SEO is a business that we all do to win! Winning at any cost has been the game plan for agency owners ever since the inception. When you sit on such a hot-seated throne, you have little mercy for your competitors. 

SEO is a small world where you’re connected with all the major players in one way or another. This doesn’t mean that your relationship with the experts in the industry must deter you from stealing their clients, especially if you’re confident that your services can add more value than what they are currently providing. 

Moreover, if you’re not doing it now, then there will be someone else who will do it. So why not cash in on this opportunity right now!

If you’re someone who believes that business is a war zone and picking targets quickly is the best way to beat the competition, then this blog is made for you. Once you’re done reading this article, you will learn the art of attaining high-value customers from your competitors.

Winner or Loser, It’s Up To Us to Decide

Do you spend a lot of time mining prospective clients online? Why invest in such a lousy task when your competitors have already done the heavy lifting? If you want to be a winner, continue reading.

You already know that your competitors have a handful of clients who are ready to spend on SEO to drive organic traffic. These clients are already aware of the profound impact SEO has on building their brand. Moreover, their expectations are now more realistic (thanks to your competitors who took time explaining all this.) 

If you want to be a winner, the way forward is through proving to them that you have excellent service that’s hard for them to refuse. Here is the step by step process to steal your competitor’s customers systematically and ethically: 

Step 1: Identify the Competitors

Since you stepped into the SEO business after thorough research of the key players in the industry, this step may be a cakewalk for you. However, for those who are still in the planning phase, this step is quite important. 

The SEO industry is like an ocean, and if you’re asked to find the key players, it would be like trying to find Nemo. The most common mistake SEO agencies make is vying with the wrong competitors.  

Is your agency niche-focused or does it provide only a few services like Guest Post Services or Technical SEO fixes? Your competitors will vary significantly from companies that are providing fully managed SEO services.

The key takeaway here is to segregate the competitors based on the target audience that you’re planning to serve. For example, it doesn’t make sense to pitch to a competitor client who is looking for Local SEO Services when my agency is not offering such a service. 

Identify the competitor who poses the biggest challenge to your SEO business and ensure that they have potential customers who are seeking services that your agency offers.

Step 2: Snoop into the Competitor’s Customer Base

There are many reasons for a client to be unhappy with the current agency they are working with. This can be due to your competitor being a bad communicator, they failed to bring results, or they deployed black hat SEO techniques that negatively impacted the client. 

Closely follow the online channels of the competitors traffic and monitor the conversions that happen. One of the easiest ways to do this is to keep a tab on Google reviews. Most of the clients who are not satisfied with the SEO services of your competitor go to Google My Business Reviews to write the issues they faced. 

In addition to this, review websites such as Trust Pilot and Yelp will give you information on the people who are dissatisfied with the service of your competitors. 

Step 3: Identify the Missed Opportunities and Provide Solutions

The clients that you segregated are dissatisfied because of specific reasons. If you want to attract them to your SEO services, you have to first identify the reasons that led to their estrangement with your competitor and then come up with solutions that they are looking for. 

When framing the pitch, ensure that you send them enough evidence to prove that the services you offer are top-notch and high-quality. In addition to this, if you have case studies, blogs posts, keyword research tips and other assets that explain how you delivered results successfully, there is a better chance that the client will choose your service. 

If you have successfully delivered results to websites in the same niche as the one you’re reaching out to, don’t hesitate to mention that. There is a high chance that the decision-makers will choose you if they learn about your niche-expertise. 

Step 4: Showcase Your Expertise

It’s imperative to convince the clients that your agency adds more value than your competitors. The best way to convince an already warm client is by sending a proposal that lists out the issues that are pulling their website down from featuring on the first page. 

A proposal has to be made keeping in mind the hurdles they faced while dealing with the old agency. This could be either on-page, off-page, or technical aspects. The proposal that you send must categorically address these issues and provide a solution. 

A vague proposal that only lists out the issues receives very little attention from the client. Your competitor may have already explained this part, and what they are looking for is an actionable solution. 

Your proposal must stand out, listing the possible solutions for each of the issues that the client’s website currently faces. This can pique the interest of the client to try out your service. 

Step 5: Offer Better Customer Service

Since you have already achieved the daunting task of poaching customers from your competitors, you’re in that zone where you have to keep them engaged. Customer retention is something that your competitor failed to do, and that is the exact reason why you have stolen their customers. So never let the same mistake happen to you.

One of the easiest ways to offer better customer service is by providing clients with custom solutions. You must put in the effort to get the information across to the clients in different ways that can boost their ROI. Ensure that most of this (in the initial days, at least) is given off as free add-on services. This gives additional value to the services that you’re already offering. 

The account managers must ensure that the hard-earned clients get quality assistance on website issues. Ignoring the concerns of the client may lead you to be on the losing side. According to a report published by Gartner, the customer experience will soon overtake the decision making factors such as pricing and the product or service itself. 

Conclusion

Consider yourselves as a pioneer in SEO. Digital marketing is an ever-innovating industry and so is SEO. I’d like to call SEO a toddler as there is a lot of growing up that can happen in the coming years. If you’re struggling to find clients for your SEO agency, consider this as a passing phase as more opportunities will open up in the years to come. You can tap into it, provided you keep abreast of the latest trends in the industry, and deploy them in your marketing strategies. Until then, try these ethical strategies to steal customers from your competitors.

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