An SEO pitch has to be brief yet engaging in order to land a client for your business.
But how can you explain search engine optimization and its importance without boring prospective clients with technical jargon?
Knowing how to effectively pitch your SEO services is essential to growing your SEO business and building long-term partnerships.
An effective SEO pitch must focus on benefits and data to communicate the potential results that clients can expect. It should also be personalized to the customer's needs, industry, and marketing trends.
In this article, we'll take a deeper look at how to pitch an SEO proposal in simple, broken down steps.
1. Identify your ideal client
First, you must know who you want to address with your SEO services. Are you looking to work with startups, small businesses, or large established companies?
Perhaps your ideal client belongs to a certain industry where you are experienced, or sells specific products and services?
You should also consider the level of knowledge that your prospects possess.
For instance, if you want to help people who don't know much about SEO, you need to explain each step and show them that it takes time to see results.
These clients need to be persuaded that SEO is important and that they need to consider realistic results.
On the other hand, some clients are familiar with SEO but not enough to resolve the issue in-house. You will have to deal with these clients in a different way.
Of course, some clients have extensive knowledge about SEO but don't have the resources to do it themselves, or their business has expanded.
Such clients understand the importance of investing in SEO, but they need extensive services to reach their full potential.
They are probably ideal clients to address your services to.
However, they are also the most educated on the topic and will have higher expectations.
If you want to find clients for your SEO services, avoid searching on the first page of Google.
These businesses either use the services of an SEO agency or have an in-house SEO specialist.
You may also want to avoid clients without knowledge or experience in SEO. These businesses don't find SEO important and won't be interested in your services.
It will be harder to convince them, and they'll expect immediate results.
2. Specialize in an industry
A great way to find clients for SEO services is to specialize in a specific industry.
Past successes in a similar niche will show prospective clients you have the knowledge and expertise to take care of their business.
This way, you can showcase your previous SEO projects and boost your credibility.
Catering to businesses in a specific industry also allows you to expand your network through word of mouth. People will likely refer your services to their colleagues in related businesses because they trust your expertise in their niche.
To increase your chances of landing work from clients with similar needs, ask for referrals if you've already completed a number of projects in that sector. Including referrals in your pitch or website can help improve your chances.
Also, don't forget to ask for testimonials.
These quotes serve as social proof of your agency's reputation and authority in the industry, reinforcing the trust and confidence prospects have in your services.
Attending networking industry events can also help you find prospects. Craft your elevator pitch in advance, so you're comfortable with speaking to new prospects in person.
It's a great opportunity to pitch your SEO services and get to know the behind-the-scenes details of the industry you want to work in.
3. Look through SERPs
Once you've determined the industry you want to focus on, you can continue finding SEO clients. Research the prospects and their online presence to identify areas where you can add value.
Start by typing in keywords related to the chosen industry and looking at the SERPs.
For example, if you're looking for small businesses in the pet grooming industry. Type in "Pet grooming" into Google and look at the results.
You don't want to focus on top positions, as these businesses already use SEO services.
However, looking past too many pages in Google is also futile because these businesses likely don't have any interest in SEO.
Focus on positions between 10 and 30 and try to find a potential client.
Let's scroll to page 3 and pick a business.
As you can see, I've picked a website ranking in position 24 for the keyword "pet grooming."
Running an SEO audit could identify missing keywords or find gaps in their on-page SEO.
Entering the URL into Surfer Audit reveals that the page is missing important keywords in it's title, body and H1 header tag.
You can then use these low-hanging opportunities in your pitch when you approach the website's owners. A solid understanding of your prospects' current SEO standing will make your pitch more impactful.
4. Use data to back your SEO pitch
Numbers and facts speak louder than words, so use them to demonstrate the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. In addition, combining data presentation with attractive images will help your proposal stand out.
Infographics, charts, and images can significantly support your pitch and make it more compelling. Make sure that the visuals you use in your pitch are high-quality, relevant to the content, and pleasing to the eye.
This not only enhances the overall presentation but also reflects your professionalism and attention to detail.
You can use analytics tools to collect information that you can show in your pitch. Such data visualizations can include SEO metrics like organic traffic, conversions and keyword rankings.
Proving to prospects what you've achieved will make convincing them to use your services easier.
You can also gather data on a potential client's website performance, traffic, and keyword rankings using SEO audit tools or Google Analytics, if possible. You can blur out sensitive information.
Use this information in your pitch to explain how they can improve their SEO performance and what the potential results could look like.
Presenting concrete evidence of how SEO can improve metrics will lend credibility to your pitch.
5. Demonstrate results with case studies
Case studies are powerful tools for demonstrating your proficiency and the effectiveness of your SEO services.
By offering a prospective client an example of your work, you can help them visualize their final result.
Share examples of successful projects, highlighting the challenges faced, strategies employed, and results achieved.
Like we've done with NBA Blast, a sports website that used Surfer AI to grow organic traffic by 3000% in just 60 days.
This can help potential clients understand your process and methodology, as well as the potential outcomes they can expect from partnering with your business.
Another important reason to show your case studies is that search engines take time to rank websites, and you'll need to earn your client's trust before the results come in.
By showcasing your success through case studies, you can:
- Substantiate your claims
- Provide valuable insights that can guide prospects in their decision-making process
- Proactively present your accomplishments
- Influence their perception of your agency
- Increase the likelihood of them choosing your services
Case studies show that your promise is achievable and that businesses similar to your clients have benefited from your services.
6. Show how SEO can increase brand awareness
SEO is a great way to get more people to know about your brand, and you need to show your clients that.
Share of voice (SoV) is a measure of brand awareness that shows how people talk about a brand.
It measures the share of conversations and market sentiment for your brand compared to that of your competitors.
Your potential clients may not even be aware of how SEO can raise their brand's awareness. Usually, social media and advertising are associated with raising awareness, with SEO being overlooked as only an organic traffic channel.
Educating your clients about SEO's role in improving their brand awareness can help tilt the pitch in your favor.
By figuring out your brand's "share of voice" on organic search, you can find out how much of the conversation in your industry is about your brand.
Ranking at the top of the SERPs can significantly increase a client's share of voice related to specific keywords in the industry.
As a result, their brand will have greater popularity and authority among users and prospective customers.
7. Show them missed opportunities
Potential clients can be missing high-value keywords, and it's a great opportunity to show them the importance of a comprehensive keyword strategy.
Showing potential clients what keywords they can rank for is a great way to encourage them to use your services.
It's essential to show prospects the missed keyword opportunities that your agency can help them capitalize on.
But don't just show them keywords they're missing.
Translate missed opportunities in terms of traffic and conversions to demonstrate the value of your services.
Explain to them how they can increase organic traffic and be discovered by more people if they target missed keywords.
For example, if a potential customer sells DIY dollhouses, you can explain to them that there are approximately 5400 searches per month for the keyword "DIY dollhouse" in the US alone, and by targeting missed keywords related to dollhouses, they can potentially reach even more people and increase their sales.
Analyze their current keyword strategy, looking for keywords for which competitors' pages rank in the top 10 results.
Researching competitor keywords helps you find industry content gaps you can fill to boost search visibility and reach.
By finding missed keyword opportunities and making actionable suggestions, you'll show your agency's expertise and ability to get results. This will make your pitch more convincing and increase your chances of getting new clients.
8. Explain the benefits of backlinks
Another important element of SEO to include in your pitch is how backlinks can improve your client's visibility in the SERPs. High-quality backlinks can increase domain authority, generate additional traffic, and ultimately improve SEO rankings.
Educate your potential clients about the significance of high-quality backlinks in increasing referral traffic, improving search engine rankings, and enhancing credibility.
Doing so can also set realistic expectations for a marketing budget because backlinks are a crucial ranking factor that should be a part of your client's SEO strategy.
You can use Surfer Audit's Missing common backlinks report to show them a list of websites that are linking back to their competitors but not to them.
Highlight your link-building strategies and how they can help establish website authority in their industry.
This way, you will show potential clients you can elevate their brand image and bring additional traffic to their website.
9. Reveal technical SEO issues
It's vital to include problems you can solve in your SEO pitch.
Clients might not be aware of technical SEO issues that impact their online visibility.
However, by identifying existing technical SEO issues on the prospect's website, you can demonstrate your agency's ability to analyze and provide solutions.
You can combine audit tools with Google PageSpeed Insights to identify issues such as indexability, sitemaps, HTTPS, duplicate content, broken pages, and broken links that may be affecting their website's performance.
Once you've identified these issues, explain how your services can help fix them.
By pointing out existing technical SEO problems and making suggestions for how to fix them, you'll show your agency's expertise and ability to get results.
10. Demonstrate ROI
Organic search delivers 53% of site traffic on average, demonstrating the importance of visibility in organic results. While your client must invest in SEO, you must demonstrate that it is worthwhile.
Through increased visibility, your clients can boost conversion rates, enhance brand awareness, or establish themselves as an authority in the industry.
With any new business relationship, it's important to demonstrate the value of your services.
Include an estimate of the potential return on investment that your client can expect.
Of course, this is not an easy figure to come up with, so use data and your own experience to propose a conservative figure.
By identifying your client's priorities, you can tailor your SEO pitch to highlight how it can help them achieve their goal.
SEO takes time, and the progress might not be linear, so it's important to explain that to your prospects. However, you should also present the potential return your client can get out of the investment in SEO.
The ROI of SEO measures the return on profits of all SEO activities.
For example, if you are providing content creation services, you can drastically reduce your content creation spend using a tool like Surfer AI.
Instead of hiring a bunch of writers, and spending time, effort and significant money into create articles, Surfer AI can generate complete blog posts that are optimized for search engines in minutes.
Take a look at this article for example.
It has 3073 words and has already been optimized to rank in search engines. All that is left is to review and edit the article.
An article like this would cost significantly more in costs and time for a human writer.
Because Surfer AI is significantly quicker and cheaper than hiring a writer, your agency will be able to demonstrate ROI from SEO much sooner.
You will find that your client will also be happier to see articles being created at 7 times cheaper than the cost of a human writer.
Even though it may be hard to figure out the exact return on investment that your client can expect, you can compare returns from SEO activities to those from other marketing channels.
Ultimately, you must explain to prospects why SEO is important from a business perspective.
Describe to them how you will measure results and report to clients so they know it's worth using your SEO services.
11. Personalize your SEO sales pitch
A personalized approach to your SEO clients is key to standing out.
Companies are bombarded with standard SEO pitches that don't address their unique needs and goals.
You will find that generic pitches are less likely to resonate with decision-makers.
So, take the time to understand their business, challenges, and goals.
By focusing on their objectives and demonstrating how SEO can help them reach them, you can tailor your pitch to meet the prospect's expectations.
You can also leverage the prospect's growth story to address their unique challenges and circumstances.
Personalizing your SEO sales pitch and focusing on the prospect's needs increase the chances of winning new clients and driving your business's growth.
A call to action at the end of your SEO pitch can reinforce your message to try your SEO services.
Key takeaways
- Pitching SEO services includes explaining to potential customers the benefits they can bring while keeping it simple and avoiding technical jargon.
- The perfect audience for an SEO sales pitch consists of people who are aware of the importance of SEO but have trouble creating and executing a comprehensive SEO strategy.
- Specializing in an industry when selling SEO services can have multiple advantages, such as easier understanding of a client's needs and problems or promotion through word of mouth.
- Demonstrate your results with data visualizations, case studies, and testimonials. They can elevate your credibility and expertise.
- Show your prospective clients what they are missing out on. For example, missed keyword opportunities, potential brand awareness, and authority
- Research your prospect's current SEO strategy to find potential issues and opportunities and present your idea of how to fix them.
- Remember to reinforce your message and convince the prospect that the investment in SEO is worth it. Describe potential opportunities for their business.
- Lastly, tailor the pitch to the client's unique industry and situation. Do your research and personalize your message. Include a powerful call to action at the end of your SEO pitch.
Conclusion
If you want to successfully sell SEO services, your pitch should be concise and effectively communicate your unique value as an SEO professional. To craft a successful SEO sales pitch, research the prospect thoroughly, present a situation analysis, propose a solution, and present potential benefits.
Put yourself in the shoes of the client when you create a proposal for their needs, instead of thinking from a provider's point of view.
