Getting leads for your agency can be tricky business. Hell, getting leads for any company can be a tricky business. If we put together a list of things we’ve tried, well, it would fill the pages of a rather long novel. Here’s a list of things that have actually worked for us in the past. We hope it helps!
Rank on Google for your city + (SEO, Web Design, Digital Marketing, etc.)
Yeah, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. Of course, ranking on Google will get you more leads. But there are no shortcuts to getting there. You’re going to have to do it the right way. There’s no winning with unethical SEO techniques or tricks. It won’t work. Once you have ranked, it’s important that you continue to use ethical SEO tactics, because others just like you are fighting for that page spot.
So how can you achieve top ranks in your city
Maybe you’ve been trying to do this already with no luck. Or perhaps you are just now getting started and want to rank for SEO in your city.
Take a step back. What have your strategies been? How diligent and persistent have you been about implementing them? Did you take any shortcuts?
Be honest with yourself.
We’ve been doing this for a while, and we’ve done the wrong things and we’ve done the right things. At the end of the day, we’ve figured out some of the most practical and effective ways to get ranked for SEO in our city.
Exact Keywords in URL
This one doesn’t is simple, you can literally do it right now. As a matter of fact, go do this right now. For instance, we are based in Minneapolis. So our URL is: www.theguerrilla.agency/minneapolis-seo/. Your content is for two audiences: your customers and Google. Make it easy for both of them to connect with.
Content-Length Minimum
Be honest, is your target landing page over 1,000 words?
Most SEO experts know about this, but it rarely gets done. You want search engines to have plenty to digest and understand what is on your page.
As always, stick to great writing practices. Keep the content natural. Don’t write just to put in keywords. Break up the content to keep users on your page longer. Just because an article looks longer doesn’t make it a bad thing.
Too many clumped together paragraphs look more intimidating.
An easy way to add more content (and more keywords) is by adding a FAQ section at the bottom of your pages.
Internal Links
Think of your website as a complex game of Shoots and Ladders. You want many ladders on your website to lead to the target landing page. Alright, maybe this oversimplifying. You should be naturally linking to that target landing page throughout your website. Do so specifically — link with words like SEO services, or SEO. This helps Google understand exactly what is being linked to.
Give away free resources and material
Everybody loves free stuff. Whether it’s t-shirts shot out of a cannon or SWAG gear from the office, free leaves a good impression. But the more practical and usable the material is, the better the experience is for your audience.
Take the time to get to know your target audience. What are their frequently asked questions? What are they missing? What could benefit them the most?
Figure out exactly what they could use so that when you request their contact information, it’s mutually beneficial.
But you don’t always have to ask for contact info, sometimes it’s worth it to simply provide value.
Here are some ideas:
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- Free webinars
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- Free templates
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- Free SEO checklist (high-quality PDFs)
- Free Ebooks
There are just some of the ideas we’ve done ourselves or seen our colleagues do. The most important factor is providing value for them or filling a gap that they have.
One of our strategies is to offer a free SEO client contract template. We really did pay our attorney to write this one up for about $500. It’s a huge giveaway, but it’s worth it for the leads.
Strategically create partnerships
This one is a goldmine. Call up every single agency or firm that you know of that doesn’t provide your services. This can be:
IT services
Web design agencies
Social media companies
Online PR businesses
Branding consultants
Whatever it may be, if their services work with the same type of clientele that you want — call them. Offer them a discount off any SEO services they refer to you. These agencies and companies get asked all the time about doing SEO, but they don’t provide that service. Make them a little extra change by having them refer to you. After a while, you can even return the favor and refer services that people start to request from you back to them, like IT or social media services.
We keep a Trello board with all our agency partnerships on it and where they are at in the buying cycle. You can also use a tool like Salesforce for this. We would say that 60% of our new leads come from our partners, and new partners are just a phone call away!
Pssssst, check out our white label program on how we set up our partnerships.
Customer referrals
Some say you can’t strike gold twice…well you can with referrals. If one of your customers sends you a lead or a referral that turns into a sale — offer them a discount.
Make it sure your customers don’t gloss over it. Send them an official document outlining exactly how the process works. Basically, you’re offering to chip away at their initial contract fee for every referral they give you. It’s a great way to build contacts and satisfy your current customers’ wallets.
Answer questions online (like…anywhere)
There are a ton of great ways to do this, and a ton of great places to do it. We all know how conversational social media can be, but that isn’t often the best platform to provide robust value. We’re not saying you shouldn’t do it, just don’t expect a sale to jump out from it.
You want to illustrate expertise, yes. But you’re really utilizing these sites so that you can provide value, for free. Yes, you may already have plenty of free resources like the ones we suggested before, but if nobody knows who you are — they’re just collecting internet dust.
Sites like Quora, are perfect ways to add value and answer common questions about your niche. Thisn’t a sales pitch or a way to collect contact info. Simply give a helpful answer to a question — if they want to find out who you are, they can find your website through your profile.
Another great one that doesn’t get much love due to its casual nature is Reddit. Not only is this site a great way to provide and gain insight, but it is also hyper-specific with what are called subreddits. These are basically smaller communities within the larger user base that are tailored to specific questions, needs and people.
Just be friendly, helpful and not salesy. It’s about providing value and expertise without an ask.
Get traffic from sites you work on
Every website you work on is a testament to your ability to do proper and successful work. If someone finds one of your clients through a search engine, it means you’re doing great work.
In your initial contract with a client, add a clause that allows you to put your website in the footer of their website. It’s nothing fancy or distracting — simply a signature to the great work you’ve done. If a business finds one of your clients on the first page of Google or loves the design, they’ll want to know who did it. Your footer signature is basically a free referral.
This a way to get leads you otherwise wouldn’t have access to.
DO NOT use these links to try and boost your own rankings. These should be no-follow links, this just so new customers can find you through your signature.. Not so that you rank higher on search engines.
Offer web-design
We’ve gotten a ton of clients in the door for SEO services by doing their web design.
They just go hand-in-hand. Once we build their website, then what? The next step is to get it optimized…and wow, wouldn’t you know — we do that too!
If you can do great design work than the trust factor is already there. It’s not really even an upsell, it’s simply the next logical step.
A website without traffic is pretty pointless. So offer them the complete value of a website — one with traffic that converts.
This by far the easiest way to get a bunch sales for your other monthly services. This can work in a design business or any business that knows the value of vertical integration.
Find and reach-out to broken or horrible websites
The internet is absolutely loaded with horrendous and broken websites. This approach is not only old school — but two-pronged. And it works.
The bad websites
If you’re offering web-design services, this approach can get you design leads that you can also convert into other service leads.
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- During downtime, find shabby websites that could use a makeover from clients that should have the budget to be fixing this.
- Reach out and explain how you could help them reshape and redefine their online image.
If you’re not offering web-design, this approach can get you SEO leads, that you can also convert into web-design leads.
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- During downtime, look up crappy websites that aren’t ranking well. We’re talking 4th, 5th, and 6th pagers.
- Explain how they’re pretty close to ranking on the first page and how that could drastically change the game for them.
Boom. A two-way sales technique that can get you web-design leads that you can eventually convert into SEO leads. Or, an SEO lead that you can also pitch web-design services to (provided their website isn’t that great).
Dropship Services
We developed a method called “Dropshipping Services.” It works the same way dropshipping does except we’re the company that fulfills the orders while the other company is marketing the orders. It’s a step beyond our white label program.
Here’s how we do it.
- We contact a site that is ranking well for services we don’t compete on.
- We build out a new page on their site that sells their (our) service
- Once an order is placed on their site, we automatically fulfill the order and split the profit
This an extremely creative partnership, but it works wonders for the services we provide.
Here’s an example.
We offer broken up SEO services (blogging, link building, local SEO, etc.). We go out to sites that offer SEO services, but don’t offer specifics as we do. From there, we build out a page on their website that offers that service (most of the time it’s an eCommerce page).
It’s really a win-win for both parties and we’ve made thousands doing this.
Software Partnerships
Can you tell that we love partnerships? Why not?! Everyone wins when they are done correctly. This one is pretty much a no-brainer. If I were you I would look around the net for various partnership opportunities with large software suppliers.
If you are already utilizing the software this makes for an easy step, just contact your software supplier and see if they have a partnership program.
If you’re not using the software in some situations it may make sense to switch over.
There are two ways to get paid from these partnerships.
- You refer business to their platform and get a commission
- They get contacted by an individual/company and they refer that business to you to fulfill. I.E. BigCommerce and web design.
Here’s a list of partnerships that might interest you.
Do what it takes
We promise that these tactics work. Why? Because we’ve used them to build our own SEO agency.
It takes commitment and persistence. There really are so many businesses out there that can benefit from your service, it just takes the right approach and expertise to get them in the door.
