Justify SEO Within Your Company
It is unbelievable but there are still business owners, managers, and even CEO’s who simply don’t believe in search engine optimization. Some people still actually think that it is a fad and that they just don’t need it. Personally, I think this is a very narrow minded way of thinking but that is just my opinion. The clients that you acquired face to face might not always be around. There are new generations coming up quickly that find all of their information online and that is simply not going to change or slow down anytime soon.
Here are some recommendations for people who need to make the case internally to justify the cost for a search engine optimization program:
Call for Meetings
Trying to catch the CEO in the hallway to show him or her some valuable data might not work the way that you want it to. Chances are they are heading to another meeting or to deal with another issue and you simply don’t have their attention. Set up a physical meeting where you can get their attention and discuss anything that you want regarding the powers of search engine marketing and optimization.
Gather Important Data
CEO’s and other high ranking officials like to see data and numbers. There is so much free data online for everyone to use that it will make his or her head spin. Show the cold hard facts on how important search engine marketing and optimization really is to sustain business growth well into the future. By just doing a few searches you could unravel a great amount of search data to prove your point.
Provide Competitor Data
If none of the above will get their attention show them how your competition is using the digital space to reach out to customers. If none of your competitors are using search engine marketing yet then you are sitting on a huge opportunity. If all of your competitors are using search engine marketing then you can’t afford to not get involved any longer.
It might take a little bit of work, but if you provide the right data and information the decision maker you report to will start to think differently about it. Don’t forget to show the data that really stings, such as the competitors’ data that might be closest to your door step.
9 Responses to “Justify SEO Within Your Company”
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well, if they don’t think in SEO, the best option is to show them some Google Analytics statistics from a website which is in the same field as they, eventually a competitor (if you can get the statistics:P) and then show them the amount of traffic coming from search engines and the traffic quality (avg time on site, pages per visit, bounce rate) and then they’ll probably admit they’re wrong and the SEO efforts worth the time and money invested in them
It’s not unbelieveable at all. Many business owners have perfectly well performing networks that generate sales, be they offline or online. Dont discount the offline ability of some entrpreneurs, some of them really know how to hustle, search engine marketing or not.
SEO tends to promote the myth that you can generate sales for next to nothing. This is nonsense. Good SEO and content building involves just as much care and attention and effort in generating sales as more traditional ways do.
Hi Adrian,
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!
SEO is not a replacement for networking or traditional offline marketing, but it should be a major part of your overall marketing…everything a company does from a marketing perspective should be leveraged within their SEO program.
Thanks again & take care,
Nick
Hey Nick,
Couldn’t agree with you more. I just started a new position for a company that has survived off of Paid for the the last 6 years. My previous company of 4 years was totally sold on Organic and happy to say they generate only on Organic leads after 6 years of hard work. I found that people understand Organic, being on the first page, but explaining the concept of spend and wait was hard to do with a crack laden, results right away PPC oriented company. Potential traffic and possible conversions from that traffic without a exact time frame is a hard sell. If someone is tied to PCC – prepare well because Organic is a hard sell.
Thanks for the information, I agree that in today’s world, no company is immune to the need of SEO, no matter how big or small they are. Thanks for the pointers on how to approach people within the larger companies and offer them SEO services.
Hi Stu,
Great point about the PPC side of things…these type of clients do often have a hard sell internally for sure!
Thanks for reading and your comment!
Nick
As an SEO company we find many client managements are stirred by competitors being higher placed than their own business in Google.
They don’t know what business they are losing, but object to be being ‘beaten’. Ah well, go with the flow if it works!
I run across this a lot. There are business owners who simply just live in the past and think that SEO is not going to help them. Its tough to teach an old dog new tricks as they say.
They say that they are running a radio add and have an add in the yellow pages, but are nowhere to be found on Google.
The competitor idea is a good one and it shows the owner that other companies are doing this and maybe its time to jump on board.
I find it hard to explain sometimes, especially to the older generation that this is where the future is … like it or not.
Great article
Shawn
Dave :
Sounds like your client has a personality that is only concerned about beating or manipulating others. Tough way to go through life and even tougher to work for because that same person works hard to beat and manipulate you down. If you know that, to expect anything else would be insane. Keep going with the flow if you want to keep collecting your pay check. And it sounds like that is your primary concern.