As a prospective client, you have the right to have your prospective Search Engine Marketing firm provide:
A face-to-face meeting held at your offices to meet your staff, listen to your needs, and gain an understanding of your marketing goals.
An invitation to you to visit their offices so you can view the quality and stability of their infrastructure.
A signed non-disclosure agreement with you so any of your proprietary information shared during the vendor selection process stays confidential.
The benefits of, and manage, ALL the SEM tactics available in the marketplace, including natural search engine optimization, paid inclusion, pay per click advertising and Web analytics – rather than just one or two of these tactics.
Their pricing and payment structure for your customized campaign – in writing.
An explanation of the process by which your campaign will be managed, including: staffing, communication, technology, reporting and timing.
An explanation of the types of tasks that will be required by your staff to implement a successful search engine marketing campaign.
Factual information as to where the work on your campaign will physically be performed and by whom, including whether there will be any contract labor or third-parties used.
The name and contact information of two client references.
Examples of past successful results, including #1 rankings in Google achieved for clients on single-word keywords with greater than 50 million competing page matches.
Examples of past successful results achieved for their clients where they overcame business challenges similar to yours (e.g. flash or dynamic content, branding, ecommerce, enormous site size).
A list of search engine optimization tactics that they might use (e.g. meta tag writing), and those they would never use (link farming), on your site, their own site, or any other client’s site.
Copies of any primary research studies or white papers they’ve published on search engine marketing.
An accurate and comprehensive explanation about any sanctions taken against the firm, or any clients of the firm, by any search engine or directory as a result of actions taken in violation of any search engine rules or regulations.
An accurate and comprehensive explanation about any legal actions taken against the firm by any current or former clients.
The names and contact information of industry analysts at leading research firms that cover the search engine marketing space who can vouch for the credibility of the firm.
A customized SEM plan built around your marketing goals, resources and timeframe.
In addition to all the rights to which an SEM prospect is entitled, as a SEM client you also have the right to have your SEM firm provide you:
A list, in writing, of deliverables that are provided as part of your customized search engine marketing campaign
An initial campaign overview performed at your offices at the outset of your campaign.
Four levels of support for your campaign: a named primary contact who manages your campaign, a named secondary (backup) contact who also knows your account and is familiar with your campaign, a named manager who knows your account and your campaign and to whom your primary and backup contacts report, and a director of clients services who knows your account to whom the manager reports.
24/7/365 online access to daily campaign reporting.
24/7/365 online access to the project plan for your campaign.
Reassessment of your universe of targeted keywords throughout the duration of your campaign.
An open invitation to visit their offices at any time.
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