Credo Digital Marketing Blog

Grow your business through digital marketing advice and up-to-date strategies.
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What does an SEO agency or consultant actually do?

Posted by on July 27, 2017 in Small Business

This is a question I get asked a lot, both as a business owner and an SEO consultant in my own right. The truth is, it’s a great question. If you’re hiring someone to do SEO for you, you need to know what you are paying for. This is why I coach agencies and consultants to help you understand specifically what they are including in a scope of work for your business. It’s also a great question because different agencies…

Why I dislike “Cost Per Lead” in advertising

Posted by on July 20, 2017 in Marketing Industry/Small Business

I am going to say something that many of you will disagree with: You should not base your marketing investment decisions off of cost per lead in the B2B space. In fact, I think cost per lead is the worst metric you can look at as you build a service-based business.

SaaS Startup SEO Advice

Posted by on July 13, 2017 in Growth/SEO Tactics/Small Business

Most startups underinvest in SEO for a really long time. If that’s you, listen up. On the one hand, I can’t blame you. You’re trying to get a new thing off the ground and just keep it alive, and maybe even grow it. You’re trying to figure out your customer segments, how you’ll make money, who you need to hire and when, and so much more. Trust me, I’ve been through all of it over the last two years running…

No Nonsense Content Marketing

Posted by on July 11, 2017 in Growth/Marketing Industry/SEO Tactics

Two weeks ago at the MN Summit I presented this deck entitled “No Nonsense Content Marketing”. I have removed one slide that I gave away an an attendees-only gift, but the presentation otherwise is below in its entirety. Enjoy.

A Lead Generation Growth Hack with Gravity Forms and Calendly

Posted by on July 4, 2017 in Growth/Marketing Industry

You work in lead generation, or run a business where you need to get more people contacting you about your business, listen up. If you are not converting the “leads” that are coming to you, or the “leads” that are coming to you are not qualified and are way too far up the conversion funnel to be of value to you, you don’t need more leads. You need better ones. This is a hack I came up with to convert…

SEO Site Migration Checklist: How to migrate your website and not kill your SEO efforts

Posted by on June 29, 2017 in Growth/SEO Tactics/Small Business

Migrating your site to a new domain or URL structure is a huge undertaking whose SEO implications should not be taken lightly. In fact, I would say switching URLs and technical stacks can be one of the highest risk things you can do for your site’s SEO. Sometimes, though, we have to do things that are risky for other reasons. Maybe politics is at play and you were not involved in the decision. Or maybe the UX team has made…

How Wallaroo Media made a client $347,815 with $16,571 in ad spend

Posted by on June 26, 2017 in Case Studies

Wallaroo Media had a new client approach them with a challenge: to become a household name in every closet and drive dramatically increased sales through online advertising channels. Every woman utters the words “I have nothing to wear” at least once as she stares at a closet full of clothes, so this brand wanted to change that. “Challenge accepted”, Wallaroo said.

PPC Pricing Ponderings: In Defense of Percentage of Spend (And a New Model!)

Posted by on June 20, 2017 in Marketing Industry/Pricing

In the never-ending debate on the best PPC Pricing Model, Kirk Williams responds to a recent article against Percentage of Spend pricing by defending it. See his thoughts here, on why Percentage of Spend pricing doesn’t necessarily misalign the agency’s goals with the clients. Make sure to read to the end, where he also presents a variation of the model as a new way to price that brings out the best in all models.

How to market a small business

Posted by on June 15, 2017 in Growth/Small Business

If you are looking to market your small (or medium or even large) business, it’s all about your audience. That’s where you start and that’s how you market to them.

Should Digital Agencies Charge a Percentage of Your Ad Spend?

Posted by on May 31, 2017 in Business/Marketing Industry/Pricing

Looking for a new PPC agency who can accelerate your results? Schedule a free marketing evaluation with our team to meet the right agencies fast. In this economy, you can’t afford not to. It’s fast, free, and we get it right. Matching brands with agencies is literally what we do. Many paid acquisition agencies and digital agencies charge a percentage of spend for their fees.  The question is: does this pricing strategy create a recipe for client-agency disaster? Or, can…

Information Architecture for SEO

Posted by on May 25, 2017 in Growth/SEO Tactics

I work on a lot of large websites. Most of the time when I am brought in to work on one of these sites, whether a content site or a marketplace (similar to ecommerce), one of the biggest changes I can make is fixing their site’s information architecture. That’s what we are talking about today.

10 Questions to ask SEO consultants

Posted by on May 15, 2017 in Growth/Marketing Strategies

If you’ve never hired an SEO consultant or SEO agency before, you likely don’t know where to start. And hiring an expert SEO professional or firm can be expensive (because of the outsized value it can bring your business over time), so you need to get it right the first time. We offer this in our VIP hiring package (get more details here) as well. Questions to ask SEO consultants These are the questions you should ask a potential SEO…

Should You Hire The Person Who Ranks #1 For SEO Queries?

Posted by on May 1, 2017 in Marketing Strategies

I’ve seen this question so many times that I want to give my thoughts on whether or not you should hire an SEO agency simply because they rank #1 or #2 for queries relevant to their business, such as “SEO agency Denver”. Now, I haven’t even looked at that query so I don’t know who’s ranking, and that’s on purpose because I don’t want to call anyone out. Here’s an example of another city so you can see what a…

How does SEO actually work?

Posted by on April 25, 2017 in Case Studies

Update: you can now download these as a PDF here. In my day to day, I get asked questions such as “But what specifically will you do to grow my audience?”, “What specifically did you do to get those results?”, or “How long should I expect SEO to take before it works?” often. If I had a dollar for each time I was asked, I’d already own that SUV I have my eye on. Through this post you will see…

Please Turn Down The Lead Volume

Posted by on April 19, 2017 in Growth

I run a business that helps agencies and consultants get more clients. When people ask me to describe it, the easiest way is “lead generation for marketing agencies and consultants”. I hate lead generation as a concept though because it a) can mean so many different things, b) it’s like middle school sex in that everyone thinks they know what it is and that everyone else is doing it (well), and c) everyone always wants more of it. It’s that…

Behind The Scenes: Redoing The Credo Homepage

Posted by on April 3, 2017 in Business

For a long time, the GetCredo.com homepage has been confusing to people. If I had a nickel for every time people have asked me about the old top image and the thinking behind it, I’d have a lot of nickels. And unfortunately, I never had a good answer. The answer was usually “Oh it’s a legacy thing and I am thinking about changing it.” It was dead weight. It was confusing. So we changed it.

What’s New in Credo Pro

Posted by on March 30, 2017 in Premium

Hi everyone – In this post you’ll find some information about some upcoming changes to Credo Pro. Over the last few months I have been digging deep into the Credo business metrics and also working with a business coach to figure out how I grow up as an entrepreneur and how to make Credo work better for all of you, which is my number one priority and what keeps me awake at night.

51 Ways to Drive Traffic To Your Site in 2021

Posted by on March 30, 2017 in Consulting Strategies/Growth/SEO Tactics

This post is updated annually to add and remove ways to drive traffic to your site. It was last updated August 2021. You need more website traffic. If you run an online business, traffic is your lifeblood because it enables your business model to work and pay your bills. Therefore, you need to employee multiple strategies to bring new visitors to your site and keep old visitors engaged with your content. Here are 51 ways to drive and increase traffic…

How To Communicate Pricing Changes to Clients

Posted by on March 16, 2017 in Sales

Sometimes, you change. I’ve spoken with a few agency owners and consultants who have realized that they either have or need to go upstream in their business to a) be more profitable and b) be happier. I’ve seen this happen many times. So how do you move upstream and change your prices, and what does that mean for your current clients who are paying you less than your new rates? This video covers that second part – communicating pricing changes…

How Often Should You Communicate With Your Clients?

Posted by on March 9, 2017 in Premium

I’m involved in a few different groups of consultants and agency owners online, including Credo. One question I see a bunch is agency owners or consultants asking others how often they speak with their clients. This is a very important question, but I also want to turn it around a bit and say that it’s the wrong question. If you’re asking this question, you’re really just looking for the bare minimum that you can do. In reality, if you just…

MapQuest Getting Star Results from Yelp Reviews?

Posted by on March 3, 2017 in SEO Tactics

I’ve been in SEO for a long time and seen a lot over the years. Panda rolled out about a year into my career, then Penguin, then all the other amazing algorithm changes we’ve learned to roll with over the years. As Marshall Simmonds of Define Media Group says, “That right there is job security”. I’ve also seen Google slap down different tactics that seem to be gaming their algorithm unfairly. We’ve seen them allow and then drop emojis, remove and add stars…

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