Offline Business Marketers How Do You Handle Client Competition?

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I recently started working with offline businesses in my area. I have had some decent success with it and as I do more work I ran into a competition issue. If you are doing the offline to online model as well I wanted to see how you handle this.

I received a call from a company who saw the work I did for a client who is their competitor. They are impressed with how my client is now #1 for their keywords in all the cities in the area.

So they asked if they can hire me to do the same for them. But being that I have an ongoing relationship with their competition, I am not sure how to handle that.

Do any of you set up non compete agreements with your clients like for that specific area or something?

Thanks in advance.
#main internet marketing discussion forum #business #client #competition #handle #marketers #offline
  • When you say you have an ongoing relationship with them, does that mean they are still paying you on a monthly/yearly basis?

    If there is any sort of financial commitment on their part still, I would say your choices are to either optimize the new client for a different set of keywords, or to decline until something changes.
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    • I am doing additional work for them but at this point no monthly fees. That was kind of what I thought. He does have some additional keywords for services not offered by my client.

      If I finish the work and do not have a monthly payment with them for maintaining then I'm thinking it shouldn't matter. If their competition was smarter to pay me monthly to keep them ranked then so be it.
  • How big is your town / city?
    How big is their market?...is there room for both to survive?
    Are they close in physical proximity?

    I have clients in similar niches....like Chiropractors. I've worked with 5 in my Area, but I make sure they are not in direct competition with eachother...meaning same zipcode. But then again, my town is large enough to do this...
    If your in a larger municipality, such as pittsburg, boston, oakland or tampa, which you are....fine, but if your in squirel nut, oklahoma...population 5,000....I might reconcider.

    You state that you are not on any kind of monthly payments or retainer. I see no reason why not to work with the competitor. Like you said..."if they are smart enough to pay monthly to keep them ranked...so be it"

    Good luck,
    Ken
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    • I think I'd offer the 1st guy a monthly contract which would include the no-compete thing. If he doesn't find value in that, you shouldn't feel like working for the other company would be a problem.
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  • Yeah in this case it is a service that is offered in several counties. A retail store would be easier to deal with cause they would not have such a broad reach. Thanks for all the ideas.
  • There are some great points here. I live in a small city here in the U.S. and I wanted to know what niches have you had success targeting for SEO work? Businesses that come to my mind are restaurants, dentists, salons, etc. Here is my dilemma though. For a lot of the business categories, there is not enough search data according to the google keyword tool. I know it is important for a business to be on the first page of google but how can they guage if they are getting clients this way?
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    • My experiences tell me that just about any medical related field looks more into SEO. Not so much a regular physician, but Chiropractors, Plastic Surgeons, Eye doctors, other "specialty physicians"....they are so competitive, plus they generally have larger budgets to accomodate SEO packages, where as a small restaurant might shy away from a monthly 4 figure SEO package...

      As far as gauging if they are getting clients...
      It's all in the analytics...Most hosting control panels have website analytics and webalizers that you can see increases or decrases in traffic, where it's coming from, what pages thy are looking at most, how long they stay etc...
      If the client is in Google local.......stat's in there tell you how many click throughs to their website, how many click on coupons, how many clicked for driving directions, etc..
      Then there is Google analytics too......all kinds of ways to determine if they are getting traffic & new clients...

      Good luck,
      Ken
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    • Any of those niches you mentioned have a need for your services.

      What if there was NO internet? Are you then worthless?

      SEO has almost nothing to do with making Local business money.

      My clients get between 3-7 hits on Page 1 Google for major keywords.

      I do On Page SEO and very little backlinks. Think outside the box my friends.

      The problem with most people trying to work the offline market is they believe it's all about Online marketing. I can assure you my clients make a ton of money within 30 days after they sign with me even though any online presence has NOT started.
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  • It's a big benefit to a client to have a "protected territory". You can add tremendous value and actually land more business by telling the client that you're interested in working with only 1 business category per geographic area.

    It's better for you as a consultant as well because you can charge more... I'd rather charge more and have fewer clients than charge less and have to go hunting for new clients all of the time.

    In this situation, the advice about going back to the first client and offering a monthly contract makes sense. If they don't bite, then do some work for the competitor.

    This thing really should be addressed in the beginning going forward, and as I mentioned, it is a big value add to the business that you're only working with them and not helping their direct competitors. Although, how this plays out with vary based on the product/service being offered. Some services and products will not require a non-compete or geographic restrictions.
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    • I can see the appeal if there are businesses where you only buy from one at a time, such as car repair shops. Wouldn't an exclusive deal be counterproductive for businesses that could all thrive with the same clientele, such as restaurants all over town? Can someone clarify a rule of thumb about when to think in terms of an exclusive deal?

      Chris
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  • If you optimize for different sets of keywords and inform them of the matter it may be alright, besides you have a lot of the groundwork already laid out so that should make your job a lot easier.
  • You have no non-compete with them and this is business! You get no monthly fee so it is NOT a conflict of interest by any definition I know of.... Hope this puts it in perspective for you. YOUR BUSINESS---YOUR RULES
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    • Sometimes it goes beyond pure legality. Sometimes you have to consider your rep within the business community. Even medium sized cities like Tampa/St. Pete can act more like overgrown small towns.

      Business owners gossip. Next to making money, it might be one of their favorite things to do.

      Since there is no ongoing retainer and it sounds like there are ways to accommodate both parties, I'd say work it out so everybody wins.
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  • Those are great ideas and I will definitely be jotting those down. I wonder if Dan Kennedy has some good marketing materials that I should read to help local businesses? Any other books or authors you would suggest?

    One really has to just sit down and think of how to help a local businesses (ex. restaurant). I am sure if I do that, I can come up with lots of ideas. I want to concentrate on one niche (restaurant, salons, bars, etc) and put my efforts into learning how to increase their sales. I have really studied sms marketing and I think a lot of businesses mentioned would be a great candidate for this kind of marketing. It is new and very under utilized.
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    • Bill Glazer just published "Outrageous Advertising that's Outrageously Successful" Available at Amazon for around $15.00 or so. If you call the GKIC headquarters in Baltimore, I believe with purchase of 10 books (at $19.95 each) includes 3 or four day marketeers meeting in Orlando Jan 14th 2010. So for $200 you get great networking op, and 9 books to 'give' to good repeat and constant customers which they can implement in their own businesses. (with your help of course)

      Bill just wants to get on the best seller list before he retires... or so the story goes. Lol. If Interested check Small Business Marketing | Marketing For Small Business | Business Marketing for more info.
  • Thanks, that makes sense.
  • Banned
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  • Keep in mind, Bill spares no expense. A Glazer campaign may cost 2-4 times as much as a 'traditional' one, but when the response rate is closer to 10%-20% than 1%, it begins to make a ton more sense.
  • My thoughts are this - never leave money on the table. Be creative about how you can make it work out. I would charge a high monthly retainer ($x,xxx) and say that with that you will not do work for competitors.
  • Once when pitching to lawyers, he could not get anything past the 'gatekeepers'. Not even Fed-Ex packs. So he bought a bunch of inexpensive DVD players, put the pitch on a DVD and put the DVD in each player and had those delivered by courier.

    Every player made it to the lawyer. It was expensive to do, but the campaign was highly profitable by the end. (It was a high dollar pitch). It's all about 'out of box' thinking. A well worn out phrase, but many who use it don't practice it.
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    • lol Now that's creative!
  • As you can tell, I am new to this forum and I am amazed at all the ideas being thrown out here! You guys know what you are talking about and it is the out of the box thinking and just learning the basics of marketing that will help me succeed.

    Helping a local business owner getting an online presence is one thing, but you have to show educate them on how this will help them. Business owners are busy trying to run their business and when it comes to marketing their business, a lot of them are not very savvy. Give them a few basic ideas to incorporate into their business and this would be part of your consultation and I am sure they will come back to you when they see your ideas are working for them. When I first got into offline consulting, I could see the big potential in just letting restaurants know to start collecting email addresses so they can market to their customers over and over. Have them then sign up under your aweber affiliate link or another similiar company and earn residual commissions.

    Now that I think about it, that is just a drop in the bucket. You have to get your foot in the door with businesses and once you do, they will be a life long client of yours if you do things right.
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    • The fact that you feel uncomfortable enough is probably a very good warning from your conscience to tread with caution.

      My guideline would be don't work with a direct "competitor" unless both parties agree to it.

      One thing you should be aware of is that many businesses that appear to be competitors on the surface actually serve different niches.

      If you find that situation and you can explain it effectively to both parties then you may be able to work with both businesses and get them to do joint ventures with each other for unconverted leads etc.

      But I think the most important thing is to maintain your integrity.

      In a local area you don't want or need a business owner telling everyone you screwed them by working with their competition.

      And you don't need that on your conscience either.

      Always do the right thing.

      Always do everything above board and honestly.

      That will pay dividends way beyond just one new client in the long run.

      Kindest regards,
      Andrew Cavanagh
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    Offline Business Marketers How Do You Handle Client Competition?

    I recently started working with offline businesses in my area. I have had some decent success with it and as I do more work I ran into a competition issue. If you are doing the offline to online model as well I wanted to see how you handle this. I received a call from a company who saw the work I did for a client who is their competitor. They are impressed with how my client is now #1 for their keywords in all the cities in the area.