Here is a helpful guide of things you should avoid doing on social media.  Mistakes you’re making on social media will diminish your current audience and prevent you from growing any meaningful audience in the future, so be sure to avoid these points when creating and managing your social media plan:

1 – POSTING TOO MUCH
Some types of businesses really should not post very often.  Some sectors simply do not require a very active social media presence, so not only does a hyper-active presence waste your time and money, but it also causes information overload that will cause you to lose audience.  Sometimes, simply keeping the cobwebs down on social media is adequate.

2 – NOT POSTING ENOUGH
While some businesses simply don't need to emphasize social media very much, others have a lot to gain from being active on social media.  Engaging with your audience often in a deliberate and positive way can help greatly in turning your social media followers into raving fans that become a serious source of business.

3 – SHARING IRRELEVANT CONTENT
That funny cat video or joke isn't winning you friends.  More on this in an upcoming post, but the social media rule of thirds could be helpful here in knowing where you could start - a third of your content could be about your actual product, service, or promotions; a third of your content should share industry tips and news (for example, a realtor sharing tips on home maintenance or landscaping tips for curb appeal); a third of the content should be based on building your personal brand, perhaps through conversations and interactions with your audience.

4 – NOT PROMPTLY RESPONDING
Every conversation is an opportunity to develop trust and win a new fan.  Listen and respond when spoken to.  Whether the conversation is regarding a positive or even a negative experience, you have an opportunity to develop good will with that person as well as countless others that may witness the conversation.  Don't let questions, concerns, or comments go unnoticed or unresolved for long.

5 – INCONSISTENT POST FREQUENCY
Who hasn't seen one of those blogs that hasn't been updated for months or years?  Consistency is essential for developing a loyal following.

6 – INCONSISTENT BRANDING
Your brand is something that's taken a lot of time and thought to develop, yet a common pitfall is a disconnect between the branding of your social media presence and the rest of your business.  Ensure a homogenous brand through consistent theme, voice, appearance, etc.
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7 – SPEAKING TO WRONG AUDIENCE
Before creating any content, think about exactly who you want to be reaching.  Peers, clients, potential customers, and even micro-segments of your audience, will be reached differently, so putting thought into it will be very helpful in getting the engagement you want.

8 – BEING ON THE WRONG PLATFORM
Different businesses have more to gain by being active on different platforms.  Again, this has much to do with what audience you want to reach and how you want to engage that audience. Your audience as well as your message will affect which platform you're using - Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.

9 – SPEAKING OVER YOUR AUDIENCE
Again highlighting the importance of truly understanding your audience, speaking over your audience (being too wordy, using industry jargon that customers wouldn't be familiar with, etc) can make your followers feel alienated or even make them feel as though you are being condescending. Again, always put thought into who exactly you are trying to reach.

10 – FORGETTING VISUALS
People are very visual learners, and quality graphic representations of your messaging will help you greatly in conveying your message. Whether showcasing your product or simply using an infographic, visual aids can help you engage with your audience as well as increase the shareability of your content.

11 – BEING FAKE
Be yourself. Be genuine. It's possible to keep up a charade for a while, but it can not only be exhausting, but people can tell when they're being lied to. Keeping it real on social media will help you build trust and work towards establishing your brand. 


About us: Level 11 Online Marketing is a fast growing digital advertising agency that is becoming known for disrupting the status quo.  We specialize in digital advertising, video production, SEO, SEM, advanced analytics, custom web solutions via website design & implementation, social media strategies and conversion optimization.  Headquartered in Utah, you will find Level 11 team members in Utah, Washington, California, Idaho, and Colorado. We have the best creative minds in the industry backed up by the most talented software developers and video production teams which leads to powerful, efficient advertising campaigns.

If you have questions, comment here or email us at info@level11.io today!

​Success in Search Engine Marketing (SEM), otherwise known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, requires a great deal of knowledge and experience.  That's not to say that it's impossible to figure it out if it isn't in your background, but it certainly isn't something you can pick up in a day.  Here's a few things that you need to know about SEM that will help you to begin to understand it better:

1 – IT'S COMPLICATED
The first thing to know about SEM/PPC is that it's no simple endeavor.  There's some excellent study materials here, and of course our team here at Level 11 loves to help people learn about it, but honestly, there are many things that you'll need to know and understand in order to know how to make the most of your SEM efforts.

2 – IT'S A SCIENCE
Knowing how to find AND interpret data is critical to SEM success.  Any PPC campaign can have hundreds and even thousands of moving parts, and knowing how to make everything work together for your good requires a lot of work with numbers.  Drilling down on the details will be the key to your PPC success.

3 – IT REQUIRES MAINTENANCE
SEM is constantly evolving and requires babysitting.  There is no "set it and forget it" solution.  Not only is technology constantly evolving (there's constantly big news from Google and others about PPC and the tools involved), but even your PPC campaigns will require regular (weekly at the very least) maintenance in order to optimize the investment you have in SEM.  This is a huge reason behind the management fees that are typical with running PPC campaigns - success requires constant upkeep.

4 – GOOGLE IS THE PLACE TO START
In the world of search, Google is the elephant in the room, and so Google AdWords is the place to start.  Reports vary, but Google has about 2/3 of the market share, and Bing is in second place with nearly 1/3 of the market.  This means that if you need to do something somewhere, Google is almost always the answer.  However, some search traffic does admittedly trend more heavily towards Bing, so as always, check the data before doing anything.

5 – NOT ALL MANAGERS REAP EQUAL RESULTS
PPC management is not commoditizable.  What this means is that if you were to give your budget to 10 different managers, you'd get 10 very different results.  In taking over management for some clients, we've seen thousands of dollars in budget completely wasted on horrible targeting and irrelevant keywords, and we've seen click-thru-rates (CTR) that were far below the average across Google.  For comparison, Level 11 often achieves a CTR for our clients that is about 500-800% higher than the average across Google.  We really are quite good at what we do.

6 – IT BRINGS YOU NEW, QUALIFIED TRAFFIC
A well-executed PPC campaign brings you traffic that likely wasn’t even looking for you specifically, and because you can establish parameters for qualification, you can know that the traffic coming to you already has a high likelihood of converting to paying customers.  Would you rather spend your day talking with 100 random people in hopes that a handful will buy from you?  Or is it more worthwhile to spend your day talking with 10 people that are vetted and ready to make a purchase?  That's what effective PPC does for you.

7 – THE LITTLE THINGS MATTER
As the saying goes, the devil is in the details.  An Ad that you create on AdWords, for example, only has so many characters you can use and so many extensions you can use.  Knowing exactly what you want to say and what you want prospective customers to do means you need to be very judicious with everything you say and do.  Again, this is why we excel at Level 11 - we've established processes that ensure efficiency and maximize customer engagement, leading to more money for our clients.

8 – IT CAN BE INEXPENSIVE
All different forms of online advertising come with very different costs.  SEM can be an excellent way to dip your toe into the water and start figuring out what works.  It certainly is possible to achieve measurable success from a PPC campaign using only a small budget.

9 – IT CAN BE EXPENSIVE
All due respect to #8, but the primary objective of PPC is to make money, which means that if you perform well with a small budget, you'd be silly to not increase that budget.  When you know you're netting significant income from a specific marketing effort, and it's all proportional, would you not be inclined to keep growing?  You know you have a well-executed PPC campaign when you want to keep increasing your budget.

10 – INDEPENDENT THRID PARTY AUDITS HELP
Just to ensure that everything is doing as well as it should, an audit can be very helpful.  Having performed audits for many clients, we come across areas of potential improvement often.  Similar to having an outside accounting firm audit your books, a PPC audit can be helpful in making sure that everything is in ship shape.

11 – IT IS CONSIDERED TO BE THE BEST FORM OF SEO
Effective SEO takes time, as you can see here and here.  That being said, many thought leaders in the industry have said that PPC is now the best form of SEO.  Being trackable and extremely targetable, PPC has many strengths that can truly help you increase traffic to your site, and ultimately increase your revenues, immediately.  Yes, SEM can be very complicated, but it can be a huge boost to your bottom line today.  Luckily, we're RIGHT HERE ready to help you!

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About us: Level 11 Online Marketing is a fast growing digital advertising agency that is becoming known for disrupting the status quo.  We specialize in digital advertising, video production, SEO, SEM, advanced analytics, custom web solutions via website design & implementation, social media strategies and conversion optimization.  Headquartered in Utah, you will find Level 11 team members in Utah, Washington, California, Idaho, and Colorado. We have the best creative minds in the industry backed up by the most talented software developers and video production teams which leads to powerful, efficient advertising campaigns.

If you have questions, comment here or email us at info@level11.io today!

Knowing what to look for when deciding on a digital marketing agency is critical to ensuring future success.  Much like hiring a new employee it's critical to be certain that the fit is right and that enough value is being brought to the table to justify the investment.  Here's a few great places to start when evaluating your future potential marketing partner (and yes, this will be largely self-promotional, because we're geniuses and we're excellent at what we do!):

SIGNS OF A SMART DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY

1 – THEY RECOGNIZE EVERY BUSINESS IS DIFFERENT
Here's a shocker... every business is different.  Because of this, it's important to know that your marketer is able to provide what your business requires to grow right, while also being able to adjust to your ever evolving needs.  There is no marketing solution that is one-size-fits-all, so one-trick ponies (classic example could be a social media guru who thinks every business type needs to be super active on Facebook, while other examples are radio, newspaper, or TV reps) aren't able to adapt to individual business needs.  And remember, WHAT GOT YOU HERE WON'T GET YOU THERE - your marketing strategy needs to evolve over time, and a truly smart agency will be able to have a long-term point of view in order to anticipate the changes that you'll need to make over time.
 
2 – THEY WANT TO LISTEN
If a marketer comes to you with a prepared solution before getting to know your business, run.  Just as a doctor can't diagnose an illness without extensive testing, a marketer can't tailor a solution for you without getting to know you, your business, your goals, and your audience.  Only once there's an intimate understanding can a marketer provide an optimal solution for you.
 
3 – THEY RELY ON DATA TO DETERMINE OPTIMAL SOLUTIONS
A smart marketer knows that in order to intimately understand your business and your audience, data is hugely important (personally, we're crazy about it - it's part of every aspect of our operation, and we don't do anything we can't track).  Digging into the troves of data and analytics that are available will allow a smart marketer to distill all that data into a strategy that will play an important role in the future growth of your business.  If someone tries to downgrade the value of data, or insists that data isn't essential, it's time to say goodbye, because they'll cause you to miss out on a lot of future opportunities.
 
4 – THEY CONSTANTLY MONITOR CAMPAIGNS TO MAKE ADJUSTMENTS ON THE FLY
How hands on is this marketer?  There is no set-it-and-forget-it in marketing.  If your marketing campaigns are not your marketer's version of fantasy football, again you'll miss out on future opportunities.  Just like an international flight, a marketing strategy is a long long journey.  If a pilot is off target by even a few degrees, the plane will end up miles and miles from the desired destination.  Small adjustments along the way will spell the difference for your marketing campaigns, and only a very engaged marketer will be able to recognize when small adjustments are needed.
 
5 – THEY REGULARLY HAVE CONSTRUCTIVE MEETINGS WITH CLIENTS
This should be a given.  All too often, we hear of businesses who have gone months without substantial contact with their marketer.  How successful can a marketer be if they're unaware of what's going on with their client?  If meeting in person isn't possible, at least communication - phone calls, email, etc - of some sort needs to be happening , and certainly that marketer shouldn't be hard to reach.  Don't allow your marketer to be anonymous.
 
6 – THEY ARE TRANSPARENT
Your marketing budget is precious, and you have every right to know what's happening with it.  The data and results from your online marketing efforts should be freely available.  Success must be measurable, and a marketer that isn't willing to be forthright with data isn't trustworthy.  You should have and be able to understand the results that your marketing efforts are creating.
 
7 – THEY ADMIT WHEN SOMETHING NEEDS TO CHANGE, AND THEY DO IT
It's true that sometimes, something isn't working.  A marketer that deflects responsibility or who doesn't fix something that's wrong is lazy.  We once had a client for whom we had an extensive campaign running across Southern California, and the campaign was targeting men and women of a certain criteria.  We found within a week (when significant data was available) that women were not responding to the campaign nearly as well as the men.  We immediately made the necessary adjustment and the campaign had great success.  Change was needed, and we didn't miss a beat.
 
8 – THEY RECOGNIZE WHAT THEY’RE GOOD AT
Everybody has strengths, and your online marketing partner should be comprised of experts.  Meet the team!  Get to know them!  In reality, a truly professional agency attracts and nurtures the best talent.  Unlike an individual marketer, such an agency can offer their client the advantage of a team of multidisciplinary specialists, who can work together to formulate a well-rounded marketing strategy.  At Level 11, we've grown by bringing together people who have already established themselves as leaders in their specific discipline, and our clients have been spoiled by having the best of the best at their fingertips.
 
9 – THEY DON’T RECOMMEND UNNECESSARY SURGERY
We were once approached by someone seeking SEO help.  With a very niche product and an extremely narrow potential audience, we knew that they certainly would need to excel in organic rankings in order to grow.  As we performed our free audit, we found that this business was actually doing quite well.  Well enough, in fact, that even significant investment would not move the needle for them.  We simply gave them our report and advised them on a couple minor adjustments they could make to make incremental improvements.  Not a single dollar changed hands, because there wasn't need in the area they were looking at, nor were any other areas prime for improvement.
 
10 – THEY ARE NIMBLE
Your agency should be able to shift quickly with changes in your market, business, or marketing plans.  Nothing stays the same in businesses or marketplaces for long, and the nimble agency not only is aware of changes, but anticipates them with an eye to the future.  The nimble agency is ahead of the trends in digital marketing in general and in their client’s business in particular.  Your online marketer should be abreast of the changes and new tools and strategies that are constantly becoming available.  A successful online marketer keeps a pulse on the future, as hockey legend Wayne Gretzky famously said, “skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”  The most valuable agency for you isn’t simply aware of coming trends, but it communicates those regularly to you, and is bold to make suggestions based on those projections, to ensure you stay ahead of your competition.
 
11 – THEY MAKE YOU MONEY
This is incredibly self-explanatory.  A successful online marketer will give you more chances to do what you do best, which translates into your business becoming more profitable.  Especially over time, you'll know whether or not your marketer is worth keeping around, just by following the dollar signs.  Every day, we prove our worth to our clients, and by making our clients more profitable, we become not only a hired partner, but a critical piece of our clients' businesses for years to come.


​​About us: Level 11 Online Marketing is a fast growing digital advertising agency that is becoming known for disrupting the status quo.  We specialize in digital advertising, video production, SEO, SEM, advanced analytics, custom web solutions via website design & implementation, social media strategies and conversion optimization.  Headquartered in Utah, you will find Level 11 team members in Utah, Washington, California, Idaho, and Colorado. We have the best creative minds in the industry backed up by the most talented software developers and video production teams which leads to powerful, efficient advertising campaigns.

If you have questions, comment here or email us at info@level11.io today!

​Digital marketing is a discipline that already attracts more than it's fair share of snake oil salesmen. Resellers, middlemen, and pretenders abound (about 90% of SEO companies are resellers, by some counts), which leads to tons of broken promises and unfulfilled agreements. Within digital marketing as a whole is Search Engine Optimization, or SEO (go HERE to learn more about what SEO is and why it's valuable). Simply put, SEO is all about attracting people to your site by having 1) quality website construction and 2) quality, relevant content. If your site is up to par and has what a person is looking for, search engines like Google will be more likely to refer people to you.

SEO companies are often amateur, 1-man shows that are "side projects" at best, where the so-called "expert" claims to know the secret sauce needed for a #1 ranking, when in reality they have no idea how SEO works. What we want to accomplish in this post is to empower you with 11 things you can look for to know if your current or prospective SEO agency is full of it - a relationship doomed to fail.

1 - THEY PROMISE INSTANT RESULTS
The most common irresponsible claim of "SEO companies" is that they can get you to the top overnight. These companies are spamming the heck out of businesses trying to prey on owners that don't have an understanding about SEO. There are plenty of people out there who believe the hype and want to fast-track themselves to the top of the organic search rankings. Sure, there's bound to be some keywords that you could rank for relatively quickly, and your company name should rank #1 with a few things done right, but true SEO results take time. It's not uncommon for results to take months, if not years, to happen. It's a very naïve to think that you can have instant results, especially considering all of the variables that impact SEO. Don't fall prey to the false promise of a SEO agency promising you the world.

2 - THEY HAVE SPAMMY LINKS DIRECTED AT THEMSELVES
Ahrefs, Open Site Explorer, and other backlink analysis tools will help you evaluate an SEO company's site. Maybe 10% of SEO companies will have solid ratings that indicate they're good at what they do. The rest? Busch league. If an SEO company has no links or poor quality links, how could they help you?

3 - THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE SUCKS, OR IS NON-EXISTENT
Today, you have to be on social media in some way, and SEO agencies certainly need to have a strong presence there. It is a display of their ability to create quality content and engage with an audience. Your SEO agency needs to be able to do just that for you, so why work with them if they cannot do it for themself? An under-the-radar agency that avoids social media isn't looking for legitimacy or long-term impact, it's looking to make quick money and sell out fast before doing it all over again.

4 - THEY GUARANTEE A #1 RANKING FOR SPECIFIC KEYWORDS
Understand that there will always be demand for specific keywords. Strong brand keywords like "iPhone" or "weight loss" will always be nearly impossible to own. There is simply too much demand and authority already in place that your SEO agency won't slay that dragon. Guarantees are impossible to make in the first place, so guaranteeing a ranking for a specific keyword is insanity. What is possible is incremental progress and local authority. Don't sign up with an agency that promises the world.

5 - THEIR BLOG IS PATHETHIC
If creating quality, relevant content is an essential component of SEO success, and a SEO agency has a blog that's full of bad content, or worse yet, they don't have a blog, look elsewhere for SEO help. Imagine what drivel they would create for you if they can't even do something good for themself!

6 - THEY WON'T OR CAN'T EXPLAIN WHAT THEY'RE DOING
There is NO secret sauce, voodoo, magic, trick, or back door to SEO success. Shady, fly-by-night companies use this talk all the time in order to avoid explain what they are, or more often aren't, doing with your SEO. We already know how to achieve SEO success: quality website construction, quality content, and good relationships with other sites that result in quality links. If your current or prospective SEO agency isn't transparent, you should walk away.

7 - THEY DON'T DISCUSS GOALS BEFORE STARTING
How will they take you where you want to go if they don't know where you want to go?! Is your objective to generate leads? Push traffic to your web store? Gather e-mail addresses? This is the very first thing that needs to be known. Your goals will dictate keywords, content strategy, campaign execution, etc. To accomplish anything worthwhile, your goals must be clearly defined, and if they don't ask about your goals, you should say goodbye.

8 - THEY'RE CHEAP
For possibly some select businesses, a website could maybe be ranked for a few hundred bucks a month. Let's think about the numbers for a moment - content will be a few hundred bucks; links are easily each hundreds of dollars; and we still haven't mentioned labor and overhead expenses. True, legit SEO agencies are often in the range of $3k - $10k per month. If it's too good to be true, it's not true.

9 - THEY CLAIM TO KNOW A GUY ON THE INSIDE
This bursts the bubble of a bunch of SEO agencies, but there isn't ONE SEO company that knows the secret algorithm or that knows a guy that works in Google that skews results in their favor. For Google, SEARCH IS SACRED, so they will never allow anyone or anything to interfere with the integrity of the search results.

10 - THEY'RE UNREACHABLE
it's unfortunate, but many SEO companies are actually side gigs of the operators. These people want some income on the side, but aren't willing to invest the necessary time to master their craft, and therefore, more often than not, leave dissatisfied and disillusioned ex-clients in their wake. To see if you're dealing with a company that's more of a full-time SEO agency, test them with e-mails and calls. If they don't answer or are delayed in responses, that's your red flag.

11 - THEY TALK AUTOMATION
Back in the early 2000's, content scrapers, link building software, and other automation tools were commonplace. These days, those tools will get your website penalized faster than you can say something that doesn't take very long to say. Many SEO agencies will claim their automation is key to their low prices. Curating quality content is not an automated task. And ask for a sample report - you can check the links they've built to see if they look like they were made by some automated software. Mention of automation should ALWAYS immediately remove an agency from contention.

Conclusion
There will always be bad apples out there, but this list should help you avoid being taken for a ride with SEO agencies. NO agency ANYWHERE can guarantee results, because there are simply too many variables out of anyone's control. Your website should be one of your best salesmen, if not THE best, so don't leave it or your SEO up to amateurs. Make sure beforehand that you're dealing with a company that will do honest work, not try to game the system, and is willing to help you understand what SEO strategy they're employing. Of course, we here at Level 11 do SEO for many of our clients, so we're more than happy to answer any questions you may have, and show you what we've done for our clients.


About us: Level 11 Online Marketing is a fast growing digital advertising agency that is becoming known for disrupting the status quo. We specialize in digital advertising, video production, SEO, SEM, advanced analytics, custom web solutions via website design & implementation, social media strategies and conversion optimization. Headquartered in Utah, you will find Level 11 team members in Utah, Washington, California, Idaho, and Colorado. We have the best creative minds in the industry backed up by the most talented software developers and video production teams which leads to powerful, efficient advertising campaigns.

If you have questions, comment here or email us at info@level11.io today!