The aim of this post is to describe a few of the ways SEO agencies (or, in some instances, in-house SEO's looking for more budget from the boss) can use SEOmoz to pitch and close SEO projects.
We use SEOmoz at several different stages in our sales process.
Pre Sales
A customer rings up and says 'I want to rank first page for bicycle shop'. While they're on the phone, the sales team can figure out a few different things about this client using a range of 'moz tools.
Whether they have a clue what they're talking about:
See where they currently
rank for this keyphrase, check out their performance on the toolbar and maybe (if they're going on a bit), do a quick crawl test.
What their chances are of ranking:
Stick their keyphrase into the
Keyword Difficulty tool (along with the Wordtracker count) and see how strong their site needs to be in order to rank. You should already have a good idea of the rough strength of their site from the toolbar information and the crawl test.
The usefulness of the 'moz tools here is how quickly you can use them to gain some useful insights about potential clients. You haven't sold anything yet, but nor have you expended a great deal of time or energy working out whether there is anything to sell.
Pitching
So you've got the attention of your boss or a potential client- what now? There are lots of routes you could take, but a natural one would be to show your boss or the client the opportunities open to the site and, crucially, make them understand the work that would be needed to fulfil that potential.
Recently, we've used Linkscape to do this with great success. Run a report for the site and have a look at the domain mozRank, Domain mozTrust and the number of external links from unique domains. Now look at a few competitors that outrank the site you're interested in and see where the differences are. I find circles and arrows useful at this point. That shop that wants to rank for 'bicycle shop' needs to understand what the competition is like on the first page.
If you, your client or your boss wants some help visualizing this, take a look at this great little feature in the 'moz Labs (only Pro).
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Being able to display the data in this way is great for getting across to a non-SEO what needs to happen in order for their site to perform as well as their competitor/s. I'd also recommend that you take a little time to explain what each of the axes a) means and b) means for their site. If, for example, the site has potential to rank well for longtail traffic, it would be most excellent if they could appreciate that links from high Trust sites and lots of links from a diverse range of unique domains are the way to go. You can pull all of this out of a Linkscape report as well of course.
Closing
The last step in this process is to close the sale. With all this Linkscape data at hand, you are ready to outline what you will do to fulfil the potential that this website has. Make sure you connect your proposal to the metrics that the site owner now understands and appreciates; sell the benefits of each deliverable using these metrics and then, in turn, connect them to what the site wants to achieve.
If you need some ideas for deliverables, have a look at the Pro Top Pages tool. Looking at the site you're working with will let you know if there's any naturally linked to content, which could either be promoted more heavily or imitated in some way. Looking at the top pages on a competitor's site will show you exactly what's working for them and, if you show it to your client or boss, will reassure them that the work you're proposing has succeeded elsewhere. Fingers crossed, this tool will also help you along in the actual SEO strategy for your site (whether that's creating some linkbait or going after directories).
We've found that a final sweetener to the deal is to reassure clients that we'll be keeping a close eye on the impact our work has. For this, we tend to set up a few terms in Rank Tracker alongside analytics data.
It'd be great to hear of any other ways you use the 'moz to help you pitch and close SEO work either internally or to potential clients. Thanks.
Great post Lucy. It takes a special skill to distill all the technical knowledge that goes along with SEO and make it into something that someone who might not even have a website can understand and begin to use to get on the right track. It's funny, because it's always tempting to show someone how much you know, but often 95% is stuff they don't need or want to hear, and that remaining 5% is the helping hand they need.
Anyways, great post to highlight the need to get to the core of the problem and then move on to fixing it.
I wouldn't say the 'moz tools are an absolute necessity for every website's need, but speaking from experience, they certainly help. Can't emphasize that first part enough though: Speak to someone's need!
Very good post.
I use a very similar process, except that I have created an admin in php/zend framework, where I can enter in the data.
This will allow me to check progress over time, and also output the results in pdf format for the client to look over.
I think you also have to be careful that you don't give away too much information, and use this first step as a "teaser" otherwise word can get around that you offer free seo advice, so they can use it to negotiate with other companies.
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Thank you very much
This is a great outline for closing the deal. Thanks for the information.
Great post. Very useful. Thanks ;-)
great post and very informative ive been fighting with my boss to get pro membership but hes cheap so this will probally help in my sales pitch to him
Me too. I'm so eager to be a PRO member again.
I actually used screengrabs of the visualizer just a few days prior to reading this post. It definately worked for me.
The visualizer is especially useful when you are talking to exec types. It gives you a great lauching point for being able to demonstrate how the improvements you are suggesting will beat out a competitor. Toss in some more creative on the strategy side of the presentation and its money.
Thanks,
Mike
Excellent post. It helped me a lot.
Strong post, a lot of good info.
Fantastic post, full of good advices..
it makes sense. =)
This is EXACTLY the kind of cheat sheet i need. I'm just starting out and want to help local, small businesses get the most bang for their online marketing buck. For customers who can barely grasp what a web site is, this is an enormous value add for someone who wants to explain the important of SEM. Thank you so much!
I get overwhelmed with the wealth of resources on seomoz and I always weigh the benefits of my PRO membership based on how to use the tools. More articles like this are right up my alley.
Wow. I love that Linkscape Visualizer Tool. I was aware of it, but hadn't given it a trial run before just now. It's really awesome. I now know exactly what I need to focus on to leap frog my competitors in the SERPs. Fortunately, it's just one metric. I have them beat on all others.
Thats the best natural post for marketing SEOMOZ tools :) Gr8 job!!!
Oh bravo, SEOmoz. Brah... Voh.
You post a brilliant free guide to SEO followed by a mouth-watering taste of the paid section. Nice marketing :D
Where do I sign?
Ha ha - and neither writer (Lucy nor Danny) knew the other was posting. Sometimes you just get lucky, I suppose :-)
Nice job Lucy.
Seems like I always have an SEOmoz window open on my desktop. Good suggestion to run some tests while talking. I'm usually taking notes but it seems like the more serious the potential client is the more willing they are to go longer into the discussion which would be a great time to be using the tools.
Lately, it seems that people know they need help but they haven't a clue where to start. The tools help demonstrate where the problems are and what needs to happen to get the results they want.
Well done, I constantly do research while talking to a prospective client. Everytime I grab one it is usually because they say I actually gave them answers and data.
Hi Lucy,
Thanks very much. I thought this was a really good post to read and shows a great real life commercial applications for the great tools that you guys at the MOZ have developed.
Nice post.
Al
I use linkscape & some other SEOmoz tools metrics quite often in my monthly reports, and the data is always recieved well. The added visualisation is a huge boost though.
It's also nice to see agencies use this data as part of their pitch - not only does it back up thier proposals with evidence, but it also gives an indication they are part of the SEO community - this won't matter to everybody, but it matters to me.
This is a great post indeed, help me make my decision to purchase a PRO member :D
Some good ideas Lucy. I don't sell my SEO services but, who knows, I may one day.
Interesting, neither do I, I didn't think there are outher people out here that do not sell themselves this way :D