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Published June 12th, 2017 by

How to Sell SEO to Businesses After a Bad Experience

When a marketing agency has cheated a business once, it ruins the companys trust of all agencies. Convincing companies in this situation that they do require your services is difficult but not impossible. By presenting the following argument, you can show businesses that they do require support with SEO and that you are the right choice.

Why You Need a Marketing Agency

The complexities of SEO

Are you still unconvinced that you need a marketing agency for SEO? Although basic strategies may be easy in theory, they are complex to put in place.

SEO is based around building links and creating content, but it is also so much more. You need to write content the right way, cover the right topics, and use the right formatting. Then there are links not all are created equal. Plus, this is just the surface of SEO. When you get down to the nitty gritty, you see there are complicated aspects like coding, web development, and data analysis.

No one knows exactly how the Google algorithm works, but the best agencies know how to execute a strategy that will enable you to compete with others in your industry. They achieve this through the following:

Determining your target audience. Do you know who is consuming your content? Do you know the characteristics and demographics of the users most likely to become your customers? Without this knowledge, it is impossible to properly target content.

Access to tools. Different aspects of SEO require different tools. For instance, for content, you need a keyword research tool. For your website, you need auditing tools and certain features of Webmaster Tools. An agency has the knowledge of how to use all of them and knows which are the best.

Fast implementation. Many businesses are concerned that SEO takes too long. However, this is only an issue when you try to handle it yourself. Whereas off-page SEO does take time to develop, you can boost traffic quickly with the right on-page tactics. One method agencies use is to install a site map and submit it to search engines. With this action, you will see results within a week.

Running diverse campaigns. To keep your audience interested, it is essential you mix up campaigns using various mediums and strategies. For example, your social media campaigns will need to differ according to the platform.

Time commitment

SEO requires a large commitment to implementing and tweaking your strategy. Is this the best use of your time? As a small company, your resources are already spread thin, and every hour you spend on SEO could be spent on crucial business activities. Worse still, SEO is never complete it requires constant work to remain effective. Plus, sometimes major changes are necessary, such as when there is an update to the Google algorithm.

A major misconception of many companies is that SEO will happen organically if you build links and produce quality content. Whereas these two elements are the basis of SEO, without action targeted to specific goals, you will never make an impact.

The problem with in-house SEO

You may be now be thinking, Why do I need to use an agency? I can hire an in-house SEO expert.However, will likely lead to the same problems as you suffered before youll be spending a lot for negligible results.

The reason: it is highly unlikely that youll be able to find an expert skilled in every aspect of SEO. You need someone who can create quality content, manage social media campaigns, design your website, post offsite links, and much more. Hiring a few people could cover all these skills, but that would be far more expensive than just choosing an agency.

PPC and SEO

In the past, PPC and SEO were two separate elements of marketing, but now the distinction between the two is becoming less clear. The best marketing agency will handle your SEO while taking PPC into consideration.

The link between PPC and SEO

Run a Google search and youll be met with a mixture of paid and organic results. In other places, such as Google Maps and social media, the difference between ads and organic results is even less clear. PPC is now present throughout the online experience.

Although this all means changes to your strategy, it is actually good news if you use best practices, you no longer need to constantly pay for PPC. Working without an agency, many businesses dedicate around 90 percent of their budget to PPC and just 10 percent to SEO. However, 10 percent of their clicks come from PPC and 90 percent from SEO. An agency can teach you how to reduce spending on PPC while increasing clicks from SEO.

Focusing on the top of the conversion funnel

PPC and SEO are both key at the top of the conversion funnel (the awareness stage). Although they also play a role at other stages, this is the point where they have the biggest impact.

Many companies place less importance on the awareness stage than on later points in the funnel, being, as it is, so far from a conversion. You need to bear in mind, however, that without awareness, you will be allowing a significant number of potential customers to slip by.

Strategies at this stage should reach users who are currently unaware of your products or services or maybe even your entire business. A marketing agency will know which SEO keywords are best to target, as it is not always obvious to those within the company. You can then use these same keywords for PPC.

For instance, it may seem logical to focus just on action-orientated phrases, such as those beginning how to.In fact, targeting just these keywords will limit your visibility. At this point, you still need to educate users and present your brand as a valuable source of information.

An agency will also find out what your audience wants to know nothing is based on guesswork. As well as relying on a keyword tool, the agency will uncover this information through Google searches, popular sources of information, brainstorming, and using their own unique methods. The agency will consider what questions users want answered, what problems they are suffering, and what facts may intrigue them. Again, you can transfer these ideas to PPC.

Finally, the agency will know what counts as good results. At the top of the funnel, standards are less strict. Visitors will usually need to interact with your brand more than once before they move down the funnel. The agency will know what to look for in engagement metrics, like bounce rate, time on site, and repeat visits, to measure with accuracy and shape your strategy going forward. The same metrics apply to both SEO and PPC.

How to Find an Agency That Will Bring You Results

Youve already slipped up once. From this experience, you know that SEO marketing is a crowded industry and that it is crucial to find experts who know what they are doing. Plus, every agency offers different plans, specializations, and ways of reporting results. There are a few ways to ensure you are choosing the right one for you.

Areas of specialization

It is no good to find a marketing partner that excels in just one or a few areas you need an agency that has experts in every aspect of marketing. Even if you have someone in house to handle some tasks (for instance, web design or social media), it is still a good idea to choose an agency with a wide breadth of skills that can create a package of services for you.

Cost

Small businesses are limited in budget, but marketing is no place to skimp. If an agency is offering far lower prices than its competitors, it could be a warning sign or it could mean the agency has a competitive advantage through their technology. Be smart with your choice and if you save on a great SEO agency, you can allocate more of your budget to other marketing activities effective marketing will bring high returns.

Reputation

How can you know if a marketing agency is worth its cost? Look at its reputation. Do some research online, checking out testimonials and reviews. Top agencies will be able to give you the specifics about the results they have achieved for their clients.

Personal relationships

The marketing agency you choose will become part of your business. This means you need to work alongside people you feel comfortable with and whom you trust have your best interests in mind. Go with your gut and decide how you feel about the account manager on a personal level.

The Sale

The above angle can help you win clients with a negative outlook on SEO. Remember to highlight to your potential client that it is important not to paint everyone with the same brush. There are disreputable businesses everywhere if they stopped using the services of an entire industry every time they had a bad experience, it would be impossible to run their business. They still need SEO support, and there is no reason why they cant find an agency that will help them. They just need to make sure that this time they do their research properly and make the right choice: you.

Looking for more SEO sales support? Partnering with Boostability can provide all the support you need to win over your next client.

Jon Bennion

Director of Sales at Boostability
Jon Bennion has more than 15 years of sales experiences. But he says his sales career goes back even further! His first sale came at the age of five when he sold his art collection to his grandma for $5.00. And he’s been selling ever since.


Jon began at Boostability as a part-time sales agent and quickly became their top performer. His achievements landed him the Director of Sales position. As Director of Sales, Jon managed 25 sales agents and implemented sales practices and trainings that resulted in millions of dollars in revenue. Now Jon works with top Boostability partners and launched a “sales support” initiative which enables Boostability partners to sell more online services.

Through Jon’s career he has trained hundred of sales agents across the country. He specialises in online marketing sales, especially SEO, Social Media and Websites. A significant contribution to digital sales is his ability to teach “traditional marketing” sales reps how to sell digital marketing.

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