The question was about how to grow a new agency and asked whether we thought that contacting site owners and pointing out flaws / suggesting improvements was a good way to win new business. Rand and I sung with one voice to say (paraphrased) that we weren't big fans of the cold approach and that networking (both online and offline) was one of the keys to success. I wanted to elaborate on that a little bit.
Before I get into that, I wanted to point out that there are many ways to get ahead. I am not saying these are the only ways – just that we have found them to be effective not only at winning new business, but at winning the right kinds of business (which is at least as critical).
There is also a glaring omission in what follows, which is the one you will find in all the textbooks: USP. Having a Unique Selling Point is often referred to as the way to win in business. It can be rephrased as having a defensible advantage. It is going to be very important (in my opinion) over the next 3-5 years of our industry's growth. Right now, you don't need it to win clients (even big ones). I'm going to write a follow-up post at some point about my views on defensibility, technology and our plans for the future, but for now, we're talking about winning business today.
OK, we're actually talking about winning business next week, since it's now Friday. Tip #1 – don't bug your prospects after beer o'clock (a little site knocked together by Rob, one of the guys in the Distilled office, who tells me it'll be much better next week!).
Just as with SEO, it's all about trust
I think it might be partly the relative youth of our industry, but my experience has been that when you apply traditional selling techniques to SEO, you end up with prospects who aren't that sure exactly what they are buying or why. If you manage to convert these poor souls into clients, you will fall into a particularly horrible trap that I like to call “aaaaaargh, not that client again.” They will suck your soul and make you hate work through endless demands for unrealistic things (for any clients reading this, I'm not talking about you).
You are far better selling to people who respect, trust, and value your advice and are generally a joy to work with (for any clients reading this, I'm talking about you). This is where you will do your best work and get your best results.
So how can you find these people?
In my experience it's all about increasing the trust that people have in you. Every single marketing effort we have done can be grouped into one of two categories:
- Worked
- Didn't work
- Increased trust
- Didn't increase trust
- Networking (both online and offline, within the industry and outside it)
- Referrals from existing clients
- PR (effectively getting the seal of approval from a journalist)
- Speaking engagements
- Running our own seminars
- Writing
- SEO(*)
(*) The reason SEO has an asterisk is that, actually, the highest value we have ever had from ranking well was a journalist finding us on Google and then writing an article that generated a lot of business.
Things that have not worked for us:
- Advertising (even PPC)
- Telemarketing
- Email marketing
I'm not saying these can't work in any environment – I'm sure that many more mature industries see great returns from getting their brand around the place or demonstrating some edge (even if it's only a pricing edge) to potential customers, and I know PPC can work! For our own business, however, we haven't seen good results from these.
It's not an overnight fix – it's a long, hard slog (go and read about the flywheel concept again), but once the momentum gets going it can be fantastic.
I think the main reason this works so well in our industry is the lack of trust many business people have for SEO providers (often not without reason). We're the responsible builders operating among the cowboys – you are always going to trust the person you are referred to.
So there you have it. That's all my secrets revealed for this week. Stay tuned for real secrets next week when Tom is going to release a post that might be the best thing he's ever written. No pressure...
P.S. Your community needs YOU(moz)
Apparently the YOUmoz queue has been running a little low recently, so if you want to work on building up that trust (see above), get writing. Yes, Mr. Wailes, I'm looking at you.
This is an interesting and timely post for me today.
After years and years of near continuous revenue related activities in real estate, consulting and SEO - I suddenly have nothing to do (poor planning on my part - I know).
I think there is a certain line which must be drawn and not crossed when trying to become too popular with the SEO crowd. That is, don't try too hard to become an SEO to SEOs.
Rand did a great write up of it back in February (Desire for Fame in the SEO World), and it included this line:
Getting known for SEO outside the SEO sphere is far more important and far more valuable than getting popular inside the niche. That's where the ROI on fame comes in, and usually not much before.
Furthermore, the best networking for SEOs in my opinion is local (community groups, chambers of commerce, alumni groups, local bar, etc.)
Locally, you'll probably be the only SEO around. Hell, you'll probably be the only person who even knows what SEO is or that search engine rankings are dependent on factors the webmaster controls.
The downside to local networking is that you're probably going to be faced with much smaller SEO budgets.
Another downside of course is the fact that a great many of the people won't even need SEO services. But you won't know until you get out there.
I heard or read a line once from somewhere and while I can't remember it exactly it went something like this:
I have found there isn't any business problem I can't solve (including not having enough sales), if I just keep talking with enough people..
That's a good line of insight there at the end. Good luck getting rolling again.
I never saw the point of being popular with other SEOs. I mean, it's good to have friends, but other SEOs are never going to hire you, although I do get some referral business from local people when they're swamped and I have some free bandwith.
There are so so many potential clients out there! Why blog when you can be making some sweet moolah!?
Imagine your "SEO friends" having way more work then they can handle, it sure would be good to have those friends kick you down some of that business.
I just moved to a new city and joined the regional chamber of commerce and several local business groups. You are unfortunately correct in that the budgets are usually small. But like you, I am pretty much always the only SEO, and usually the only person with a strong Internet marketing background. It makes it very easy to get meetings and a receptive audience. Sure, it's can be challenging to make people value your work. But I've had good success using hyper detailed analytics in my presentations to justify the expense to companies. Connecting the dots really helps in these cases.
Oh First!.
This is a topic close to my heart. Although I work on SEO fro couple big clients (mostly managing and fine tuning their strategy) my core business is small business SEO for medical clients.
I can safely say 100% business comes from word of mouth - and that is because I have proven myself, while creating that "trust" with my clients.
Infact, when I am down on business, just dropping that fact onto the ears of my best clients genereate referrals overnight...
I thought this topic was quite timely for my own purposes - and then saw that the Q&A Question Will referenced above is the one I submitted not but a few days ago. Thanks for the extra help, Will!
I've been planning to "strike out" on my own (let's hope not in the baseball sense of the term) after working in several agencies over the last three years. I don't do a ton of networking right now, almost exclusively for limited time, so there isn't a wide/deep well of potential clients to draw from right now. Hence the question.
It's tough just starting out, I think, when you know you've got the knowledge and skill but don't have the connections. Especially considering we still need to keep ourselves fed, clothed and sheltered in the mean time.
A few people offered me advice to seek out companies advertising in the local Yellow Pages with half-page ads, as these companies already are throwing money at the advertising problem and would likely be receptive. Sean Maguire's "Mozbait" post also left me thinking there may be cases in which cold email marketing could work for SEO/M. Still, it was something that didn't sit so well with me, so I thought I'd ask about it here at SEOmoz.
It's definitely going to be a long/tough road to having a trusted name/brand, one that current and past clients will happily recommend, but I guess the easy way and the right way to do something are seldom the same thing. Someone famous said that, I just can't remember who.
umm...that beer clock is broken. it says i have to wait nearly 7 days for beer. that can't be right. it's friday. screw this, i'm having a beer now. i'll come back and comment on the actual post after i knock a few back. m'kay?
yeah, mine says I have 6 hours till beer o'clock, but my beer alarm went off 3 hours ago. go figure.
Excellent post - dittos and thumbs to many comments.
Don't focus on the inside-SEO limelight. Focus on being an SEO flashlight for the businesses that have no clue.
Lovely quote! Might just have to steal that one :)
That's cute. Read your comment and thought "what quote? Oh, she commented about the limelight/flashlight." Please use it and spread it! :-)
I stepped away from consulting and recently re-entered the space, and the key motivation was helping others, being a light on their team. That means the most to me and motivates me to want to be better, IMHO.
SEOmoz has been the most effective place for me to build trust so far - both inside and outside SEO community (thank you, Vin, for mentioning "getting popular" outside SEO community point).
Ironically, getting so much help from this place, we are forced to abandon (or participate much less) it once we achieve our aim: grow our client database - just because of the lack of time.
Thank you for the post!
Ann - so true. Some people want to become "popular" in the SEO community in order to get business, and others just see being "popular" as an ends in and of itself.
Participation in blogs, forums, social media, etc. is very time consuming. For those who do a lot of client work and still manage a high level of participation in the SEO community I envy you - its all I can do to not get completely burried with my client work alone. On rare occasion (now) I create 5 minutes to spend reading blogs, etc. though even now I feel like I'm slacking from my "real work".
I was way more "popular" a few years ago, but wasn't as busy then :)
I'm jealous. How did you get so busy?
Will says "We're the responsible builders operating among the cowboys..." and that's what I wanted to comment on. I live in Fort Worth, Texas and have been dismayed over the years at the devolution of the term "cowboy".
But others say it better than I can. The cover story in the July Texas Monthly magazine by Elmer Kelton, "True Grit" is worth a read. Kelton said the word cowboy is now "thrown around as a pejorative, hijacked by pundits and politicians to refer to arrogant, reckless types who go it alone."
Kelton is the son of a Texas rancher and his article is a great illustration of how a real cowboy is "a common man in an uncommon profession, giving more than he receives, living by a code of conduct his detractors will never understand."
Other than the cowboy reference, I liked your post Will!
ETA link to article (preview)
Fair point. Thumbs up. Though you still might not want them as your builder...
Thank you for your sensitivity. I just moved from Fort Worth.
Don't forget the counter example provided by the Boston Red Sox on their way to winning a World Series. They used the term "cowboy up" to refer to "taking responsibility for your results, not blaming others".
Will,
I fully concur with your assessment and priorities of
finding new business. We have found that 100% of our business comes from referrals and developing strategic partnerships with private label SEO.
We have developed a unique niche because of our relationships with national big name information marketers in the real estate and internet marketing sectors.
While mixing SEO with internet marketers is like mixing oil and water we have been able to bridge the gap because of our understanding of their businesses. Our approach with every client is BEFORE we accept their business is how we can help them marry our traffic generations strategies, with list building, with SEO and with converson of sales. Notice I said BEFORE WE ACCEPT THEIR BUSINESS. When you can turn the sales process around where you are interviewing them, and not vice versa it changes the outcome dramatically...at least that is what we have found.
It also helps that we communicate to the business owner on their level as we have built and run successful online and offline businesses of our own. I think that level of experience comes across.
I also find it interesting that while networking in different circles that there are a lot of bar room SEO's out in the world, however with some very pin point questiions you can swing the whole conversation very quickly where they are viewing you as an expert, instead of yada yada yada that we see from a lot of the SEO's in our local market. We tell our clients that there are SEO's that can make you millions or get your site banned on Google so you better know who you are getting in bed with.
Will Good post and very spot on. Thanks
Bruce
This have to be one of the best posts I've read on seomoz so far. An great follow up would be two posts about getting the client on your good side. The first follow up should be about how to sell to the client once you get his/hers attention. It could include how to present yourself, what to present, what they want to hear, how not to go to technical with them and everything else related to getting the new account.
The last post in the series should be titled something like "I got the account - now what?". Should I call them every monday? Send them an email report? What should the report include? Should I send the CEO's of the clients company's daughter a christmas present?
:)
Thank you. I'll have a think about what good stuff I could write about those areas and see what I can do. Good ideas.
Email marketing has worked well for us... but more in the newsletter format than anything else, several articles not all of them shoving SEO down your throat.
private message me for examples if you want.
working for an ad agency/Pr Firm most of our referrals come from existing clients or from the web.
90-ish% of business last year came from doing our own SEO for public relations or advertising and branding and after we got the client on PR, design, etc.. it was an easy move to SEO, because that was how they found us in the first place.
I think the crucial thing with SEO, the cobbler's children, better have some very functional shoes.
Just to second a point you made, I think email newsletters fit Will's trust definition - I assume by "email marketing" he meant sending cold emails en masse to a list of people who hadn't opted in.
Okay, point taken, I'll get my butt together this weekend and write my next youmoz post. Promised Rishil I'd get to that soon too. But I had an excuse! School! I mean back in the olden days of July 2008 we had to wait a week to get posts put up. Time to reignite that fire :)
Now to the post at hand. This is a topic near and dear to my little heart because I do want to do consulting someday (aka work from home), but for now I am slaving for the man. :) Okay, really I like it this way for now. I know lots of people don't, but it works now.
I am going to have to print this out for my bosses though. They are comig up with ideas and need to read something like this. Might do them some good.
So thanks Mr. Critchlow, Tom's brother ;)
Hmm. Good thing I read this. I've been working freelance for several months (after being in house for over a year), and have had almost all word of mouth clients. I had just decided to branch out and seek some new ones, and I figured I'd just email local folks with some observations about their websites. I've already found that following up cocktail party conversations with such an email is very effective -- you seem magical to the website owner, if they aren't very knowledgeable about SEO (i.e. have never heard the term before).
Having read your post, I realize that the reason this has been effective is that I've spent time with them beforehand, explaining what I do. An email from a stranger saying the SEO equivalent of, "You know, that hairstyle does nothing for you. Sit right down and let me get my scissors" might not have at all the same effect.
Great post!
I can only agree with most of the comments, having networked extensively in the UK and now in Australia I can honestly say I have seen direct response from the audience, for example during our last networking mission, myself and the boss signed up $25,000 for only 2 hours talk time.
I have found there are 2 parts to really getting good clients on board, part 1, the network, meeting people, getting introduced etc, and part 2, education!
Both are equally as important, however it is the education which seals the deal. Give your clients a good intro into SEO and the search engines in particular. Make them understand how the web works, and how their business could benefit from a good website (SEO, usability etc). I have then found conversion rates are almost 100% because clients can see real benefits to their business and want a slice of the action!
When I first started down the SEO trail (cowboy reference) it was because of frustration with not getting my own business anywhere on search results no matter who I threw money at (note: I now know that I was lucky my site was not banned by Google because of the "help" I was buying) I decided I didn't know enough to know who to trust.
Your post is dead on Will, most business people are too busy running their business to understand what they need. They have been burned enough times by the cowboys pirates. (No offense meant to you pirates reading this, not talking about you) But if a fellow business person they know will take the time to honestly recommend your service, you at least get an honest shot to prove your worth. (sort of sounds like establishing links)
When I was paying $50,000 per month to Google Adwords, I can tell you what I would have paid an SEO. Never sell yourself short I don't care if you're doing this in your moms basement. This is a hugely valuable service in a world that as not even begun to understand how badly they need it.
I look forward to your next post. (actually I look forward to Every post on SEOmoz) Great Stuff.
Getting a recommendation from Rand to approach a UK SEO agency on his list is a pretty good way to grow an SEO business, Will, even from the really small companies who might be attracted by someone on such a reputable list. I know for a fact that you look after your clients, even if it is "them again" keeping you on your toes and asking a thousand and one searching questions; comprehensive SEO knowledge keeps them happy and they, in turn, are happy to recommend your own services ;)
Point taken. I'll put the first one up tonight. :)
Excellent post Will.
Most of our new business comes either from our partnerships with traditional media agencies (i.e. those which sell offline - newspapers, magazines, radio).
It's worked really well for us but the downside is they do take some of our fees...
Nice post Will - basically chimes with the old Cluetrain 'slogan':
If any of you haven't read The Cluetrain Manifesto give it a go now. It's a bit repetitive, but predicted a ridiculous amount of things that we now see.
Great stuff, Will. From an optimization services standpoint (primarily usability but sometimes for SEO), I've also found the "here's how your site sucks" approach to be a dead end. The problem is that, even if you're right and the prospect knows you're right, you still sound like an ass.
Thanks for pimping YOUmoz for me, Will! We're a bit light on submissions, so please, everyone, author up some posts to your heart's content!
As you wish
Can't belive I missed this post. Good post and great articles.
I can comfirm that most of my clients come from word of mouth. I've yet to try advertising my own services, but I do actually plan on getting into it next week! Wish me luck..
Will,
In line with this subject of growing your business we are seriously looking at the scaleability of our business. I would be interested in how many clients everyone feels they can take on before adding staff, or outsourcing resource. Which staff would you add and why etc. We are concerned about growing too fast do to the pace of new accounts we are getting. Our concern is how to keep quality service while growing our accounts.
This is one of our biggest internal focus points at the moment - working on how busy everyone is and what our capacity / capability is. Step 1: hire a project manager. Seriously. Step 2: watch this space.
I agree completely with your emphasis on trust. So many clients come to me with horror stories from other "SEOs" and one only has to look around at the web design companies that offer "SEO" consisting of search engine submission.
Once you do good work for people and you can get some referrals, the business practically grows on its own. And you should be getting prospects through your own site, right?
I always say "well, you found me, so I must be doing something right."
Then I give them the names and phone numbers of some happy clients and say "feel free to talk to one of my current clients." Most of the time they don't call, but just being open about it builds a lot of trust.
Is there any input from those who remember starting from scratch? I am investing my 401k money in this idea, so what are THE most important things to do when starting with no clients.
One of the first things I did was research SEO sites, settling on SEOmoz, mostly because Rand and the site don't come across as overly "sales-y" but more consultative.
Next, I built my own website and went through beginner SEO steps. I then did the same for a couple of friends so that I would have references.
Next, I started a blog just to learn how to do that, though the blog is not related to the SEO business (prospective).
Finally, I set an AdWords budget (no results in 2 weeks so far) and obtained samples from a niche email list provider (no results on 200 emails using a Newsletter approach).
Should I be cold calling (I have experience), joing the Chamber (I have experience) or spending hours moving my website ranking up? Please keep in mind that my domains are new.
All help is appreciated ...
Cowboy
Well, my website just launched in September, and I've hardly had time to do much for it besides regular blog postings, but it went from PR0 to PR3 and I get business through it.
I got a meeting with a local design firm about freelance work for them, signed up with one of the freelance marketplace sites, and did a couple of pro bono sites for organizations that a)I cared about and b) offered some visibility. That got things started, and I now work steadily through word of mouth.
I'm freelance not a firm, and many of the other folks here will be better able to tell you about long-term success, but I'm very happy with my start-up results. I'm working on 15 websites right now, have steady work, and am having a lot of fun. I also earn more than I did as a salaried in-house SEO.
This is a really helpful community, here at SEOMoz, so it's worth making time to hang out here a bit.
I'm not familiar with the freelance marketplace sites, would you be more specific?
Do you mean freelance "web" design firm?
I'm trying to find a way to keep money coming in just to survive to fight another day.
In your first sentence, do you mean that your "page rank" went from 0 to 3? Do you attribute this success to standard SEO process or is there something that worked for you in particular? Was your page on a new domain like mine?
My site at https://prodigalweb.net shows no page ranking in the SEOmoz toolbar, though it shows as "included" in Google, MSN, Yahoo.
Yes, I meant PageRank, and yes, it was a new domain. The process took two or three months. Standard SEO process, for sure -- I did a little initial linkbuilding push to get on the front page at Google, and then as i say I've really done nothing more except regular blog posting.
I'm freelance, but the firm I mentioned is indeed a web design firm. I do their copywriting and SEO for their clients, the folks whose websites they design.
Freelance marketplaces are sites where freelance information workers like me -- people who will do web design, coding, web content, SEO strategy consultation, linkbuilding, etc. for hire -- can list our information so people who need those services on a temporary basis can find us. Several of my current regular clients found me that way. I've only listed at one, but there are lots: Elance, oDesk, RentaCoder, etc. I can't speak generally about their usefulness, but my own experience has been positive.
I'm sorry for the initial lack of clarity -- hope this helps.
Thank you again. I've only been promoting my site for about 30 days and wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything obvious.
I just began link building today.
Thanks for the freelance info.
I checked out your website.
A few things to get you some fast credit toward page rank
Optimize your site for local search. Not that you have to stay in your own geographical location but it will help the Search Engines establish you in a fixed spot.
Put together a glossary of terms that you use to describe what you do and write a definition to each (in your own words) like you were describing it to your mom. Helps people using your site and helps the Search Engines decide what your site is about.
Out Bound links. At this point you are not hoarding any link authority so linking to Authority sites in your market helps establish your connection to that market. You can no follow the links later but for now you want the Search Engines to associate you with the key players.
Good Luck and welcome to the Moz
PS As you read the articles and comments give a thumbs up for the ones you find helpful and reserve the thumbs down for only the ones you think are way off base. It encourages people to stay involved. ;)
Thanks for your help. Should the glossary be a separate web page with internal links, a hover or something else? Does it matter?
I missed the localization step -- thanks for catching it. How could you tell?
As far as the Glossary goes it should be a new page connected in the regular navigation of the site.
The Local thing, the footer should contain your address, zip code and local phone number with area code. Basic stuff. But do all the steps Danny talks about in his guide and you'll be on your way.
Thank you again.
Another post that was right on time for me, thanks Will. I just started my new business 2 weeks ago and think I have a good model. Bartering services with an existing client, I perform some free services for them and in exchange they perform some 'cold calling' and active referrals to secure me some new clients in other geographical areas. It's an easier sell as it is conducted between peers.
I haven't even got my own site done yet and this client has landed me 2 smaller and 1 enormous account. I didn't even really ask them to start selling yet, I had to tell them to stop until I can get ready. As rbcarter said if you do good work it seems to grow on its own.
While many find cold calling repugnant (my existing client is inundated daily, why do they call the people already at the top of Google?) I tend to think as vingold, most people never heard of SEO. I find once you explain it simply to someone their next response is "I always wondered how that worked." I prefer to sell to that apparently 99% of people, it just seems like a bigger market to me.
Very useful, esp right now. Would like to hear what didn't work and why in 2009 - will be twittering you with that question like, now. Cheers!
For SEO based companies the major factor is one and only one"client satisfaction".
You have said absolutely right that people trust is the major factor for SEO based companies.
The ultimate result matters allot. If your clients get satisfied from your SEO services, on that basis client give others feed back of about your SEO services. The other factor is if SEO companies providing virtual SEO services out side the country and in mid that company get suddenly disappeared because on any reason like company liquidation or become insolvent, etc. Then what? So,for avoiding such cases it's better to take feed back from others. It’s called as reliability.
In present scenario i believe that following two factors are most important factors for SEO companies-
1 .SEO team cost &
2. SEO team reliability
Marketraise
We have used sales successfully by highlighting the results we achieve rather than how bad their website is, Networking has been a great resource but in our case we recieve referrals from a large business consultant.
I couldn't agree more Will... but I'll add that TRUST is not just important to get the sale, even more important after the sale. I've found that a few "early wins" will help build our trust and credibility with a new client... thus giving us more leeway and influence.
If you pose a sitewide redesign on Day 1 with the client, you might face pushback. If you pose that after 2-3 Months whereby you can show your small changes have doubled or triple traffic and conversions, than the client is likely to hand you the keys and say "do as you please".
Now this all said, sales is not the problem for many SEO firms I know... getting the work done and managing the clients/projects is the issue. The business challenges clients face and managing internal politics for them are the hard part, the SEO part is easy.
I couldn't agree more. I've had some great success proposing just a few seo quick wins to start with (simple things like page titles and getting 10 strong links), with a success report at the end of it. It really builds trust, especially with a client who isn't convinced about spending lots of money on SEO...
I wonder what kind of success are you talking about. Can you give an example of such report?
I can't give you the report itself but here's a little summary of the kind of thing I mean. This particularly works well with large sites that haven't been SEO'd (and therefore chances are the client probably wont commit to a big spend straight off). This is what we did with an ecommerce site of a large UK brand:
Quick Wins:
Report (1 month after changes complete):
Hope that answers your question...
I'm new to SEO so this "quick hit" advise is invaluable.
LOL, the way you ended your posting was cute :) We all know what we have to do, and that articles are extremely important for our individualized efforts, though when your are busy with others' it can be quite a challenge.
Your articles was right on time for me. I recently ended a 4 year contract, so that I can work my own seo business and, although I have a few other personal clients as well, it is like starting over again. Business development has been mostly referrals through the years and has worked well, though when business planning one has to consider whether prospecting, networking or generating more word of mouth referrals is the best option during transition. My initial thought is all, though, as you stated, I prefer not to feel burden in servicing an account, especially when seo and internet marketing are services that I love to provide - I like helping others achieve their online business goals.
I agree that the personal relations developed from referrals or companies gaining trust in you first and then working together has been effective and are "easier" accounts to manage on a daily basis. On the other hand, I have established tremendous relations with companies simply by contacting them by email or phone.
Now, I finally have a chance to finish and seo my website, it will be interesting to compare what my conversions and relations are via this exposure.
Thanks for the tips and outline for further planning.
Lots of potential clients don't trust to seo techniques or some of them already tried SEO firm and results were not good.
I think that except trust portfolio is also vary important.
In some situations that is the only thing that client can understeand :)
Great post - but are you saying in the astrix that SEO doesn't work for marketing? ;)
My worst clients have come from cold calls. Like you say, they expect to much because of all the selling you have to do, or they don't pay because there's no referral or network connecting you and they don't give a s**t.
The best clients have come through networks and referrals - or my blog. I use my blog for SEO and pretty much dominate all marketing phrases in my home market :)