And our client base was pretty widespread.

Everyone from lawyers to banks to world renowned DJs.

Now, you want to know the craziest part of this all?

We didn't even have a website.

So how were we able to get SEO clients and how can you get them for your business?

Keep watching because I've got some pretty cool tactics to share with you today.

Stay tuned.

[music]

What's up SEOs?

Sam Oh here with Ahrefs, the SEO tool that helps you grow your search traffic, research

your competitors, and dominate your niche.

Now, when I first started looking for client work, man… it was tough.

But after focusing on just a few strategies,

things started to click and getting clients became actually really fun.

In fact, the very reason I'm working at Ahrefs today is because I tried to convert them into a client,

which worked and didn't work at the same time.

More on this later because right now I want to get into some strategies that worked for me

and others in my network.

And I hope they'll work for you too.

Let's get to it.

Now serious sidenote:

This isn't a tutorial about getting clients then trying to figure out if you can actually help them.

I hate those kinds of courses and tutorials.

You should have a history of producing results and be able to help any client you choose to take on.

So if you're just looking to make a quick buck, I recommend mastering your craft first

so that the tips and strategies you learn today will be 10X more effective.

Alright, so the first way to get SEO clients is to get involved in partnerships.

Now, there are two types of partnerships I want to talk about.

You might have heard of the first one and that's to team up with non-competing agencies and freelancers.

For example, if SEO is the service you sell, then look for like-minded agencies that specialize

in other digital marketing channels like PPC, web design or social media.

Assuming your businesses are somewhat at an equal stage, then referring clients

is a free and passive way to grow together.

There's no need to get greedy.

The SEO industry is approaching 80 billion dollars.

And chances are, if you're watching this video, you probably don't own very much of that market.

A great place to meet like-minded people is marketing conferences because they attract

marketers from all lines of work.

For example, if you're a freelancer that focuses on SEO, you might want to go to a general marketing conference

to meet web design, social media and PPC freelancers.

You probably wouldn't want to go to an SEO conference for this purpose because everyone

will be selling the exact same services as you.

Now, if you don't have an "equal" number of leads to pass back and forth,

then a common structure is to offer a 10-20% kickback for any referrals that turn into clients.

The second partnership model is probably my favorite and that's to partner with companies

who have your audiences, but are in completely unrelated industries.

An awesome example of this is to team up with business bankers and private lenders.

Everyday, they have tons of leads coming in and if you're dealing with one of the bigger banks,

they can send you more clients than you can handle.

A model that I've seen work really well is to have the lender sell a high-level SEO strategy.

Reason being, the barrier to entry is pretty low.

They can essentially upsell your services for a one-time fee and take around 15-25%.

You then have the opportunity to give your presentation,

showcase your value, and bring them onto a retainer agreement.

Alternatively, you can approach other professionals like accountants and corporate lawyers

where you can refer clients to each other.

Partnerships don't always come easy, but if you're able to execute and systematize, your revenue will grow fast.

Another way to find SEO clients is to speak at conferences.

I actually didn't attend or speak at conferences until I was out of the agency world.

And I think it was a huge opportunity I missed out on.

For example, I spoke at a conference earlier this year where I gave a talk on link building.

Afterwards, a handful of people came up to me.

But they weren't there to ask me questions about the strategies I shared.

They were there to hire me.

And these weren't your average mom and pop shops.

They were decision makers from companies doing 1-20 million dollars in ARR or backed by VC money.

I strongly recommend applying to speak at conferences where your target audience would be

and deliver as much value as you can.

Next up is inbound marketing.

And this is likely the most valuable for your business

because your results are your strongest selling point.

For example, Ahrefs isn't an agency.

We provide a suite of SEO tools.

But a lot of the content we create is targeted around keywords that potential SEO clients

might be searching for.

And they're finding us through marketing mediums like Google and YouTube.

And by teaching how to do SEO, not only do we get customers for our tools, but we also

get numerous requests for consultations.

Not to mention the individual emails we get from great companies.

By creating content that demonstrates your expertise and ranks, you're building trust

with prospective clients through proof of concept.

And in my opinion, trust is the most valuable commodity when it comes to winning new clients

because it instills confidence.

Now, if you're still relatively new to the game, it might be advantageous to focus on one specific niche.

For example, if you wanted to do SEO for realtors,

you can find some topics by going to Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer and searching for broad keywords like "SEO,"

"keyword research," and "link building."

Next, go to the Phrase match report to see keyword ideas that contain your seed keywords.

From here, I'll click on the Include search filter,

and type in words related to the profession like "realtor" and "real estate."

And I'll choose the "Any" option to show all keywords that contain any of these words.

And as you can see, search volumes may not be massive compared to the head terms,

but they're lower competition, and seem to have a good amount of commercial value based on

the CPC values of these terms.

We have a full tutorial on doing keyword research, so feel free to check that out for more great ideas.

The next strategy is actually the last one I tested before giving up agency work,

and that's to apply for jobs.

As an agency or freelancer, you want clients.

And when a company posts a job listing, they likely want to hire someone in-house.

Now, while these two things might seem vastly different,

there's a more powerful factor that comes into play.

And that's intent.

So nearly two years ago, I decided to run a lead generation experiment on Ahrefs.

They had a job listing for a "funnel hacker," so I applied for the job with the intent to turn Ahrefs into a client.

Tim, on the other hand, was the one handling interviews.

And he was looking to hire someone in-house.

Long story short, we were able to come to some kind of agreement where I was able to

work full-time for Ahrefs, but I was still able to be involved with my agency.

And after a year of doing work for Ahrefs, I decided to give up agency work.

Now, my point is that with job postings, you and the lead have the same overall intention.

In my opinion, if you can sell them as an individual candidate, then converting them to an agency client

is the easiest part of the battle.

If you want to learn more about this little experiment,

I've added a timestamped link in the description

which goes through the story from my end as well as Tim on the hiring the side.

Finally is the most common approach to getting SEO leads and that's cold outreach.

Now, when you're doing cold outreach, you want to provide as much value as possible

and you definitely don't want to be too pushy in your first email.

Here's a sample template that Daryl Rosser wrote on our blog about getting SEO leads.

I'll break it down as we go through it.

"Hi Ricky, I came across your website today when searching for "Roofing in London,"

and noticed that you don't show up in the maps section and are #33 in the organic listings.

That's a lot of calls you're missing out on."

So he told Ricky how he found him and addressed a pain point that I'm sure Ricky already knew about.

He goes on to say:

"So I made a video showing you why your top 3 competitors are out-ranking you:

Site 1, Site 2, and Site 3."

This is a super-simple way to differentiate yourself

from all of the other emails these people are getting.

Most people won't go through the trouble to create a video and it also gives a more personalized feel.

Best of all, he's mentioning competitors that Ricky should be well aware of.

Finally, he says:

"Are you the right person to send this video?

If you are, please reply to this email, and I'll send it over.

Otherwise, just let me know."

The final part is a simple conversation starter.

Do you want the video, yes or no?

Or if I contacted the wrong person, then can you point me in the right direction?

Then after they respond, you make a video,

send it to them, and have your CTA in the video, which would be to jump on a call.

Super-simple and I can imagine it converts really well.

Now, for you agency owners and freelancers out there,

I'd love to know what you do to get more SEO clients.

Leave a comment and if you enjoyed this video, make sure to like, share and subscribe for more

actionable SEO and marketing tutorials.

So keep grinding away, find creative ways to find prospects, and I'll see you in the next tutorial.