Preface: We’re Terrible Salespeople
We work in an industry wrought with “experts” and experts. The former is likely out to make a quick buck or is a great salesperson with little knowledge or practice, but they have a high trust quotient – they are good at sales. The latter includes folks like us at BlackTruck Media. We’re actually terrible salespeople. Instead, we’re relationship people. We’ve worked years in developing those relationships and continue to focus on being good people, doing good work. We think it’s a little weird for someone to try to strong-arm you into SEO/SEM or digital ad space sales. We’re not that kind of company. Here’s why:
- We’re Regular Folks. We just happen to be digitally inclined. We’re rather introverted, but we do like a good networking event, too. Observations are what build our success in the digital space, so naturally we love people-watching and being in the mix. We will likely do more listening than selling, but then again, we are interested in you and your company first, not your money.
- Education of our Client Base. You can’t do your job if you don’t know how we do our job. While there is a fair amount of proprietary information that we keep to ourselves, we try to tell you pretty much everything else in an honest manner. The more you know, the better you feel, and frankly the easier our job is at BTM. An educated customer base makes sense to us. We want you involved and to have a relationship with you; we don’t wanna just toss a report your way once a month and collect a check. Our responsibility is to educate clients from the start that SEO is not just search engines being optimized, but it also includes search engagement and experience optimization. We’re going to do a holistic audit and write a strategy from that point, not a guess or what some application kicks out.
- Crafting Strategy. Involving your most pressing issues into our strategic goals is a hallmark of our business. We will make suggestions along the way for best practices based on our experience in a number of industries. Don’t expect any “shooting from the hip” here. Do expect flexibility and observation, watching and waiting, patience and practicality, feedback and editing to perfect what we set out to do. We will keep you abreast of all of this, and if you ever have a question regarding our direction, we will answer it. We love talking strategy with our clients and crafting unique strategy for their goals.
- Regular & Thorough Reporting. SEO reports are complicated, and we know this. We pride ourselves on reporting that is not only action-oriented, but helps you actually understand and explain to others what is happening in your online space. Reports are there to not just report, but educate and make you ask questions. Let’s face it, they also can make you look good in front of your peers. Taking the time so you understand what you’re reading is baked into our ethos.
- Community First. Our investment in West Michigan and beyond isn’t just surface deep. We love this place. We are raising families here, and so we invest in things like the arts, small business, commerce, education, and families. We are where you are, not in some basement in a far-off land. We put our community first, so we can support you in more ways than just digital. We’re in it with you.
- Transparency is Key. Have a question? Ask it. We’ll answer it. It’s that simple. If we don’t have an answer, we will research it. If you need more info, we’ll get it for you. Search ethics is making a steady comeback in this industry. It went dark for a while, and we felt like we were getting snuffed out in providing honest service at a fair price, but there are more and more companies, freelancers, etc. that have brought ethics back—either that, or finally the bad guys are moving along elsewhere.
We’re here to help lead the charge in ethical, honest SEO/SEM practices that continue to shape the industry we love along the way.
