Before Bob founded Centrus Digital, he’d already been a SCORE counselor for 8 years, and he knows how to ask the tough questions about your long and short term strategy. We understand that you hiring a marketing agency for a REASON — not to get bogged down in metrics and KPIs (which are important), but because you have a VISION for the future of your business. Sure, all businesses want to grow, but HOW do you want to grow, WHERE do you want to grow, WHY do you want to grow? If your marketing agency isn’t asking these questions, how can they effectively accomplish and execute that strategy?

One great example of this strategic partnership at work is with our client Freedom Pest Control. They came to us in January of 2016 looking for help with their Google Ads, but in two years our relationship has evolved so far beyond that original scope. When we asked Freedom what areas they wanted to grow their business, they told us they needed to double their mosquito and tick business from 2017 to 2018. We took charge of a total rebrand of their mosquito business and created “Mosquito Busters” complete with a new website, branding, social media, and advertising. Mosquito Busters resonated with customers, the website was simple, elegant, and informative, the ads were targeted, and their business more than doubled.

On the non-mosquito front, we had a radical idea. One of Freedom’s most expensive search terms was “exterminator” with web visits consistently costing more than $20/click! BUT, the term was converting pretty well and driving decent leads. After close strategizing with Freedom, we decided to beef up their SEO titles/descriptions and remove the term “exterminator” entirely. Instead, we’d focus on longer-tail, lower-cost searches like “bed bug exterminator” or “termite exterminator.” This hurt our conversions (which dropped 9.7% from 2017 to 2018) but MASSIVELY decreased the ad cost to Google by 42% (almost $50,000). Normally, we would’ve been very concerned about a 9.7% drop in conversions, but because we had strategized upfront and kept asking Freedom “how’s business?” we knew that they were still meeting their growth objecting despite the slow down in leads from those types of ads.

The $50,000 cost savings? Just icing on the cake. Now Freedom can take those savings and reinvest elsewhere in the business where they want to grow. Guess who will be working hand-in-hand on that next effort? 😉

If your marketing agency isn’t asking you “how’s business?” let us know. The first good idea is free!