I've been traveling for the past few weeks and talking to dozens of SEO consultants, and you know what they are all saying? They are at their max for clients. Yup, that's right...they can't take on new clients. They have TOO much work! This is good for all sorts of reasons. One, it shows we are in a good place during an economically difficult time, and two, there are people out there desperately seeking out your services, with nowhere to turn.
So how do you find these clients begging to pay you money? Here are ten ways to build your client base, and ultimately make sure the clients keep-a-coming...
10. Refer a client/affiliate program
Setting up a referral or affiliate program can be something as simple as offering discounts on your prices to clients that refer new clients, or something as complicated as full blown affiliate programs with ongoing commissions for successful client signups. I find too many consultants think of this as bothering a past client, but if you offer them a kickback for mentioning your good services to their friends that need them...it seems like such an obvious double win to me. So what are you doing to leverage your current client list for a bigger, better looking one?
9. Optimize your site/resume
This is one of those "oh snap" moments. It's such a simple idea, but few of us are doing it. As SEOs we spend our days helping people rank their sites higher, and optimize for more conversions. Well uhmmm, what about your site? I know you are doing all the right stuff to make sure you rank #1 for "best SEO consultant in the universe" but what about when they actually land on your site? Is it easy for them to request more info? How about trust signals, testimonials, and other valuable information...is it doing it's job? Potential clients will naturally spy on you check out your website and resume. Do you know what they are going to find? Is it enough?
8. Speak at events/hold site clinics
As we all know this industry operates, for the most part, virtually. However, when it comes to signing clients nothing can replace a potential client seeing you in person. Speaking at conferences can be a great way to reach a relevant audience and pitch yourself before having to pitch your services. You get to network, and possibly get links to help build your brand. In addition to speaking, if you can finagle it, hold site clinics at conferences. The whole room gets to see you action, and your future clients get to see exactly how you will help them...once they sign with you. Can you say cha-ching?
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Martin MacDonald's excellent presentation at the London Pro Training likely earned him some new clients
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7. Guest blogging
As SEO's we know the value of guest blogging. Words like "visibility," "links," and "personal branding" come to mind. All of these make guest blogging the perfect way to funnel potential clients to your site and your services. Take this idea and think outside of the box. If you focus on SEO for your local area, where are local businesses reading information online? Get in there. If you do SEO for enterprise sites, where are those CMO's getting their information? Make sure your byline is landing in front of their SEO-deprived eyes.
6. Sponsor events/mixers
Instead of traveling by plane to go talk SEO, why not host a local meet-up for businesses to hear about how SEO can help them succeed. You can either go formal and have a panel talking local SEO, or you could have material they can take with them. These local mixers can help attract qualified leads and build your reputation as a local SEO expert. How do you get people to come? Give away free consultations, or pick up the bar tab for an hour. Never underestimate the power of an open bar.
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The SEOmoz meetup in Sofia, where we made tons of great new friends
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5. Create free tools
I can't take the credit for this idea, but I had to get it up on the list. Lots of great consultants and agencies have been doing this for years. If you have free tools that people will love, offer them up as a way to drive traffic to your site. By offering SEO-related tools, you attract a relevant audience, collect information you can use to follow-up with, and leave people with a positive sentiment. People love free stuff! It's a great way to get people both comfortable, and acquainted with your personal brand.
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Virante's collection of free SEO tools brings them highly relevant traffic and industry credibility
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4. Email blast
Much like #9 you would think this approach would be obvious, but oftentimes us SEOs forget about some marketing basics. When you are looking to add to your client base why not email friends, family, past colleagues, etc. and let them know you are taking on new clients. Make sure you list out what you specialize in so they can easily pass the email onto people that might be interested. If you are really looking to get leads, add in a free consult or audit, and make the deal impossible to ignore. Personal referrals are incredibly powerful.
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Take note of that email address - it's a handy one to have :-)
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3. Publish case studies
I know you all just collectively rolled your eyes when you read this one, because you are right, case studies involve a lot of work. You have to nail down a thesis, put together a test, collect data, and then report the results in a digestible manner. Yuck. But you know what? Case studies are compelling for just that reason. They are a thorough example of just how effective your services can be for the person reading the case study. Potential clients want to read about a similar company and the success SEO brought them. If you couple that case study with a contact form they can fill out for more information, you are sitting pretty. Trust me.
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Location 3 Media's excellent Local SEO Guide is a great example
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2. Learn a niche
This may seem counterintuitive, because how can you open up the flood gates for more clients if you limit yourself to one niche, but people considering SEO want to see a consultant with relevant experience. Remember, SEO is still a bit confusing to most companies. They don't understand best practices, they still believe that this SEO-stuff is a bit magical. If you have a few past clients in one industry, why not build out that portfolio and market yourself as such. What is your niche? Sometimes by taking on any client, you actually cannibalize your chances of owning a type of client.
1. Get active in new forums
Did I just use the word "forum?" Yeah I did. I don't necessarily mean the forums of yesteryear (although a lot of those are still great places to network) instead I mean the new age forums. There are so many sites out there to help you establish yourself as an expert in a certain field. I mean sites like Quora, LinkedIn Answers, FormSpring and Facebook Questions.There are dozens of niche Q&A sites popping up. Don't underestimate the power of marketing yourself an SEO authority to these growing audiences.
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Sharing your knowledge across the web can result in positive client karma
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So there you have it. Hopefully I've given you some great ideas to get started with. The key with all of this is to remember that you need to be marketing your services not just to people that get SEO, but go beyond that circle. Wander into the less Internet-savvy group, and help them understand the value of SEO. In doing so, you will help them see the value in you, and more importantly, in hiring you.
I'd love to hear your suggestions for things I may have forgotten. How have you all grown your client base?
I can speak from experience about the free tools. Ever since launching the Local Citation Finder, I've been buried in opportunities.
The best part about it is having the freedom to be very selective with the clients I choose to take on.
Let say that you have worked well also the networking part for your tools ;)
You are so right. From my days of consulting, I remember when I first started I couldn't be selective and it made for some difficult clients. As time passed, I had more experience, and my brand grew, I was able to be more selective and it makes all the difference! When a client and consultant are a good fit for each other, the whole process becomes more productive and successful :)
Hello Joanna,
I really like the idea no. 4 option email marketing, well we are doing that thing, but its slow process also it better and huge chances of email spamming, if client response any thing then we said "Thanks for your positive response we will send you a complete analysis report of your website", it seems people don't like spam email, this is like we are begging for projects.
Free Tools are great! But it will much more powerful with some affiliate program.
But if I want my clients take me like a real authority in SEO, I choose education. Find OR open some "SEO school" in your area and then educate few people. Their GREAT achievements in SEO would be YOUR BEST proof of your knowledges. I know its time consuming and not all can teach. I just say it really works for new clients!
Hi Joanna, great ideas!About your item 8.: Speak at events/hold site clinics. Not every "little" company has the possibility to speak a conferences ;-).One recommondation what we do: Some seminars for our customers are taking place in our seminar room for existing and of course new customers - regarding social media like Facebook etc. Many of our clients trust us since years and most of them what a relaunch of there website after a certain period. Those seminars are a perfect way for us to keep in touch with clients and to attest our competence.
I suppose it all depends on what you see as being a conference, but there are always opportunities out there to speak if you’re willing to put in some effort.
The "little" unknown company I work uses our local chamber of commerce (UK based) to hold speeches during their networking events and we've been surprising successful at picking up clients.
Great idea! One to remember, simply getting another "touch" in with clients can be huge for keeping them happy and hopefully snagging those referrals :)
Great post Joanna -
These are all fantastic. I have always liked searching "Home Page" + (Keyword/City), go a few pages back then find the root domain names and go from there. There are many different ways to use Google to target SEO leads.
Also, I used to search something like "Do it yourself ecommerce" or "easy to build website store" and go 20+ pages back looking for an ecom providers' testimonials/portfolio, then reverse IP search (all) their clients hosted on the address. Chances are if an ecom providers' solution requires the clients to do the building, they probably are not ranking. Do it yourself solutions are always in need of SEO help.
Another good one is to take one geo-targeted client you have already ranked number 1 or 2 for their root keywords and show your efforts off to a bunch of people in different major cities that are in the same industry but not quite above the fold on the 1st page SERPs. The best part about this is that a lot of your research is already done and can be used for the next project. Plus, I am sure your original client that you got ranked would not mind vouching for you when you have prospects on the fence.
I have been teaching rooms of people how to sell SEO for a decade. I only say this because you must be comfortable reaching out phone/email and push SEO for these methods to work. Sometimes you have to aggressive to get the work, bottom line.
There is about 7% of the ways I use the engines to find leads. I could go on but it would turn into a book. Plus, this info is valuable!
Andrew I kind of want to to publish some of those ideas up in the post itself :) ha, those are great tips! thank you for sharing them with the community!
i agree with your all points. I think the most important one is if we build a free tool.
These are great tips. Although I don't see why you would ever have to turn down potential clients because you think you have too much work. I'd say that just means it's time for your SEO work force to expand.
Yeah, that can be sign you are ready for the next step in business. I second that.
Indeed great points but some points are missing:
If we have to catch new clients we will have to create best proposals keeping in mind their website and that possible then when any one study site well and prepare accordingly.
Mention why you are best among your competitors and why chose you.
I have found that one of the challenges of designing & redesigning websites for smaller businesses is getting across the fact that real success is only going to come from ongoing SEO, and that whilst I can put the foundations in place at the point of design (keyword research, site architecture, on-page optimisation, etc), the support should not end there. I'm sure others will have found that due to some appalling misinformation or misbehaviour from some so-called SEOs out there in the marketplace, real scepticism has developed amongst some small business owners.
I've had a d'uh moment after reading that opening suggestion. Next time I'm in the above position, I'm going to test a offer whereby I reward client referrals in the form of a free SEO performance review, to include implementation of the most impactful opportunity that arises. Importantly, the client will gain genuine benefit from this, but at the same time it will also allow an opportunity to illustrate the wider opportunities available to them from employing a professional SEO.
An excellent post, thank you.
Excellent post as always, Joanna! Just to confirm that #6 works just brilliant - what a smashing night out with Rand and a smart SEO bunch during the SEOmoz Meet up in Sofia. Also great to see the Hop Online team pictured with Rand here! And yes, the numerous pints of lager definitely had something to do with #6 : )
Really its a very good suggestion.The best way to keep your clients happy is to get them positive results.This means getting them more traffic.
Tip #11 (talking to myself and those ones in my situation): TRANSLATE YOUR SITE IN ENGLISH
Maybe so you could have new business opportunities thanks to the networking in communities like SEOmoz too.
Good post, If you already have a crazy amount of PPC clients then getting SEO business is not as hard too =) Just SEO is a much harder sell overall.
I think the Tools idea is good too, just alot of free tools SEO sites offer suck and they do not even work, so I guess if you have free tools which suck then it shows your SEO service sucks too.
Even some SEO tools in the link you posted do not work 100% correct!!!
Hi Joanna :-) I really like your suggestion about learning a niche. I've been slowly adding 'Local Optimization' as a specialty and I'm working on learning as much as I can about Landing Page Optimization. I think it's really hard for anyone to be an 'overall expert' in SEO anymore, There is just too much going on and change is so rampant. Specialization is where it's going (I believe). Thanks for such a nice article :-) Andy :-)
As an in-house SEO, i'll let you know that #8 is one of the most annoying tactics right behind cold calls/emails and sales people who don't bother to find out anything about your company/position.
In fact, over the past couple years, i've become practically blind to the overly-branded power point presentations with the "about our company" and "here are all of our clients slides" and "please hire/contact us" slides that take up 1/3rd of the entire presentation.
SEO is a tricky thing, i guess the product or service has to be the best of all, so people talk about that automatically. Twitter, facebook, google are examples. Spend time / efforts on your website / products.
Excellence, as always Joanna. In order of the most effective things I've done with SEOgadget far:
- Build a blog
- Speak at conferences
- Network
- Get recommended (by existing clients and good friends in the SEO community)
Stuff I wish I had more time to do
- SEO (for our company site!!)
- Email marketing
- Paid Search (for our company site!)
- Forums / QA
- Improve our free tools, get our paid tool live
Thoroughly enjoyable and poignant read, Joanna - a bunch of stuff just added to my "to do" list - thank you :-)
Ha I think we all have a "wish I had the time to do" list. My goal for the new year is to prioritize more of those, since they tend to be the most productive things. Thanks for sharing what works for you :)
Hey Jonna,
thanks for the great article. I have witnessed few of my friends in Social Meda industry to get advantage of your suggetion #8. Must say, all makes a wondeful way to get started with but at the same time it takes a lot of efforts & time to implement.
thanks for the great tips :)
I can confirm that Point #6 works. As it's stating in there, Rand and the rest of us became friends over just one night. He got a really good exposure for himself as well as SEOmoz that night in Bulgaria. Cheers!
I love to hear this! Quick question... were there beers involved that night? :)
I'm still feeling bad I couldn't go there, neighbour. :)
offtopic - I see there is only one "J" difference in our domains ;)
These are great tips. Updating your own site is a good one as I know a lot of strong SEO people that if I didn't know them and just looked at their site, I would not hire them.
You are soooo right! I have seen that so many times. I kind of want to smack people when I see that :)
These are good suggestions, but seem like more 'top of the funnel' ways to get more clients.
Do you have any suggestions for how to convert this attention into clients? Right now I can find clients, but as someone new in the business don't have a standard 'rate' or 'offering'. Advice or an authoritative link to an article/resource would be greatly appreciated.
Ciao Joanna,
nice tips and original to do a reverse list counting from 10 to 1... a tactic to maintain high the attention until the end of the post that I will call as the 11th tip.
My 2cents about tip #10
I am not a great fan of affiliate programs, especially if I cannot really control who are the affiliates. What I have done is to create many connections through networking with web design agencies creating a deal that substancially consists in mutual help: they sell my services as SEO/Web Marketing to their clients (new and old) and I use those agencies in order to redesign sites of my clients (new and old) when needed.
In order to solve the problem of what agency I have to present my client for (new) web design, I've choosen and classified the Web Agency for specialization: one is more specialized in web design for touristic sites, one is specialized in WordPress tailor made templates, one is specialized in eCommerce sites...
That is what I define as "Big Cooperative" and I found that - especially with some very smart designer/devs - can be the base for bigger projects (see tip #5) or simply the way to start guest blogging (even though your suggestion to write posts in the blogs your clients actually read is wonderful!)
Ciao :)
We've had success in similar ways - pairing up with web designers/developers who send us the SEO part of the sites that they design. If you don't have contacts like that yet, it's worth taking a look at who the developers are for your current clients. You've probably had quite a bit to do with them so far (giving optimization instructions, asking "can we do this on the site" questions) and if they have a good impression of you and your work, and especially if you have a good impression of them and find them good to work with, you might want to contact them and ask if they would refer you to their other clients who might be looking for SEO.
Good luck to all!
These are all great tips - but what about for those of us who are maxed out.... How about a post on how the heck we scale our business short of cloning ourselves. :)
Another idea to add in building that bond with a client besides updating them on any new business ventures you may be branching into, would be to send the emails during the holidays to let them know that they are still a very important client hence allowing the emotional door to open as they are more willing to check out what you are doing next.
Hi Joanna,
I whole heartedly agree with number 2 in your lineup (well ok, I agree with all of your points, but that one especially). Nothings screams "EXPERT!" like an SEO who knows the business. For some reason, I've had several machine repair shops as clients. They see that I've done other machine shops from the case studies on my site, and then the owners are overjoyed that I even know what chucks and ballscrews are... let alone what they do. I guess that means I'm passionate about number 3 as well (publishing case studies). That's all I've got. Nice post.
i am sharing my expiriance of getting more client. We are conducting seminar and articals on news papers and interview on local radio station and all the business community :) :) thats sucess of our business.
Number two is a great suggestion. I'd like to add that by focusing on my niche and using a consultative sales approach to attract new clients, I have been able to maintain a decent book.
Try Out SEO Leads. We have many companies working on SEO and Web Designing Leads currently and are really happy with the response.
Joanna! This is a great article. I know you wrote it a while back, but I just found it. I think I have re-read it 4 times over the past few days. This really helped spark some great ideas I can use now. Thank you for sharing this!
I have also found Linkedin to be very effective for getting business leads
Absolutely! That platform (with over 50 million strong) is a huge asset for consultants :)
How do you use LinkedIn to get clients? What has been working for you there?
This article is still relevant 3 years later.
For LinkedIn you want recommendations but you might notice some linked in profiles showing up on first page of Google for cityname + seo.
I definitely agree about the meetups. As a production company we are focused on the relationship and through that we can educate prospects on web video and how important it is for SEO
These are great! If you don't get the opportunities to speak at conferences or large events yet, see if you can find something on a smaller scale with marketing associations or the local chamber of commerce. For instance, my local chamber has Business 101 workshops throughout the year that cover a wide variety of business topics including social media, SEO, etc., and they are always looking for qualified people to lead these things. Chances are you are the best source for knowledge about SEO and online marketing in the area, and leading a seminar or workshop like that is sort of like speaking at a mini-conference! Check with local associations of the Chamber of Commerce and see if you can get involved in something like that.
Workshops are also a great opportunity, good call.
Also can I say on a side-note that your avatar of that adorable puppy distracted me for a solid five minutes today. #iwantadog!
That is my Boston Terrier, Boudreaux! I got him when I lived in Louisiana so we figured he needed a Cajun name! Also goes by Boo for short. By far the best dog ever.
Thanks Joanna for this wonderful post. Really Enjoyed it.
Till now I haven't pitched any clients through any of the above source. But some of my friends in SEO who are doing free lancing are getting clients through referral. I like to point out a new way to get clients don't know whether most of the person in SEO field use this. I came to know this from one of my friend.
He used to search for a particular keyword on google for ex: "locks, equipments, garments etc" & after crawling till 10 pages he'll go click any one site indexed and will go through their site looking for whether they have implied all those SEO things like tags, content, header etc. If not then he'll write a mail to them describing the benefit they are losing for not implying any SEO methods & pitch them his work & other things. Well he got few clients from this but after sending around 30 to 50 mails every other company.
I dont know whether this is legitimate or not. Whats your take on this?
Please reply.
Thanks once again.
Pretty annoying if you ask me. Its like randomly picking on fat people in a street and telling them you are "fat" and i can make you slim if you join my gym. I am sure many people get such type of mails "we have noticed that you are not ranking for .....". Unsolicited advice is spam.
Thanks Himansu,
I think you are correct. This method of getting client is more like a spam. I like the humour you added. Nevertheless people are getting client from doing this cheap tricks also.
I agree, sounds more like an affiliate tactic. Affiliates are like the pushy, dishonest used cars salemen of internet marketing world, giving everyone a bad name.
Hey now... affiliates are people too :) ha, I agree some of pushy and spammy, but there are also really good white hat affiliates out there. We have some great affiliates signed up with our network :)
Interesting that he actually went through the effort to do essentially a free audit before contacting them. Most SEO "Spammers" just send emails to anyone and everyone.
But yeah, people like that give the industry a bad name.
Hey there! This tactic is an older one, it kind of reminds me of the early 1990 days when you could write someone, pitch SEO and get them interested by doing a quick audit for their site. People had such huge basic issues with how they set up their site (aka the whole thing was in flash, nothing was crawlable, etc.) which haha can still be the case sometimes. I think this approach has some value depending on the industry and what stage it is in understanding SEO, but I def don't think its the best use of any consultant's time.
There are so many other ways to collect GOOD leads, that this "casting of the net" approach seems far less successful. That is just my take though. Each consultant has their own way, and if sending out 50 emails guarantees 5 leads, then it might work for them. For me, personally this approach just isn't ROI positive and frankly the emails can come across as spammy and end up leaving a pretty negative sentiment around your personal brand.
Hope that helps!
Nice one Joanna. Thanks for sharing these really good tips.
Good stuff, Joanna! Its a good time of year for SEOs to run a personal site review.. start the New Year off right. ;)
I love this article because it provides an excellent example of how to create valuable content for a target audience. You can replicate this idea for clients who provide services to any professional group like: 10 Ways to Get More Web Design Clients or 10 Ways to Get More IT Consulting Clients. Also, I recommend the book "The Referral Engine" for good advice on setting up an effective referral program for your business.
Great ideas. The ones that have worked best for me are - Hosting Local Educational events (this generals a lot of qualified leads. - Sponsoring events (especially Chamber of Commerce and local networking groups. ) - working in specific niches. If you sponsor the events of the industries that you specialize in...then you can really make progress. e?G. If your niche is Dentists. Sponsor the local Dental Association meetings. You will become the expert in that niche really quickly.
Josh
Thanks for the post Joanna. There's nothing like a referral businesses from existing clients, so no. 10 for me is one of the best sources of business. I also like the case studies idea and have thought about this but of course it's a case of trying to find the time.
Hi, I don't agree with you. You can award the efforts of your current clients when they refer you someone else. This doesn't mean that the award has to be financial. You might do something extra for them. Take them out for a fancy dinner or send them a gift.
Sometimes things like this are simple, but I really like the one about having a local event for SEO & Marketing professionals. A lot of our business has come from local sources and we have very much enjoyed being able to work and improve business in our local market as much as we enjoy working nationally and globally. Anyone in Grand Rapids, Michigan want to talk about a local event opportunity?