SEO agencies should not just look for random clients. They should look for those that align with their strengths and values. But how do you get these SEO clients that fit your agency?
It starts with business positioning, targeting, networking in areas where your targets are, and being transparent with your pricing and SEO procedures. This article will help you do these things properly to get the right SEO clients for your agency.
Table of contents
- Create a unique value proposition
- Niche down
- Define your ideal client profile
- Create targeted content
- Build relationships within your niche
- Be transparent with your processes and prices
1. Create a unique value proposition
Your business positioning starts with creating a unique value proposition. This is what you can uniquely give to your clients and what separates you from other SEO agencies. A well-crafted unique value proposition addresses the needs and pain points of your ideal SEO clients. This resonates with them, making your SEO agency more appealing.
A unique value proposition also showcases your SEO agency’s strengths, making sure you are attracting SEO clients that are good fits for your agency, both in terms of expectations and results. Here’s how you can write a killer unique value proposition:
- Know your strengths. Look at your SEO team and identify their expertise, methodologies, and skills. This could be specialized knowledge in a particular industry, a distinctive approach to SEO strategies and executions, or advanced technical skills. Whatever the case, you should clearly identify these strengths as they are your bread and butter. Include these strengths in your unique value proposition to strategically position your agency as an expert in these areas.
- Identify client needs and supposed benefits. You should define your ideal client profile. More on this later. It’s important to know your ideal client, so you can position your agency as a problem-solver for their challenges and make targeted advertising and marketing efforts. Conduct market research to understand their challenges and pain points to tailor your unique value proposition for them. In your unique value proposition, emphasize the benefits they gain by hiring your SEO agency and solving their problems.
- Make it concise and easy to understand. A great unique value proposition has three parts: what your SEO agency does, who it serves, and the value you provide. Since these are the important parts, focus on these and make your unique value proposition short and sweet. Avoid jargon. Use words that are easy to understand even if your ideal client already knows a thing or two about SEO. Don’t be afraid to refine your unique value proposition regularly based on tests, client feedback, and market dynamics.
2. Niche down
This is a strategic approach in business positioning where you specialize in a particular industry, market segment, or type of service. This way, you attract SEO clients that specifically look for your specialized skills. These high-quality leads are more likely to become real SEO clients.
By focusing on a niche, you build authority and expertise in a particular area, enhancing your credibility. It can also streamline your advertising and marketing efforts, reducing costs and even competition. Niche down properly with these tips:
- Create specialized SEO offerings. When looking at your agency’s strengths and writing a unique value proposition, you may notice that your SEO team is already leaning towards a particular area. Exploit these strengths and create SEO products and services that can showcase them. Look at Marketer’s Center, for instance, focusing on local SEO and white label SEO for agencies. Don’t be afraid to make these offerings customizable, so your SEO agency remains flexible to the unique needs of your ideal clients.
- Research the industry and market. When you have identified a potential niche based on your agency’s strengths, don’t fully commit just yet. Research the area first to see if there is genuine interest. There should be enough demand for SEO products and services to warrant positioning your SEO agency for this niche. Thankfully, there are many niches that are already known to be profitable, like local SEO, link building, and even more specific areas like local link building.
- Go all in. Once you have known that a niche is feasible, go all in. Establish your SEO agency as an authority in this niche by creating targeted content. You can have an authoritative blog, a diverse SEO portfolio, or extensive case studies to showcase your success stories. You can also optimize your online presence, such as your social media presence, for more targeted content. And you can start building relationships, nurturing leads, and networking within your niche.
3. Define your ideal client profile
All this business positioning is useless if you don’t know your ideal client profile. It’s important to know your ideal client profile, so your positioning is appropriate for them. If you fully understand your ideal client, you can also create highly targeted advertising and marketing. This targeted approach is great because it is an efficient allocation of resources.
When you know your ideal client, you can also strategize on how to build relationships with them properly. This ensures that they stay as your client, maximizing profits and creating a consistent cash flow for your SEO agency. Define your ideal client profile with these tips:
- Study your past clients and look for clues. Identify patterns in your past clients. Does your SEO agency have preferences for working within certain industries and niches? Does your SEO team have expertise or genuine interest in specific SEO areas? Do you prefer working with large enterprises or small businesses? Analyzing your client history can reveal common traits that can set the foundation for your ideal client profile.
- Define demographic and geographic characteristics. There are demographic and geographic factors that can influence your ideal client profile. For demographics, you have things like annual revenue and company size. And for geographics, you have local, national, and international clients. These factors can influence the type of services needed, so make sure to study them.
- Create a detailed persona with pain points and goals. What are the pain points of your ideal SEO clients? What are their objectives in getting SEO products and services? For example, your ideal SEO clients can be startups looking to build authority and improve brand awareness. They can also be established enterprises looking to compete at the international level. These questions will help you create an ideal client profile. But don’t forget to refine the profile over time. It may evolve as your SEO agency grows and market dynamics change.
4. Create targeted content
Get SEO clients that fit your agency by specifically targeting them. When you know your ideal client profile, you know their challenges, pain points, goals, and other things that interest them. Talk about these topics in your content.
By having targeted content, you attract the right audience – the SEO leads looking for solutions in your specific area and niche. The relevance captures attention and resonates with them. It also builds your authority and expertise in the matter, strengthening your SEO agency’s position in the niche. Create targeted content by doing these things:
- Have a content plan. Do keyword research and identify topics that may capture the attention and resonate with your ideal client profile. This highlights the importance of knowing your ideal client and leveraging their preferences. Diversify your content formats to widen their appeal. You can try blog posts, social media posts, and videos. If possible, develop a content calendar to streamline your content creation process and execution.
- Promote on relevant channels. When you know your ideal client, you know the channels where they are active. These channels can be anywhere online, from social media platforms to online forums like Reddit and Subreddits. If you are catering to a local market, you can also promote on locally relevant communities.
- Optimize for SEO. You are already doing SEO for your clients and leads. Do it for your own SEO agency. Optimize your content for search engines, so your ideal clients can stumble upon your content and get into your sales funnel. But remember to write for your audience, not for search engine crawlers.
5. Build relationships within your niche
Building relationships within your niche establishes credibility and trust. By engaging with others within your niche, whether they are competitors, peers, leads, or clients, you become a knowledgeable and reliable player. This can positively impact how potential SEO clients perceive your agency and brand.
With relationships, you also open yourself up to networking opportunities and gain access to insider insights. Build relationships within your niche now by doing these three things:
- Attend and host networking events. Events can be anything, from conferences and meetups to educational sessions and workshops. These events are great opportunities to meet business owners, leads, and niche influencers. If you are proactive, you can even create and host these events yourself. But remember to offer value first. Don’t just make an elevator pitch about your SEO products and services. Genuinely communicate and interact with others first and build connections.
- Nurture SEO leads. Once you have built connections, you can nurture the SEO leads and hopefully they convert into real paying customers in the future. One great way to nurture SEO leads is to offer something valuable for free, like a free audit and consultation for their SEO needs. You can also provide free resources, like e-books and whitepapers.
- Ask for referrals. You should also build relationships with your SEO clients. When they are satisfied with your SEO products and services, they are more likely to be receptive to your asking for recommendations and referrals. Even just one satisfied SEO client can bring in multiple clients through referrals alone. Referrals are also a great way to spread word-of-mouth, which can only be good for your SEO agency’s brand.
6. Be transparent with your processes and prices
Transparency is very important if you want to get SEO clients that fit your agency. Your business positioning, marketing, and relationship building are all useless if your lack of transparency creates friction in your sales funnel. When SEO leads feel like there are hidden pieces of information like your SEO processes and product and service prices, it can lead to doubts and objections.
Build trust, set realistic and broken-down expectations, and demonstrate confidence in your abilities by being transparent. Transparency particularly attracts well-informed clients, who are likely to be good fits for your SEO agency. Do these to boost your transparency:
- Provide detailed descriptions and prices for your SEO products and services. Break down your SEO products and services, from the methodologies you use, techniques, and tools. This makes it clear to SEO leads what they are getting. They immediately see the potential value to their business. Also break down the costs to avoid ambiguous terms and hidden fees. If possible, make a table for your packages, so SEO leads can easily compare them. Consider making tiered packages to accommodate different kinds of budgets.
- Showcase your work with case studies and an SEO portfolio. Show your results from previous clients to gain the confidence of your SEO leads. Case studies are the way to go. To write effective case studies, show the problems and how you solved them. And then use numbers to back up your problem-solving. You can also feature an SEO portfolio to give a bird’s eye view of your client base and results. It can show not just your expertise but also your diversity and flexibility to handle different digital marketing problems.
- Make it easy to reach out to you. This is an underrated way to get SEO clients that fit your agency. Many well-informed businesses out there are actively looking for SEO agencies. You may have the authority and reputation to accommodate their needs, but you can’t convert them if they can’t contact you easily. On your website and other online profiles, provide multiple communication channels, such as emails and phone numbers. Respond to inquiries as fast as you can.
Get SEO clients that fit your agency
There are many outreach strategies to get potential SEO clients. But many times, SEO agencies forget the fundamentals. Get SEO clients that fit your agency by tweaking your business positioning, marketing, relationship building, and transparency.
These help attract potential SEO clients that fit your strengths and values. They also reduce the friction in your sales funnel.
