Two things:
SEO is a hard sell if they don't get why they should want it already. I just say, your website might as well be a brochure you throw out on the street if you don't provide a way for people to find it. If they don't get it. I don't try to sell it. I want to be selling to people who get the need and have the money

Two: most people get it. Hubspot did a study and found the top three things small business want in internet marketing -
1. website
2. email marketing
3. SEO

So, I make the most money by helping people who want these now to choose me. Missionary selling will slow you down and take money out of your pocket.

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SEO is just advertising, so, if they don't know what SEO is, just tell them they need to advertise their site and sell SEO just like any other advertising campaign.

Step 1) Never use the word / letters SEO.

they don't know what it means, most often they don't care,
its almost always confusing to them,

and more importantly, it always detracts from the purpose of the conversation.

We should be beyond the point of explaining SEO - we should be explaining online lead generation. Conversions are what counts. SEO is all about positioning, ranking, etc. If the site isn't converting, it means nothing.

So, you should be selling them on the idea of reaching customers that are looking for their business right now. These people are most likely ready to buy or at least ready to think about buying.

Sell them on the potential profit. Selling them on SEO is like selling a two course meal when most everyone likes to wrap it all up with dessert.

Having a website without good SEO, is like having a beautiful billboard on a deserted highway.
It doesn't matter how good it looks if no one can see it.

So, let me ask you this? Would you like to have:
1. A beautiful billboard on a deserted highway (nice site, no seo)
2. An "okay" billboard on a busy highway (decent site, good seo)
3. Or a beautiful and effective billboard on a busy highway (nice and effective site, good seo)

I don't sell SEO anymore, I'm starting to sell them on Inbound marketing. I mix traditional offline marketing with online marketing for their specific campaign.

I've found it works better that way.

SEO is the devil! It's the easiest way to get the phone slammed or them saying "NO THANK YOU" before they've even heard of why you're such a great company.

Create a brand. You don't sell SEO, you sell "Leads Funnels Marketing" where penetrate where their customers hang out and send them direct messages to get them to perform an action, fill out a lead form or give you a call!

That's just an example, but that's the idea. AT&T doesn't sell internet services, they sell Uverse. Yellow Pages doesn't sell marketing services, they sell YP 360.

Brand a unique way your and your team work...because it is unique and you want to create a brand that is special to your company. Brand your capabilities and how your perform. That's what you want to sell, this NEW BRAND that can generate them LEADS and PHONE CALLS that will make them more money!

SEO? I can't remember who said
"They can't write you a check while they're scratching their head."
But I believe it.

Hugh

Whatever you do, don't talk about SEO or tactics at all in a 1st meeting. We have sold lots of solutions to local businesses in the past, and not once do we get into tactics, its not important. Position yourself as a consultant 1st and get to know their business.

You want to get to know your prospect and what their business goals are (current sales, how much do they want to grow, average cost per lead, customer acquisition costs, marketing budget, etc). Talk business and the client will lead you down the path of providing a solution to help them meet their goals.

If you talk like a business person and understand business, you will separate yourself from all the other people who "throw up" all over the client with web design, seo, ppc, social media talk. I have never met a client who really cared about any of that, they just want results and a plan to get them those results. The client who wants to talk specifics about tactics is what we call a dangerous prospect, pay close attention to what they are asking you and make sure they are a good fit for you. The last thing you need is someone as a client who thinks they know as much as you.

Plus about a million points to Kabana...and while I think of it, you do local anything, GET his software. I bought it and it was worth every penny.

You don't.

Read this script.

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SEO is just advertising, so, if they don't know what SEO is, just tell them they need to advertise their site and sell SEO just like any other advertising campaign.

As others have mentioned, getting more conversions through "digital channels" is all most business owners care about.

While snake oil "we'll get you to #1 on Google" tactics may work in the short term for some small business, it's not a long term sustainable business model.

I've seen firms push ranking reports for dozens of long tail traffic keyword terms that were "winning on the first page of Google". When you dig deeper and see that all of these terms only brought 2 visitors to their site, that's a problem.

Focusing on long term "inbound marketing" is a great way to go. However for the small client who can only part with $350/mo for SEO and expects results in a few months, you're pretty much SOL in 2012, unless you take major chances. It's astounding how little most people know about SEO in general. Some actually think it's a one time thing. You somehow "contact Google", pay a fee and get this on the first page.

So, selling to the local business increased phone calls/contact forms and brand awareness is where it's at!

You have to show them the benefit of having it ongoing vs. not. They don't have to understand technicalities but need to be shown how it will benefit their bottom line long term and for that you do need to explain at least a little bit what it is.

Just explain them that SEO is a good step to advertise their website. They must like this way (SEO).

I see many colleagues moving the conversation with prospects to "Inbound Marketing", that's just as bad as 'SEO", now the client REALLY has no idea what your talking about.

We always start with a small PPC campaign. We get them traffic in less then 24 hours, it often doubles their current traffic, they can see the results in black and white (well color actually in GA) and, most importantly, they learn what a visitor costs!

NOW ( a few weeks later) we can talk. "Mike notice these 3 keywords generate 70% of your traffic and cost an average of $1.78 per visitor? Well there are some things we can do to increase your website visibility in the organic search results FOR THOSE 3 KEYWORD PHRASES and save you some money"

Most of the time we get a small SEO plan to start. A few months later; "Mike let's do some things to get more of those visitors to call you or fill in a form (assuming it isn't an ecomm site).... etc. etc. all the way through to email marketing.... and we haven't even talked about Social Media yet.

We see our goal as gently moving the client along from spending $500 pm on just one product/service to spending several thousand per month on several products/services.

But, as said, we always try and begin with PPC because of it's immediacy and legitimacy.

The solution to finding offline customers is being sincere in your commitment while not coming off as either weak or just another sales persons hawking rubbish. You can do this by pre selling to their business via the same strategies you plan to implement in the niche you are going after. Many small business owners know they need to be online but are approached by so many companies and sales persons it makes their heads swim. They want a workable test solution now, when you remember that and get into their heads things go much smoother.

The more technical you get, the more you're going to scare your prospects.

They neither want to or need to know about how you do what you do. Think about it--do you want to know how your accountant does your taxes? How your plumber fixes your shower valve? How the groceries you buy end up at your supermarket?

Similarly, your prospects could care a less how you develop a steady stream of qualified inbound leads for them. That is what they really want.

Use the script I linked to above to:

* define the size of the steady stream of qualified inbound leads

* learn what the financial impact of your solution will be to your prospect

* find out what this solution is worth to your prospect, and whether they have the ability to pay for it or not

* if your prospect has any other issues, financial or personal, that would prohibit you from working with them

* get your prospect to tell you how they buy, and actually buy.

I might say that's Too Much Awesome for a quick 6-minute conversation you could have several times an hour. But there it is.

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