Q1. Please introduce yourself and your business/brand/product.
Michael Rarick, CEO and Director of Sales for MediaBerry Marketing. We are a marketing agency that helps companies scale their SEO efforts through relationship-based, white hat techniques to boost search rankings and organic traffic.
Q2. Who is the ideal customer for your product?
We normally work with SaaS and tech related companies, but we are expanding our offerings to any service provider with an online presence. Our main point of contact is typically CMO’s, CEO’s Founders, and the Head of Marketing or Outreach.
Q3. What are your primary sales channels? Please separately highlight the ones that have proven to be most successful and most cost effective.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator – ability to target industry and position level at a minimum monthly fee
Apollo.ai – great to get contact details and insight to the company
UpWork- great for project specific work to build a relationship for more collaboration
Referrals – we provide great service and our clients love to send us referrals
Q4. Have you tried using cold outreach to get more clients for your business? If yes, what’s been your success rate?
Oh we do that all the time. Between cold emails and cold LinkedIn messaging we have seen a decent recent effort. The key to success in our experience is to offer something slightly different than others. If you can get someone to read your message 2 or more times, they are more likely to respond. Executive’s get flooded with offers so whatever you can do to cut through the noise helps.
Q5. What was your biggest challenge in sales and how did you overcome it?
Some people think that SEO and marketing can be completed once and/or overnight. Its a moving target that has to be worked on almost daily. So working with our clients to show them that this will be a long-term commitment can be daunting for some.
Q6. Over time, some users may stop using your product or they may cancel their subscription. Have you implemented any strategies to win back such customers?
We have a dedicated account manager assigned to each client. Part of their job is to identify any potential pain points and to check in to see if there is any way we can improve. Customer service is key.
However, some may build an internal team to replace us, and that is what is best for them. We continue to follow up with them over time to make sure they are getting what they need and even send them referrals and a lot of time they will come back.
Q7. Imaging you are speaking to a younger version of yourself who is just starting out. They have $1000 to spend in sales and marketing. How would you advise them to spend it?
Focus on what you do really well and blow it out. Trying to implement 50 different tactics as cheaply as possible is a sure-fire way to lose your money. Focus on one task, one service, one opportunity and go hard.
