Tag: 2020

The 5 Best Email Marketing Companies of 2020

Almost everyone uses email. 

But here’s the sweet part.

The people you’re trying to reach or retain already have active email addresses. Heck, most of them used or would use one to sign-up for your service or product.

If you can get into (and stay) in people’s inbox, you can make a ton of money. Data shows companies can generate $38 for every $1 email investment. 

Unfortunately, getting into an inbox is not a stroll in the park. 

Now that’s where the best email marketing companies come in. 

These companies will help you to strategize, collect relevant email addresses, create, and manage email marketing campaigns that drive business growth. 

How do I know this?

Our team at Neil Patel Digital vetted hundreds of email marketing companies based on their brand reputation, client portfolio, ratings, and their areas of expertise. 

The result? 

The very top email agencies you can trust. Not only would they get you into the inbox of your ideal customers, but these companies can keep you in there till you turn prospects into brand advocates. 

The 5 Top Email Marketing Companies in The World

  1. Neil Patel Digital – Best for email content
  2. Inbox Army – Best for full-service email management
  3. Fix My Churn – Best for SaaS onboarding email and churn
  4. Action Rocket – Best for custom HTML & CSS enterprise email
  5. SmartMail – Best for ecommerce email marketing

I’m confident the best email marketing companies listed above and reviewed below are reliable because of their proven track records. 

Hire any of them, according to your needs, and they’ll help you to turn email marketing into a growth channel for your business.

Without further ado, let’s explore each of these companies and see for yourself why we consider them the very best. 

#1 Neil Patel Digital – Best For Email Content

Email marketing is effective, no doubt. But it has its downside too. 

According to two different studies, between 0.19% and 0.52% of your email subscribers would unsubscribe per email you send.

Now, guess what was one of the top three reasons found Jilt, an email marketing software, responsible for why people unsubscribe from emails?

Bad content!

In other words, irrespective of how excellent your email marketing strategy is, writing killer emails that resonate with your prospects and keeps you in their inbox requires excellent content. 

And that’s where we, Neil Patel Digital, come in. It is also why clients, from startups to enterprise brands, love working with us.

Email is also an excellent channel for content distribution. 

However, he quality of content has to be amazing. If not, your unsubscribes will tank the ROI of your email campaigns. 

Again, this is one area we stand out from the crowd. 

At Neil Patel Digital, our email content service starts by producing engaging content your customers and prospects will love. 

Then, we use email marketing as one of the channels to promote it:  

You can check out Neil Patel Digital’s content services here. 

#2 InboxArmy – best for full-service email management

For in-house teams looking for rapid email marketing turn around, InboxArmy comes highly recommended. 

As a full-service email management company, InboxArmy offers a spectrum of services, including email templates’ design, custom coding, and 360-degree email marketing management:

This agency offers volume-based pricing for companies and white label services for fellow digital marketing agencies, which goes to prove their experience. 

And they serve clients from government agencies like Texas Health Resources, to companies such as LandCentral, Airbnb, Jockey, and several others. 

#3 Fix My Churn – best for SaaS onboarding email and churn

When it comes to email marketing, Software as a Service (SaaS) brands have special needs. 

First, when new trial users sign-up, they need excellent email onboarding sequences to convert them into happy, paying customers. 

And if an existing customer stops using your product or wants to churn, you can retain them with relevant churn email. 

Fix My Churn specializes in these two areas: 

Fix My Churn collaborates with tech companies with a monthly subscription business model. 

The company applies top-notch SaaS copywriting skills to craft relationship-based email sequences to keep customers happy.

#4 Action Rocket – best for custom HTML & CSS enterprise email

Action Rocket needs no introduction in the enterprise email marketing sector. 

This company even partners with the top email marketing software brands like MailChimp, Litmus, and Campaign Monitor to drive innovation in the email space. 

Action Rocket has years of experience strategizing and executing custom HTML and CSS email and CRM development programs for enterprise companies: 

Founded in 2011, the company works with a knit-team of experienced developers who are excellent at strategy, design, and coding of complex and customized email programs. 

And their clientele speaks for themselves,  including the BBC, Marks & Spencer, Global Radio, and many others.

#5 SmartMail – Best for eCommerce email marketing

SmartMail is the Done For You (DFY) email marketing company that comes highly recommended by ecommerce businesses. 

This company handles everything ecommerce email marketing for online stores. And excel most at launching campaigns based on automated triggers. 

Across the customer lifetime cycle, SmartMail is exceptional at strategizing and executing optimized email marketing campaigns for ecommerce businesses.

And they have a track record and excellent results to show. 

SmartMail has generated over $187 million in revenues for ecommerce brands via email, sent billions of emails, and serve over 87 businesses, including Skechers, French Connection, Cotton:On, and others.

5 Characteristics That Make a Great Email Marketing Company

What characteristics make an email marketing company great? 

They are as follows. 

1. Well-versed in content creation

Most companies get buried in strategizing and outlining plans for email marketing. 

What they wrongly relegate to the backseat? 

Content creation!

The quality of your email’s content goes a long way in determining how effective your email marketing campaigns would be. 

A fundamental characteristic of the top email marketing company is to focus on creating engaging content to power your email campaigns.

And a world-class email company will help you blent top-tier content with amazing promotions to also get the conversions that you need. Great companies blend the two seamlessly.

2. An Impressive Portfolio

An email marketing company that claims to be among the best must have something to back that claim up. 

One of such things is their client portfolio. 

Who have they implemented a series of email marketing campaigns for? Were those campaigns successful? 

Anyway, you don’t even need to ask a top email marketing company those questions, as you’ll find the answers in their clients’ portfolio. 

And looking out for this portfolio-displaying characteristic in top email marketing also does you good. 

It helps you to see who they have helped and to decide if they’ll be a good fit for your company.  

At Neil Patel Digital, we have a clients you may recognize.

3. Thought Leadership 

In its 40 years of existence, email marketing has evolved tremendously. 

What worked yesterday may not work today. And even if it does work, it may require a different approach.  

Due to the always-evolving nature of trends and modern strategies applicable to email marketing, top companies must keep pace with these changes to deliver the best work.

Thought-leadership is how the top email marketing brands keep such needed pace with the industry. 

And they do this by sharing new learnings, experiments, emerging strategies, and tactics publicly to retain brand reputation among other professionals. 

So, you should do some research and look out for this characteristic, as it is an excellent way to spot a top email marketing company.

4. Real Life Testimonials

Anyone can claim to be the best, but it is what others say about them shows their competence most.

In the business setting, you’ll find how past and existing clients feel and say of a company’s work in the testimonials they leave behind. 

The truth is executing a successful email campaign that drives growth for a company is hard. 

A notable characteristic of the top email marketing company is the real-life testimonials they receive from clients for their work publicly.

5. A Diversified Team of Experts

A lot of thought goes into a successful email marketing campaign. 

From strategy to the acquisition of email addresses, selection of email marketing software, email copywriting, and campaign management, they all require some different kind of expertise.

Established email marketing brands are never a one-person show. It is usually a team of experts, collaborating to drive results. 

And that’s one characteristic of top email marketing companies: Displaying the entire team that works to plan, execute, manage, and optimize email campaigns: 

What to Expect from a Great Email Marketing Company 

Ultimately, an exceptional email marketing company to help you turn email into a real business growth channel that: 

  • Nurture prospects into customers
  • Facilitates customer relationship management 
  • Turns email marketing into a reliable content medium. 

But to get to these benefits, there are steps to expect before you start working with one. Some of the most notable ones are what follows.  

1. A discovery session

As you saw in the review and categorization of the best email marketing companies based on their areas of expertise above, not all can serve all clients across all industries. 

To determine if they can solve your specific problems, excellent email marketing companies start by getting to fill an inquiry form. 

Filling this inquiry form allows you to share your challenges and business goals related to email marketing.

After filling this form, expect a discovery session where an expert would talk one-on-one with you to understand your needs better.

2. Research & strategy recommendations

A discovery call allows the company to gain more clarity and context about your business needs relevant to email. But, don’t expect them to propose a solution right off the bat. 

Top email marketing brands would typically use what you shared with them to delve into research. 

From there, they can make sense of how to tackle your challenges and identify the best possible strategies they can deploy to work with you.  

Expect to receive a summary of their research and recommendations via email or another call, which usually ends with deciding if you’re fit to work together.  

3. A contract with project deliverables

If everything goes well up to this point, and you like their recommendations, expect a contract that outlines what a top email marketing company would do, and what it’ll cost to work with you. 

This contract also outlines project timelines and deliverables, legal requirements to work together, and your expected investment.

4. Client onboarding

If the contract, project scope, deliverables, pricing, and others look good, exceptional email marketing companies would have a custom onboarding process to initiate the process of working with your company. 

This onboarding process will help you and the company to establish an understanding of how to manage your product, and any other thing necessary for a smooth working relationship.  

Start Email Marketing from Day One

Don’t make the mistake of starting email marketing later on.

Most businesses recognize the need for social media, SEO, content marketing, and others early on, but they leave emails to the backseat because it is not trending. 

Well, you shouldn’t. 

A few reasons to take start email marketing from day one are: 

Marketers who used email marketing to segment their audience said they saw a 760% increase in revenue. 

That’s unreal.

Whether you do email yourself and get help from one of the top email companies, get started today.

The post The 5 Best Email Marketing Companies of 2020 appeared first on Neil Patel.

The 5 Best Link Building Companies of 2020

What are backlinks to search engine optimization?  Short version: They’re signals Google uses to determine if your website is a reputable resource worthy of citation.  The long and sweet version? The more quality backlinks pointing to your website, the higher your chances of ranking for profitable keywords and competitive search queries that drive sales.  You’ll …

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The 5 Best Link Building Companies of 2020

What are backlinks to search engine optimization? 

Short version: They’re signals Google uses to determine if your website is a reputable resource worthy of citation. 

The long and sweet version?

The more quality backlinks pointing to your website, the higher your chances of ranking for profitable keywords and competitive search queries that drive sales. 

You’ll generate more targeted traffic, leads, and customers. 

TThe SEO research tool, SEMrush, revealed backlinks account for as much as five SEO top 10 ranking factors: 

Due to how essential links are to rankings and traffic, you’ll find a host of companies promising to help you generate backlinks at the click of a button. 

If only it were that easy!

Acquiring top-quality backlinks isn’t a stroll in the park. 

Our team at Neil Patel Digital reviewed and listed the top companies for building links.

The 5 Top Link-Building Companies in the World

  1. Neil Patel Digital – Best for Linkable Content Marketing
  2. FATJOE – Best for Blogger Outreach
  3. Page One Power – Best for Strategic Links
  4. The HOTH – Best for Guest Posting
  5. RhinoRank – Best for Curated Link Building

1. Neil Patel Digital – Best For Linkable Content Marketing

The creation and distribution of linkable assets is the most reliable way to get people linking back to your website. 

Called editorial links, Google and other search engines prioritize such links. 

The reason for this? 

They’re natural, and indeed a vote of confidence other sites show for the content resources on your own website. 

Another name for this type of link-building strategy is linkable content marketing. 

And Neil Patel Digital excels at this. 

I’ve amassed millions of  backlinks to this blog: 

That’s over 3 million backlinks. 

And they came from organic keywords (over 1.7 million), generating more than 3.4 million monthly organic traffic in the process. 

The Neil Patel Digital experience spans over five decades to help you get similar results. 

And we leveraged this experience and vast expertise to develop a holistic, battle-tested content marketing program that helps our customers generate high-quality backlinks. 

It starts with auditing, optimizing, and creating new, high-quality content people would love to link to. 

Then, promotion, so even influencers can find and reference them.

This proven program powers us to create and distribute content marketing assets that get high-quality backlinks, higher rankings, and qualified traffic. 

In short, this is why our customers, from startup to grow-stage and enterprise companies, love working with Neil Patel Digital.

2. FATJOE – Best for Blogger Outreach

You may have linkable content resources on your site. What if other websites or bloggers don’t know those assets exist? No one would link to them, right?

Yup, that’s a problem.

To make people, especially bloggers, aware of your content, you need what SEOs call blogger outreach. 

And this is what FATJOE excels at doing. They’re a reliable blogger outreach service even other agencies rely on for generating backlinks: 

The experienced SEO expert, Joe Taylor, founded FATJOE. And they’ve been in business since 2012, helping over 5,000 clients worldwide get backlink placements via blogger outreach. 

About 97% of those 5k plus customers rate FATJOE a 4.5/5.

However, FATJOE is best for acquiring links from websites with domain authority between DA10 and DA50. And prices per link placement range from $45 to $465.

3. Page One Power – Best for Strategic Links

Getting backlinks from higher domain websites (DA60+) needs a combination of linkable assets, outreach, and high-level strategy. 

Page One Power, although more expensive and not a productized service like FATJOE, excels at this. 

Yearly, this company is behind the acquisition of more than 15,000 strategic backlinks on average to its clients from higher domain websites. 

And Page One Power achieves this, leveraging its 10 years of experience and 982 active partners: 

If you have the budget that starts at $550 per link, with more for a monthly retainer, you should turn to Page One Power for their consistent, strategic link-building expertise. 

And can you make this turn, knowing other businesses, such as QuickBooks, Healthline, BOTTSTICH, and several others, trust Page One Power’s strategic link acquisition services, too.

4. The HOTH – Best for Guest Posting 

What if you’ve done everything possible, yet people still won’t link to your site?

The HOTH, a company successful for its guest posting services, can help, and they come highly recommended:

The HOTH’s guest post, backlinking service covers everything from manual outreach, securing guest post slots, and creating the guest content piece with links to your site. 

Their industry experience and expertise have seen them work with or get mentioned on reputable websites such as Forbes, Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies, Salesforce’s Dreamforce, and others.

The HOTH is a productized link-building service like FATJOE, allows you to purchase guest posts and backlinks with a few clicks.  

With this company, you can get backlinks from websites with domain authority ranging from DA10-DA50. And prices are between $100-$500, depending on the quality of website you want links from.

5. RhinoRank – Best for Curated Link-building

Sometimes, other websites already have published content pieces with info relevant to assets on your own site. 

In such a case, reach out to the webmasters of those sites and ask for a link, otherwise called curated link-building. 

Based on our review, RhinoRank is the go-to company for this type of link acquisition tactic. They do all the hard labor, reaching out to several webmasters to secure backlinks for its clients in existing content on those webmasters’ domains:

Not only will RhinoRank reach out to webmasters, they’ll take it a step further by ensuring those links are weaved naturally with the right anchor text.  

RhinoRank serves over 200 companies and SEO agencies globally. 

The price of each curated link generated for customers by RhinoRank starts from $35.

5 Characteristics that Make a Great Link-Building Company 

For each link-building strategy and company recommended above, you’ll find hundreds, if not thousands, of others promising the same things. 

So, what characteristics make a great link-building company if you wanted to find an ideal company to work with and do your own due diligence?

Let’s look at the most significant ones. 

1. A Holistic SEO Implementation Process that Includes Link-Building

Link-building is a crucial part of SEO, but it is not a silver bullet. On its own, it won’t drive traffic and help you generate leads. 

You can amass links, but if the search engines don’t trust those links or the content being linked to, those efforts amount to nothing. 

Thus, an essential characteristic of great link-building companies is to have a holistic SEO program with all the bolts and nuts, including content creation, promotion, and link acquisition.

2. An Impressive Client Portfolio

An excellent way to judge the processes and expertise of a company is via its client portfolio.

Thus, as other companies with hands-on experience would do, the top link-building companies have the characteristic of displaying their ability to generate backlinks by showing off a portfolio of clients they’ve helped to get backlinks.

3. Thought leadership

The best link-building companies aren’t just great at acquiring backlinks. 

They also have the characteristic of sharing all their learnings on their way to helping themselves and other companies generate high-quality backlinks. 

You want a team that knows the best strategies and tactics that work today.

For example, if you Google “link-building Neil Patel,” you’ll find my in-depth guides. 

4. Real Life Testimonials

A good criterion for determining if a link-building company is among the very best is to look at their customer testimonials. 

Thus, a characteristic you’ll find with the top link-building companies in the world are real-life testimonials, highlighting what customers say about working with them.

5. A Diversified Team

One person can write a guest post and send you a few links. But you’ll need a diversified team of experts to execute more strategic and extensive link-building campaigns. 

As we’ve shown you, the best link-building companies excel at planning and executing these bigger, more effective link acquisition strategies. 

And to do that, they usually work with a team of diversified experts, which you can look up to as one of their characteristics: 

What to Expect from a Great Link-Building Company 

If you take on the services of a link-building company, you judge them by their ability to get you links. It’s that simple. 

However, there’s a wide gap between contacting a company and getting those juicy links. 

So, what should you expect if you decide to work with any of the link-building companies reviewed above?

1. A discovery session

Your business needs are different from those of others, and so would your link-building needs. Thus, the link acquisition strategies that worked for one site won’t work for yours automatically.

The best link-building companies have experience generating links for different organizations. Thus, they don’t jump straight into sending you proposals.

Instead, they start the process of helping to customize a strategy for your business by allowing you to share your exact business needs over  a discovery session.

2. Research & strategic recommendations

Once you’ve booked and discussed your business needs with a link-building company, the best ones take what you tell them and leverage their experience to conduct in-depth research. 

After this research, you should receive a host of strategic link-building recommendations most suited to your business. Most companies would share this with you via email or over another discovery call.

3. A contract with project deliverables

Once everyone decides that the project is a good fit, it’s time to get a contract in place.

Deliverables, deadlines, resources required, and budget should all clearly be outlined in detail.

4. Client onboarding

The next thing to expect from a top link-building is an onboarding process. It sets the stage for working with you to achieve your link acquisition and related business goals. 

Depending on your work scope, you’ll need to bring on your in-house staff and share your website, blog, analytics, etc. with the company. 

This onboarding process also establishes an understanding of how the company would manage your project. 

Link-Building Isn’t a One-Time Activity

Unfortunately, link building isn’t a one-off project. I wish it was.

But links decay, pages decay, and Google’s always looking for freshness.

You’ll need ongoing links to keep your site at the top of the rankings.

This is the main reason why companies try to get help. It’s exhausting trying to do it yourself all the time.

However you decide to do it, treat link-building as an ongoing, long-term activity that’s a core part of your  SEO strategy.

Doing this is how you’ll get maximum results.

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The 5 Best Amazon Marketing Companies of 2020

Amazon continues to dominate as the world’s largest e-commerce site. 

They already have an existing pool of active users and billions in revenue to plug your store into and start making sales. 

But as you’ll expect, millions of other store owners are also fighting for a piece of Amazon’s customers. 

So, with over 2.5 million sellers and more than 353 million different products to contend with, how do you rise above the noise and get your store found?

You need excellent marketing strategies unique to Amazon’s marketplace.  

And that’s where the top Amazon marketing companies come in. 

From setting up your store properly, optimizing the content of your product descriptions for target keywords to PPC, email marketing and others, you’ll need it all. What Amazon marketing companies can you trust? 

You’ll find the answer to that question and more in this guide. 

The 5 Top Amazon Marketing Companies in The World 

  1. Neil Patel Digital – Best for Store & Product Content Marketing
  2. Thrive Agency – Best for Amazon PPC
  3. Vertical Rail  – Best for Amazon Account Management
  4. Voice SEO – Best for Amazon Echo and Voice Search Optimization 
  5. Voy Media – Best for Amazon Social Media Marketing

No doubt, there are hundreds, if not thousands of Amazon marketing companies. A quick search on Google, and you’ll come back more confused than when you started your search. 

And online, you’ll find dozens of domains, listing digital marketing companies and consultants on their ranks of top Amazon marketing agencies. 

The only problem? 

Most of these ranked agencies offer the same services or only have Amazon marketing as one of their numerous services. 

Marketing that generates sales on Amazon is highly competitive. Hence, it’s best to avoid marketing generalists who do everything under the sun for a buck when marketing on Amazon. 

My recommendation?

Work with a marketing company with deep expertise in Amazon, and they’ll help you to grow your store on the Amazon platform. 

To make it easier for you, my team took the time to review and rank the top Amazon marketing companies based on what they are exceptional for, as you’ll find below. 

#1 Neil Patel Digital — Best for Store and Products’ Content Marketing 

About 23% of global shoppers said they first visit Amazon when they lack shopping inspiration. And for general online shoppers, 89% of them said they preferred Amazon to other e-commerce sites. 

Do you know what this means? 

It means that if your store and products are excellently optimized for the internet and Amazon’s search engines, they’ll find you when they make this research. 

No doubt, a lot goes into the mix of getting your store and products to rank highly on the web and Amazon. But, content is still the king of the web, and that includes on Amazon. 

With exceptional, SEO-driven content marketing, you can steer clear of the competition and help shoppers to find your store and products when they jump online to shop. 

Content can make your store and products discoverable to drive targeted traffic. It can also help to engage prospects until they hit your checkout button on Amazon. 

Neil Patel Digital’s specialty and core thinking is developing content marketing strategies that are both discoverable and engaging:

And don’t take my word for it. 

Companies around the world, including those who sell on Amazon, turn to Neil Patel Digital and love us for our expertise in using content to drive sales.

We regularly do audience and keyword research, store optimization, and product descriptions that align with search queries on Amazon.

And at Neil Patel Digital, we have a battle-tested SEO program to drive effective and engaging content marketing campaigns for Amazon sellers.

Finally, Neil Patel Digital is one of the few marketing companies with positive ratings on countless independent review sites: 

#2 Thrive Agency — Best for Amazon PPC

Only 3% of online shoppers who search for goods and services on Amazon go on to shop elsewhere. 

That is, when shoppers start on Amazon, they end up buying from a seller on Amazon. 

But when these buyers search things on Amazon, 70% of them don’t go past the first page and a whopping 64% click on the 1st three results. 

In other words, if you sell a competitive product, not only must your store be on Amazon’s top search results’ page to get found, you must also make the very top spots. 

For this, you need to invest in Amazon PPC. 

And the company that comes highly recommended is Thrive Agency: 

Thrive Agency has been helping Amazon sellers drive sales via PPC management since its existence in 2005 and have grown into a household name with offices in 25 locations in the US. 

This company has over 150 five-star reviews across Google, Facebook, and Clutch. 

Thrive Agency’s work and expertise in Amazon PPC is among the services that has earned them numerous awards from reputable domains, and they equally have Amazon-specific case studies.

#3 Vertical Rail — Best for Amazon Account Management

How you manage your Amazon account goes a long way in determining how much sales your store can generate on the platform in the long-term. 

And a lot go into the equation of managing an Amazon store to transform it into a thriving business.

For example, account health, shipping performance, product deactivation, intellectual property violations, and several others all have an impact on how you market your store and products on Amazon. 

Hence, to ensure 100% compliance, most sellers turn to seasoned Amazon account management services. 

And one company you can trust in this area is Vertical Rail: 

Vertical Rail also consults for sellers that prefer to keep the management of their Amazon accounts in-house. 

For this, they provide consulting services such as Amazon store setup, product listings, Buy Box strategy, ongoing staff training, and others to help you market your store on Amazon more effectively. 

They have numerous Amazon-specific case studies to show their for their work: 

#4 Voice SEO – Best for Amazon Echo and Voice Search Optimization 

Worldwide, the use of voice-enabled technology for shopping is growing rapidly. 

In the US, for example, over 111 million people used voice-assisted devices in 2019. 

And one of the most-used devices is the Amazon Echo. 

In short, over 65% of brands project voice ordering would play a critical role in future marketing and sales strategies. Also, two-thirds of consumers with a voice-enabled device said they consider using their voice devices to place orders. 

What do these trends show? 

If you properly optimize your Amazon store and product listings for Amazon Echo and voice search generally, you’ll boost your marketing efforts. 

And one company focused on helping Amazon sellers on this front is Voice SEO:

Voice SEO offers a full-fledged voice and Alexa search optimization services, including coverage for Apple’s Siri and the Google Assistant. 

TopSEOs, a reputable ranking domain, ranks Voice SEO as the number one marketing company for voice search optimization. 

Voice SEO is a California-based marketing company with a transparent pricing model, which starts at $3,000 monthly. 

And this company has earned relevant awards and accreditations to show for their commitment to excellence

#5 Voy Media – Best for Amazon Social Media Marketing

With this amount of addiction to social media, it’s safe to assume that when people aren’t shopping for new items on Amazon, you could find them on one social media platform. 

If you do a great marketing job on a social platform your target audience frequents, you can engage and drive them to your Amazon store and product listings. 

Most successful Amazon sellers leverage social media to drive growth. 

And one marketing company exceptional at helping Amazon sellers take advantage of social media to drive sales is Voy Media:

Not only is Voy Media a top Facebook marketing company for e-commerce brands and Amazon sellers, but their Amazon marketing services extends to Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and others. 

Voy Media combines strategy and high-level creative deployments to help Amazon sellers drive sales via social media. 

And they have dozens of impressive case studies in their portfolio.

5 Characteristics That Make a Great Amazon Marketing Company

No Amazon marketing company becomes great overnight. Even in rare exceptions where one does, there are characteristics that show they know their onions. 

Let’s explore some of such characteristics below. 

1. They Know the Amazon Platform In-side Out

Most marketing companies will claim their generic digital marketing services apply to the Amazon ecosystem automatically. 

That’s not 100% correct. 

Marketing on Amazon has its best practices, dos and don’ts. Hence, a characteristic of exceptional Amazon marketing companies is a practical, in-side out knowledge of the platform. 

To can check for this trait, see if the company has guides or training resources, teaching how to increase sales on Amazon: 

2. A process for implementing their core service 

This characteristic of the best Amazon marketing agencies has two dimensions. 

First, it’s a reminder that the top agencies have a core Amazon marketing service. And that they have developed tested programs for implementing this service. 

3. A diverse team of experts 

Successful Amazon store and products’ marketing campaigns start from proper store setup, optimization and products listings to descriptions development of brand-specific creatives, and others. 

It also depends on knowing what PPC keywords to bid on and how to optimize your pricing strategy to outrank competitors with positive ROI to show. 

All the above hardly works with a one-man team. 

Hence, a characteristic you’ll find with exceptional Amazon marketing companies is a team of diverse experts: 

4. Impressive clients’ portfolio

Scrolling the website of any marketing company is something we do on default before we even consider talking to them. 

And I highly recommend this, as that’s an excellent way to see who they have produced results for. 

But when it comes to Amazon marketing companies, you can confirm if they belong in the top league by checking if they have an impressive clients’ portfolio:  

5. Real customer testimonials

Next to an impressive portfolio of clients, real testimonials by past and existing customers is a characteristic of exceptional Amazon marketing companies. 

You should look out for this, as it gives you a sense of what customers they’ve served think of their services.

What To Expect From a Great Amazon Marketing Company 

Top Amazon marketing companies exist first to help sellers score positive ROI on the platform. 

As I’ve shown you so far, the seller competition is sky-high on Amazon. And with more adoption of the platform by consumers and sellers alike, there’s no sign of this slowing down soon. 

With a top Amazon marketing company, you can navigate this growing competition, reach customers when it matters, and grow a profitable business on the e-commerce site.  

To partner with one, some steps you’ll likely follow are: 

1. Filling an inquiry form

Filling an inquiry form is the first step to partnering with a top Amazon marketing company. 

As I said earlier, exceptional Amazon marketing brands are there to help you drive more sales. But to help your store generate more sales on Amazon, you’ll need to share your unique challenges and needs via the inquiry or contact form on their site.

2. A discovery session

An inquiry form usually only scratches the surface on your needs or how a marketing company can help you. 

Expect an experienced Amazon marketing company to invite you to a discovery session where you’ll share more insights into your needs and challenges over a one-on-one call with an expert.  

3. Strategic recommendations

A discovery session allows an expert at a top Amazon marketing company to get a more insightful grasp of your challenges and needs. 

After this call, most will assign tasks to relevant members on their team to perform in-depth research, using what you shared with them. 

Strategic recommendations customized to your needs, as it concerns driving more sales on Amazon with marketing is usually the outcome of conducting in-depth research based on what you’ve shared with a top Amazon marketing company up to this point. 

So expect this.

4. A Proposal and contract 

Top Amazon marketing companies usually hop on a call to discuss and clarify findings from their research and strategic recommendations. 

In some cases, you’ll receive this as a document via email.

And if conversations with you and a top Amazon marketing is positive up to this point, expect to receive a proposal and contract to work together.

Conclusion: Is Partnering with a Top Amazon Marketing Company Worth it?

Yes. 

Amazon’s growth is steadily on the rise. 

Not only is Amazon the world’s largest e-commerce marketplace for sellers with but it is miles ahead of its closest rival, Walmart. 

Millions of sellers are flocking to Amazon for a bite of the billions the platform generates. And this scenario explains why selling on Amazon is so competitive. 

For instance, only 200,000 (about 0.08%) on Amazon manage to cross the $100,000 revenue mark. 

To give yourself a chance of succeeding on Amazon, partnering with a top Amazon marketing company is a no-brainer, as there’s more that meets the eye in driving sales on Amazon. 

And you won’t go wrong, choosing from any of the top five companies I profiled above. Or, start by going through this detailed marketing training I created for Amazon sellers.

The post The 5 Best Amazon Marketing Companies of 2020 appeared first on Neil Patel.

The 5 Best Reputation Management Companies of 2020

Researchers at Womply analyzed 200,000 small businesses in every state, looking at a few dozen industries. 

They found that businesses with more than 82 total reviews earn 54 percent more money. It isn’t just about getting reviews either. Businesses achieved moderate to large jumps in revenue from the simplest tasks. Claim your profile on at least four review sites? You earn 58 percent more revenue. Businesses that reply to their reviews 25 percent of the time earn 35 percent more revenue. 

Here’s the problem many businesses run into. 

They don’t know what they’re doing. Most know how to ask customers for reviews, but they’re unsure how to handle the other important parts of reputation management. 

This is why it’s important to get help. 

If you have the right reputation management company, you’ll have the help you need to improve your company’s online reputation.

The 5 Top Reputation Management Companies in The World

Here’s a shortlist of some of the best reputation management companies in the world. You can use review sites like Clutch.co, HubSpot Agency Directory, or Sortlist if you’re looking for something more specific in the reputation management industry. 

1. NP Digital – Best for Local SEO and Reputation Management

NP Digital is my agency. If you’re familiar with my work, you know that I have a strong background in search engine optimization and digital marketing. I built an agency called Pronet Advertising more than 17 years ago, while I was still in high school. 

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been a marketer for more than 20 years! That’s given me a lot of time to learn how reputation management integrates with local search, content marketing, social media marketing, and advertising. I took all of the lessons I’ve learned from the companies I built — Kissmetrics, Crazy Egg,  Pronet, Quicksprout, NeilPatel.com, and now NP Digital.

My agency is a little bit different from other agencies. 

NP Digital ties all of our work back to revenue. It’s no different with our reputation management campaigns. If you’re going to put a dollar into your campaign, you want two dollars back, right? My agency focuses on driving real business results, so your company continues to grow; our work has to make money for your business. 

NP Digital’s client list includes:

  • Facebook
  • Viacom
  • Google
  • GM
  • eBay
  • NBC
  • Thomson Reuters foundation
  • TechCrunch
  • Cheezburger
  • American Greetings

2. Reputation X – Best for Reputation Recovery

Reputation X offers proactive and reactive services, but they lean more towards the reactionary side of reputation management. 

Proactive reputation management options include — content development (articles, reviews, news, blog posts, ratings, etc.). Reactive reputation management options include takedown services, including  — SERP removal, search result suppression, DMCA removals, reputation protection, and content suppression. 

Reputation X has more than 15 years of experience in the industry. What’s significant about their service is the fact that they’re comfortable working with organizations and individuals. 

“Confidential clients include Heads of State, Politicians, SMBs, Celebrities, Public Relations Agencies (white label), and just regular folks.”

 According to their website and marketing materials, they avoid pre-made campaign templates, which are common in the industry. They build each campaign from scratch, which makes sense when you realize that their service starts at $10,000. As expensive as their services are, they’re not for everyone. 

“The Reputation X client acceptance process is unique. Prospective new clients must be approved not only by management but by team members as well. That means many never become clients. In addition, prospective customers whose reputation management problems seem too tough to overcome are always informed of the fact. Alternatives are clearly explained, even if they never become a client.”

They’re pretty picky about the clients they choose and the work they accept.

Reputation X’s confidential client list includes:

  •  Law firms 
  • Healthcare organizations
  • Fortune 500 executives
  • Manufacturing firms
  • Public Relations companies

3. Thrive – Best for Small Business Review Management

Thrive is a full-service agency that offers reputation management and reputation repair services. Thrive offers reputation management and repair services on their website; take a closer look at their website, and you’ll find that they’re really focused on the online review side of things. 

If you’re looking for a reputation management firm with the legal and takedown chops to protect your business Thrive isn’t the reputation management company for you. If you’re looking for an agency that can generate a huge amount of reviews, Thrive may be a good fit. If you’re looking for an agency that’s oriented around small businesses, winning new customers over or burying negative press Thrive is a great place to start. 

Thrive offers most of the services a full-service agency provides. If you’re looking for a Jack of all trades, their agency has experience in several areas; this works especially well for inexperienced small business clients who need help with multiple services. 

Thrive Agency’s client list includes:

  • Nationwide Construction
  • Ready Seal
  • Bonds Ellis Eppich Shaffer Jones
  • Max Mechanical
  • Quick Roofing

4. Reputation Rhino – Best for Individuals

Reputation Rhino specializes in online reputation management; they serve small- and midsize businesses and individuals. Since then, they’ve expanded to create a range of brand management and internet marketing services that they offer to companies and individuals. 

All of the services they now offer — SEO, PPC, Social media, Web development — they’re all geared around their reputation management services. 

It’s not as common, but Reputation Rhino offers clients a money-back guarantee.

They offer reputation management and repair services; One thing that’s surprising about their business is the fact that they’re able to remove negative reviews from online review sites like Glassdoor, Ripoff Report, Google Images, and more. 

Their agency is small but so is the price; campaign pricing starts at $1,000. 

Reputation Rhino’s client list includes:

  • Colleges
  • Reputation management companies 
  • Law firms
  • Local businesses 
  • Retail storefronts
  • Tech companies

5. Reputation Defense Network – Best for Reputation Management Specialist

The Reputation Defense Network specializes in one thing: Content removal. They focus their attention on deleting negative or malicious content, protecting client brand reputation, and identifying anonymous hackers, defamers, and attackers. They also include proactive reputation management services, but their focus is geared around takedowns. 

Here’s how they describe their service: 

“Reputation Defense Network is one of the fastest-growing Internet Content Removal companies in the US. We are the only company to offer guarantees on all of our work. We are not an SEO or marketing firm disguised as a reputation management company.  Our focus is your reputation, nothing else.”

They use their 27-point removal audit to remove negative content permanently. They focus first on removal, then suppression. One thing that makes their value proposition unique is the fact that they offer cyber investigation services. 

If you’re looking for a reputation management company with a significant amount of firepower and legal muscle, the Reputation Defense Network is a good fit. Their services are perfect for high-stakes reputation management — the kind that includes blackmail, fraud, defamation, etc. 

They provide performance guarantees on all of their work: “you don’t pay until we provide you with a favorable result.”

That’s $0 upfront, 100 percent (permanent) content removal with an average turnaround time of 72 hours. If you’re in a competitive industry and you’re dealing with confidential, high-stakes information, this agency is a good fit. The majority of their clients are growing, mid-market firms in the $10M to $1B range. 

They serve clients in the following industries: 

  • Business services
  • Healthcare and medical
  • Education

4 Characteristics That Make a Great Reputation Management Company

When you’re vetting an agency, you’ll want to find a company that displays the right characteristics. The last thing you want is to choose a reputation management company that makes your reputation worse. When you’re searching for the right agency, here are some attributes to keep in mind. 

1. Their agency approach is proactive and reactive 

The industry has matured quite a bit since reputation management of the 90s. Back then, agencies were focused on simply burying negative content. That’s still doable, but it’s much easier to guide the conversation from the start. 

Asking customers to share their feedback via online reviews. Creating, claiming, and optimizing your review profiles; responding to customer feedback, these are all proactive  methods you can use to improve your reputation. Deleting or burying toxic, inaccurate, or misleading content, sending out legal takedown notices, and working with law enforcement are reactive strategies. 

You need both, but these strategies don’t provide a complete picture of online reputation management campaigns on their own.

2. They focus on building relationships

Old-school campaigns are focused primarily on silencing critics, enemies, and opponents. New-school agencies still have those skills if they need them, but they choose to focus their attention on building relationships with customers. 

  • Helping you take care of your customers
  • Requesting reviews from customers 
  • Building reviews up on the right platforms
  • Generating publicity and increasing visibility
  • Responding to unfair attacks
  • If you’ve made a mistake, they’ll help you earn a fresh start

You need an agency that understands both sides of reputation management. 

3. They realize reputation management is ongoing

This doesn’t mean that your agency is trying to lock you into an unnecessary contract. Customers feel reviews older than three months are irrelevant. Agencies realize customers want to see consistent proof that you’re still performing well. 

Reputation and reviews, they decay over time. 

Your agency should provide you with an ongoing service that’s optional; they should provide you with the people, processes, and tools you need to manage your reputation well. They should have a team in place to manage outreach with customers, publications, and press. 

4. They’re local search experts

Your reputation management agency should have experience in running and managing local search campaigns.

You want this because local searches are growing 50 percent faster than mobile search. As far as Google is concerned, online reviews are part of the local ranking factors that determine your rank and performance. 

When it comes to local search, your reputation management company should have expert-level knowledge. They should know how to increase search engine and social media visibility. The easier it is for them to integrate local search, the better your reputation management campaigns will perform. 

What To Expect From a Great Reputation Management Company

Here’s a shortlist of the things you should expect from your agency. 

  1. They’ll show you the plan ahead of time: Your agency will provide you with an A to Z plan, outlining the macro and micro level components of your campaign. You should know exactly what you’re getting into — what your campaign costs, what their goals are, how long it will take to reach those goals and the reports they’ll provide. 
  2. Openness and complete transparency: Your agency should answer all of your questions and concerns; this isn’t optional or negotiable. Your agency isn’t writing copy or designing a website. They’re working with your reputation, so the impact on your business is huge. You need to know exactly what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. 
  3. Consistent communication: Your agency should provide you with constant communication, feedback, and reporting. You’ll need to provide them with the decision-makers and influencers who need to be part of the conversation. 

You should see evidence of this before you sign on the dotted line. If agencies hide behind proprietary software or secret processes, you’ll want to walk away. 

Conclusion

Reputation management is easier when you have the right company behind you. Many businesses don’t know what they’re doing. Most know how to ask customers for reviews, but they’re unsure how to handle the important aspects of reputation management. 

If you feel the same way, it may be a good idea to get help. 

Businesses that handle reputation management will see consistently large jumps in revenue. Completing simple tasks — claiming your review management profiles, responding to customers online, and requesting reviews — good reputation management leads to more revenue. 

Use our guide to find the reputation management companies that are right for your business. Set your values, expectations, and needs ahead of time, and you’ll find choosing the right company is easy. 

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The 5 Best Reputation Management Companies of 2020

Researchers at Womply analyzed 200,000 small businesses in every state, looking at a few dozen industries.  They found that businesses with more than 82 total reviews earn 54 percent more money. It isn’t just about getting reviews either. Businesses achieved moderate to large jumps in revenue from the simplest tasks. Claim your profile on at …

The post The 5 Best Reputation Management Companies of 2020 first appeared on Online Web Store Site.

The 3 Best Analytics Companies of 2020

You likely already know how important creativity is when it comes to digital marketing.

However, coming up with great ideas – be that through content or ads – is only part of the story when it comes to driving results online. 

Another significant factor that will amplify your marketing efforts is the collection and leveraging of data.

In other words, to truly succeed with your digital marketing campaigns, you must utilize the best of the machine and human worlds. 

But perhaps you’re not a data kind of person, which is where hiring an analytics company comes into play – an option you may already be considering. 

Before you make this important decision, equip yourself with the information we’ve outlined in this article so that you can make the best choice for your needs. 

The 6 Characteristics That Make a Great Analytics Company 

When choosing the right analytics company to work with, there are certain characteristics you need to take into consideration. 

Not all agencies are built the same. It is safe to assume that most companies put their best foot forward for their clients, but there will always be variance in terms of what results you will get from each one. 

Consider the following factors.

They offer a full suite of marketing services 

You may already have your marketing strategy under control and may only need help to understand and leverage your data. 

But how can a company help you leverage your data if they have no experience in what the data should be used for? 

The point of data and analytics is to improve your decision making and inform your strategy. So, if you’re working with an agency to help you do so, they need to have some actual marketing chops. 

Make sure that the agency you want to work with offers other services besides analytics. This is a good indicator that the insights they produce from your data will actually mean something. 

They have a strong technology stack

It goes without saying, but if a company is promising to help you leverage data (technology), they will likely have the technology to do so. 

At the very minimum, your analytics partner should have their own proprietary platform that will be used as the central point for your data. 

But in the best case, the partners will leverage more advanced technologies, such as machine learning, that can help make better sense of the vast amount of data that you will have.

You will find that the best insights from your data come after the raw data is analyzed by a machine, and then made sense of by a human. 

The quality of that initial analysis, however, will depend on the quality of the technology that your agency partner has built. 

They have an all-star team 

Making sense of your marketing data is no easy task. It requires breadth and depth of skills as well as experience, all working together in a harmonious way. 

Make sure you check out the team on the about page and on LinkedIn, taking into consideration these factors:

  • Skills diversity – Making sense of data requires a symbiosis between the human and machine side of business. A good agency will have social scientists (or marketing experts), data scientists, and statisticians. 
  • Years of experience – How long has the team been operating? What are their backgrounds? The more industries and businesses they’ve seen, the higher the chance their insights will be valuable. 
  • Founders – The founders set the tone for the culture of the company. Try to find information on the background of the founder to get a better understanding of how they conduct their operations.

They have a strong roster of clients

One of the most objective ways to evaluate a company is to take a look at the clients they’ve worked with – and, most importantly, what results they’ve gotten for them.

Keep these things in mind:

  • Similar clients – If an agency mostly works with Fortune 100 clients and you’re a small startup, they probably won’t be a good fit. They likely will have their processes and expertise optimized for analyzing data at scale. 
  • Transparent results – Can the analytics agency demonstrate the results they’ve gotten in the past? 
  •  Experience with your channels – It’s no use to you if the analytics company you want to work with specializes in advertising analytics and you have a content-focused strategy. Check to see if they have demonstratable results and insights into your specific channels. 

They have a great communication style

If you’re a marketing leader or business owner, chances are you aren’t well trained in understanding and interpreting data. 

In this case, the analytics company you work with has to be able to make sense of your data and also deliver it in a way that you can actually use. 

To get an idea of this, take a look at how the company communicates with its audiences.

  • Blog posts – Is the agency creating content and educating their customers? Do they do so in a clear and simple, yet value-driven way?
  • Visualizations – Does the agency value data visualizations? Do they have any examples of how they visualize data in a user-friendly way?

They take a holistic approach to analytics

It is likely your business has a lot of data to work with. Oftentimes, insights come from unlikely places, such as comparisons between seemingly unrelated data sets. 

To get the most out of your data, your analytics agency will need to map out and architect your entire data ecosystem.

They will need to consider aspects of your business such as:

  • Customer profiles – Your customers will have data points in common, such as demographic information, which can then be used to inform PPC targeting, for instance. 
  • Marketing channels – Each marketing channel has its own set of data to be analyzed. Social media, for instance, has metrics such as engagement and likes, whereas email marketing focuses more on open rates and click-throughs. 
  • Website analytics – Your website will have metrics that can inform on everything from design to marketing. Data points such as website dwell time, page conversions, and heat map analytics come into play here. 

What To Expect From a Great Analytics Company

Each analytics company has their own unique process when working with clients.

The best analytics companies, however, will ensure their process is tailored to your specific needs.

They will also go to great lengths to ensure that you are kept in the loop as much as possible.  

Here’s what you can expect when working with a great analytics company. 

Onboarding and integration

At the beginning of your working relationship, your analytics partner should guide you through an onboarding process. 

Great onboarding sets the stage for future success, as it creates a solid foundation for your working relationship. 

  • Manage expectations – Both you and your analytics partner should clearly outline the roles and responsibilities of your relationship at the offset. Make sure you flesh out all the details, such as communication hours.
  • Integrations and set up – Depending on your marketing channels, there may be different assets your analytics partner may need to access, such as your Facebook Pixel. You will also need to be onboarded to their analytics platform.
  • Goal setting – If you haven’t already, you should have a strategy call with your partner and decide on a strategy and timeline for results. 

Auditing of processes and assets 

Before you start moving forward, the first thing your analytics partner should do is conduct an audit of your existing processes and data assets. 

Depending on your company stage, it is likely that you already have existing data that could serve as a starting point. 

  • Existing data across all channels – Your analytics agency partner will consolidate all of your data across all channels, bringing them into a single platform. 
  • Setting up tracking – In some instances, you may not have been tracking certain things. For instance, if you did not have Google Analytics installed on your site, your partner will help you set this up.
  • Problem solving – You may have attempted to leverage data and analytics before with limited effect. This could have occurred through your own means or another partner. A complete analysis of your previous attempts would need to be conducted to figure out what went wrong and how to get better results in the future.

Setting up marketing channels 

The best analytics company will be able to offer you additional marketing services such as PPC, content and SEO. 

The reason for this is simple: to better understand how to interpret the data and inform your strategy, your agency needs to have actual experience executing a marketing strategy. 

Elements of your marketing strategy that your analytics partner should help on include:

  • PPC – Performance advertising, such as Google or Facebook ads, requires a combination of analytics and creativity. Your partner will help you come up with winning ad ideas that are rooted in data. 
  • SEO – Analyzing the best keywords to target, as well as writing great pieces of content to rank in search engines, similarly reflects the importance of a holistic analytics partner. 

Data management and reporting 

Once your marketing campaigns are in full swing – and the appropriate tracking tools are in place – the fun part begins.

Now is the time to take a look at all the data you have been collecting.

If your agency partner is worth their salt, you should be looking at this data through their own proprietary software.

How this data is organized, analyzed and communicated is where you will really begin to see the difference in quality between different analytic agencies. 

  • Dashboard – When logging into your partner’s platform, you should be able to organize and navigate the different data sets for your marketing channels. 
  • Analysis – Depending on the technology used, you may be able to get instant insight into what your data means, or even compare it to other data sets in your industry.
  • Visualization – A powerful way to understand data is when it is visualized. Charts, graphs and potentially even custom infographics should be provided by your partner. 

Actionable Insights and Results 

However, collecting raw data isn’t enough. 

You need to make sense of that data so that it becomes useful.

Although your analytics partner may have sophisticated number-crunching technologies, there is still a need for a human to look over everything and create real insights.

At the end-stage of the process, your analytics partner will need to communicate to you the real meaning behind the numbers. 

  • Storytelling – Together, you will need to figure out what the data is really telling you. It is easy to point out that one advert is performing better than the other, but why? How do you find the logic behind the data?
  • Strategy – Once you really understand the data, you will need to turn those insights into a strategy. You may realize, for instance, that your entire approach has been wrong, or that there is an opportunity for a new product offering.
  • Execution –  Finally, you need to put your new data-driven strategy into action – either through your own team or with the help of your analytics partner.

The Top 3 Analytics Companies in The World 

With so many service providers to choose from, it can be difficult to narrow them down and finally choose one to go with. 

We’ve broken down the criteria that makes a great analytics company and combed through dozens of companies to find the best agencies today.

Each have their strengths and weaknesses, but regardless of whoever you choose to work with, you will be in good hands. 

#1 NP Digital – The Best for Marketing Execution

NP Digital is a marketing and analytics company founded by Neil Patel, and it is arguably the most recognizable and influential figure in the digital marketing space. 

The company was founded in 2017 and has over 44,000 followers on LinkedIn and over 100 employees. NP digital offers a full range of digital marketing services in addition to analytics.

Here’s what makes NP Digital one of the best analytic companies in 2020:

  • Founder expertise – Neil Patel is a rockstar in the digital marketing world, having started out in the space in 2001 as a teenager. The agency he founded has his fingerprints all over it, which means that you will be working with world class marketers and analysts. 
  • Marketing execution – NP Digital doesn’t just help you make sense of your data. They offer a complete suite of marketing services, from PPC to SEO. As digital marketing is the foundation of their operations, you can expect great results when combined with their analytics services. 
  • Great case studies – NP Digital often receives great reviews and has retained big clients as proof of their success. One client, for instance, has said that “NP Digital is one of the few consultant companies worth their fee”.
  • Press coverage – Neil Patel himself has been recognized by Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and the United Nations as one of the most influential marketers of our generation.
  • Education – NP Digital regularly produces educational content about all things digital marketing. This carries over to their customer relationships, where they position themselves as a teacher as opposed to just a partner.

Who should work with NP Digital?

If you need help with marketing execution in addition to data analytics, then you can’t go wrong with Neil Patel Digital. 

The company was founded by one of the most reputable figures in the digital marketing world, so when you work with his agency, you’re tapping into his years of insight.

There is, of course, a cost to this, however, so Neil Patel Digital is best suited for clients with a larger marketing budget.

Some of their clients include companies such as Viacom, Facebook and even Google.

So, if you head up a marketing team at a large organization and need an end to end marketing and analytics partner, look into Neil Patel Digital.

#2 Artefact – The Best for Technology

Artefact describes themselves as “marketing engineers” and puts particular emphasis on the technology behind digital marketing. 

In line with this identity, they have gone on to build a powerful suite of technologies, which they use to help their clients transform their data into business value. 

Artefact’s works across the entire organization to leverage data, tapping into the entire value chain of operations, IT, and marketing. 

Here’s what makes Artefact one of the best analytic companies in 2020:

  • Technology stack – Artefact utilizes some of the latest advances in AI and machine learning to create custom algorithms that help businesses accelerate data transformation and optimize their business processes. Known as their “AI Factory”, Artefact also works with cloud service providers like Azure to ensure they have a robust infrastructure. 
  • Big, diverse team – Artefact lists over 1000 employees on LinkedIn, which are composed of data scientists, software engineers, and business consultants. This allows Artefact to solve a wide range of needs across different industries. 
  • Solid case studies – Artefact has worked with clients such as FMCG to improve their digital processes. In this particular case, they received an “extremely positive response from [the] client, internal stakeholders, Amazon and even the industry and other vendors on Amazon NL”. 

Who should work with Artefact:

If you are a part of a large organization that is undergoing a digital transformation, then you should strongly consider Artefact. 

The approach and technologies that Artefact uses are also beneficial for organizations that have a lot of data that needs to be optimized across the board. 

For instance, companies that need to optimize their manufacturing processes or who need to react to market information. 

#3 Adverity – The Best for Small Businesses

In some cases, you may not want to work with an agency partner. Particularly for small businesses that don’t have large marketing budgets, analytics software can bridge the divide.

Adverity is a platform that allows you to collect all your marketing data into a single place. Their analytics tools allow you to break down silos in your organization and uncover new insights so that you can improve your decision making.

Although the Adverity team will help onboard you onto their platform, you won’t get the tailored and guided expertise that you would get from an agency such as NP Digital. 

Here’s what makes Adverity one of the best analytic companies in 2020:

  • Cost – If you want to delve into the world of analytics but don’t have a significant budget, Adverity will have you covered (to an extent). Their pricing works on a custom quote which is influenced by your industry, the size of your business, and what data sources you want to tap into. Keep in mind however that you won’t be getting the expert guidance of an agency partner like NP Digital or Artefact.
  • Holistic data analysis – Adverity has one of the largest data connector libraries on the market. You will be able to connect all of your data sources including your CRM, backend database, website analytics, and advertising. They’re always adding new integrations, so if you have a specific need they may be able to customize that for you.
  • Great reviews – On the software review platform G2, Adverity currently has a 4.5/5 star rating, with over 100 reviews. The reviews reflect a variety of businesses and use cases – from marketing agencies to political scientists. One of the most common aspects that reviewers noted is how great the connectivity of the platform is. 

Who should work with Adverity:

Adverity is best suited to small and medium-sized businesses who may not have the budget to work closely with an analytics partner. 

Keep in mind that as you will not have expert guidance, your marketing team will have to figure out how to make sense of all of your data, which is no easy task. 

Conclusion

If you leverage the research we’ve done for you in this article, you won’t have much trouble finding the right analytics company to work with. 

Regardless of your choice, remember that the goal of analytics is to inform your marketing strategy.

But data alone won’t guarantee that your digital marketing strategy will be successful. It must always be paired with creative ideas and rigorous execution. 

To ensure you can’t go wrong when picking an analytics partner, always keep the end goal of increasing conversions in mind.

The post The 3 Best Analytics Companies of 2020 appeared first on Neil Patel.

The 6 Best Digital Strategy Companies of 2020

According to Smart Insights, 49 percent of organizations don’t have a clearly defined digital strategy. 

Choosing the right digital strategy for your business is essential. Experience helps you sift through what to do differently, what not to do, and where to focus your energy. Having a fresh perspective from an outside eye can make all the difference. What’s more important is choosing a company that can execute that strategy. 

When you need to choose the best digital strategy company, you may be wondering where to start. Here’s a list of our picks for the best digital strategy companies in the world.

1. Neil Patel Digital — Best For Content Marketing & Digital Strategy

I’ve written more than 4,294 blog posts in 10 years. I’ve created millions of words and I’ve used content marketing to build three companies of my own. I used content marketing to generate 195,013 visitors a month and I’ve done the same things for my fortune 500 clients. When it comes to digital strategy and content marketing I’ve shown it can work. 

I do the same thing for clients with my agency, NP Digital. We help our clients develop a digital strategy that maximizes the results they achieve with their content marketing, advertising, and SEO campaigns. 

The focus with our digital strategy is revenue. Everything we do is focused on producing real results for businesses whether that’s more traffic, leads, or revenue. 

NP Digital’s client list includes:

  • Facebook
  • Viacom
  • Google
  • GM
  • eBay
  • NBC
  • Thomson Reuters foundation
  • TechCrunch
  • Cheezburger
  • American Greetings

2. REQ – Best for Enterprise Business Strategy

REQ is a Washington DC based, award-winning agency with enterprise-level experience. They’re industry veterans with some of the best talent in the business. 

Projects start at $50,000. They offer a comprehensive suite of solutions for your marketing and digital strategy needs. Including: 

  • Advertising & Media
  • Digital Advocacy
  • Brand Strategy
  • Reputation Management
  • Public Relations
  • Data & Analytics

They’ve been named to both the Inc.500 and Deloitte Fast 500 lists – they’re one of the fastest growing companies in America. They have offices in Washington, DC, New York, Boston, San Diego, Las Vegas, and San Francisco.

REQ’s client list includes:

  • eBay
  • Amazon
  • StubHub
  • Sweet Green
  • Mastercard
  • Empire State Building
  • Constellation Energy

3. Usman Group – Best for Mid-market Business Strategy

With 80% of its clients in mid-market range, earning between 10M – 1B, the Usman Group specializes in digital strategy and market research. They provide analysis, strategy, execution, and measurement to help clients deploy successful campaigns.   

They apply the four key principles of design thinking, learn from people, identify patterns, make solutions tangible, iterate continuously, in all of their client engagements.

Projects start at $10,000. You get a hand-picked team that will provide evidence-based, practical strategy and recommendations.

Usman Group’s client list includes:

  • Red Prairie
  • University of Chicago
  • National Safety Council
  • Chicago Sun Times
  • Priceline
  • Baird

4. DeSantis Breindel – Best for Branding Strategy

DeSantis Breindel is a New York City based digital strategy company that specializes in end-to-end branding strategy. They help businesses with brand differentiation, customer experience, merger & acquisition branding, brand valuation, brand launch, and employee engagement.

Projects start at $75,000. They offer thorough research and measurement for your digital branding, brand identity and strategy, content marketing, customer experience design, and film production services.

DeSantis Breindel’s client list includes:

  • Verifone
  • Lathrop Gage
  • OneSpan
  • SailPoint
  • Lincoln International
  • Lewis Roca

5. Mabbly – Best for Data Analysis, Channel Strategy

Mabbly is a Chicago based strategic design agency that relies on digital strategy, market research, and data analytics. They focus on turning complex problems into growth opportunities. Supporting human connection with digital experiences, via sophisticated design and data-backed digital strategy.

Mabbly’s team of digital and brand strategists work together to curate a channel strategy that combines the message along with the medium that’s right for your business opportunity. Projects start at $25,000. 

Mabbly’s client list includes:

  • Edelman
  • Microsoft
  • Berkshire Group
  • Griffith Foods
  • 21st Century Fox
  • Limitless Coffee & Tea
  • ShopRunner

6. Ironpaper – Best for Small Business 

Ironpaper bills itself as a B2B growth agency. Their conversion growth strategy is focused on gaining traction with growth up to 1 percent. The growth phase is set at 1 to 3 percent, with anything above 3 percent listed as scaling. 

What’s interesting about Ironpaper is the fact that they discuss the elephant in the room. 

“Oftentimes, enterprises try to answer the question, ‘What is a good conversion rate?’’ without any context. What is a good conversion rate? When establishing conversion rates, context is everything.

A lack of context can actually do harm to a marketing team, because it causes teams to make the wrong assumptions.”

This tells you that Ironpaper isn’t focused on vanity metrics or conversion manipulation. They know the difference between high and low value conversions. Their projects start at $10,000 and are focused on small businesses.

Iron Paper’s client list includes:

  • Nokia
  • Echo226
  • Telmar
  • Mformation
  • Arago

3 Characteristics That Make a Great Digital Strategy Company

Your digital strategy company should be able to provide you with specifics ahead of time. While many companies are able to provide you with amazing strategies, many are unwilling to demonstrate this ahead of time. 

1. Your agency asks the right questions

Creating an exceptional digital strategy begins with your agency asking the right questions. These questions determine what will be answered and where your answers will go. Here’s a small sample of the questions your agency should be asking. 

  • How is our business currently performing? 
  • Which parts of your business are underperforming?
  • What’s our goal for each area of our business? 
  • What do customers expect from our product and our business?
  • Which marketing channels are our customers active on?
  • Which marketing channels should we use to accomplish our goals?
  • Which metrics and KPIs will we use to evaluate performance?
  • How should we promote our products and services in the market to achieve our goals? 

These questions inform your digital strategy. 

  1. Why are we in business?
  2. Where are we right now?
  3. Where do we want to go? 
  4. How will we get there?

Your digital strategy framework should answer four high-level questions. Good digital marketing agencies should be asking these questions at the beginning of the engagement process. 

2. Your agency is willing to share strategy

The agency you choose should be willing to share sample strategies with you. This doesn’t mean that you should expect your agency to provide the entire strategy upfront, for free. Spec work isn’t ideal and that’s not what you’re looking for.

You’re looking for one example. 

They can share this with you over the phone, in your proposal or quote, or in a sample report. You’re looking for them to share a small snippet, a piece of their proposed digital strategy. This is important for several reasons. With sample data you can: 

  • Evaluate your agency’s competence 
  • Use sample data to evaluate potential performance
  • Assess their digital strategy or marketing priorities
  • Outline knowledge gaps and weak points in their process

You’re not asking for a comprehensive strategy document, you’re simply asking your agency to pick one part of your business and create a strategy around that; ask your agency a question (e.g., how would you increase sales for one of my products?). 

3. Your agency can implement Strategy

Venture Capitalist Arthur Rock, believes strategy is important, but not as important as people who can execute that strategy. 

“Over the past 30 years, I estimate that I’ve looked at an average of one business plan per day, or about 300 a year, in addition to the large numbers of phone calls and business plans that simply are not appropriate. Of the 300 likely plans, I may invest in only one or two a year; and even among those carefully chosen few, I’d say that a good half fail to perform up to expectations. 

The problem with those companies (and with the ventures I choose not to take part in) is rarely one of strategy. Good ideas and good products are a dime a dozen. Good execution and good management in a word, good people are rare.”

A great strategy isn’t enough. You need amazing people who can implement your digital strategy and produce the results you need to grow. 

Your agency should have two things: 

  1. A team that can implement your digital strategy
  2. A proven track record showing that they’ve achieved this consistently in the past

If they can provide you with both or they’re willing to provide you with a trial period where you’re able to test their ability to execute your digital strategy, then it may be a good fit. 

What To Expect From a Great Digital Strategy Company

Your agency should provide you with detailed specifics for each of these points. If you have more questions or concerns, you’ll want to bring those up with your agency. 

  • A clear track record: Your agency should be able to show you samples, references, case studies, and reviews showing that they’ve achieved results for other clients.
  • Clear milestones: You’re looking for clear milestones, timelines, and deliverables that show you’re able to create and implement a plan successfully. Your agency should be able to provide you with a timeline, explaining how long everything will take to implement, and when they anticipate you’ll begin seeing results.
  • Agency procedures: You’ll want to see how your agency plans on approaching your campaign or project. They should be able to break down the approach that goes into their strategy document; this document should clarify how they’ll approach your campaign, what you should expect, what their goals are and more.

The digital strategy company you choose should provide you with the options you need to implement the plan successfully.  

Conclusion

Choosing the right digital strategy for your business is essential. You need a plan to guide you, outlining where you are, where you want to go, and how to get there. Having a fresh perspective from an outside eye can mean the difference between success and failure. 

Remember, executing your digital strategy plan is even more important than simply having a plan.  Use this pool to choose a digital strategy company that will partner with you to achieve your business goals.

The post The 6 Best Digital Strategy Companies of 2020 appeared first on Neil Patel.

The 5 Best SEO Companies of 2020

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

Anywhere you find a cube of sugar in the open, you’ll find ants. 

Today, the SEO service providers’ industry, valued over $65 billion, is like a cube of sugar. It’s why you’ll find countless SEO companies scrambling for a piece of that sugary cake. 

And where does that leave you, a business owner eager to reach Google’s top pages, generate qualified traffic, and drive sales?

Insanity!

With all this confusion, I sense you came here pondering: 

  • How do I filter vetted SEO companies?
  • How can I find a top SEO company that doesn’t need ads to rank its website organically?

You’ll find the answer to those questions here. 

And that’s not all. 

You’ll also see the SEO companies that go beyond vanity metrics and deliver real business results.

The 5 Top SEO Companies in The World

  1. Neil Patel Digital (best for SEO content marketing)
  2. Voice SEO (best for Voice search) 
  3. ReachLocal (best for local SEO) 
  4. FATJOE (best for backlinks’ acquisition)
  5. OuterBox (best for eCommerce SEO) 

In the past, you could hire any Tom and Harry to stuff keywords into a page or website you wanted to rank, and it’ll make its way to Google’s 1st page.

Not anymore. 

In short, the constant evolution of SEO has reached a tipping point where ranking alone doesn’t guarantee business results—qualified traffic, leads, and sales. 

To get the most out of any SEO investment today, you need a holistic strategy. 

And a holistic SEO strategy must blend your website code, information architecture (IA), and content marketing with context to not only make your business discoverable online but valuable to customers.

Take this guide you’re reading, for example. If it wasn’t valuable to you, would you still be reading?

You’re experiencing excellent SEO execution at play here. 

Done well, it drives relevant website visits. But most importantly, it uses high-quality content to engage and convert visitors into leads and customers.  

I’m confident the best SEO companies we reviewed below will do no different. Hire any of them, and you’ll attract and convert visitors into leads and customers.

#1 Neil Patel Digital – Best For SEO Content Marketing 

Yeah, we’re tooting our own horn, and it’s not because charity begins at home. 

We’ve earned our place on this list. 

First things first, Neil Patel Digital was founded by hardcore marketers who walk the talk, and not some random wannabe. If you type “SEO strategies” into Google from anywhere in the world, you’ll find well-crafted content by our Co-founder, Neil Patel, on the 3rd and 4th organic positions: 

And that’s but the tip of the iceberg. 

We generate millions of organic search traffic—about 3.5 million to be precise, to my blog. No ads, only through SEO-optimized content marketing:

As you can see from the snapshot above, through these efforts, our Co-Founder has accumulated more than 1.7 million organic keywords with over 3 million websites across the globe linking back to his content pieces. 

To build a rock-solid SEO content marketing company you can rely on, I also partnered with other marketing veterans to form Neil Patel Digital:

Together, the executive team here in Neil Patel Digital has garnered over five decades of hands-on experience. And this excludes other top-level, in-house marketing managers. 

In short, SEO-optimized content marketing is one of the prime reasons customers, from startups to enterprise brands, trust Neil Patel Digital to deliver top-notch search engine optimization strategies: 

If you’re just starting with search engine optimization or seek better results, it’s best to start with content marketing. 

Content is the bedrock that drives all other online marketing campaigns. 

It’s how you got here; it’s how your customers will find you, too. 

And not only is SEO-optimized content marketing Neil Patel Digital’s core offering, but we’ve also developed battle-tested programs we can bet our life on: 

Since you’re still here, get your free consultation with Neil Patel Digital here. 

#2 Voice SEO – Best For Voice SEO

No, this company didn’t name themselves Voice SEO for the fun of it. They’re the #1 ranked voice SEO company by TopSEOs. 

And that’s for a reason. 

Voice SEO took it upon themselves to study the trends surrounding how people use spoken commands—instead of typing words to query the search engines. From there, they discovered the ever-increasing use of voice search and positioned themselves as the go-to company for voice SEO.

If you own any of Siri, Google Echo, or Alexa devices, or you know someone who does, that should give an idea of the growing importance to optimize your website for voice. 

But, if you don’t, I’ll quickly let you in on it. 

Over 31% of smartphone users across the world use voice technology at least once weekly. Another research projected 50% of all online searches in 2020 to be voice-based. And by 2022, over 55% of households are expected to have voice search-enabled devices. 

These stats all point to one direction: The time to optimize your website for voice search is now. 

And that’s where Voice SEO, as the name suggests, comes in. 

This company started as a small team of SEO experts focused on putting their SEO skills to good use, helping businesses like them to grow. 

Through this intense passion for excellence, Voice SEO followed the highest standards in the industry, particularly in voice search engine optimization. 

Although there are no client testimonials to their name, they have garnered accreditations, which shows they know their onions to deserve a place on this list: 

#3 ReachLocal – Best For Local SEO 

ReachLocal is the go-to company for strategic local SEO executions. And their experience, results, and high-value partnerships speak for itself.

Founded in 2004, their expertise in the local SEO niche has generated over 201 million local leads for about 19,000 clients worldwide. 

With offices in five continents, they’re a Google Premier Partner, and Bing Ads Certified specialists, and others. ReachLocal proudly partners with Google, Yelp, Yahoo!, Bing, and Facebook to help businesses optimize their local search engine optimization strategies and drive in-store customers. 

Local SEO Companies, a domain that vets and ranks top local SEO practitioners, ranked ReachLocal as the best for local SEO strategies. 

And not only that, across several review sites, this company’s experience and attention to detail have seen them receive 4.5/5-star ratings from happy customers: 

#4 FatJoe – Best For Backlink Acquisition 

Search engines interpret the relative importance of your web pages and websites as a whole, using the number of backlinks pointing to them. 

In order words, the more backlinks you acquire, the more the search engines see your site as authoritative. 

And the more it’ll rank your site over those of your competitors for competitive keywords. 

When it comes to acquiring backlinks for SEO, FATJOE comes highly recommended by us. They’ll help you generate high-value backlinks, and you can rest assured because even other SEO agencies turn to them for the same. 

FATJOE has grown to become one of the world’s largest outsourced link building agencies, serving over 5,000 clients worldwide.

When you sign up for FATJOE’s SEO link building services, you get premium access to every tool you need: A dashboard to manage and track your orders, and their Blogger Outreach product to find and reach relevant websites to build links from. 

About 97% of customers who use FATJOE rates them a 4.5/5, and even though they’re more positioned for agencies—because they do link building a lot.

#5 OuterBox – Best for eCommerce SEO 

OuterBox, an SEO and performance marketing company focused on eCommerce brands, is our pick for eCommerce SEO. 

If you own an eCommerce website and seek a talented group of dedicated people to power your business through the search engines, you should look OuterBox’s way. 

Founded in 2004, this company earned the list of Inc. 500 fastest growing companies in the US, having served hundreds of customers across several eCommerce sectors. 

Their clientele speaks for itself: NewAir, AtlasOil, JetDock, UCFS, and others. 

And it doesn’t matter which eCommerce platform you’ve built your business with. Be it WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify, Drupal, or others; you can rely on OuterBox for effective eCommerce search engine optimization: 

5 Characteristics That Make a Great SEO Company

You’ll find hundreds, if not thousands, of SEO companies out there.

So, let’s say you wanted to go out of our vetted list to find one for yourself. What are the characteristics that make a great SEO company you should be looking out for? 

They are as follows. 

1. Experience and Process for Implementing SEO

When it comes to SEO these days, anyone with a laptop, access to the internet, and a WordPress-installed blog can boast of being an SEO company. 

What you won’t see behind those claims, however, is the experience and process they take to deliver results. 

You should always lookout for this. 

Scroll their website, do a simple Google search and see if they show up on the search engine’s organic positions. If they don’t, it means they have little to no experience nor implemented what they claim to deliver. 

Can you give what you don’t have?

Likewise, a fundamental characteristic of a great SEO company is that they have experience implementing SEO for themselves first. 

And they have a process, showing you how they go about getting results: 

2. An Impressive Portfolio

The idea of showing off portfolios has become a characteristic of great SEO companies today. And the reason for this is simple. 

They’re proud of the businesses they’ve helped increase rankings on Google and driven traffic to get leads and sales. 

But, this idea to show off their portfolio does you more good. 

Scroll through it, and you’ll see the kind of clients they’ve worked with or frequently work with. From here, decide if you want to be in that mix and get similar results. 

For example, at Neil Patel Digital, here are some clients in our work portfolio:

3. Thought Leadership 

SEO is always evolving. 

Today it’s Google’s RankBrain. Before you know it, it’s Panda. And just when you thought that one would stay, Hummingbird hits you right in the face. 

And those are major updates. In one year alone, Google makes upwards of 3,200 updates to its search engine algorithms. 

How can you—one focused on managing your business, keep tabs with all these changes?

You need thought-leadership, and that’s a characteristic of great SEO companies. 

Look out if they’re keeping up with SEO best practices as they evolve, and sharing tips to help businesses adjust for maximum impact: 

4. Real Life Testimonials

Who wouldn’t toot his own horn?

Definitely not search engine optimization companies. Developing winning SEO strategies, managing its implementation, and guiding teams on its execution to generate results is hard. 

When an SEO company does all this hard work and gets those fantastic results, their customers reward them with testimonials, having got value for their money. 

Thus, sharing real-life testimonials is a characteristic you’ll find with most great SEO organizations: 

5. A Complete Team of Leaders, Managers, and Executors

Just as no man is an island, turning SEO ideas into higher rankings, website visitors, leads, and sales needs a diverse team of specialists. 

When an SEO company makes too many promises without showing you the team to make it happen, hold tight. Why? 

Because that’s a red flag they’ll charge you a premium and outsource your job for pennies on the dollar overseas or Fiverr for $5. 

From strategic leaders to managers and different teams of specialists to execute your strategy, great SEO companies are proud to show off their amazing team members: 

What to Expect from a Great SEO Company

So far, I’ve listed our recommended SEO companies and highlighted the characteristics that make a great search engine optimization company, suppose you decide to find one yourself. 

Either way, after making a choice, what should you expect from a great SEO company?

1. Discovery session 

Your decision to work with an SEO company may come from the need to rank your site higher, generate more traffic, drive sales, or all three. 

But, no business case and needs are exactly the same. The SEO strategies that worked for another company won’t work automatically for yours. 

Great SEO companies, from experience working with different organizations, know this. Thus, they’re not quick to send proposals. Instead, to help you, they allow you to share your unique needs and business case in a discovery session: 

2. Research and Recommendations

After sharing your needs and business case with an SEO company, they take what you tell them and use their expertise to conduct in-depth research. 

They do this to get the right context needed to bring themselves on the same page with you, your target audience, and industry. 

After they’ve performed this research, expect a great SEO company to share their recommendations of what you need to do to get maximum results. This, they can do over another discovery call or via email. 

3. Contract with Deliverables

If your discovery session and follow-up conversations with an SEO company looks like a good fit for the exchange of mutual value, you’ll receive a contract for your business. 

However, a great SEO company won’t only send you any contract. In it, expect to see a detailed list of what they’ll deliver, how they plan to deliver it, and when you should start expecting results. 

4. Onboarding, Project Scoping, and Management

To help you, an SEO company would need access to some of your assets. 

Depending on your work scope, this could include your in-house staff, website or blog access, your analytics login codes, etc. 

So, to forge a smooth partnership with your company, expect your team to go through a detailed onboarding process from a great SEO company. 

From this onboarding process, they’ll also scope your project, timelines, and establish an understanding of how they’ll manage your project. 

Conclusion: Give SEO Time

SEO takes time before its results start to manifest. 

You should start expecting results from SEO in about 100 days. 

Any company that promises you overnight successes doesn’t know SEO well enough or what they’re doing. 

In short, great SEO companies don’t make wild promises; they show you what’s possible and how they’ll work hard to achieve it. 

If you give them time, you’ll start seeing results—qualified traffic, leads, and sales. 

And once things pick up, it’s like a flywheel, always getting better as long as you continue to work with a great SEO company.

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