Finding our place as an agency – the perfect bridge between strategy, resources and client goals
Agent-cy is officially not a start-up! We are six years old and have survived the recession. I am happy to say that we are surviving and there is no looking back. This is attributed not only to persistence and hard work, but also really to the fact that we have found our sweet spot. Since we play well in the sandbox with other agencies and vendors, I find that we are in general the go to resource for small business owners and start-ups who find themselves with some funding and an online business idea and that’s it. Since we have built such an incredible network of agencies and partners, we can recommend, at no cost to our clients, the best full solution, which can go way off the online marketing track, to include photographers, accountants, warehouses, distribution networks, banks and payment processing deals and much much more. This has a lot to do with our sweet spot – pure, focused online marketing (and PR) strategy which results in a strong bond between agency and client, where we actualize client goals over time as a right-hand (online marketing) partner. There is really nothing we enjoy better than seeing both our clients and our partners succeed. We are currently taking our education on the road and will soon announce customized small business online marketing workshops. Stay tuned and have a great 4Q 2011!
Just posted today, Ani Marketing, a colleague of Agent-cy, an interview with CEO of Agent-cy, Jasmine Sandler, covers Search Engine Marketing effectiveness. If you are unsure what you need to know to have an optimized, balanced search program, read this blog interview and let us know if you would like a free Search Marketing consult as a next step by e-mailing Agent-cy at info@agent-cy.com
What is Your Mobile Marketing Strategy?
With smartphones leading the pack in how we interact with each other, online resources and share content, it is essential that you have a mobile strategy for delivering and sharing content about your business.
So, what is your mobile strategy? Does your business need one? Have you thought how your audience uses their mobile device to search and find information that may be relevant to your product or service? Is there a specific piece of content on your current web site which drives the most user interaction? Perhaps that content can be re-created as an app for the Droid or the Iphone/Ipad?Is your website mobile or IOS ready? Have you tested your site and content, perhaps even as placed on other web sites(video, articles, photos) to see how it appears on a 3rd screen? Are you making use of QRCode technology in your offline advertising to entice your target audience to use their mobile device to use and share your product offers? Do you know what it is and why it works? Have you budgeted for mobile marketing? How much do you know about text and mobile media advertising? Is this a part of your overall marketing plan?
If you are having a hard time answering the questions above, then you would benefit from a mobile marketing analysis. Agent-cy offers this 30 minute call free of charge. Contact us today to schedule at info@agent-cy.com.
Looking to drive up your search visibility for business driving keywords? Need a solid SEO strategy? Need to understand how to effectively use social media to increase your rank in search and drive customer/client engagement? Then you won’t want to miss Jasmine Sandler, CMO of Agent-cy Online Marketing this week as she delivers a very action-oriented class on “The Impact of Social Media on Search.” Register now to reserve your spot. Details and sign up at http://socialmediasearch.eventbrite.com/
- Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Optimization
The talk amongst web marketing managers everywhere seems to rest on these two topics:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Social Media Optimization (SMO)
- Search Engine Optimization – As online marketing professionals know…two factors make up most of the results of SEO….on-site optimization and off-site optimization. SEO results are now factored by general social media activity(commenting, re-tweeting, liking et all) , on-site content, link quality/relevance/volume and varies of listings, press release placement (PRO) and more. SEO takes, time, continued effort and strategy. So how do you create an SEO plan that will work? Here are some top level guidelines. SEO Strategy tasks for you to work on this week:
- Based on a SWOT analysis, determine messaging behind your market position you hope to gain. Use that messaging as your SEO brand keyword phrase. For example, we assisted City Lights Cruises in determining “party cruise” as their market diffferentiator and handled city specific SEO so that they earned #1 organic position for Party Cruise New York, Party Cruise Chicago, etc etc etc
- Come up with separate keyword lists for your different audience types. For example, for lovers of Duty Free Jewelry, we assisted ShopDI.com in earning top organic position for Duty Free Jewelry and for those who preferred rare, finite jewelry no matter the price, we helped ShopDI.com rank in top position for Tanzanite Jewelry.
- Determine a plan for where you want to rank – local, regional, national, global. As an example, Ivanexpert, a mac consulting firm, wanted to only focus on clients in their local, NYC area and so we helped them rank multiple times on page 1 for apple consulting nyc.
If you would like to see how we can help, e-mail us your answers seo@agent-cy.com with your top 10 keywords and website and we’ll tell you what is your best SEO plan at no charge to you.
SEO and SMO at this point, need to be reviewed as one. There is no sound SEO program without SMO at this point(join Agent-cy CEO Jasmine Sandler on May 24 at 6pm to learn about how to use Social Media effectively to raise your visibility in the search engines…http://socialmediasearch.eventbrite.com/). Optimizing for social media means that your SEO strategy must be a part of your Social Media profiles (Facebook, Linked In, Youtube, Twitter, etc, etc, etc).Further to optimize for Social you must have an effective social strategy that calls for viral marketing campaigns, engaging target messaging, types and frequencies of content(online video, photos, messaging). So what do we have for you in store for this week’s Social Media Optimization tasks:
- Take an inward look at your business, executive management team, products, employees, customers, clients, conference work and marketing programs. Write it all down. From there, determine what “content” has been popular that you may have produced over the last 6 months. Was it a whitepaper that was shared and led to a new client? Was it a video that received hundreds of comments and views? Was it a blog post or online article that was shared or picked up by another blog or the media? Was it a speech you delivered , where you started to build your name because of its popularity? Was it a contest you ran for one or more of your online product that drove up sales? What was it? From there, then list in popularity order the content that seems to engage and go with that.
- Take a look at your current SEO program. Are you following keyword management guidelines in your blog postings, commenting, tweets, re-tweets, profiles, status updates, video tagging, etc? If not, why not?
- Review what you have done in using social media to drive user engagement. Have you planned for content by topic, event, contests? How have you followed up? What were the customer.client engagement results? How are you tracking? What measurement tools are you using?
We hope that these tasks will help you focus in on what you can do TODAY to positively affect your SEO and SMO results tomorrow. Happy Online Marketing from the Agent-cy team!
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We’re here to help! info@agent-cy.com
Online marketing for most non-marketing folk has traditionally equated to “traffic building” and “lead generation.” Finally, we are seeing C-levels try to understand how to now take that good traffic and turn it into sales. Agent-cy has always had a 360 approach to online marketing as is our methodology – Strategy to Content to Placement to Conversion On site. In the last few months, as an agency focused on online audience development, we are happy to announce a strategic partnership with Ciplex, a 2 time Inc 500 web design agency focused on Conversion Optimization. And so, if you are in any way related to e-commerce or online lead generation, it would benefit you to have a Usability Analysis and know that conversion optimization is an ongoing process and for to keep improving your user experience you should always analyze and perform. We can give you our 2 cents on a quick free consult call and are happy to do so. These are arranged via e-mail to info@agent-cy.com.
Agent-cy Announces New Web Site and Pay For Performance SEO
After 5 years in business, Agent-cy has a new web site that truly tells the story of where we are and where we are going, as an agency that provides online visibility and strategy to drive conversion to local, small businesses nationally. Nevermind, that we provide an agency level of service at consultant prices. To that end, we now formally announce a pay for performance model for SEO – we now guarantee or your money back, top ranking in SEO. We provide free estimates as well. More pay for performance services will be announced soon. Make sure you check http://www.agent-cy.com.
The Impact of Social Media on Search – Q&A
26 brand marketers and members of ASM attended a presentation by Jasmine Sandler, Online Marketing Consultant and owner of Agent-cy Online Marketing today. A great Q&A followed the presentation, The Impact of Social Media on Search.
Questions and Jasmine’s answers:
1. How do I start using social media?
Answer: You must have a social media strategy that will support and strengthen your brand. First you must decide why you are using social media? Is it to engage with your customers/clients; to reveal market position? to drive product promotions? to provide real-time customer support? to protect your brand image?
Once you decide then you must get all stakeholders to agree on the theme, the types of content, the resources and the frequency, including priorities and channels.
2. How can I stop negative press in social media?
Answer: If you want to play in the social game, you must have an online reputation plan defined. You must have a representative of your company ready to to tackle bad press and communicate directly to those sources. To be proactive, use social media to promote the good will your company is doing – to partners, vendors, clients and the community.
3. Should I have a Facebook page if I am a B2B company?
Absolutely. Facebook is quickly becoming the #1 website in the world. You need to be there. As a precaution, make sure your brand is delivered in a way that compliments your website. Also, make sure you have someone on staff or an outsourced marketing person or agency to manage these communications with a plan in mind as to the types of content you will share.
4. Should I have separate blogs if I have separate services and separate experts on those subjects?
Yes, for SEO purposes remember relevance and quality. If on one blog you are talking about pediatrics and another on neurology, these sites deserve their own separate relevant links and related content. This will help SEO as well as user interaction.
5. Should a marketing agency manage my social media or should we do it alone?
As any successful business owner knows, stick to your core competencies in order to succeed. This goes for social media. The best scenario is to have a very collaborative relationship with your agency so that they are well versed in what matters to you, your clients, customers, partners, vendors and community.
6. How do we track success in social media?
There are many social media metrics. Most important, as stressed in my presentation today, is that Google is concerned with Quality over Quantity. And so, the quality of your connections/followers/fans, the quality and reputation of authors and those who re-tweet, share and comment on your postings are crucial. Overall, social is a branding tool, so in that it protects, strengthens and grows your brand is how it is measured.
Feel free to contact Jasmine Sandler, Online Marketing consultant and President of Agent-cy Online Marketing (http://www.agent-cy.com) with any other questions at jsandler@agent-cy.com.
Using Social Media to Jump Start Your Revolution
In light of the current political turmoil in Cairo, Egypt, it is important to note the pivotal role social media has contributed in the jumpstart of the people’s revolution to bring down President Hosni Mubarak’s regime. The violence stems from the discontent caused by Egypt’s economic situation, which has left many unemployed and in irreversible hardship. The economic trouble coupled with general dissatisfaction toward Mubarak’s presidency has led young activist to outbreak in protest.
These young activist who have been seen storming the streets and demanding change, have conducted most of their organizing over social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. The Facebook group, “We are All Khaled Said,” named after an activist recently murdered in Alexandria last year, has attained over 80,000 followers. With that many followers it is easy to see why the government would feel threatened enough to place blocks of Blackberry internet service, Facebook, and Twitter. Even Egypt’s opposition leader, Mohamed ElBaradei has used Twitter to send messages of encouragement and optimism to his supporters.
There are several tools that allow these social media outlets to be such effective large-scale organizers. The very nature of Twitter allows masses to follow the rants of a single person. Furthermore, re-following allows planners to witness what people are doing with the information they have already set forth. Cross promoting content between numerous social media outlets (i.e. Twitter to Facebook) increases the likelihood of information reaching other prospects through another social channel. With the speed of which information can be shared through these means, it is easy to see how one could organize a revolution in mere moments. Just be sure to do so in a country that permits freedom of speech.
Agent-cy and Social Media
Good things are happening in 2011 with Agent-cy’s social media program!
We have exciting new team members, a great client roster, and will be pushing some of the best social media content out there. Take a look at our latest blog entry on the Jasmine Sandler blog :
Is Your Social Media Expert Full of It?
Many companies don’t know how to invest time, money and trust into the right social media expert. Agent-cy is one of the top SMO strategy firms in New York right now. Take advantage of an SMO consultation with us, and you won’t be disappointed.
For more information, please leave us a comment or contact Jasmine Sandler of Agent-cy.
