A blog about smart marketing and conversion optimization.

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.

Studies show, time and time again, that what the Internet says about your company matters. Due to the advent of the mobile Web, to say nothing of online review sites like Yelp.com and search engines like Google and Bing, it is easier than ever before for consumers to do their homework, checking up your brand on the Web — and most consumers are more than willing to do this due diligence. Before doing business with any company, Internet users are extraordinarily likely to check out that company on Google; for example, the most recent Local Consumer Review Survey indicates that 72 percent of all consumers place more stock in online reviews than they do recommendations from personal friends and family members! More than half of consumers say that reading positive reviews makes them more likely to do business with a particular brand.

All of this suggests that what the Web reveals about your enterprise matters — that it could really prove make-or-break. With that said, there are numerous online threats that could befall a company; not for nothing has the Internet been compared to the Wild West, where anything goes and anything can happen. The best way for companies to protect themselves against online attack and defamation is to know what the threats are — and how best to respond to them.

Online Reviews

Consumers place a great deal of trust in online reviews, as the Local Consumer Review Survey statistic makes plain. And because many online review sites, such as Yelp.com, rank high within search engines, your company’s online reviews will likely be among the first things a potential client or consumer sees when Googling your company. If all of your enterprise’s reviews are positive ones, then you are in good shape — but of course, there is no way to ensure that reviews remain positive. Negative reviews can appear at any time, and they can originate with unhappy or unreasonable consumers; with disgruntled employees; and with rival companies.

A glut of bad online reviews can utterly destroy your business’ online reputation, and while you cannot prevent bad reviews from happening, you can effectively dilute them. A single bad review does major damage when it is one of just two or three reviews your company has to its name; if it is one bad review to a hundred positive ones, though, you are in much better shape. Try these action steps:

• Actively court positive testimonials. Ask your best clients to give you some feedback.
• Make it easy for satisfied customers to find you on Yelp, and tell them how much their feedback means to your business; include a link to your Yelp page on your corporate website.
• Consider offering discounts or promos for those willing to leave positive feedback.
• Include a note on invoices and receipts, asking happy clients to provide you with some feedback.

Unscrupulous Attack

We mentioned that, sometimes, your business may find itself attacked by other companies, by unhappy employees, and by unreasonable customers. Sadly, this is true; on the Internet, people can say whatever they want about your company — even if it is untrue, unwarranted, or even outright defamatory. For example, a business rival may plant fake negative reviews about your company. The temptation is likely going to be issuing a response, but in many ways, this is a bad move. Responding to a negative review draws more attention to it, and causes it to gain in its search engine standing; better to focus on suppression, building up that cache of positive feedback.

Another unscrupulous online tactic: Business rivals may buy phantom domains — i.e., if your company is called XYZ Widgets and your website is XYZWidgets.com, a rival business may buy XYZWidgets.org. This domain will rank high in a Google search for your company, and your business rivals can use the domain to make you look bad, perhaps filling the doppelganger domain with bad reviews or claims of fraudulent activity. The best ways to avoid this:

• Buy up all of the matching domains for your company now; even if you do not use them all, you can prevent them from being used against you!
• Do likewise with matching social media accounts; the last thing you need is an embarrassing, fake company Twitter account that you cannot control!
• Make sure that you own not only the .com, .org, and.net domains that match your brand, but also that you own matching domains for the name of your chief executives.

PR Problems

Finally, it is crucial to note that not all online attacks come from without; sometimes, there can be an unfortunate happening or PR meltdown within your company, which leaks out onto the pages of the Internet and causes you embarrassment and bad buzz. Once more, there is no way to prevent this from happening — but you can develop a crisis management plan, to be prepared, at the drop of a hat, to go on the offensive.

• Compile several strong, compelling press releases and blog entries, highlighting positive assets of your company. Have these ready to deploy as soon as a PR snafu occurs; these positive assets will help move the spotlight off of the negatives and onto the positives.
• Make sure you have an account and a good working relationship with PRWeb, so that you will be fully prepared to take action.
• Make sure that you have Google Alerts set up for all of your branded terms, to ensure that you know the minute a PR disaster strikes — and, to make certain that you can respond promptly.

At the end of the day, the Internet really is something of a Wild West scenario, and small companies can never be too sure of what to expect — but they can prepare for most all contingencies, and do what is necessary to defend their online reputation.

Before becoming President and COO of www.reputationchanger.com, Mike Zammuto worked with a number of leading Internet companies. Reputation Changer offers a variety of online reputation management services.

I’ve been on both sides of the client-agency fence at a number of different levels. While it’s clear that marketing agencies can add tremendous value (why I started Clever Zebo :), it’s important to know how to get the most out of your agency team. Having worked with dozens of clients on the agency side of the fence, I’ve gotten a pretty good sense of what client behavior is most effective at driving KPIs. Here are a few recommendations.

BE demanding. It’s up to us to say no if something is out of scope.

DON’T ask us to make up numbers. While forecasting is critical for budgeting and resource planning, there’s a fine line between thinking ahead and wishful thinking. Our job is to bring you ideas for hitting your goals and then help you execute on them. Developing a plan based on historical performance and ramp is wise; making up a data story to conform to investor demands is a way to run in circles and create a lot of anxiety.

GET a clear plan from the get-go. Know what is going to happen when and who is going to do it. The outset of an agency relationship often makes or breaks the ultimate product. Request a timeline with action items and then share them with a couple of your smartest marketing friends/co-workers/employees for feedback. Dealing with concerns upfront prevents a lot of wasted time.

BE upfront about what’s working and not working for you. We’re here to solve problems for you. Don’t worry about our feelings or motivation — we’re not employees! We’re paid to tackle very specific tasks for you. If you don’t like how we’re communicating or tackling those tasks, say so. You’ll be amazed what a fire it lights under an agency’s ass when you complain a little.

DEMAND regular check-ins, progress reports, and analysis. We’re hacking through the details. Your job is to make sure it’s all moving in a direction that works for your company. Ask questions until you feel like you understand what’s being done. But also …

RESPECT our time. Time is our most precious resource. We can either spend our time trying to make you comfortable or spend it trying to get you results. If a check-in call only needs to be 5 minutes, let it be. If an update can be communicated through bullet points, request a quick write-up. Needle us enough to make sure we’re delivering 110% but then give us the freedom to do our thing.

BRING ideas to the table. No one knows your product better than you do. Shoot over thoughts, ideas, and recommendations. If we don’t like it, we’ll say so, but never underestimate the power of your expertise; it could be what inspires a major breakthrough.

INCENTIVIZE the relationship. While it’s harder to structure deals where compensation is partly based on results, it can pay big dividends. Why wouldn’t you want us both to benefit when good things happen?

BE realistic. As much as I want to instantaneously double every client’s revenue, progress is often gradual. Sometimes we strike gold right away; sometimes it takes failure, iteration, and perseverance. Ensure you’re getting hard work and quality thinking. If those are in place, the results will follow; it’s just a matter of timeline.

If you have other recommendations for how to work best with an agency, I’d love to read them.