One of the more challenging aspects of running an online marketing agency is mashing our process into legal agreements. Out of the legalese we typically cover in our documentation (fee structure, NDA, Term, Termination, Indemnification, Arbitration, etc…) none is more delightfully daunting than the obligatory “scope” exhibit.
Because our work is always data driven and research based, it can be tricky to make legal promises that set realistic expectations based on fact-sets as yet undiscovered. Â We take the approach of building contracts with language that surrounds our process. This article shares sample scope from our “end-to-end social media research and pilot” contract, which includes organic social and social PPC. Â The verbiage is self-explanatory without further introduction. We hope you find portions of the documentation, as well as insight into AIMCLEAR‘s process, useful.
Exhibit A: Scope Of Social Media Services by AIMCLEAR is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Exhibit A: Scope Of Social Media Services
Services will be mutually allocated and/or as directed by Client based on recommendations of AIMCLEAR. The objective is to plan and execute a strategic social media-marketing plan, deploy first-steps organic social, social PPC tactics and facilitate Client’s future ability to migrate programs in-house, post-deployment.
Interview Client for deeper briefing on product, goals and big picture. Audit existing paid and/or organic analytics, Facebook Fan Page(s) histories and associated case studies. Meet and integrate with client’s in-house creative, marketing, PR and technical human personnel as applicable by phone, email and chat. Assess Client’s human resources and technology readiness as pertains to building internal direct marketing team(s).
Adapt and augment existing demographic research focused on identifying market segments. Conduct social interest & KW research. Deliverables are .xls files segmented by master interest/keyword segments. “Master keyword segments” means keywords sorted to sufficiently delimit categories and sub-categories, suitable for future SEO & Social usage, but not segmented enough for responsible deployment in AdGroups. The focus for this phase is:
- Perform Competitive Intelligence to research competitor’s previous and existing paid, organic and social marketing campaigns to see what was effective and their spending patterns.
- Identification of Google keyword inventory for main service lines & map relevancy in various social channels including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and other niche’ topical communities we discover to be relevant.
- Identify Facebook PPC & organic interest segments. For clarification, organic “interest segments” are FB groups, events, people, fan pages, applications, etc…
- Identify Facebook PPC segments. These PPC segments are used to place ads on Facebook right sidebar ads and take users to the same or similar landing pages as Google PPC. Facebook PPC is simply another PPC channel for direct sales and branding.
- Landing pages can also be within Facebook, which is sometimes a reasonable or great choice.
- Identify mainstream YouTube paid search segments susceptible to Client’s products, messages & brand.
- Review data gleaned from the research and choose select organic social, mainstream organic SERPs Universal SERPs and paid social targets from the service lines for first promotional efforts. AIMCLEAR suggests there be a face to face meetings as provided for herein, given the depth and detail of this project.
Set Strategy & KPIs (Marketing Plan Goals)
- Work with Client to establish reasonable KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and controlling strategy to guide channel tactics.
- Overall Strategy
- Branding KPIs
- Direct Response KPIs
- Projected Costs & Recommended Vendors
- Identify obvious and inexpensive opportunities to migrate Client’s existing public data to YouTube, SlideShare and/or other sites. (Help Docs, FAQs, other digital assets currently on or offline)
- Define frequency and granularity of client-bound reporting and execute
As we mutually deem appropriate, evaluate and target organic and paid social: Facebook Social PPC, Facebook organic, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn paid & organic, etc… other mainstream and/or niche’ topical niche’ communities. All channel decision will be based on applicability, projected ROI and time available in scope. The objective is to pick low hanging fruit first with the greatest return for the least investment.
For these mutually agreed upon first social and social PPC targets, further sort demographic segment-defining keywords to a deeper level of segmentation so as to be industry consensus best social PPC practices.
Deliver research to client. Deliverable is a tabbed.xls file of keywords, for the service areas, divided by market segments, Facebook segments and estimated PPC test spend. At AIMCLEAR‘s discretion portion of the deliverables may be presented by WebEx online via .ppt.
Client will design, develop and host landing pages as advised by AIMCLEAR. Any delays the project incurs surrounding Client’s landing page production & associated analytics installation, provided AIMCLEAR is fulfilling it’s obligations as contained herein, shall not be considered AIMCLEAR‘s material breech of this agreement.
Deploy first-target social campaigns, both social organic and social PPC. Conduct multi-variate ad-message/landing page testing. The objectives are to determine best grid of channels, keywords, text ads and landing pages to meet Client’s traffic and conversion objectives. Work with client to select additional organic social, social PPC segments and interest group targets.
Recommended social PPC Test budget for the initial 2-month period is “not-to-exceed” $___K. It may be less. If AIMCLEAR does suggest that Client allocate additional budget, it will only be because pockets of profitability have been discovered to leverage. Any social PPC expenditures are fully at Client’s sole discretion. Social PPC expenditures can be handled either by Client’s direct credit card entry in Ad platform accounts or pre-payment to AIMCLEAR.
Continue testing. Determine cost & ROI of ongoing program including recommendations for scaling the program to other organic social and social PPC channels. Scale programs as time allows and reasonably prudent during initial 4 month engagement. “Reasonably prudent” means ROI positive, for opportunities that have actually been identified and with the management cost-feasibility calculated based on Client’s future self-maintenance.  In other words, AIMCLEAR‘s fees will not be included in the calculation of ongoing profitability. The Cost feasibility analysis will be based on Client’s internalization of the programs.
AIMCLEAR‘s, at it’s discretion, can cap the aggregate hours spent fulfilling scope in this agreement at ___ hours. Scope, should be viewed as “the proper order of steps for Client to undertake to optimize their near-term (__-__ months) ability to internalize organic social and social PPC direct marketing and branding programs,” as outlined herein. AIMCLEAR will strive during term to reach as many goals in this agreement’s scope as possible. It is our hope that all the objectives outlined herein can be met within ___ months and, in our experience, they can be. However because some of the objectives are contingent on Client’s cooperation and capabilities, both Parties understand that an additional engagement/agreement may be appropriate.
