Hey, what is up? It is the Follow-up Media podcast. My name is Christian Lee. My co-host, Riley Austin, sitting right next to me. Oh, yeah. Across from me. Super. There you are, dude. Again. There you are. Grab me on for the eighth time.

Really? Damn. We can't let that happen. But I have some new people on here. So, so today we're going to dive into something that I think you and I run across consistently for sure. And it's basically some questions to ask yourself if you're a business um and you've been paying an SEO company, you've been

paying a marketing agency um to handle some of your website u marketing when it comes to search engine optimization and actually trying to help get you organic search results. and you know maybe it might be um ad campaigns the creation and management of those. The problem that I couple years ago when we launched

this business and it was more of a production house is kind of what I was going for that I never expected was when we started like taking over and and producing content was running into a situation where they had either been burned by previous uh marketing agencies

that hadn't been handling their stuff and when I say burned I mean they've been paying two grand a month for a number of services and either a got no results or b just these people were just sitting fat and happy just like oh that's uh two grand a month guaranteed and basically phoning it in and not

doing anything right and I know Riley who's my VP of sales you're you're dialing you're establishing contact you're identifying reaching out and and really trying to build a relationship with certain businesses of multiple different industries and a lot of these people come to find out are in the same

camp. Yes. Oh, most definitely. Would would you agree with that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, they definitely uh they definitely have spoken their mind about how they feel about the SEO SEO company that they're with. Whether they get the report, don't even know how to read it.

They I mean, better off being in Spanish like they they don't know how how to read the analytics. Yeah. So, I thought if we could come up with some certain questions to ask yourself as a business owner. Um, and then maybe I if you really want to go down the road, you might be able to ask the marketing

company that you've been paying if they're still around. Yeah. You know, um, the first thing is the monthly report, which you just mentioned. Yeah. A few clients who we are now handling their SEO fell into this category. They heard from their marketing agency or SEO company once a month and that contact

that touch point was the email of a monthly report. Now that monthly report was filled with charts and diagrams and stats and to the business owner. Yeah. Unless you have a very good understanding of how all of these stats correlate to your ROI for your in for your investment, they become almost like

who's got time. It'd be like you reading a bunch of legal jargon. Yeah. Do you understand it? Do you understand how these numbers correlate with these numbers and how that shows the client any amount of work that you've done for that particular month? Mhm. You know, so these clients who are now our clients

had reached out to their marketing agency and said, "Hey, can you help tell me how to make heads or tails of this?" And a lot of times he never got a clear answer. And still ended up kind of throwing his hands in the air and basically going away, which is where they want you to go, or giving you an

answer that is like, "Are you Well, you never really answered my question, right? like what is it that you do on a monthly basis? What am I paying you for? Right. Right. And a lot of times you'll have these companies that are like, we have a proven system. It's a tried andrue

SEO, you know, um, program and it served our clients right. But here's the thing. SEO, Google, YouTube, it is an ever evolving, everchanging, you can't just have one tried and true like method of handling it. You're going to get left behind. And that's the thing. It's like, what are you doing

different this month? Yeah. Than you did last month, you know, are you adding more backlinks or are you changing up the keywords based on our competitors? you know, um, based on the time of year it is, you know, I mean, depending on what industry you're in, maybe, um, AC units and how to fix my furnace or who's

going to fix my furnace is probably going to show up more in spring when things start to warm up. Those search terms probably go through the freaking roof, right? Let me ask you a question.

Since you're a business owner, I can't really answer this question, but I know what I I would think is the right answer. I don't know. Uh, but I don't know what you're talking about. If someone's checking on you, say you're spending two grand a month, uh, someone's checking on you once a month,

you're not going to trust them as much as someone saying, "Hey, maybe every other week or maybe couple times a month, you're going to trust them a lot more when they're coming to you and not just kicking back and saying, "Oh, yep.

We did it. Here's a thumbs up. I'll just like your text or or contact you one time a month." Like, well, I mean, most of the time the contact is through the email with the report. It's like, "Hey, here's your monthly SEO report. Thanks for the check. Yeah, thank you. I took my uh daughter to uh uh you know, a swim

meet in three states over. You you covered my trip. Thank you very much for that. Or depending on what executive is, maybe you took me to the strip club and I made it rain. I supported some uh strippers kids. I mean, whatever it is.

Well, that's the difference and that's the follow-up media difference. So, what we do and what I demanded my SEO team do is that because Follow-Up Media has a website, we need SEO. Um, our furniture fabrication company has a website, they need SEO, you have a website, you need SEO. So, I demanded that I wanted to

know exactly where my money was going. Yeah. Even though I'm their boss, but still, I still have to pay them. Yeah. And I want to learn I want to learn their strategy so I'm better equipped and and in the know with the process because before I really started, you know, handling other people, I didn't

really know much about configuring SEO for a website, you know, your website speed, your back links, your keywords. I mean, there's so I mean it is a science, but it's an ever evolving science. And so I demanded for myself as I do for my clients, we give you a weekly report.

You get a email from me every week that says this is what we did. If we added back links, we added 50 new backlinks. We submitted, you know, follow-up media to this many new business directories. We optimized all these images or new images for the website. Image optimization. We put

meta. We put tags. We updated lowcontent pages, things of that nature. And so therefore, I go, "Huh?" And it's and it's actually my request was that they write it like I was a three-year-old so I could understand it like, "Oh, this is what you did." And I just look at it and go, "Cool. All right. All right. Now,

what are you doing next week?" And they normally have a plan for that. And so that is the difference between what we do at Follow-Up Media because I don't want my clients to go, "What does this mean?" I mean, I want to show you every Friday that the team that you know, you're paying me to um handle your SEO

stuff for for your website. There's no doubt about what was done. And then there's a monthly report still about what we achieved, if new uh leads or contacts came in through our Google business profile, how we're um relating in searches for podcast studios or podcast creation and Alpharetta or East

Cobb. They're updating our positions as they upgrade whichever direction it might go. Um what about anything else, Riley? Did I answer you? Yeah. No, you did answer me. Well, damn straight I did once a week though. All right. So, you know, um when was the last time, you know, your agency updated your their

strategy? And this is kind of what I was talking about the ever changing SEO landscape that the strategy black hole. Are they still running that same game plan they set up when you sign the contract? It's a great question, right?

If you have been with an agency or an SEO company for two or three years and they haven't updated their strategy, that's a problem. And you might go, Christian, well, you know, um, I have reached out to them and, you know, maybe they sent me the contract that I signed about like, you know, what are we doing?

Well, they outlined what they're doing when you sign the contract with them. Yeah. But that doesn't mean you have to stay with them. And if their contract and their strategy is not improving and they can't show you what they've been changing, well, give me your money, please. Or

give it to Riley. I mean, if you want to throw money down the drain, I mean, I'll take donations. I mean, we could probably donate it. We could probably meet and talk and find a good cause for you to just throw your money away. Maybe a stripper's kids. I mean, or something.

I think I don't know. I don't know. Like strippers need support too and their kids definitely do, especially if there's no dad in the picture. I'm not saying that that's the case all the time. Anyway, um have they given you a clear road map, okay, of uh new opportunities, you know, clear road map

of where you're going, what's next, what's in the pipeline, what they think you need to change, right? I mean, there are so many tweaks along the way. um you know you don't continue on one path and don't make any course correction otherwise you're way off the beaten path at that point from point A to point B

might have a lot of turns and changes as you start going you know to get you from where you are to where you want to be you might have to go around a few windmills jump over some puddles maybe hop in a boat I mean I don't know maybe take a helicopter I mean there might be some treacherous terrain to get there

otherwise you're wandering. Yeah. Right. So that would be another question. Has the agency that I've been paying for x amount of time provided me a new road map? I mean like at the end of each year there should be just like every other year you should evaluate you know what you achieved where you won where you

lost and some initiatives need to be put in place. Yeah. Maybe it's an ad spend this year. Maybe it's a podcast. Maybe it's video content. Maybe it's YouTube optimization. Maybe it's having a company take over your social media.

Maybe it's firing the other agency and bringing on somebody who's actually going to work for their money. No. Take advantage of you. Yeah. And not go to sleep. Yeah. I mean I mean if it was that easy and and I really think it was probably, you know, when everything evolved with the internet and everyone's

like now we need a website. F the yellow pages. We don't need yellow pages. Now we have a website that is. And now there's Google. Google's on the scene setting out all these capabilities for people to find your business like that.

Yeah. You know, and it's like, okay, great. Well, now we got that. We have a website, but I mean, well, okay, well, the website at this point is is not good enough. You can't just have a website, right? So, but there needs to be tweaks and and you got to figure out, all right, well, what are we embracing this

year? And so that marketing agency you're spending money on should be able to provide you with strategies. Yeah. And should be coming to the table with fresh ideas. Like listen, not just what's in the contract. Yeah. And I mean, if the ad spend that they managed, could it have been because it was them

managing it? Sure. But there are some good agencies out there, too, that know what the hell they're doing, right? It's funny. you once you accept what something costs and as a business owner as a in your personal life and you decide that okay I've come to terms with spending it then you get used to

spending it. Yeah. But where's the ROI? Where is your money going? What's your return? What are your key performance indicators that it's going the right direction? Those are the things you need to be asking yourself. And if you're not getting the answers, I'm telling you, followupmedia.com

for sure. Or I mean, even if you don't come to us, choose somebody. Choose somebody that is going to take your money and actually have your best interests in mind and and try to get you to point B. Yeah. Or C or D or wherever the hell you're going, bringing new opportunities. Um, we already talked

about are they actually doing SEO or are they just monitoring your health? SEO involves technical work. I mean, it really does. Optimizing pages, testing new strategies. It's a continuous improveathon. I don't even think that's a word. It's just continuous improving, you know, as we all should be doing in

our personal lives as well. Sharpen yourself, you know, become better today than you are tomorrow. And that's what the SEO company should be doing to your damn website. And and quit messing around. Yeah. I mean, it actually starts to piss me off. It's like because it's been such a constant now that it like I

get mad like I want to walk into those people's office and take a bat and just just come through their desk. Yeah. Or bring a lawyer in there and be like, "Hey, so be too Yeah. That would be too buttoned up. I think they need to be scared." Okay. Just a little fear for just a moment. I'm not I'm not a violent

person. Um are they creating content actually ranking the content? You know, um a lot of times I mean you know with Google SEO there are metrics and things you can monitor to determine how you're doing. I've also run into situations where we've come in as a secondary, not necessarily on the agency side, but more

on the production side. But then when I ask for a copy or access to the GA4, which is um their Google Analytics, even if it's readon, I'm not trying to change anything. I'm trying to gather data for our report. Yeah. so I can show them that their content initiative that we're managing and handling is working and

they don't want to give it up. Like they don't want me seeing what they've done. Now that doesn't mean they're not doing anything, but it does put a new set of fresh eyes on it, which could jeopardize their their business and the work they've been doing. And I get it. And if they're

doing a great job, I'm not looking to bow. I will give them the kudos they deserve. they're handling now our clients because it's not just their clients anymore. Now we have to work aligned with them alongside them. You know, our efforts are to get that client to where they want to go. But still, you

know, they're protective of that because they don't want maybe us seeing something or maybe they are coasting and they definitely don't want us pointing it out because if they are extra extra read all about it. Yeah. I'm putting it on my website. Yeah. I actually had a conversation about this with a with a

family friend that owns a business and he was saying that it's taken a week and a half just to get in contact with the SEO company for his website. Wait, who's this? Davis. Really? Riley. D. Yep. Let me let me explain something to you here.

So, the situation that Riley has just pointed out is a good friend of him. Y known him for a long time. Years. Yep. Riley has now been working with me for about eight months. He's seen what we're capable of. He's seen how we execute for other people. And did you go in for the hard clothes, Riley, when he expressed

his frustration about having a week and a half of trouble getting a return phone call? I didn't go for the hard closed, but I I did say I did say that that is what I do for a living and that is ridiculous.

That is that going to be That is ridiculous. I am was Fister himself angry always had with him. No, but seriously, that is an opportunity because why wouldn't he give that business to you, right? I mean, he sees what he's getting now and so that would be an indication to me. Maybe Davis

needs to listen closely to this episode because that would be a red flag. Yeah. Granted, if he's at it, but still, is this a one-man operation? Is this a company? Is this somebody reputable that is like or is this like his sister's friend who says they can do SEO? I believe it's a one-man show that says

that he could build websites and do an SEO and do it to the full potential of a company. Oh, but it takes a week and a half to get back. Yes. So, this would be something that I would ask myself, is this is this an out of the normal thing?

like, okay, is normally he responds to me. It doesn't take a week and a half. But now it would raise red flags to maybe I need to question what it is that they're actually doing. Do you know how much Davis is paying? I believe $800.

$800 a month. $800 a month. Yeah. So, and he said that at the beginning it was contact all the time and then as soon as he got they got complacent, all of a sudden now it's kind of crickets. And I see that with a lot of the the people we've been talking to. It's a thing, you know, sucks. But I mean, well, yeah, if

you think about it, a,000, $2,000 a client, get 20 of those. What is that? $40,000 a month or whatever or two or $20,000 a month. I'm billing. I'm sending out the invoice the first of the month. And uh I just hand them this little report right there and I just print out and say, "See you next month."

Doing good, buddy. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Things are looking up. Yeah. Do you can you feel the leads? Are they beating down the door yet? Uhhuh. No. And so he really needs to come talk to us because and I have a lot more questions for him.

And I got his number now. I feel like I need to have a combo with him. But um let us look at it because I would be interested for $800 a month, which is pretty cheap. Where he stands versus his competition, how many keywords, how many backlinks, how many registries or directories is he a part of? No, he's

got a couple videos on there. No, a couple videos on there. But but it's about the content. It's about the user experience. It's about the speed. It's about the image optimization. I mean, there's so many things that go into, you know, and there's so many like tests and you can run because Google tells you,

okay, well, it's got, you know, it's going to take off points for your website if it doesn't load quickly because it's got a bunch of junk or the images aren't optimized or it doesn't because no one wants to sit there.

That's not a good user experience. And so I'm, you know, we're going to wrap it up and and if you have any questions for us, please join the show. Please subscribe to us on any podcasting platform. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Feel free to reach out and ask questions. We want you to share this

with somebody if you think that has been getting robbed. And I have one more question or analogy or scenario. Okay? And and a lot of times it's like I have a client right now that is like on the fence of coming over to us. We have given him reports as to how they are not and it's one of these proven tested slow

and steady wins the race or you know what I'm saying. It's quality over quantity. This is an ever evolving landscape and strategies do need to change. You need to change. you need to keep up with the changes being made and what's the best way to optimize for those changes. But if you were a

business owner and Riley had been employed for two years with you and you found out that he was stealing thousands of dollars a month, thousands over the course of two years. And you came to realize that it had summed up to be 25, 30 grand on top of what he was getting paid. And you came to him,

exposed him, you told him you knew he had stolen on top of his annual salary $30,000 from your kids' mouths or your wife's mouth or your family, whatever. And he said, "Listen, I'm really sorry.

And I get one more month's worth of money and I'll pay you back. Would you go? Yeah, sure. Yeah. You've always been great to me. Yeah. Yeah. You You've Yeah. Would you pay him another month and him go, "You know what? Now I'm really going to work for it." No, I

would. You would fire him. You wouldn't give him another chance. You wouldn't give him the opportunity to step it up at that point. If you're bad in business, then make that decision. And you might let and there are businesses out there that will let you literally steal, cheat, show up late and just do

nothing and not fire you. I don't know why because they're run by bad business people. Yeah. People that might be creative but are really not in a position to lead. And what that ends up doing is that also creates a very toxic environment because the people that do work see the people that don't or the

people that are honest see the people that are stealing and still they're not fired. Why should they give a damn if you don't? I think is the question I think. If they haven't been doing their damn job for the last year or two years and they're phoning it in, what makes you think they're going to change? What

makes you think now they're going to step it up? Now, you could threaten them with, I'm pulling this money, and you might get a little more effort over the court, but it's going to revert right back. Yeah. And now you've wasted more time. And what that does, it's not just wasting the money that you're actually

paying them, but what opportunities are you missing out on? Yeah. because they're not doing their job to get your company out in these search results, you know, um, for these keywords. What are you losing? You could be losing the deal of your life that could have walked in that door. True. I mean, so like, what

opportunities have you lost? How much money more have they cost you? You all know. You don't know. But I do know and you probably know that if the phone ain't ringing then they it's them. Yeah.

Yeah. Very true. I mean not all them but I mean you got to think about it. Yeah. We are right now and I don't know if it's going to 100% go through now. Follow-up media our new website um which is 2.0 I know because we had one last year that should have launched in like March, but we ended up having to rebuild

it, start over, and it didn't go live until September. It needed SEO from the beginning. There was no SEO, no image optimization, and then the teams, the team took over and started handling it.

So actually we have had some of our first organic search results where someone had um googled um services that we provide full service production studio um agency marketing agency within 15 miles of this gentleman's house and this lead has turned into something so significant

that a proposal has been made we might have a 10 or $15,000 monthly retainer. for a very big company based off of that search result coming up within 15 miles of his house. I didn't reach out to him.

You didn't reach out to him? No, he came to me. Yeah. And he stood me up and the first time we were supposed to meet, I'm not going to let you live that down. If you hear this, I'm not going to call names. But no, I'm No, he's actually becoming a friend. Yeah. He's um and and a new client and an amazing client, but

a very valuable client. And who knows from that client what that might lead into just from a referral perspective. So it all matters. It all matters in the grand scheme of things. So just, you know, protect your money, protect your investment, make sure the people you are hiring, you know, even if you don't

understand it all, are doing their damn jobs. Riley, you want to close anything out? I mean, you hit nail on the head on that one. Okay. Damn straight. I did. Yes, you did. Thanks for listening.

Yeah.