Based on my 11-year career of onboarding clients into marketing agencies, I have developed these tips that will set you (and your agency partner) up on the best possible path to success.

Provide as much information as possible.

Especially during the onboarding phase, and anytime something new comes up, make sure you share as much information with your agency as possible. Are there new case types you are focusing on? Have service areas changed at all? Have you added any staff or attorneys? Have you won awards or new settlements? Things you might not think of mentioning are helpful to your team. Even events happening in your local area you want to target like conventions or festivals are extremely helpful. Every piece of added context and information helps your overall SEO strategy. Making sure your agency has the most up-to-date information will help them to adjust their strategy to provide you with success. Help them, help you!

Be clear on your goals.

Knowing exactly what success will look like for you is crucial for your SEO agency partnership. Stating that you want “more” isn’t enough to guarantee success because it leaves room for misinterpretations. Saying that your goal is more of a particular type of case or more cases in a specific location are two good places to start, but how about narrowing that down even further? Be as granular as possible, like providing the number of cases you would like in a specific practice area, and in a particular location, are great details to provide. Even having that information tied to a financial goal is the ultimate clarity.

When asked how much would you like to pay per case, again, the answer can’t just be “less.” Being measured and specific is key. You may not know exactly where you would like to be and that’s ok, your SEO agency partner can analyze your current data and let you know where you currently sit. With that information, a decision can be made on where you would like to go from there, and you’ll get valuable feedback if your goals are realistic based on your market. Figuring out where you are starting from and then providing clear insights on where you want to go is the formula for success. And if you don’t know where to start or what your goal should be, collaborate with your law firm SEO partner. That’s what they’re great at.

Be responsive.

This might seem like a no-brainer, but we all know that work can become busy. So busy, in fact, responding to questions from your SEO agency can take the back burner. Whether digging to provide answers or even just jumping down the rabbit hole of checking emails, all of this requires time – the time you might not have when you’re busy winning cases in court. Can you appoint someone who has more time flexibility to respond on your behalf? Anything you can do to help to ensure progress on your SEO doesn’t slow because of a lack of responsiveness is important for your digital marketing success. Think of it this way, when your SEO agency partner is waiting for a response, it could cause whatever they are working on to come to a complete standstill. Make sure the money you are spending is working for you, including doing everything in your power to be sure you aren’t the bottleneck. Doing just that will go a long way. In my experience, while the biggest time commitment from clients comes in the first few months of hiring a new SEO agency, there will always be times when they need feedback from you. You are paying for their services and results; make it a priority!

Trust your agency.

You chose your new agency for a reason. As I mentioned earlier, you did your due diligence and decided on your digital marketing partner. It may have been the people you interacted with, what you read on their website, or their reputation in the industry. Something connected with you and made you click on that e-signature to sign the contract. Trusting in their expertise is important in solidifying your relationship with them. Knowing they have the experience, the data, and the best practices to back up what they are recommending is why they are considered experts. Experts you employed to take your business to the next level. Trust their recommendations and embrace them. Know they are doing what they think is best for positive movement in your website’s performance.

Of course, if you have questions or disagree with something they want to do or focus on, speak up! Even though they are experts in their fields – and maybe in your industry, you know your business best. However, you can trust that they have your best interest at heart and they want you to succeed so they can succeed. This is the ultimate win-win partnership.

Remember: Your SEO agency is your partner.

SEO for law firms is an important and valuable marketing strategy. The relationship with your SEO agency should be considered an extension of your internal marketing team. You are partners working for the greater good of your business. They want to succeed as much as you do because they are personally tied to the SEO performance related to your website. Approach this relationship with this mindset. There will be good times, great times, and maybe even some not-so-great times. But, they are not robots, they are people who value being accountable and a part of your success. Understand mistakes will be made, there may be bumps in the road, but a thriving client/agency relationship is one where treating each other with respect is bi-directional, and kindness and respect will go a long way in a long-term partnership. One of our guiding principles at Hennessey Digital is, ”MAKE IT FUN; DON’T BE A JERK.” While it is pretty simple, I believe in most cases anyone you partner with will agree with the sentiment.

A partnership can be defined as two or more people working together. A successful partnership can be defined as two organizations working together to ensure positive outcomes for both parties. Fully embracing the suggestions I have outlined will help lay the groundwork for a successful partnership that can be built upon for years to come.

The post How To Be The Best Partner For Your SEO Agency appeared first on Hennessey Digital.

At Hennessey Digital, we really do live out our values through our work. Clients rely on our work and expertise to grow their businesses, and we take that responsibility seriously.

So when we came together as a leadership team to brainstorm tactical ways to fulfill our 2022 OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and company revenue goals, we had a tall order to fill. How do we keep growing and expanding while remaining true to who we are?

With our Hennessey Digital culture in mind, I thought I’d frame our 2022 initiatives and goals from the perspective of our four core principles.

Be honest and transparent

As VP of Operations, I make sure that we’re operating efficiently, delivering results, and ultimately making our clients raving fans of our agency. The HD Platform, one of our primary initiatives for 2021, is a manifestation of our honesty and transparency when it comes to clients’ deliverables and results.

The HD Platform exists to give clients insight into the ROI of working with us. In the Platform, we show cost per lead, organic leads trends, ranking keywords, and organic traffic value, our content pipeline, and other key metrics that empower our clients to make data-driven decisions for their digital marketing efforts all under one roof.

When we initially tested the HD Platform in beta with a small group of select clients, we were excited to share it with them. We were anxious to get our users’ thoughts and opinions.

Our first piece of feedback arrived: “The Platform is impressive because I’m easily able to see all my data. It’s nice to see how transparent everything is and how you hold yourself accountable for our deliverables,”  said our first client.

Then the next client: “Big time love the Platform – it really sets you apart from other agencies.”

We joke about this next one because it came from a hard-to-please client, but we’ll take it: “It’s fine.”

snapshot of the HD Platform

Now that we have the HD Platform to improve efficiency and transparency, we’ve taken additional steps to overhaul client communications and enhance our level of service.

Coming out of the December leadership retreat, I formed a “task force” of department heads to lead the effort in enhancing our client communications and output.

We’ve refined our client meetings based on the lessons we’ve learned from years of spending time with clients to make the most use of our time together. We know if we provide too much information, it can be overwhelming and confusing. On the other hand, too little information can raise more questions and cause skepticism.

We’ll soon be rolling out an automated post-meeting survey to each client asking two simple questions so we can get instant feedback:

1) How do you feel the call went today?
2) What could have made today’s call better?

We’ve also recently integrated a video feature into the HD Platform so our Account Managers and SEO Team Leads can record short videos to clients. These video updates are sent right to our clients’ inboxes and are available on-demand in the HD Platform.

Stay nimble; never stop learning

Continual improvement is something we emphasize, and not just for the work we do for clients (although this is crucial!) We’re always looking for ways we can improve how we work with each other.

Hennessey Digital prides itself on our best-in-class SEO. We have multiple case studies demonstrating the results we get for clients and how our approach helps law firms dominate their markets in organic search.

But one thing we were missing was an SEO philosophy; a statement of what we believe about SEO, where our focus areas are, and what makes our approach to SEO different from our competitors.

Together with our founder and CEO Jason Hennessey, we created an SEO philosophy that unifies the team. It’s our SEO North Star, and along with our updated client meeting agendas, we’ve got the tools to make more clients happy in 2022.

Speaking of making clients happy, Director of Client Services Kristine Hyman and Director of Content Jessica Rowe are leading the charge in white-glove service for our clients. And Director of Communications Liz Feezor is tying everything together with internal comms to educate the team and ensure we’re all in sync with the right information.

Do what’s right, always

Honesty and transparency inform our actions. But always doing the right thing isn’t always what we see, especially from competitors who may hide behind data or claim results for their clients that shouldn’t be attributed to them.

“Do what’s right” means more to us than just data transparency and proactive communication, although these are imperative for a solid client/agency relationship. It means turning down potential business if we don’t think we’ll be able to move the needle for a potential client.

Doing what’s right also means showing our work and sharing what we know. We released our proprietary career pathing tool to the public earlier this year. Originally created as an internal tool for current team members to grow their careers at Hennessey Digital, we also wanted to show potential employees what we’re all about.

(And if you’re a digital marketing all-star looking for a team, check our Careers page for current open positions!)

Finally, doing what’s right means opening up about mistakes we’ve made. We’re vulnerable about our human failures and candid about slip-ups, because they happen. But what makes us who we are is always learning from our mistakes and taking actionable steps to prevent them from happening in the future.

Because when something goes wrong for one client, we own it. We fix it. And all our other clients benefit from the solution we create.

Forgive us for a mistake; fire us for a pattern. 

Make it fun; don’t be a jerk

This one is easy. Making things fun comes naturally to us because we’re a team of good people who encourage each other to succeed. (Our 127 Code of Honor spells out our commitment to character, clients, and each other.)

We believe competence is important, but character matters more. We can train for skills when the drive to learn and the right attitude is there.

SImply put, we don’t allow jerks on the team. And we like to have fun with each other. How many teams do you know who put .gifs on their team members’ bios, or put out a gag press release for April Fools’ Day?

We also believe in making things fun for our clients. We like working with each other, and we love integrating how we do things into our client communications. If you’re already a Hennessey Digital client, you know what we mean. And if you’re looking for a new digital marketing partner, you won’t find a more dedicated group of people who are also a ton of fun to work with!

Values at work: looking beyond 2022

These 2022 initiatives are just the beginning for this all-star team. Our Vivid Vision illustrates what Hennessey Digital will look like at the end of 2024—and where we’re going after that.

We have big plans for Hennessey Studios and building an internship program to teach college students the ins and outs of digital marketing.

It’s vulnerable to share big plans. We never know what might materially affect our business or the digital marketing industry in the future. But we’ll continue sharing what we know, own our mistakes, and stay optimistic about what’s to come.

The post How We Live Our Values at Work appeared first on Hennessey Digital.