Overview: Quick Start
What is Quick Start?
Reputation X charges two kinds of fees:
- Quick Start (one-time)
- Monthly
The Quick Start fee is used for one-time up-front activities requiring more resources than the regular monthly fee. Each campaign is different, but common activities include:
- Research of similar entities
- Strategy development
- Project initiation
- Initial content (some, on occasion)
When does Quick Start happen?
Quick Start activities generally happen in the first month and at the same time as the monthly repeating activities begin.
What is the difference between Quick Start and Monthly activities?
Monthly activities are separate from Quick Start. Monthly activities involve things like web development, content development, publisher outreach, project management, and link negotiation. They are things that, for the most part, repeat each month, albeit in a somewhat different form based on how search profiles react to our work.
Quick Start activities generally happen only once.
Research of similar online entities
Part of our Objectives and Key Results (OKR) approach is identifying what web property and content-types people and search engines want to see and consume. We observe and measure the search and social results of entities (people, companies, brands) similar to yours to learn the patterns necessary to create the Strategy.
Research is generally only conducted once; that’s why it’s included in the Quick Start and not in the normal monthly fee.
A biotechnology company will have a different search profile from a financial services company. Within the sub-category of financial services companies, there are M&A specialists, mortgage companies, and many more. Each of these categories will share certain traits. A biotech company may have a profile on a site like NationalHealthCounsel.org, whereas a financial services company of any size almost always has a Bloomberg profile.
Other factors we look at include inbound link mentions, the number, quality, and source of each. We do this to get an idea of where we need to apply the client promotion budget for the best results.
Strategy
Research of similar entities forms the basis for strategy. The strategy is a one-time activity that happens at the beginning of a campaign just after research. The bulk of the strategy is developed at the beginning of a project.
Note that adjustments to strategy happen as the online profile begins to change. These adjustments are made on a monthly basis and are part of the monthly fee.
What’s included in a strategy?
A typical strategy is presented as an ordered list of activities necessary to achieve an objective. Below are examples of strategy line items we’ve used in various campaigns over the years:
- Develop counter-story blog entry / 1200 words / Branded headline.
- Develop Wikipedia page based on xxxx and xxxx / stub / then expand.
- Research true identity – contact for anonymous negative blogger.
- Develop stub topical website for charity / wp / 5-500w seed articles.
- Create messaging / perform outreach to bloggers in xxxxx area.
- Earn 5 DA30 relevant high TF links to target site C.
Things to know about strategy
- Each reputation management strategy is different.
- Strategies are created for the minimum duration of a campaign (6-mo) and extended or modified as needed.
- Some aspects of a strategy are multiple-month activities. For example, activities dependent on third-party editorial cycles, SEO, or more complex development.
Project Initiation
Every campaign has a beginning. Below are examples of one-time project initiation activities:
- Project management tool setup
- Project messaging setup
- Project team independent research
- Project scheduling
- Initial internal campaign meeting
- Initial external (client) campaign meeting
- Review management system setup
- Baseline reporting
- Client questionnaire development
