Every industry has their bad apples. The ones that give the rest of us a bad name.🍎🐍
Especially in my industry of search engine optimization, where most SEO companies aim for quantity clients over quality results. Turn and burn 6 month relationships fueled by aggressive sales teams that keep the cycle going with over promising and under-delivering.
Just because others are doing it doesn’t mean it’s right. Doesn’t mean that you have to do it, too.
Want to beat your competition? Then stop caring WHAT your competition is doing and start caring FOR your customer.
It’s ok to say no if a client isn’t the right fit. Sucks to turn away money, but I’d rather provide a good service and protect my reputation. Fast forward years into your business and if you have a solid reputation then people come to you with money in hand.
If you’ve ever wanted to see a black sheep in an industry, it’s me. My average client retention is years, not months.
In fact, I have at least 4 of my original clients from year one still with me… that’s 11 year retention. 🤩
There are 3 simple secrets.
1 – Set expectations
From the start I tell clients that SEO is slow. Because it is.
Because if they don’t want to accept that SEO is a long-term strategy, I don’t want the account.
Setting that first expectation helps with:
✅ client retention
✅ recurring revenue
✅ morals and not feeling dirty
✅ sleeping better at night because of all of the above
2 – Communicate
You could be working 24/7 for your client, but if you don’t keep them in the loop they might think you’re just cashing their checks and doing nothing.
3 – Most importantly, be human
People want to work with people, not faceless companies. Be relatable. Be transparent. Be human.
