How to Target the Right Market for Your SEO Agency

Many digital marketing agencies jump into pitching their SEO services, only to find out that they’re talking to the wrong people.

If you’re doing the same, you’re just wasting time, effort, and most importantly, the opportunity to get a new client for your agency. What can you do to turn the situation around? It’s pretty simple – target the right market.

Before you get into the groove of selling white label local SEO services, it’s important to laser focus your efforts to the appropriate audience. One, it will help you get more targeted traffic to your site and more conversions. Second, it will help you put things into perspective and build better rapport with your prospects. Lastly, it will make selling local SEO services a breeze for your agency.

Ready?

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Conduct Market Research

First things first, you need to know who you’re going into a conversation with. That’s where market research plays in.

Market research serves three purposes: help you identify which vertical is workable for your agency, fine-tune profiles of potential clients, and understand the language of your prospects.

Some of the things you need to look into when doing market research are:

• Industry size: How easy/difficult is it to penetrate your prospect’s industry?
• Customer lifetime value: Do they rely on high customer lifetime value?
• Competition: What’s the competition (nationally and locally) like for them?
• Average dollar spend per transaction: What is the average spend of their customers? Will this be able to cover their budget for their marketing needs?
• Networking opportunities: What unique networking opportunities are present? Do you have personal connections in that niche?

When doing market research, don’t just focus on one vertical initially. Research multiple verticals, so you can weigh the pros and cons of each. This will then lead you to the next step…

Step 2: Find the Right Vertical

This is where it gets tricky.

After you’ve narrowed down a specific niche, you need to get a clearer picture of who you’ll be serving. This boils down to finding the right vertical for your agency.

Based on the experience of the agencies we’ve worked with, here are the best options to get started with:

• Verticals that have a high singular ticket value: These are prospects that deliver high-profit margins—great examples of these are real estate companies, cosmetic surgeons, and car dealerships. Going for this vertical makes it easier for your agency to justify the budget and help their business get back everything they spent on their SEO.
• Verticals that provide customer lifetime value: Businesses that have recurring transactions from customers fall under this vertical. Examples of these are fitness gyms and insurance companies. Unlike in the previous vertical, you’re not cost-justifying against a singular transaction, but you’re cost-justifying against the customer transaction over time. As you drive more leads to your client’s business, they get more customer lifetime value.
• Verticals that provide extended networking opportunities: These are prospects that can refer you to others and allow you to build relationships with them. Customers are likely to buy from someone referred to them because of the established trust. I’ll give you an example – family physicians. So, when your agency decides to do white label local SEO for physicians (and you did a great job on handling their campaign), they may be able to refer you to their other healthcare partners. As you grow your network in that vertical, so does your opportunities to close more prospects.

Growth hack: Avoid verticals that produce a low-profit-margin when you’re starting. These are businesses with a low sale on individual customers or don’t have many customers lifetime value. Most of these businesses will question your SEO pricing, and you don’t want to spend 80% of your time trying to overcome this type of objection.

Step 3: Start Building Relationships

So, what’s next? You mingle.

Don’t wait for prospects to find you—it should be you finding them and initiating the handshake. If you want to build relationships, you need to be out there.

Here are some tips:

• Join social media groups: Businesses are flocking to social media…so why aren’t you? Join Facebook and LinkedIn communities that serve the vertical you’re targeting. The key is to get the contact details (lots of them) from potential clients on these groups.
• Look for events, conferences, and trade shows: Use Eventbrite and Facebook to find events. Start with events around your area, but don’t go to all of them—only attend events that will help you reach out to the right people.
• Always bring a business card with you:Even with everything being digital, a business card is still your trump card when having face-to-face interactions. Have one created for yourself (and for your sales team, if you have any).
• Communicate with someone from the industry: This is especially helpful if you’re in the vertical that allows you to get referrals. Get someone to introduce you to prospects when you’re networking and use this as a common ground to build rapport.

To Wrap It All Up…

Ask yourself this: Will it be more productive for your agency to sell to everyone, or will it get you more results if you gun for the sure market?

The answer is pretty obvious.

If you align your goals with your audience, it will be easier for your SEO agency to scale and win more clients. At the end of the day, you want prospects to come to you and say, “You’re just the agency I need for my business.”

Author’s Bio:

Itamar Gero is the founder and CEO of SEOReseller.com, a white label SEO program and digital marketing solutions provider that empowers agencies—and their local business clientele—all over the world. When he isn’t working, he’s traveling the world, meditating, or dreaming (in code).

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