Re: Yodle- Feedback on quality of work from group?
I've personally only heard bad things, so I never used their services. I've seen them use tracking numbers incorrectly in the past when client's came over from using their services, and that was a huge pain. Definitely take a close look at how they're using tracking numbers & how it will affect NAP consistency. I would also ask for clarification on the terms:
directories update across the board - What does this mean? Which directories? How will they update; manually or through some sort of feed? By "update" do you mean fill out the profile 100% or just NAP? How doe they deal with duplicates?
up to 11 pages of adversites [ landing pages optimized for special items] - Where are these going to be shown? Are they micro-sites or are they landing pages off the main domain? If they are micro-sites or Yodle-owned sites, how much access will the client have? Many times companies will create these and lock out their clients to retain control over the relationship.
reputation management on yelp, google plus,local.com etc - Once again, who has the keys here - Yodle or the client? What kind of relationship management; are they simply reporting reviews, or are they actively responding?
Facebook connection - No idea what this means. At first glance it seems like some BS marketing lingo they're using to justify a higher price. Might want more specifics what this is.
e mail response system - Once again, who has access to the email database. It's great if you're collecting emails, but if they control database access then they could shut you/your client off from those leads at any given time. If you're feeding them the email addresses, then you might want to check what kind of volume you're sending /month because there are less expensive alternatives.
tracking mechanisms - Tracking for what? Leads? So is this contact form tracking and phone call tracking?
mobile optimizing - Mobile optimizing how? A stand alone mobile site? Most companies don't need this if their site is already responsive. If they're going to completely rebuild the site into mobile form and do the proper tagging, that's cool but at such a low price point I doubt that's the case. I would ask for specifics.
optimizing for position in organic search position through key words - Is this not what you're doing for the client? What's the strategy behind Yodle's "optimizing for position(s) in organic search" and how do they plan on executing? Kind of sounds like they'll be more of a competitor to you than a vendor/partner relationship. If they're promising the world for $299/mo then I would really read the fine print and understand how they're planning on delivering
From my point of view it looks like your client is doing this to consolidate all these features, but there are a ton of other companies out there which would offer similar services. You really need to watch handing 100% control of your marketing over to one company like this - once the contract ends you could lose everything. Risk mitigation is key when looking at platforms like this. If you don't see the results you're looking for, what's the exit strategy? If you cancel and they drop all your historical data (leads), how will you recover?
One important thing I've learned over the years... always go into a project with an exit strategy. Think about the possible scenarios from the start, and guide the project towards the one you want. Keep in mind exit strategies aren't always negative; if this goes bananas and the client makes a ton of money off of it, one strategy could be selling the company for a large profit to pursue other opportunities. Just something to keep in mind.
