed that does everything).

There's also the problem that having investors and partners detracts from your ownership of your online business. The more people that are putting money in, or are sharing your company, takes away from what you actually own. You'll find the most successful agencies are the ones who knuckle down, go independent, build client relationships and turn themselves into a success on their own.

#10: Take The (Cheaper) Road Less Travelled

Staying with the topic of being thrifty and saving money, let's talk about some of the actions you're going to need to take along the road:

• Marketing
• Advertising and Exposure
• Finding Clients
• Providing Customer Service

Sometimes, and this is something a lot of it feels like you're looking down the barrel of a big dollar shaped shotgun, doesn't it? Yet, with the right mindset, you can find ways to do all of this cheaply, while improving your digital marketing skills.

Look at using sites like UpWork to build a team of Customer Service reps that can work for a hourly rate of $5-7 dollars. Or, look for different hacks and methods to get Facebook Ads down to 1c per click (or like these guys who got $0.0005 per engagement). You could always ask other online marketing companies how they get their workers, too. Email marketing is another valuable strategy to reach out to your target audience and improve client relationships, as part of your content strategy.

And, as the old saying goes, Marketing is like sex (only losers pay for it). Find ways to build word of mouth, marketing that you can rely on. Offer unique sales points, add a value that nobody else can, or solve an issue your target audience has, that people will scream about. It doesn't have to cost you anything, but it can drive you a tonne of new customers to your digital marketing business in the long run.

#11: Plan Out When You'll Need Employees

I'll be really honest here.

There will come a point where your digital marketing business will need employees. If you're committed to your goals and your business model, you will outgrow the ability to do work just on your own. A six-figure one man band might be a good dream, but it's highly unlikely you'll do that and keep any quality of life. The digital marketing industry is tough for solopreneurs.

But the key to making sure your business survives the need for full time employees is to scale how, and when, you hire them. This will vary from agency to agency, and the type of service you offer, (like social media marketing, social media management, SEO, Google Adwords, content creation, content writing and so on) but I find a good way to survive these transitions is to work in these steps:

• Just You: Start out as just you, knuckle down, and complete as much work as possible.

• Freelancers: When you build up enough, look to outsource work to Freelance SEO's. It could be specific tasks for a project, or full projects for themselves that you take a percentage of.

• Part-Time Employee: You either do this as a freelancer, or in-house. Take someone on a permanent contract for x,y or z requirements each week. This way you get used to paying out a salary, while not having too many overheads.

• One Full Time Employee: Once you're making enough money, take on a full time employee to alleviate your workload. And, to allow you to bring in more custom because you can effectively do double the work.

You could, theoretically, stop here and become a successful six figure agency. At least at the lower end of the six figure world. But, if you want to keep growing to get towards those top figures, you'll find there's a point where you need to take on even more employees.

It's possible to plan out when you'll need employees by your earnings, too. Which would look a little something like:

• Just You: $30,000 – $50,000 a year

• Freelancers: $50,000 – $80,000 a year

• Part Time Employees: $80,000 – $100,000 a year

• Full Time Employees: $100,000+

This will change from agency to agency, and the amount of work you feel people can handle, but putting it in these terms let's you have a rough idea of when you'll need to start looking at taking someone on the books, and how much you can allow for it.

But, as with everything in SEO, timing and precision are key here. Don't start with employees from day one; and make sure you don't go too long without taking someone on board.

#12: Brush Up On Your SEO Skills…

You don't need to be an absolute SEO pro to start a digital agency. In fact, you don't really need to know…anything, about it to start an Agency (cue lots of SEO's getting really angry right now). Because you always have the option to learn on the go, and build your expertise over time.

The nature of the beast in our realm is that SEO is always changing, growing and evolving. And one small update from Google can turn even the most ardent marketer into a blubbering beginner all over again.

Make sure you learn the basics and have an understanding of why doing x, y or z will deliver a result. Then, you can learn the rest of the techniques as you go.

For example, Lucian Harhata started an entire agency knowing only what ALT Tags were, and built it up from there.

#13: And Find Ways To Explain Them To Your Clients

For all the years I've worked in SEO, I've learnt one incredibly valuable lesson:
Your clients don't give a crap about SEO.
They give a crap about results. They give a crap about cash flow. They give a crap about ROI, and traffic and having more customers. But they don't have the time or the desire to care about what a meta-tag is, how you've increased their trust flow or that you've begun disavowing links.

What they do care about is understanding what you're doing, and how it benefits them, in the least mentally draining and accessible way possible. So, find ways to explain to your type of clients what you're doing (or going to do) and what they're going to get out of it.

Instead of saying, “we updated all of your image alt-tags to fit keywords and search terms”, tell them “We've made all of your images searchable and easy to find in Google”.

This makes everything you're doing understandable, and easy to process. While if you're using results and methods to pitch for new clients, you'll have a much higher converting, jargon-free way of getting people to sign up.

You'll have to find your own, unique way of doing this that fits your brand, and the types of clients you've got. But you can't go wrong focusing on visuals and benefits.

#15: Get Social…

One of the key steps for agencies, since the social-age boom in 2008, is to have social media management channels in place. But these business tools aren't just there for you to be like, “Oh hey, we know how to use Twitter!”. Instead they're there for:

• Marketing: It's free, it's easy and it's word of mouth. You can share anything from offers, to blog posts and any other materials that might drive people your way.

• Customer Engagement: You can deal with (and be seen to be dealing with) complaints. See what people are saying about your service. And, just become a more human brand to anyone who finds you online.

• Lead Generation: It might not be the most successful tactic for finding new clients, but they are definitely out there. Having a strong social media presence improves your chances of finding them, too.

Don't worry about canvassing all the social media channels, though. Focus one just one (or two, if you've hired staff) to focus on. You'll get more traffic, engagement and leads from one really strong profile, than two mediocre ones.

#16: Optimise Everything You Create

You're in the SEO business, so this should be your bread and butter. But it's worth giving you the reminder.

Anything you create, whether it's a page on UpWork, a directory listing, a guest blog post, videos or anything else , make sure it's optimised to be found on search. Find what you want to rank for and make sure you build it into all of your content. Even if it only brings in a couple of views, or leads, or a month, it's better to have it than not have it.

The Back-Of-House Essentials

The stuff you'd rather put off, but in it's own way holds all of your business together. They aren't exciting, but they're necessary.

#17: Set Your Prices (And Your Worth)

Pricing shows how you value yourself to your clients. And, nothing is more valuable than yours (or your employees) time.

If you're starting from the ground up as a one person agency, it can feel more comfortable to charge $40-$60 an hour, or to take on clients for $300-$400 a month, because you can still make a great living doing it that way. But, to achieve six figures, you need to look at it from a different angle.

Taking a look at the Nifty Marketing example again, when he upped his prices to a minimum $100 per hour, he noticed he started generating more interest, attracting better clients, making more money and growing faster. Because he started attracting the right people for his digital marketing service provider.

So, don't worry about pricing people out. Worry about charging the price you think is right for your service, and the clients you want to attract to your advertising agency.

#18: Put Your Reporting Tools In Place

Although clients may not be that interested in the ins and outs of your practices (at least at a technical level), you have a duty as an agency to deliver reports of what it is you're doing and the results you're getting. You'll also want to track all of these things internally, too.

I'd recommend starting with Microsoft Office Software to begin with, like Excel, because you can add your own branding and keep all of your files saved permanently for backup. Google Docs is a good second option for a business tool, but you run the risk of things getting messy and disorganised quickly.

#19: Develop Bookkeeping Skills

You don't need to be a fully chartered accountant to do this. But, you need to keep tabs on what you make, what you spend and where all of your money is going.
It helps to use invoicing software like FreshBooks, QuickBooks or Hiveage to keep track of your invoicing.

While a simple spreadsheet of your monthly incomings and outgoings can work wonders to making sure you know where all your money is at all times.
And, you know, it always pays to not run up a tab on the company credit card either.

#20: Budget And Forecast

This is the final step, but it's one of the most important. Knowing how your business is going to grow over the next year, both in how you want it to grow and how it looks like it will grow, are big factors in your success.

There will come hard times, and there will be good times. Knowing when each of them is going to happen is important to managing your time, money and finances. This is also the ‘measureable' part of the SMART Goals you set right back at the start of this article.

That's All, Folks…

There you have it, the complete quick start guide on how to start a digital marketing company from zero to a six figure, in no time at all.

Is there anything you'd add, take away, or that you've been stuck with on your own journey? Let me know in the comments…

The post 20 Steps To Starting Your Own 6-Figure Digital Marketing Agency Today appeared first on Serped.com.