If you are providing an online marketing service you will often find that small businesses are wary of accepting the advantages of SEO that works. Experts like Quikclicks come across this problem all the time. The issue is that small business owners and managers think of their priorities as being elsewhere. They are not marketing professionals and they do not see how SEO should be an integral part of their marketing strategy if they want to help secure an improved ROI for the business.
Whether you are an external marketing consultant, or part of an internal small business marketing team, part of your job is to show the management team just how beneficial good SEO can be. Here are some tips on how you can do this.
Show the Business that People Are Searching for Them
This is essential if you want to get the business on board with investing in good SEO practices. It's not good enough to just show them generic searches that could potentially relate to their business; you need to present data about searches that are specific to businesses in their geographic area or niche, or which relate to their unique selling point (USP). This is the start of explaining how SEO relates to them.
Talk about Competitors
It's a good idea to show how competitors are ranking in searches, compared to the business you are dealing with. It's one thing to extol the virtues of SEO to a management team; it's something very different when you begin to explain that competitors have an advantage.
Use AdWords to Explain ROI Potential
You do not have to run an entire campaign in order to use AdWords to show the ROI potential of SEO. You can measure the cost per click after just a few days, as well as the number of leads generated from those clicks. You can then extrapolate these figures out across an entire campaign period to show the potential ROI that can be achieved from an initial investment.
Use Real Examples
If you have examples of clients that have achieved growth from successful use of SEO practices do not be afraid to use them. You can show the business you are working with how verification in local listings, link building, changing around website pages and conducting high quality keyword research can have a positive effect on search engine rankings. Use an analytics tool to show them real results.
It's often not easy to persuade the owners and managers of a small business to invest in SEO. If you want to get them on board you need to be properly prepared and be able to present facts, figures and solid evidence. You also need to be able to answer any questions that they put to you. They will want reassurance that an investment in SEO is worth making. Your job is to help them to see the potential returns which could be achieved by making such an investment.
Community manager at Visual Contenting. Jacqueline loves to talk about social media trends, new technology and how they help businesses accelerate their marketing efforts.
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