Generally every quarter we look at our current case studies and see if we have any new results that will improve our image to our client.

How do you guys handle pricing? Generally we charge an hourly fee consistent from client to client. Our only exception is we cut the hourly rate if 100 hours or more are purchased in bulk (useful for our agency clients who outsource to us). I feel like charging someone a monthly retainer (sometimes thousands of dollars) does not quantify how much time is being spent each month, and it is impossible to promise someone certain results.

We have also used SEO to upsell other services we offer. After a successful SEO campaign I have found that we can show a case study that shows after adding 3 videos to a client’s site it increased their traffic 10%. I explain this is because search engines currently rank pages with video (and the transcribed copy of the video) higher than pages with non-video. This leads to discussions about how pages with video keep visitors on page 4+ minutes longer on average and how it can be used to connect with the audience. All the sudden an SEO campaign with a few hundred dollars profit a month has turned into a video production series that results in a few thousand. Great ROI for me and my clients.

I will be subscribing to your blog. Look forwarding to reading from here in the USA.

If it comes down to an opening pitch for a new client and you do not have a contact yet then the best thing is to research first: find out who worked on the website build (usually in the footer), find out who the people are that are constantly contributing to the site in form of news articles or blog entries, so that you get an idea who your first point of contact is.

Once you have a name (which in 80% of the cases is someone in marketing, not the actual MD, but you are already in the right department) call up and ask for that person and if it would be a good time to talk about the website. Introduce yourself and be frank as to what it is you are selling.

Cold calls usually end after a minute if you cannot bring your point across, so say who you are, that you looked at their website and are interested in what the site offers, as well as the style of writing that person uses. I found that pretty much all the time the person on the other end was a lot more interested in talking to you now.

Once you “broke the ice” say what it is you are doing, tell them you are offering SEO services, and if it was possible to discuss the SEO of the site.

At this point you can usually hear a pause on the other end (as you are either talking to the wrong person about this, or they are thinking about what they are doing with regards to SEO. Tell them how you worked on similar sites and how you think you can help the site to gain more traffic and thus more potential customers.

Follow this statement up with a “would it be convenient to talk about this now, or shall I send you an email as to what we do?” – That immediately puts the pressure of the person you are talking to, and more often than not you get a response along the lines of “yes, could you please email …. about this?”

Then send them an email about what was just discussed on the phone, introduce yourself / your company and what your strengths are for SEO and that you would love to work on their site, and ask if it would be convenient for you to pop by and discuss the site in the next week or so. Follow this email up a day or two later (if you haven’t heard anything by then) and follow up.