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What do you say to business owners?

by PRBandit
11 replies
I am wondering what you say to business owners to make them pay you month after month?

You guys say you charge $400+ a month for clients. But what makes them keep paying? I am used to providing linking services online for one time fees. Which get people ranked very well. So I never can get re buyers.

So I was thinking that I should do offline, to get more business. I would dumb my sales pitch down, and simply say I will rank you very well.

If you did the work you said you would do ,which is get them to page 1, why would they want to keep paying you?
#business #owners
  • Profile picture of the author YasirYar
    The main idea here is to tell your clients that SEO is a slow process. I always tell my clients to always take 2-3 months for SEO to take effect. This allows me to charge them for 2-3 months and is not an unusual practice in SEO.

    Hope that helps!
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    • Profile picture of the author PRBandit
      Originally Posted by YasirYar View Post

      The main idea here is to tell your clients that SEO is a slow process. I always tell my clients to always take 2-3 months for SEO to take effect. This allows me to charge them for 2-3 months and is not an unusual practice in SEO.

      Hope that helps!
      Thanks!

      I'll keep that in mind when I am planing my services.
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  • Profile picture of the author fitz10
    I am assuming you're strictly talking about SEO clients since that's what you mention in your post. In that case the key would be maintenance of the top ranking. In most cases it takes ongoing link and citation building and on-page optimization to keep a site at the top of the rankings. You could also use your initial relationship to springboard further internet marketing opportunities within the company such as mobile marketing, site redesign, general marketing consultation, etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author BackLinkingNinja
    Maintenance of ranking is a key factor in retainers as their competition will also be doing all they can to keep climbing the rankings ladder. I always recommend providing a monthly site check, comparison against the competitors and of maintenance, updates and of course link building. Plugging in Google Analytics and providing them with regular pdf reports is an easy and nice touch. Plus of course links drop from the index, blogs close, allsorts can happen in a month -likewise keeping a month communication allows you to suggest other options like Twitter, Facebook Fan Pages, linking in a blog etc and so on. A monthly report, graphs and a look-see at their competitors provides value, peace of mind and a long term relationship opportunity!
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  • Profile picture of the author Voasi
    My average client size is $1,000/mo. with a 6 month contract. If I'm doing Google Places optimization, it's about building citations over time. If it's SEO, it's about building the right types of links to the website. All links are not created equally, so it takes time to find the right combination of links.

    Also, there is on-page optimization, internal link building, site structure, URL re-structuring, etc... All this stuff can take more time.
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  • Profile picture of the author RentItNow
    You need to have a client that understands the really value of what your service is providing them. I've had pizza places complain about spending $100/mn to make thousands but I have clients that spend that in a day on adwords to double their money. Makes no logical sense but it is easier to explain to a suave business owner than a non-sauve owner that they have to spend money to make money. ROI. Simple concept. I do notice the higher the customer value, they easier that talk goes. For instance, the pizza guy cant spend $100/mn cause he is thinking its going to take say a days worth of pizza making to get it back where a spa or dentist or almost anyone else is thinking I can make that up in one sale.
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    I have no agenda but to help those in the same situation. This I feel will pay the bills.
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  • Profile picture of the author SiteSmarty
    PRBandit: Business owners don't pay the $400+ a month if the #1 position isn't converting to cash.

    Put yourself in the business owners position.

    If I came to you and said, give me $400 bucks and I'll keep you in the #1 position in Google Places, what's the first thing you'd ask me? You'd ask something like this: "How many customers will I get for the $400 bucks a month?"

    The fact is that 99% of businesses don't get many paying customers from people clicking on their Google Places link. You might get $400+ bucks from them, but that will end quickly and you'll loose the up sells that you could have.
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  • Profile picture of the author Artificer
    I don't say anything to business owners to make them pay me.

    I educate them until they sell themselves.

    If you're doing your job right, you shouldn't have to tell a client why they need to pay you maintain a service; you bring them to the point where they understand why it's necessary and where they are happy to pay you to manage a service for them.

    That's purely my opinion, of course.
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  • Profile picture of the author vlvaralakshmi
    Yes, if it doesn't fit with your business. I work with many business owners and some you just have to say no because you realise that they won't work with you to help develop their business. Therefore there's no success and everybody unhappy.
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  • Profile picture of the author merryvinson
    PR Bandit - I started my offline consulting business in May and have 7 clients paying me $500 - $1000 per month with a set up one time fee of $2500. I have 12 businesses that I am prospecting.

    The main thing that I do is approach them with a solution rather than positioning myself as a another seo tech person. There are hundreds of them that offer seo and website but its hard to find someone who will strategize with them and build their lead generation.

    I usually tell them that it takes at least 6 months to get results but if we did before then, then its good. I also tell them that I cannot control Google as I don't own them but whatever I do belongs to them.

    I also meet with them once a month.

    Hope this helps, I am not a talker well typer but if you ask questions I would be able to help you more that is if you need the help.

    Blossom
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  • Profile picture of the author risahe
    choose a high quality goods is very important than everthing
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