The team at RBD Rodeo has been operating at warp speed for weeks now in the midst of a flurry of conferences, new clients, new employees, new office space and now…a new name. As of January 1, 2008, we will re-brand as Serengeti Communications, Inc.

Why Serengeti? We believe that today’s Internet is a vast, digital plain, full of opportunity, but operating under some important new rules of engagement in a Web 2.0 world. Navigating this complex ecosystem requires an understanding that stretches beyond traditional concepts of marketing, as well as a holistic view of multiple channels such as search, email, social media, mobile, etc. Marketers need agencies that understand the new rules and can shift dollars strategically between channels as necessary to achieve and maintain high ROI. Hence, our tag line: Vast Digital Landscape. One Guide.

The brand is new, but what we do and what we offer to our clients hasn’t changed. The reality is that we’ve been steadily expanding our services – and our grasp of this new Web 2.0 world — as the marketplace and our clients demanded it. We will continue to add new staff in 2008, so you will see many new names and faces contributing to the Blog (which will also have a new name soon: Endless Plain).

One recent addition to our staff of notables is Joy Brazelle. Joy will serve as our Director of Analytics. She comes to us from ClickTracks, where she was the Director of Professional Services. Analytics is fundamental to everything we do, so Joy is a welcome addition to the team.

We’ll keep you posted as we ramp up for the switch-over in January.

As this post goes live I’ll be presenting on this very topic at the Search Engine Strategies in Chicago. Since not all of our readers are going to be there, I thought I’d post my presentation here, along with a brief descriptive (well, since my presentation is mostly pictures, it needs some explaining). So without further ado, here’s the topic which we at RBDRodeo haven’t had to deal with too much, because we have great clients – “How to Deal with Difficult Clients”.

The first step that I took for this 5 minute presentation was to identify 6 different types of ‘difficult’ clients.

1. The Denyer



The Denyer is the client that takes your input, but doesn’t actually follow through and implement it. This could be for one of a few reasons. The first being lack of resources. If they’ve hired you it’s because they don’t have the knowledge in-house to do the work, but if they don’t have the staff to implement your recommendations, then it’s not going to get done. The second reason for denial is quite simply that they don’t want to do it. Maybe outsourcing was forced on them, and they don’t want the project to succeed, or maybe they believe that they know more than you do, so they’re second-guessing you.

2. The Spy



The Spy is that type of client that examines everything that you do, trying to get as much knowledge out of you as possible, so that they can move the project in-house as soon as possible. This isn’t an issue when the client is up front about it, and you can work together to actually set up and schedule a training plan, but when they tell you that it’s not their intention, while blatantly doing so it’s an issue.

3. The Invisible Man / Sneak Attacker



This type of client goes into ‘silent running’ mode for a while, then suddenly appears out of the shadows asking a flurry of questions, or throwing out unscheduled work.

4. The ‘I Want it Yesterday’ Guy



This type of client feels that you work for them and only them. Your contract binds you to them day and night, you must drop everything else and respond to them immediately, if not sooner.

5. The Scope Creeper



This insidious beast is one of the most feared. The Scope Creeper starts off with a simple enough, well defined project, then piece by piece expands the scope until the project is unrecognizable from the original. What started off as an ordinary site audit suddenly, and without warning (ok, with lots of warning) becomes an audit on 3 sites, a social media plan for 2 industries, an analytics installation and a whitepaper on expected conversion rates in the online Bolivian dental industry… for the same price…

6. The ‘Lack of Internal Process’ Client



Everything goes smoothly with this client, your recommendations were accepted and implemented, and the site is starting to take off. Then, a month later, you notice some strange numbers in the analytics. Three of the main landing pages drop to 0 conversions, while a fourth has a major increase in conversions. Yep, one of their IT people decided to ‘standardize’ the code between pages, copying the unique tracking code from one page to all. So you get it fixed, and then you notice that another page has reverted to a past version, and so on, and so forth.

So what should you do? How can you deal with these ‘difficult’ clients?

• Be Proactive:
  • Do your Due diligence on the client, identify how they work, see what resources they have, and how they are deployed
  • Set both sets of expectations up front – if you both know what you’re supposed to do and supposed to receive, and when, then there shouldn’t be any surprises.
• Use your contract:
  • The contract should have the scope of the work clearly laid out. If there’s a deviation, then both parties need to agree to it, as well as any change in the fee structure that results.
• Communicate:
  • Ensure that both parties have the opportunity to give regular updates to each other on a mutually agreed schedule
• Identify and Resolve:
  • When an issue is raised, identify how best to resolve it to the satisfaction of both parties.

By working through these issues together, and setting expectations up front, the agency and the client can have a great mutually beneficial relationship.

Following on from the previous session on Selling your Integrated Marketing Plan, this session deals with selling he topic of search to the C-suite, and handling their expectations. This session was once

Barbara Coll of WebMama.com was the first presenter, and started off by talking about a few CEO situations that you’re likely to encounter…

• CEO-ego #1 – We need to show up – Under some random PR industry that we want to own the category – but we are creating the category
• CEO-ego #2 – Why aren’t we showing up for my name?
• The Cool Factor: Everything Google does is cool, why aren’t we doing everything that Google offers?

You will also get push back from on-high, from those C-level people that don’t understand search;

• Search doesn’t convert for my products / services
• Why would people pay attention to those ads?
• How does it fit into the rest of our world?
• Why not do it through our other agency?

How to sell to all management. You need to address the following issues:

• Competition -Who is your real competition?
• Reputation Management
• ROI

How to talk to a CMO

• What do you want people to do after they see your TV spot?
• What is the expected behavior after someone sees a behavioral ad on Yahoo?

Introduce Universal / Blended search

• Praise marketing elements that have already been developed
• Show the value of optimization of those elements
• Tell them it isn’t all about text-based ad

Talk direct response

• Search is the deal closer
• The ROI is high
• Explain how all other online/offline can uplift search volume
• Praise the other programs and campaigns

There is a problem with volume: You just can’t spend enough on search!

Education and training:

• Bring in the engines for show and tell
• Talk to other agencies about integration of data and consistency of reporting
• Develop standards for the website style guide
• Act professional… don’t look like a hacker

What not to do:

• Don’t brag and say that you’re better than the ‘other agency’ because you produce better ROI with search
• Search is not all that company needs to do, ,especially for branding and selling and online
• Don’t say that search measurement is all that you need, it needs to be integrated with other corporate metrics.

Next up Andreas Stenzel of VMware (a client of the Barbara’s), to give the internal perspective. He walked through 3 different case studies to highlight the differences involved with each pitching internally within each company.

• Don’t sell search alone, highlight it’s place in the larger marketing mix, show the synergies that you can achieve.
• Identify the standalone ROI.
• Identify your targets up front – audience, channels, etc.
• Use seed deals – Proof of Concept to show that search really does work.

His most important takeaway is to define and validate your strategy early on, and stick to it

You have an integrated marketing plan all ready, all you need is the approval from the C-level crowd. How can you make them understand what it is that you’re trying to do, and why the tactics that you’re proposing are the best way forward? That’s the idea behind this session, moderated by Rebecca Lieb of Click Z.

The first presenter is Kevin Lee of Didit, he identified 5 C-Suite motivators \ emotional hot buttons:

1. Greed – Play on the opportunity cost of not implementing the plan, point out that Search is important for branding
2. Fear – CMO tenure is under 2 years on average. CMOs need a bright spot to point to regardless of overall macroeconomic factors.
3. Vanity – C level don’t really understand search (don’t use acronyms), so educate them (explaining the acronyms so you can then use them), not on tactics, but on the holistic approach to marketing, including search.
4. Loss – Failure to follow up other offline market with a search plan is a huge waste of the original media, and interest that you’ve generated.
5. Competitiveness -Compare your business to your competition, this is a huge motivator for your C-level executives (com-score provides data that you can use to generate this).

If working with multiple vendors, keep your eyes open, as they may not try to work together as well as they could, as they either are, or beieve that they are after the same budget. Push instead for information sharing, to shape the best integrated marketing plan as possible.

Next up Sage Lewis with a very energy filled presentation. He talked about a 6 month review that his had recently team performed, which concluded with a 30 minute presentation to the CMO. The CMO only wanted to know how many customers the project brought in, and how much it cost him, not a full blown presentation on the entire marketing plan. Sage’s mistake was to not identify the requirements for the CMO before the meeting.

6 reasons that people buy Search engine Marketing:

1. Profit and Gain – Talk conversion rates.
2. Fear of loss – What are competitors doing? Demonstrate the increasing cost of entry.
3. Pleasure – Offer complete solutions instead of package, hourly, etc.
4. Avoidance of Pain – Make everything easy and straightforward, under promise, over deliver.
5. Pride – Discuss the cutting edge part of your services.
6. Desire for Approval – Offer press releases featuring the executive’s online prowess.

Understand the person – think from their perspective.

C-level executives tend to have Dominant or Conscientious personalities, you should identify which of these personalities you’re working with, and adjust your pitch accordingly. Be aware that when presenting to multiple C level executives in a tribunal type system, you will most likely be pitching to each. In that case try to pitch to a single C level executive first, and get them to champion the integrated marketing plan.

The final presenter is Bill Parkes, he has 3 main points.

1. Make sure your strategy is aligned;

The alignment is between the business objectives and the appropriate KPIs, what are you trying to do? Creating brand awareness and lead generation require completely different strategies.

2. …your plan unbiased;

Use modeling and date to remain unbiased.

3. …and the website included;

Make your website an integral component of your plan.

In between the conference presentationss, the client work, and writing this blog, we’ve also had time to do at least one other thing. Yep, the RBDRodeo team has moved into new office space. Admittedly not a large move, given that we’ve relocated 2 blocks away, but furniture still needed to be moved, and the office IT infrastructure needed to be set up and ready to go.

So what’s with the African theme in the pictures in the new office? Well, you’ll have to wait for a post from Nan on that topic, some time between when she gets back from her speaking engagements in Chicago (today and tomorrow) and January 2nd. Is that enough of a tease for you?