What is Startup Production’s Unique Approach to Internet Marketing – and Why?

What makes Startup Production different when it comes to Internet Marketing? For over nearly 30 years, Startup Production has been designing, developing and maintaining information and functional websites for small businesses all around the country, with a large percentage of our business right here in Lexington KY and Central Kentucky.  Many are well aware of the professionalism, creativity, artistry, versatility, quality content writing and superior branding of our websites, as well as our hyperfocus on finishing what we start on a prompt timeline. Yet, we also provide:

• social media management,
• social media ads,
• email marketing,
• ghost writing and blogging without relying on AI
• internet marketing consulting,
• digital media content creation,
•  graphic and logo design, and
• Providing IMAP reports (Internet Marketing Analysis & Proposal) – which will be discussed below. 

Did you notice I did not mention Search Ads or Google Adwords management in that above list?  There’s a reason for that.

The downside of Search or Google Ads – And Why we Don’t Use Them

In all the years of running my successful business, I have NEVER ran a Google ad. Incredible, right? And yet several times a week, I get leads (from clients that fit into my optimal target audience) who tell me they found me on Google.  How and why? My ongoing and long-held commitment to organic SEO, my online reputation and overwhelming positive reviews, my extensive content marketing online library, and my high quality backlinks.  In a short keyphrased synopsis:  Age, Authority & Content – the building blocks of SEO.

“In 2020, a Forrester study found that SEO improved customer lifetime value, with marketers and executives stating that SEO traffic was more engaged and loyal than traffic generated through paid channels.” – Semrush.com

I do also see the practicality and curiosity, in some instances, why a client may want to run a Google Ad. For example, a paid ad may be appropriate and possibly a good idea for a promotion or message that needs to be blasted immediately and on the short term. On the other hand, a long term strategy of SEM (search engine marketing) is often expensive, frustrating and results in poor targeted leads and even poorer management. Here are some reasons Startup Production does NOT offer Search Ads:

1. Google Ads are often very expensive. Since most of my clients are small businesses, they often do not have a disposable marketing budget to maintain a long-term campaign to compete with their competitors’ CPC bids. In competitive industries, the cost per click (CPC) can be high.
2. Maxing our your CPC bid budget is easier to do than you think. Unlike SEO, which has a longer shelf life, Google Ads will stop running the second you’ve maxed out your budget. If you’re not aware of your budget and you haven’t optimized correctly, you could burn through money in a matter of days. Your Ads will only reappear if you put more money behind them
3. They do not have any residual benefit. As soon as the ad ends, so does the benefits. The opposite is true of organic SEO, that has a compounding or residual effect over time, in the months and years that article, that blog, that webpage is up.
4. They are even more expensive to pay someone to manage. Many of the SEO or internet marketing firms out there will tell you that it takes many hours to find the right algorithm to get clicks on your ad, and many hours to find that perfect sweet spot to motivate CTR from your specific targeted leads. The costs of paying someone to manage your ads can run from $500 at the minimum to well over $1000, and that is not even including your ad budget!
5. They often result in low-quality or fraudulent clicks, that rarely generate conversion. Meaning many SEM companies will show you all the calls, website clicks, and form submissions, but if you take a deep dive into the demographics and user intention of those so-called conversions, very few actually convert in a profitable way as actual customers for your business.
6. There are a plethora of content restrictions on Google Ads. The restrictions and guidelines put in place are for obvious reasons including avoiding legal liability, the potential for making false or exaggerated claims, and spammy content that some ad users will put out. In the good intention to restrict shady characters intending to promote poor intentions, Google has to restrict everyone’s content, even if you are trusted, credible and properly credentialed in what you do. There are also character limitations for headlines, description lines, and display URLs. And not only is your ad content under strict guidelines but the landing page you are sending traffic to must be considered ‘high quality and relevant to your ad’ according to Google’s standards.
7. “80% of people ignore PPC Ads.” – HubSpot.  Period end. I personally don’t click on them. Do you? More trust and credibility is attached to the result on the search engine page that is organically ranked to be there, not paid to be there.

What we Do When it Comes to Internet Marketing and Why its Unique in the Market

First off, our intention is not driven by profit but by results. Instead of going into an initial client meeting who is looking to improve or begin their digital marketing journey, my goals are:

1. Determining the client’s focus and goals.
2. Determining if the goals are achievable, accurate and manageable.
3. Determining how we can help inform, guide and educate the client on how to reach their goals.
4. Determining how to accomplish what is needed to make their online presence engaging, accessible and conversion-worthy.
5. Determining how much of the efforts to reach these goals can be handled by the client versus how much hands-on support they will need by our team.
6. And finally determining how to accomplish their goals within a reasonable budget and reasonable timeframe.

After all the above is determined and mutually understood, we plan a course that works for the client and for us. We are honest, we are trustworthy, and we have many happy, ongoing marketing clients. And the following are the reasons why.

Our Focus in on Results, Not Profit

“If you keep your eye on the profit, you’re going to skimp on the product. But if you focus on making really great products, then the profits will follow.” – Steve Jobs

It goes against all logical business sense (some may say), but my goal is to make our clients as successful with the least amount of financial investment. I’m a small business, so I cannot approach a client without putting myself in their place. Thus, if I can teach and consult rather than manage, I know removing ourselves from the daily, weekly efforts are going to save them money.  Despite the uniqueness of our approach, my business has thrived and grown for nearly 30 years. And while there have been rare periods of sluggish growth over the nearly 30 years, they are usually based on outside economic conditions, rather than a lack of our referrals, our website traffic and our high ranking on Google.

We Demystify SEO

“The reality of SEO is the reality of any successful endeavor: It will take strategic, consistent, and sufficient efforts to rank well.” – Viola Eva, Founder of Flow SEO

We are successful because we are not afraid to tell our clients the truth about SEO, demystifying the smoke and mirrors that many marketing firms will profit off of. If you don’t understand it, you won’t do it yourself and you will pay a great sum to have a professional manage it. SEO is not complicated but its time-consuming, so we can teach, consult or manage it for you … or better yet find a perfect ratio of all three that conforms to each client.

With all that being said, some clients DO NOT have the time to manage their own SEO efforts, so we are here to offer reasonably priced, tailored packages that can include content writing, social media management, social ads, email marketing, blogging, and various other ways to promote your industry online with only ‘White-Hat’ strategies.*

*White Hat SEO is a set of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques that comply with search engine guidelines and terms of service.

We do NOT Require Long-Term Contracts

“If keeping or retaining a customer requires a contract, something isn’t right.” – Nicole Mueller

We work on a month-to-month basis. We are here when you need us, we are not when you don’t. If you want to utilize our services for three to six months to get a feel of how to manage it yourself, feel free. If you want to utilize your services during the slow or busy season within your industry, feel free. If you want to stop and start willy-nilly for no apparent reason, feel free. All that we ask is if you want to discontinue services, you inform our team in writing (email is fine) by the 20^th of the current month to stop for the coming month.

We try to be as user-friendly and versatile as possible for our clients, and as a result we stay busy so if you are looking for any type of internet marketing consulting or management, call us today so we can schedule you in for a meeting to get to know each other.

We Provide RAW and Untouched Analytics (on Google Analytics)

“Good SEO work only gets better over time. It’s only search engine tricks that need to keep changing when the ranking algorithms change.” – Jill Whalen

We do not have a custom dashboard that displays your analytics in the most positive light or tailored results according to our agenda – meaning we don’t alter or cook the numbers to display slanted or exaggerated ROI (return on investment). We use raw data on Google Analytics, which our clients have access to, so there is no way to ‘fudge’ the numbers. It is what it is, and we are honest that organic SEO is effective but it takes time. There is no overnight success when it comes to SEO, unless you are using Black Hat strategies, which will work for a time but cause you to be penalized and fall in the SERP rankings by Google.

We offer our IMAP Product to Educate, Inform and Recommend

Startup Production offers an I.M.A.P. Report (Internet Marketing Analytics & Proposal Report) – which provides clients a full audit and analysis of their online presence with recommendations on how to move forward in building on their strengths and addressing their weakness.   It not only researches and analyzes your past marketing efforts and your current standing of your online presence, but also forecasts which and how future efforts can be implemented to improve leads and conversions (which equate to sales). Our IMAP process is as follows:

1. Initial Meeting to decipher need & current goals.  (Free)
2. Exploration Meeting where we discuss current and past efforts made and their results, demographics of their target audience, the story behind their brand, their products and services, the benefits they provide over competitors, their goals, objectives and call-to-actions, and how their content is fulfilling user intent. (Prior to this meeting, I provide a customized document with 50-100 questions that we will discuss and is particular to their industry that helps the client prepare for the meeting).
3. Analysis of current internet marketing strategies, insights and analytics (website, social media, blog, other advertising efforts).
4. Research on industry specific marketing, targeted keywords, user intent and target audience.
5. Create marketing proposal & plan of action based on above information and research. This will be a comprehensive document of 10-20 pages that will include analysis and critiques of current footprint, recommendations, suggested improvements, and ideas for topics for content marketing.
6. Develop Action Plan with the set number of hours client has agreed to spend on their monthly marketing and how to specifically use that budget of their time throughout the month.
7. First training session to review and discuss initial proposal, share recommendations and marketing plan of action.
8. Second Training session 12 weeks later for analysis and adjustments.

Let’s make an appointment to talk. 

Our initial conversation is a very comfortable exchange where we discuss your wants, needs and goals for your internet presence openly and honestly.  I love supporting small business owners and am inspired by my client’s enthusiasm and excitement about their company.  I assure you that you will walk away feeling that you developed a partnership with Startup Production, rather than hired a design firm.  Many of my clients have become long-time friends and colleagues, who have returned to me for various other marketing projects throughout the years.

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

This article was written by Nicole Mueller, the owner and lead designer of Startup Production, in my own words without using any AI Tools. Imagine that!