I had the opportunity to escape the tundra of eastern North Dakota this week to attend Online Marketing Summit (OMS) in San Diego, Calif.  The conference attracted search luminaries like Rand Fishkin (above), Ray “Catfish” Comstock, and myself (also above).

Pretty slick how I snuck myself in with that short list, eh?

Personal highlights from the conference included one-on-one labs with various members of the BusinessOnline team. Each lab is a bum rush of website recommendations on topics like SEO, PPC, social media,  and usability. This was by far the most valuable part of conference for me. It’s fascinating how a couple 15-minute sessions can be more illuminating than a month of reading blog posts.

I got answers to a couple really specific international URL restructuring questions I’ve been losing sleep over for weeks. Also, thanks to one of the BusinessOnline SEO managers, I stumbled across an interesting way to build links by repurposing existing pdfs. Thanks Laura! I can slumber soundly once again.

Overall, I was impressed with the exceptional sun tan and information received at the summit. I hope to attend one of the regional stops later this year, hopefully in Minneapolis.

While my tan and memory of the conference are still in tact, I want to share some of the insights from a week of presentations and conversations. Below is the most though-provoking advice from OMS 2010 straight from my notebook:

- Email Marketing: Segment groups, then segment again. Test your emails to segments of your list like you would landing pages in PPC.

- Train salesman like web 2.0 marketeers: Teach them to reach out and provide value in an engaging way. Prospects will be more likely to trust them.

- Put a more detailed form behind the simple name/email address request. This is a great way to identify higher quality leads.

- Use LinkedIn to find leads.

- Define the opportunity for SEO campaigns: Isolate keywords, gather volume and ranks, use CTR curve to define.

- SEO touches everything. You need support of the entire organization to succeed.

- Start thinking about attribution modeling for analytics. What metrics made the assist along with the goal? Try to get a feel for what type of touchpoints your customers made before making a purchase with you.

- 3 Step Program to Drive Your Business Bottom Line:  Download Templates and presentation here.

- Separate milestone from Success Metrics and note achievements in the long-term SEO plan. Milestones defined as things like rankings/links and success as ROI/$$$.

- Show competitor specific SEO activity to strike fear in the hearts of clients and corporate heads.

- Show SEO hiring from competition as scare tactic to get involved with SEO.

- Scribe – WordPress SEO plugin for checking keyword density.

- Understand there are two phases of SEO optimization: 1.) Foundational phase that involves getting the site in a completely optimized state. Ex. URL Structuring, no duplication, targeted keywords 2.) Continuous Phase: Search cycle, tracking the month-to-month story, year-over-year story, link building and promotion.

- Separate brand related traffic and other traffic.

- Editorial link traffic typically converts and engages at a higher % than search engine traffic.

- Segment your bounce rates. Segment by keywords/referrals/monitor sizes–Is there a specific type of traffic that seems to bounce at a very high percentage. Figure out what it is and do something about it.

- Stop using “nerd speak” when reporting to clients.

- Highlight what is possible to take action on. Then, take action!

(courtesy of Bain News Service)

You might be able to fly solo for awhile, but you won’t get very far off the ground without a reliable team. The quality of your services will diminish, there will no time to acquire new clients or you’ll just get burned out. Anyway you look at it, making yourself an SEO island is bad for business.

One of the aspects that make starting an SEO business so attractive is low cost of entry. But even if you don’t have enough money or work to support full-time staff yet, begin looking for the team members that will help carry the business to the next level.

I’ve only got one full-time employee myself. The rest of my team is hired on a project basis. This keeps cost super low. And since everyone works remotely, I don’t even need to pay an electric bill.

Remember, cost walks on two legs. Even when building a team, you’ll want to keep fixed expenses as low a possible early on. You never know when you might lose one or two big clients in the same week and be left with no work (or paychecks) for employees.

So what skill sets should you be on the look out for as a savvy SEO business owner? Someone like Rand Fishkin is more qualified than me to answer that. But hey, it’s my blog. Here’s a list of the members that make up my SEO team, what they do, and how I met them.

Content Writer

If content is king, your copywriter is the crown. Finding a reliable, consistent, and sharp writer is one of the biggest favors you can do for yourself. And just like the crown atop a king’s head, a skilled copywriter can make you look really good.

If you’ve ever tried it, you know writing content for blogs, websites, and article submissions takes a lot of time. Make this one of the first jobs you outsource. It will decimate your workload.

I found my full-time copywriter on Craigslist Manila. His name is Michaelangelo and we’ve never met. Come to think of it, we’ve never talked on Skype. Still, our arrangement has worked out brilliantly. (If there’s interest on how I hired my copywriter, let me know. I may write a detailed post on this topic in the future.)

Designer: HTML/CSS Expert

I can edit HTML and CSS, but I’m really slow. I kind of suck at it too. An average web designer should be able to make most of the on-page code enhancements based on your SEO recommendations without much trouble.

It took me awhile to find a reliable and talented designer, but I think I’ve finally done it. I’ve gone through some extremely talented designers that were complete flakes. I’ll take an average designer that gets the job done on time than a flake any day of the week. This is essential for a client based business like SEO services.

To Be Continued

In the next post, I’ll list other the other members that make up my virtual SEO team. Until then, start thinking of ways to identify these important el

ements for your own business.

The initial sales letter is the first interaction with a prospective client. Either the prospect will continue down the road to conversion or the relationship end. At this point the lead usually has a basic understanding of your services and wants to learn more. Take advantage of this opportunity to get them excited about the profit potential of enterprise-level SEO services. Here’s the information you must provide to make that happen:

1. Explain what’s in it for the client

2. Brief summary of your company

3. Show results

4. Call to Action

Present the information in this order.

What’s in it for me?

The first paragraph should speak to the customer’s needs. What do they want? It could be more traffic, profits, conversions, or leads. Create a unique “What’s In It For Me?” paragraph for the different businesses that approach you. One template could be used for e-commerce sites. Another could used to better articulate a specific message that develops leads for real estate professionals. If you can address the prospects exact reason behind their request for SEO services in the first place, you’ll be well ahead of the game.

Brief Summary of Your Company

Here you begin to establish trust with the prospect. But keep it brief. A paragraph or two should be enough to articulate exactly what your business does and list the services offered. Are you exclusively an SEO company or do you also provide PPC consulting and web design services? List these services to let clients know everything you have to offer.

Is there anything that is truly unique or proprietary to your SEO business? Perhaps you’ve got a special optimization method that enhances the performance of blogs within the organic search results. Maybe it’s a patented link building method. Whatever it is, say something that other people aren’t.

Finally, it’s a bit of a cliché to add messaging about exceptional customer service/satisfaction… But it works. In addition to traditional remarks about client satisfaction include a specific promise that differentiates your SEO company from others in the space. For example, include a guarantee to respond to all emails within 24-hours, Monday – Friday. Or maybe you offer 24-hour phone support. Whatever it is, if it makes you different, mention it. This will help illustrate ways you actually are different than the competition. Because just saying you’re different, isn’t being different at all.

Show Results

Many clients want to see the fruits of your labor. Show them what you can do. (But be sure to get past clients permission before sending their URL or rankings in an email. From past experience, I’ve found that most are very happy to do so when asked.)

I usually list 4 – 6 results. List competitive search terms only as informed prospects may call you out on weak keywords. If the terms is highly searched online, you can also provide data from Google’s Keyword Tool. This can serve as an additional indication of value one could receive by ranking for one or more of these words.

Be sure to check the results listed in the initial sales letter regularly as clients will perform these searches in Google. Also, be cautious before sending these to international prospects as rankings may be quite different abroad.

By displaying a few example results you’ll be establishing trust with the potential customer. This will go a long way to helping support the claims of your results.

Call To Action

Tell the reader what to do next. And make it easy for them to do. Allow them to contact you by phone, email, and maybe even snail mail if it applies.

There are a number of ways you can approach writing a call to action. One way is to write something like “For more information about our SEO services call 888.888.8888 or email contact@yourcompany.com today!”

Needless to say this example is pretty weak.

Alternatively, you could try something a little more compelling like this:

Email Steve Sales at YourCompany by this Friday to register for a free 15-minute website consultation from one of our expert SEO strategists on October 15, 2009 between 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. Spaces are limited and will fill up. Email steve@yourcompany.com with “October 15^th Consultation” in the headline to apply.

This provides the prospect with a next action and creates a sense of urgency to commit. There are only so many spots available, there is only so much time to register. The customer has a real next step.

It also establishes the time and date when you’ll be on the phone with the client. This way you won’t be viewed as a salesman, but positioned as an expert with a short amount of time to dispense valuable knowledge. At the end of 15-minutes the call is over. No exceptions.

A limited amount of time with the prospect may seem counterintuitive initially. Shouldn’t I keep a prospect on the phone as long as possible? Nope. Again, this is not a sales call. This is a machine-gun style onslaught of rapid-fire SEO advice. You’re dropping knowledge bombs here! By the end of this session your prospect will be more than happy to schedule a formal sales call at a later time.

Position yourself as an expert. Design a real call to action. Prospects will be lining up to put pen to paper and sign a final contract.

I’m Done With My Sales Letter… Now What?

I always accompany my initial sales letter with a white paper or two. First, I attach a short 1 – 2 page pdf about my business. This will expand further upon the services outlined in my brief summary. I will provide a paragraph about link building, copy writing, site architecture, social media, blogs, etc. Attaching a white paper along with the initial sales letter is standard operating procedure with most SEO companies. But again, it’s about separating your SEO business from the 1,000s of other ho-hum companies out there. So I include an additional pdf that nobody sees coming. But that’s a topic for another day. Click the link below to download the free initial sales letter template described in this post.

The initial sales letter template is available for free by signing up for the StartSEOCompany.com Fast Start Kit.

To someone not intimately familiar SEO, selecting the right vendor can be an extremely painful process. Everyone sounds great on a sales calls, but it’s hard for owners to know who to trust when there are so many differing SEO strategies. Often, it becomes easier not to make any decision at all.

This is why designing a website with built-in credibility indicators is a must for SEO business owners. They help decision makers differentiate your business from fly-by-night operations without any external recommendations.

What’s a credibility indicator exactly? Well, anything that positions your business as an authority.

A lot of SEO businesses leverage the brand recognition of other companies. But if you’ve never worked for Target, Wal-Mart or other household name, there are ways to build credibility on your website fast.

Here are five action items to establish more credibility for your SEO business website. The more indicators you acquire, the better impression you’ll make with potential clients.

Join SEMPO – Membership in the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO) is an adept way to establish credibility, improve skill sets, and connect with thought leaders in the industry. The organization is sponsored by Yahoo Search Marketing and Google, which doesn’t look bad either.

Get Google Certified – Getting certified by Google is smart. If your competition isn’t certified, use this to your advantage in meetings or sales calls to plant seeds of doubt in the mind of a prospect. Certification is pretty easy, but requires the completion of an online test and 90 days of experience managing an AdWords account with $1,000 USD in spend per month.

Join Local Chamber of Commerce – Most SEO companies don’t join their local chamber. They should. It’s a great opportunity to connect with other business owners in your area. The platform can also be used to position yourself as an expert in SEO/SEM and introduce a new way of marketing their businesses online. If that wasn’t reason enough, you might be able to acquire a link from the chamber’s website as well.

Get Client List and Testimonials – If you don’t have the good fortune of immediately recognizable brands like Pepsi on the client list, you should still leverage existing clients and powerful testimonials to add credibility. As your company grows, so will the reputable clients.

Websites Your Business Has Been Referenced—As Seen On:

One way to leverage well-known brands and website is what I like to call the As Seen On approach. With this technique, you cite different locations you’ve been referenced in the media. (This is a tactic I plan on using for StartSEOCompany.com by contributing content to websites like Web Pro News.) This technique is often used by bloggers, but has yet to be picked up by many SEO companies. A couple agencies that use this technique very effectively are SEOMoz.org and Distilled. Even SEOMoz.org’s homepage dedicates valuable real estate to websites illustrating where they’ve been referenced as seen below.

Checking each item off the credibility list will take some time, but the payoff is well worth it. Less time spent convincing prospects you’re the expert, more time helping clients. Now get out there and start making your website more credible!

Ownership Isn’t the Important Thing, It’s The Only Thing

- Felix Dennis, “How To Get Rich”

Part narcissist, part poet and completely loaded, Felix Dennis created a media empire that allowed him to become one of the 100 richest people in the United Kingdom. In the US, he’s best known for founding an irascible men’s magazine called Maxim and a patriarch of tech-review publications PC World. Without question, Mr. Felix has accumulated a pile of business accomplishments and money in his lifetime.

But until just two weeks ago, I’d never heard of the guy.

During a brief layover at the Minneapolis airport, I noticed Felix’s book titled How To Get Rich in one of the bookstores. I suppose it was the uncommon bluntness of the title that caught my eye–Who does this guy think he is–and couldn’t resist reading a few passages. Next, I bought the book.

Felix’s book reads as a half memoir, half case study for young business owners. In the book he provides straight-forward advice for entrepreneurs, discusses the importance of delegation, challenges the value of a great idea, and drives home the necessity of sole ownership by any means necessary.

Most chapters emphasize and repeat one simple parable again and again: To become rich you must be an owner. Here are a few lessons from How To Get Rich that support this main idea. I believe these points to be sound advice for any business.

Freedom: This gets back to ownership. In the early stage of a business you need the freedom to make quick decisions. If you need to spend weeks convincing people of a particular strategy, opportunities will be missed. Also, if you do fail, you’ve got no one to apologize to.

Myth of a Great Idea: Sure, great ideas propel businesses. But just about everyone’s had a good idea on one time or another. It was not theory of a user-friendly operating system that made Bill Gates rich, it was the execution. There are thousands of ‘great ideas’ made by smart people every day. But not very many of those smart people are able to follow through.

Never Share Ownership: When you own 100% of your business, you never need to split profits with partners or share holders. Total ownership can result in a nice pay day if you’re ever purchased by another company and ensure that you are rewarded for hard work put into building a business. Reward everyone well for their hard work, but never give up the reins of power, unless you must.

Although Felix Dennis has never owned an SEO agency, he’s owned a lot businesses in his life. And like the message I try to articulate in many of these blog posts, I’ll take good business skills over exceptional SEO ability any day if operating a profitable and successful SEO company is the goal. You can always hire the exceptional talent.

So if your interested in getting inside the mind of someone whose been there and done that, I strongly recommend picking up How To Get Rich available in distinguished airport bookstores now.