Author Archives for Igor Belogolovsky

Choosing an online marketing agency can be a special kind of maze. With so many consultants and boutique firms out there, how can an ROI-minded business give itself the best shot at outsourcing marketing successfully to a successful long-term partner?

Today I want to focus on 5 pointers to  help you choose an online marketing agency in a competitive situation where multiple firms are bidding for the business.

1. Hire all of them. That’s right, I’m suggesting you contract will all of the marketing agencies on your short list — for a test period of 2 to 4 weeks. Spell out a very specific project for each marketing firm, giving each a distinct project with well-defined action items and success metrics. You’ll quickly see what working with each firm feels like, and importantly, which team hustles to earn your business.

2. Get specific with references. Of course you’ll want to call each online marketing agency’s references if you’re serious about hiring them. But beyond the basic reference call, I recommend asking specific questions about the results these clients saw. Politely make them point to measurable improvements in conversions and revenue as a direct result of working with the partner in question. You’ll quickly discover who deflects and who is happy to show you exactly where they saw lift.

3. Get a commitment on responsiveness. Over time, agencies get complacent. During the sales process, require each agency to spell out their policy on replying to emails and phone calls. Not only will this show you which agency is ready to collaborate with you and be maximally communicative as you try to achieve results together — it will serve as a handy guideline many months down the road and hold them to a high standard.

4. Require an action plan. Ask for a detailed action plan from each marketing agency you’re seriously considering. This is at the same level as a reference check — I wouldn’t do it unless I was 95% ready to hire a couple of agencies. Ask them to provide a timetable of what happens in the first several months of the engagement, and have them outline their thinking for why this order of operations is optimal. The quality of work and turnaround time on this deliverable just might give you the answer you’re hungry for.

5. Get an expert’s opinion. Have a marketing stud in your network read the agency’s blog and peruse the content they’re putting out there (videos, webinars, white papers and the like). Do they know what they’re talking about?

This post is intended to provide a few pointers for marketers who are close to a decision and are in the late stages of evaluating options for outsourced online marketing. That said, it’s good to have a rubric in the earlier stages to help you narrow your options. This RFP template for marketing software, while not specifically tailored for selecting a services business, can be hacked to offer a rubric for evaluating online marketing agencies. The scoring system stands up — you’ll just need to adjust the criteria. Good luck!

Of course, if you have any questions during the sales process and could use a few expert digital marketers’ thoughts, just give your resident Zebo a holler.

I know I’m supposed to be professional, but do I have to be boring?

I’m splayed across my couch, thinking about how I’ve signed dozens of guest blog posts, realizing just how boring they make me (and Clever Zebo) sound.

Take my Unbounce author page, where I describe myself as…

a revenue optimization expert and cofounder of Clever Zebo, a group of web marketing strategy experts dedicated to helping interesting businesses get more customers online. While Igor loves to geek out about search engine marketing, conversion funnel optimization and partnership development, he’s also a pretty fierce snowboarder, musician and beer taster.

Snazzy! :-

Ok, here are some alternative takes.

Igor Belogolovsky is cofounder of Clever Zebo, a team of online marketing strategy pros. In his spare time, he finds nuts for squirrels.

Igor Belogolovsky is cofounder of Clever Zebo, a team of online marketing strategy pros. He blogs under the influence and heckles little-known cartoonists on ICQ.

Igor Belogolovsky is cofounder of Clever Zebo, a team of online marketing strategy pros. He does not drive steamboats.

Igor Belogolovsky is cofounder of Clever Zebo, a team of online marketing strategy pros. He enjoys a good laugh, except when it’s at the expense of another’s misfortune, in which case he doesn’t enjoy it.

Igor Belogolovsky is cofounder of Clever Zebo, a team of online marketing strategy pros. Among his most underwhelming talents is an uncanny ability to unwittingly end a perfectly pleasant conversation.

Igor Belogolovsky cofounded Clever Zebo to outwit and wrestle its predecessor, not-so-Clever Zebo, into submission.

Igor Belogolovsky is cofounder of Clever Zebo, a team of overgrown hyenas tasked with drinking excess bathwater in local communities.

Igor Belogolovsky is cofounder of Clever Zebo, a team of online marketing strategy pros. He prefers cookies to Jewish guilt.

How do these strike you?

Heads up: I’m going to plug our client’s blogging contest in this post. Yes, I’m plugging it because they’re our client and we love them — but more than that, I’m plugging it because it’s a pretty sweet deal, and I’ll tell you why I think so.

It’s not every day that an opportunity crops up to earn a valuable backlink — from a PageRank 6 site — with relatively little effort.

Sounds pretty good, right?

Our friends at BestVendor, who focus on software and app ratings, are offering you this opportunity until October 31, 2012. To get your juicy backlink right now, all you have to do is create a list of useful apps and tools around a theme. For example, we put together a list of “Killer conversion tools for the clever startup.“

On top of writing in a little backlink for yourself, you can also win a $1,500 Amazon card or an iPhone 5 if you share your list and garner a bunch of views.

Ok. Sales pitch is over. Go do it!

Enter the BestVendor list-a-thon

Now.