Our Process & Expectations
What is the process of getting started with Realtop?
Our high-level process of executing a digital marketing campaign includes the following 6 steps: Audit, Plan, Build, Drive, Optimize, and Grow.
In the Audit Stage, we will review your current digital marketing plan to establish a benchmark and get an understanding of KPI’s such as:
- Web Traffic
- Visit-to-Lead Conversion Rates
- Lead-to-Closing % (quality)
- Average Initial Order Value (IOV)
- Average Lifetime Value (LTV)
- Cost of Customer Acquisition (COCA)
- Number of Customers You’re Currently Generating from Digital Marketing
- Number of Customers You Need to Generate to get your business to the next level.
Additionally, you’ll want to answer the following questions:
- What is our company and marketing department trying to accomplish in the next 12-24 months?
- What important milestones do we have to hit to meet our goals?
- What are we currently struggling with?
- What specific problems do we solve better than anyone else?
- Which target audiences care most about those problems?
- In looking at our metrics, where is our growth bottleneck?
- Is our digital platform (website, social, automation, etc.) ready to support our digital marketing efforts and, if not, what’s lacking?
Now that there is a baseline understanding of your current digital marketing performance, we’ll move into the Plan Stage where we will collaborate on, research, and define the following:
- Discovery — a deeper dive into your brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, competitors, etc.
- Targeting Strategy — the top buyer personas you’re after and where to reach them online.
- Overarching Content Strategy — the overarching content funnel needed to engage your targeted buyer personas so they naturally move from one relationship level to the next.
- Traffic Strategy — where and how we’ll distribute content (through organic and paid methods) to make sure that your content is optimally placed in front of your targeted buyer personas.
- Lead Generation Strategy — specific premium content and resources needed to convert buyer personas into leads in your database.
- Lead Nurturing and Marketing Automation Strategy — the specific content and automation needed to nurture leads into opportunities/sales.
- Measurement & Reporting Protocol — define the metrics that matter, how we’re going to measure those metrics, and how we’re going to report on those metrics.
- Technology Requirements — define the technologies needed to empower the strategies defined above.
- Logistics — define which team (client vs. agency) is responsible for what, follow-up action items, setting regular meeting rhythms, etc.
In the Build Stage, we’ll build the foundation needed to empower your digital marketing program. This could include:
- Landing Pages
- Email Templates
- Digital Marketing Reporting
- Marketing Automation
- Lead Gen Offers
- Website Optimization
- Ad Platforms Needed
In the Drive Phase, based on your growth objectives, resources, and budget, we’ll drive visits and engagement using some or all of the following methods:
- Email Newsletters/Blasts
- Paid Traffic
- Online PR/Social Media
- Content/SEO
These methods are listed in priority order with the top methods driving visits and engagement much faster than the bottom methods.
Hand-in-hand with the Drive activities, we’ll Optimize your digital marketing program for maximum performance which includes:
- Reporting & Coaching
- Lead Generation Offer Optimization (CTAs, Landing/Thank You Pages)
- Ad Performance Optimization
- CRO (conversion rate optimization)
Once your program is up-and-running, we’ll strategize additional content and offers to engage existing and/or new buyer personas which includes:
- Consulting on Program Growth
- Targeted Lead Generation Offers and Related Assets
- Content and Features to Support Buyers’ Journeys
FAQ
What does your client onboarding process look like?
Our onboarding process is designed to ensure a smooth transition from you current marketing system to ours. Accounting: Upon approval of our marketing proposal we will be sending your monthly retainer agreement invoice to be paid in full before we begin. Once paid we will move to the orientation stage. Dedicated Marketing Manager: All of our clients recieve a dedicated marketing managers. This allows you to work in closely with our team and to be able to communicte changes needed easily and quickly. Initial Orientation: Prior to the orientation meeting, the team will have requested access to all necessary platforms and reporting tools currently used in your marketing efforts.
What kind of reports will I receive?
Our clients are given admin access to all of our reporting. We build live, web-based reporting dashboards through google reporting for many of our channels. Additionally, weekly analytics analysis is conducted by your dedicated strategist, and monthly reporting review calls are provided.
How often will I receive updates on my account?
Along with as-needed communication, we can establish a standing weekly, bi-weekly or monthly meeting with you.
What should my digital marketing budget be?
This is a very difficult question to answer until after we’ve completed your free consultation and have completed a forecast of what digital opportunties exist. We have cients ranging from $1k a month all the way up over $100k per month.
What is your process for determining success metrics and establishing tracking measures?
We determine success metrics for all program activities by performing a COCA (cost of customer acquisition) analysis prior to any contracting. We consider metrics like the LTR (lifetime revenue) of our client’s customers, our client’s gross margin, LTV (lifetime value), and COCA% to determine a max COCA$ that ensures a program with eventual ROI. For lead generation campaigns, we also consider monthly objectives like website visitors, leads, qualified leads, opportunities, and customers along with the conversion rate at each point. Paid/direct response KPI examples would include metrics such as impression-share, CPC, CTR, landing page engagement, and conversions. We track KPI’s through a varied tool stack that includes, Google Analytics, Shopify Analytics, HubSpot, and more.
Will you recommend other digital marketing agencies if we're not a good match?
Yes, absolutely! If we’re not a good fit we can help connect with you someone in the industry you can trust.
Do you work with clients who are out of state or in another country?
Yes, of course. We currently work with clients in the United States, Canada and Europe.
What types of clients do you work with?
Ambitious clients only! We work with some of the most ambitious entrepreneurs around. Currently, we’re helping clients in the medical, real estate, legal, medical, dental, construction services, financial services industry and more.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Why is SEO important?
If you own a business or manage a website of any kind, you likely want target audiences to visit it. SEO is important because it’s specifically aimed at helping do just this; improve the online presence and traffic for a website. SEO helps you show up at the most important stage of your customer’s journey, when they are actively looking for products and services you offer, or resources and information for which you have expert insights.
What is your SEO approach?
Our SEO approach calls for segmenting organic search traffic/queries, and therefore website engagement, into 1 of 4 buckets, Google calls these query categories “micro-moments:” 1. “I want to know” 2. “I want to go” 3. “I want to do” 4. “I want to buy” We leverage industry trends and insights on the search behavior from these micro-moments to guide on-page optimization strategy for relevant pages, to build funnels, and to segment users to appropriate landing pages that are hyper-relevant to their query. As an example, for an eCommerce client, our keyword research and focus may center around “I want to buy” intent/queries. As a result, we would optimize intent/action-based pages (product pages) around purchase-related keyword queries and topics to best serve the user and improve relevance with Google. From each query, we can extrapolate intent. Furthermore, each page should serve a very specific function and play a unique role in the user’s buyer’s journey whether they are in the awareness, consideration, or decision stage. A homepage, as another example, is typically serving branded/reputation-based keyword queries and search intent, and aligns with the decision stage of the buyer’s journey. A blog post, for example, serves education-based keyword queries and search intent, and aligns with the awareness and consideration stages of the buyer’s journey. We work to understand how we can best position the website to serve users with relevant content at the optimal stage of their journey, identify what KPI’s should we be measuring to demonstrate increased engagement, and focus on how can we improve performance over time.
What does a typical SEO growth journey look like?
The Beginning (0-6 months): The first 6 months of any SEO effort is almost always exclusively dedicated to fixing mistakes, fine tuning, and closing the gap between what your website has in place and current SEO best practices. Once completed, these efforts can have ongoing and compounding benefits for years to come. The newly accessible and optimized pages start earning rankings and traffic, which foster more links, more exposure, more sharing, and more business. The Turning Point (6-18 months): Eventually, the list of actionable, immediate fixes, and optimizations depletes. At this point, your website will hit an “SEO Plateau.” In order to reach the next growth plateau (between campaign months 6-18), you must invest in new strategies, such as: New Keywords & Content New Verticals & SERP (Search Engine Results Page) Features Additional SERP Domination Moving Up the Buyer Funnel International/Multi-Language Targeting
What is the difference between Local SEO and general SEO?
Local SEO is a hyper-specific tactic that focuses on optimizing your website to achieve local search rankings by ensuring that your business is properly represented on review sites like Yelp, City Search, Kudzoo, and others. Your Local SEO Expert focuses on making sure that your NAP (Name, Address, and Phone Number) are correct and consistent across these listings so Google indexes your business information and website appropriately. SEO as a broader practice focuses on optimizing your content – your blog and your website content, in general – to ensure it’s fresh, accurate, and interesting for search engines.
Certifications & Partnerships
What is your partnership status with Google?
We’re a certified Google partner agency managing more than $2 Million a year in ad investment. With team-wide certifications across Google’s entire suite of ad products, Search, Display, Mobile and Video we’re able to connect with a wide variety of our clients’ target audiences at the optimal stage of their buyers journey to effectively drive brand awareness, website engagement, lead generation and sales.
Billing & Contract Terms
How do I pay for agency fees?
Visa, Mastercard or American Express. We don’t accept checks, cash or wires.
What does your invoicing process look like?
We use stripe invoicing and automated billing.
What if I want to cancel services?
You can cancel anytime with zero contractual obligation.
Paid (Advertising & Retargeting)
What paid advertising and retargeting services do you offer?
Google Ads Bing Ads Youtube Ads Facebook Instagram
How does a paid search campaign work?
We will spend time analyzing your site, analyzing competitor sites, current marketing efforts and competitor marketing efforts. We will build out keyword and audience targeting that is proven to provide value. In addition we will use forecast tools to create your projected traffic flow in each channel.
When will I see results from paid search advertising?
Upon returning your SOW, your strategist will schedule a kick-off phone call or in-person meeting with your team. We will take over management of your campaigns at this time and follow up on the action items we outlined in our initial audit of your account and your SOW. Generally, within 1-3 weeks of our initial kick-off call, you will have a newly-revised series of campaigns ready to launch!
How does paid social media advertising work?
Paid social media advertising works similarly to paid search advertising in the fact that cost is often accrued on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis — that is, you pay only for the traffic that is delivered to your website from the advertisement. That said, there are two noteworthy differences between paid social media advertising and paid search advertising: Paid social media advertising targets buyers during different stages of their buyer’s journey (awareness, consideration, decision), where paid search advertising mostly targets people in the consideration and decision stages. Paid social media advertising is “passive” in that the advertisement is delivered to people that match certain audience criteria as opposed to paid search advertising where the advertisement is delivered to people based on their “active” keyword search on websites like Google, YouTube, etc.
What is your agency's approach to paid campaigns?
Our approach to developing paid campaigns depends on variables like campaign goals, buyer personas, our clients’ sales cycles, and commercial transaction type (B2B or B2C). EX) Optimizing lead-gen campaigns with Google Ads for B2C companies with considered sales cycles, requires razor sharp buyer personas and demographic targeting, tightly themed ad groups, testing ad copy and enticing offers, focused landing pages and a variety of keywords.
Social Media Marketing
What social media sites do you work with?
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Google My Business(yes this can be a social media platform).
Why is hiring an agency better than hiring someone in-house?
The primary benefit to having an agency manage your social media campaign is experience and ease. By focusing specifically on social media, agencies have the ability to stay up-to-date on current trends, tools, advertising strategy, platform changes, and know all of the ins and outs of the various intricacies of social media. In addtion, business owners that grow the quickest and most profitably have mastered the art of delegetion. You can’t do it all!
Will social media work for my business?
Yes. Social media works for every company. Social media allows one-to-one brand-buyer relationships to be developed and maintained like no other advertising channel. Furthermore, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are equipped with some of the largest audiences and most advanced analytics data in the world. You can identify your target audience on a hyper-granular level to provide timely, personalized, custom experiences with your brand that will drive long-term brand awareness and engagement.
Email Marketing
Do you offer email marketing strategy and campaign creation?
Yes. We have experience with extensive experience with MailChimp, and Constant Contact. We love email marketing. It’s one of the highest ROI channels in our lineup.
What's the ideal list size?
We can work with list sizes as small as 50 and as large as over a million. It totally depends on your business and goals.
How many emails do you send every month?
Our clients work with us to send anywhere from 1-12 emails per month. These include promotional emails, sales emails, and/or newsletters. We also build workflows and setup lifecycle emails such as a welcome series, win-back emails, transactional emails, and triggered emails that are automated.
