M & A Rainmaker

I recently came across this post on another blog site:

” I do the SEO for a healthcare company, and I have these exact problems. ( a lack of respect due to … 1. Poor communication, 2. Department mentality, 3. Being seen to be opiniated )  The good news is that they are trying to improve their marketing. I have lots of knowledge, good ideas and excitement and I really want to help them reach their goals. The bad news- lack of understanding of my role, lack of coordination between the various types of marketing, because I am not being told about all the company goals, even if I ask.
In addition, nepotism and the boys’ bonding club is another thing I have to deal with. To make things worse, I am expected to train the web designer about what I do instead of doing my work, and I have to convince him that what I do is worthwhile (since he is design-oriented), so that we can design from a marketing and SEO perspective, all alone and without back-up from my boss (they are really chummy). This means projects are taking longer than they should, deadlines are unrealistic (the graphic/web designer calls the shots of when he is done and he is taking his time), and I can’t really show what I can do, nor can I do anything about it- since I have to keep my mouth shut (I have already been assigned the labels you mentioned in the article).
So, instead of marketing like crazy and getting the results- which is extremely fun for me and good for the company- I have to deal with things such as the ones mentioned, plus I have to do other things that I should not be doing and I get no support. So, yes, I get no respect. I did try to do the team work thing, but it seems to me that educating people about everything is a really a time-consuming task, and it needs to be a two-way street.
I think that companies need to educate themselves better on the roles of marketers and give them more support, instead of just expecting them to be “friendly” with everyone and being submissive and quiet, so that they would fit in. All these cookie-cutter ideas of how people should be all be the same are old and outdated. Part of being a marketer means being bold, free, more independent,creative, outspoken, taking chances, thinking outside of the box, being daring, competitive, a little rebellious and result-oriented. This is what I want my boss to support, because that is what gets him the results. “

and it really touched a raw nerve with me – perhaps because another marketer that I know was experiencing some similarish issues.

I told her:

1. To plot her exit

2. To screw ( use ) them whilst she did it

3. To be happy ( doing it )

Well – like I say it touched a raw nerve !!!!

SEO and more recently Inbound Marketing people are THE FUTURE but they will inevitably be held back by ” the old guard ” – traditional marketers, web designers and other ” established ” marketing and non-marketing functions.

Now this young lady may think she is frustrated but I can tell her that it is even more frustrating being an investor in a company that still has these attitudes and policies.

Remember, as an investor, you may sit on the Board ( or not ) but you will probably not have control ( which resides with the management team ) so you can actually only influence.

As an investor in this company I can imagine myself sitting in a Board meeting while they whinge about the fact that they are not going to hit their numbers.

Trying to ignore this fact slightly you ask why and they make some excuse about market conditions; failing salespeople etc etc

” How is your Internet Marketing going ? ” you ask, innocently. What are you getting from that ??

Oh we don’t get any actual business, they say.

Do you get visitors you ask ??

Well we do but don’t know how many.

Is the website being found ???

We think so.

What is it being found for ????

We don’t know.

Well, you’ve got an SEO specialist right ??

Yes.

So what have you told her to SEO the website for then ???

( Blank looks all around )

o.k. So listen – if the SEO specialist does not know what you need to be found for she will be guessing. So you need to think about it and discuss it with her and then allow her to make changes to the website to ensure that it gets found. Your design guy isn’t going to be able to help you in this.

You also need to think about giving the SEO specialist the tools to measure if her work is having an effect on visitor numbers and leads generated.

Of course by now you have ruffled LOADS of feathers – but hey – they are playing with your money !!!!!

I could make this a much longer blog !!

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The reason that I recommend that my clients use HubSpot Inbound Marketing software is because I want them to be in control of thier Internet Marketing spend and investment.

When researching for this article I quite liked this post here

http://www.wsiwebpro.com/roi-formula-internet-marketing.html

which offered a ” Common Sense ROI strategy ” which basically was ” Increase the traffic to your website OR increase the conversion of traffic to leads OR both “.

Within that simple advice are hidden some basic things that some people just do not understand.

As I have said in earlier blogs the key to a website is how often it is found by the right people ( for the product or service that you are supplying ) and it is of lesser importance what it looks like as long as it converts visitors to leads well.

As very few Internet Marketing and Website Design companies understand this very few of them ask a critical question ” What ( words and phrases ) are you trying to be found for and who are your likely customers??  ”

In fairness those that do often struggle to get a response because thier clients simply do not know the answers to these questions. ( The answer to the first part of the question requires that the client put himself in the mind of thier client and think what they would type into Google in order to find the product or service that they provide . The answer to the second part of the question requires that they understand the typical profile of thier target customer. )

When you have your website being found by lots of the right people then you have TRAFFIC !! The you only need to convert that traffic to a lead. ( To be a lead you need some information about the enquirer e.g. name and email address. )

Conversion of traffic into leads is an art that I will not go into here.

The reason that I recommend HubSpot Inbound Marketing software to my clients is that I want to know ( and they need to know ) how much traffic they have; how it is increasing ( hopefully ! ) over time and where that traffic is coming from.

Is it coming from e.g.

– Direct Traffic ( someone just typed in the name of your company – implying that your name is well known for that type of product or service )

– Organic Traffic ( implying that you ARE being found for the words and phrases that you have optimised for )

– email traffic ( implying that you are getting people signing up to your blog/website and your email camapigns are working )

– Referrals ( implying that other people are spotting and highlighting and propagating your information )

– Social Media ( implying that people are following your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin pages and that they are following these back to your blog/website ).

etc etc

Once we know what is happening to our traffic and where it is coming from we can fine tune to get more and then to convert that traffic into leads and then, all importantly, into sales.

Once we know how many of what product or service we sold ( at what price and profit ) we can work out what our Return on Internet Marketing spend is.

Some time ago ( after I built this blog ) I came across a company called BCMS who had had a lot of experience in selling companies. I read the information on their website, downloaded various other information and ordered a copy of their excellent book  ” A refreshingly different approach to selling your business for maximum value “.

Later on I attended one of their excellent seminars. ( Very refreshing for Business Owners but a bit damning of normal accountants and lawyers !! )

In this presentation they highlighted the Top 10 reasons/motivations for company purchase ( in order of importance )

Very useful !!