How to Retain SEO Clients

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As an SEO agency, it can be hard to maintain a healthy client list. Getting new clients can take a long time and there’s no guarantee of success. A far better approach is to keep more of the clients you work with now. After all, they already know what you can do. According to a study by the Harvard Business School a 5% increase in customer retention rates can result in boosting profits by anywhere from 25% to 95%. That’s got to be worth doing. Here are some of the steps you can take to keep those SEO clients on your books.

Step 1 – Find out what your clients most need

Find out what your clients most need. A good starting point for your SEO client retention strategy is polling existing clients to see how you are doing on delivering their needs. Figuring out what’s working for them will tell you what you need to keep doing. If you give them what they need, there’s no reason for your clients to go to a different agency.
At the same time, find out if there’s anything that’s NOT working for them. It’s worth doing an exit survey with clients who decide not to renew their contract and find out if there’s a particular reason they have chosen to leave.
Sometimes, the answer is simple. A survey quoted by Conversion XL showed that customers often left businesses when they felt those businesses stopped caring about them. If your agency is so focused on winning new business that it forgets to nurture existing clients, this could affect retention rates.
Once you have figured out your SEO clients’ likes and dislikes, use the rest of the steps in this guide to improve retention.

Step 2 – Adjust your clients’ expectations

Adjust your clients’ expectations. One of the reasons some clients leave is because they have unreasonable expectations about what SEO can deliver. If you want to improve your retention rate, you must help your clients get real by educating them about the true potential of SEO strategies.
Make sure they know about the best current link building methods and about how search rankings fluctuate. (You can deliver a lot of this information via your blog and FAQs.) That way, they won’t leave because they expected their site to reach a page one SERPs within a couple of weeks.  Give your clients the right information and they will be able to make a balanced assessment of your services.

Step 3 – Identify and eliminate pain points

Identify and eliminate pain points. Clients want to know that you understand the things that cause them pain in their SEO efforts and are working on reducing them. If you make the pain go away and help them achieve success they are more motivated to stick around.

Step 4 – Encourage your clients to communicate with you

Encourage your clients to communicate with you. The best communication goes both ways. Instead of simply reporting on progress (see step 4) collect client feedback regularly so you always know how they think you’re doing and you can address potential issues early.

Step 5 – Report to clients regularly

Report to clients regularly and show how the services you provide have been tailored to their specific needs. Everyclient appreciates a unique approach because no-one likes to feel that they are part of a machine.
Regular reporting allows you to show clients how you are delivering on their KPIs and what the potential is for progress in the future. Striking this balance puts you in pole position for future work from those same clients.

Step 6 – Reward your clients

Reward your clients for their loyalty by offering additional services or discounts off the services you provide. Everyone likes to be appreciated and this will help build loyalty to your company.
You can also help existing clients look good to their peers by sharing offers that they can distribute so both parties benefit. Not only will this keep your existing clients happy but it will also give you a source of new referrals.

Step 7 – Showcase your expertise

Showcase your expertise by publishing well thought out content and appearing as an interview source online. Cement this by creating expert-level educational content which helps them achieve their goals. Reputation is everything, and if you position yourself as an expert, your clients will want to stick around.

Step 8 – Use social proof

Related to step 6, social proof is a powerful motivator. Make your clients feel comfortable by displaying logos of your most prominent clients and including real testimonials on your site. If you can include video testimonials, that’s even better. Social proof builds trust, and trust is a powerful factor in SEO client retention.

Step 9 – build a real relationship

The Client Heartbeat blog advocates building a relationship with your clients in order to retain them. That works for SEO clients too, and there are many ways to do it. As well as face-to-face, phone and Skype conversations, you can improve client relationships through your blog and email marketing. Deliver value to your clients and personalize your interactions and they will be happy to stick around. Being active on the social media sites where they hang out helps too. The more interactions you have, the better your chance of building a relationship.

Step 10 – Balance price and value

Balance price and value. This comes full circle back to knowing your customers. If your clients are going to do SEO properly, there’s a cost attached and that might be a sticking point for some SEO clients. Using the right language to talk about price can help them feel more comfortable about sticking around. Helpscout suggests reframing the conversation around the value and usefulness of your services and using pricing techniques such as bundling to reduce clients’ resistance to paying for your services. If price is the reason they are thinking of leaving, changing your language can make them stay longer.

Conclusion

These tips will help you anticipate your SEO clients’ needs, showcase your value and deliver on their expectations, which adds up to great customer service. Overall, they add up to a complete customer retention strategy that ensures that your clients stick around, keeping your business healthy.