How I Work with Clients: an Interaction Model

For many years of providing various marketing services (from technical audit to content strategy) to customers doing business in the most diverse economic sectors, I have developed a specific customer interaction model that allows me to work efficiently and achieve the best project results.

Work efficiency is essential to me because I have no desire to waste time. If I can avoid unnecessary operational fuss, I will definitely try to take advantage of this opportunity and turn it into the work process.

In turn, my customers achieve the maximum return on invested funds. I never invent unnecessary work to score several extra paid hours. I avoid wasting time on pointless meetings or unnecessary reports and offer exclusively those things that will most certainly benefit your business.

Please look at what the interaction process looks like on my side in the context of consulting services or constant SEO/marketing project support.

An Initial Contact 

First, we make contact to know each other and to understand in principle whether we are right for each other and how I can help you. I do not take on all projects but only those whose owners are eager to develop and ready to work on their growth along with me.

To do so, I must have a sufficient budget and resources provided by customers, their willingness to invest effort and time, and implement radical changes on their websites when necessary. In short, you must be ready to grow as a business.

If we are right for each other, we move on to the next step.

Getting Ready to Start Work

To set specifically to work, I must have some information from you, depending on what exactly you need — a set of advice, an audit, recommendations on your project, or website comprehensive promotion on Google.

You may have to provide the following information:

• Define your goals and explain why exactly you contact me;
• Describe your  business specifics that are worth knowing in the context of my work;
• Inform about previous website promotion campaigns, if any: what they were like and how long they lasted;
• Provide access to Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and your website administrator control panel in some cases.

I also need to comprehend what in-house resources you have available, for instance, employed software engineers, copywriters, designers, or hired appropriate freelance specialists when necessary.

Start Work on the Project

Regardless of what we are talking about — advising, website audit, search engine promotion, or project comprehensive development, I allocate a specific time limit for my services. Presently, it is 10 to 12 hours per week per project.

To be more specific, you can count on approximately 40 to 50 hours a month, no more. My work is highly productive, so, in the overwhelming majority of cases this time will suffice to obtain the desired results.

I acquaint you with a preliminary plan, you make a 50% prepayment, and I start working.

Further on, you pay once a week. Particularly, I send my weekly work results at the beginning of the following week (on Monday) and the corresponding invoice.

After you pay the invoice, I move on to the next work stage.

In case you decide to resort to my permanent services on your project’s SEO support and inbound marketing, you will pay twice a month: 50% at the beginning and 50% at the end of the month.

Cooperation via Upwork

Another possible option for our cooperation is through Upwork.com. That is the case if you want to simplify your documentation maintenance. The mentioned freelance platform takes care of all the formalities for us.

I expect you to pay for my services delivered via Upwork every week too. On Saturday, I make a report about working hours, and on Monday, you pay the amount due according to the report.

Budget Allocation

If you need my consulting services only, you pay for the hours spent on work. If you are interested in your website SEO support on a permanent basis, the project budget will consist of two parts:

• Hourly payments.
• Other expenses, like link purchase, text writing, technical work on the website, etc.

For example, the project budget may amount to $1,500 a month, where $900 is the cost of work, and $600 pays the related project costs.

I do not have a typical complex project like “mass production” SEO companies. I calculate the work and budgets for each project individually. I always need to see your website first and know your objectives.

Personal Account Registration

If our cooperation is about website promotion, the work on the project will take time and may require various services, like competitor analysis, position tracking, or link purchase.

In case the workload on the project is rather significant and needs multiple dedicated services, I can register personal accounts (areas) on various specialized services, online platforms, and work marketplaces specifically for your project.

What do Guidelines Look Like?

Depending on a specific customer, the scope of work can vary a lot. However, it includes various analytical data collection — website audit, niche analysis, competitor analysis, active marketing channels assessment, possible growth points searching, etc.

Upon getting the analysis results, I compile essential data, document conclusions and guidelines, and send them to customers. Once you have read the information, I will call you to answer your questions and provide additional clarification. I can contact one of your employees to conduct complementary training when necessary.

I can solve quite a wide range of tasks, namely, a website audit, competitor analysis, analytics, content guidelines, content plan creation, link building strategizing, possible growth points search, individual one-to-one sessions in the “question-answer” format, and more.

You have to make sure you possess sufficient resources to implement my recommendations because that is a vital cooperation condition. Here, I talk about a suitable in-house team or a substantial budget to hire the necessary freelancers on a project-by-project basis. Otherwise, the work will be meaningless.

If I am engaged in your project SEO and marketing support on a permanent basis, I can additionally conduct some work on the website or involve freelance specialists like copywriters, programmers, or designers.

Communication Details

I mainly communicate asynchronously. We will use email messaging to discuss global issues and agree on some vital points.

If necessary, we can discuss peculiar operational issues in Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber or LinkedIn.

The Overall Cooperation Algorithm

Let us summarize everything described above in the form of a step-by-step roadmap:

1. We make a call and find out we are suitable for each other.
2. You tell me about your objectives and we agree on the work plan.
3. You provide the necessary accesses and make a prepayment (50%).
4. I start work. If necessary, we will communicate in the process.
5. A week after I started the work (or after I have worked 10 hours), you receive initial documents with analytical data and guidelines, after which you make the rest 50% payment.
6. Once a week, we set up a question-answer session on the project.
7. If everything suits you, we will go on with our cooperation.

I hope I was clear about my project cooperation mechanics. So, if this interaction model is OK with you, I will gladly become your reliable marketing partner.