Now that you know how many prospects you have, it s time to contact them. But rather than send out 10-15 individual emails, instead you are going to send out 1 email, with all their competitors emails clearly visible in the cc: section of their email program (NOT the bcc: section, which is the BLIND carbon copy use the CC: section so all recipients can see who else got your email).
The idea is to let them know that you are serious and that any delay on their part will be costly (as you will see in the draft of the letter, below).
Some people might feel uncomfortable sending out this type of email, as they fear getting into some kind of regulatory trouble via the CAN-SPAM Act. But as long as you comply with the regulations in terms of content, you ll be fine. But if you really don t want to send out a group blast then by all means send out individual emails to all your prospects. Better yet, lick a stamp and send them a letter by U.S. mail.
Just don't expect fast results. Or any results, for that matter. Here is the template of the letter I sent out, and I ve given you a second copy, below, customized to fit our Charlotte plumbers example.
^^^^^^^BLANK TEMPLATE^^^^^^^
Dear _______________ (fill in the blanks with the name of the business/profession) Did you know that _______ people a month are searching
the internet for _________ ________, AND NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM CAN FIND YOUR SITE? Every month you lose out on _____ prospective clients because your website is buried deep in the Google Search Engine results. Studies show that 98% of all internet users never look any deeper than Page One of those results when searching for _________ ________, or anything else for that matter. I can change that for you. I can get your website on to Page One of the Google search results for ___________________________, and usually within 2-4 weeks. That means in less than a month s time, when those ________ people search for ___________ _____________, they are going to find YOUR website and call YOU for an appointment. And the best part is that you don t pay me a penny for my services until I have your site firmly rooted onto Page One of the Google Search Engine. You ve probably already noticed that I am sending this same email out to _______ people who also have ________________________websites. Unfortunately, I can only work with ONE COMPANY in the ___________ area, as my services are designed to help one company DOMINATE the Google Search Results for ______________ __________________.
The first _____________ _____________ to contact me and contract for my services, wins. The rest will be shut out for as long as I remain under contract. If gaining immediate access to ________ prospective clients each month is something that interests you, I strongly urge you to contact me immediately, either by phone or by email. I will get back in touch with you in the order in which the contacts are received, so don t wait too long and find you ve been locked out for good. Call or email me now and let s get started on building your web presence where it will do you the most good: On Page One for ______________ _______________.
^^^^^ACTUAL EMAIL^^^^^
Dear Charlotte Plumber, Did you know that 6,600 people a month are searching the internet for Charlotte plumbers, AND NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM CAN FIND YOUR SITE? Every month you lose out on 6,600 prospective clients because your website is buried deep in the Google Search Engine results.
Studies show that 98% of all internet users never look any deeper than Page One of those results when searching for Charlotte plumbers, or anything else for that matter. I can change that for you. I can get your website on to Page One of the Google search results for Charlotte plumbers, and usually within 2-4 weeks.
That means in as little as a month s time, when those 6,600 people search for Charlotte Plumbers, they are going to find YOUR website and call YOU for an appointment. And the best part is that you don t pay me a penny for my services until I have your site firmly rooted onto Page One of the Google Search Engine.
You have probably already noticed that I am sending this same email out to 15 people who also have Charlotte plumbing websites. Unfortunately, I can only work with ONE COMPANY in the Charlotte area, as my services are designed to help one company DOMINATE the Google Search Results for Charlotte plumbing.
The first Charlotte plumber to contact me and contract for my services, wins. The rest will be shut out for as long as I remain under contract. If gaining immediate access to 6,600 prospective clients each month is something that interests you, I strongly urge you to contact me immediately, either by phone or by email. I will get back in touch with you in the order in which the contacts are received, so don t wait too long and find you ve been locked out for good. Call or email me now and let s get started on building your web presence where it will do you the most good: On Page One for Charlotte plumbers.
^^^^^END^^^^^
Can you see why this email gets an immediate positive response from the recipients? · · · · Addresses a major problem? Check. Promises a solution to that problem? Check. Promises and proves scarcity?
Check. Puts all the risk on the sender (me)? Check.
The person who opens that email sees that he or she has a very limited window of opportunity to address a major problem in their business (a poorly performing website) and it will not cost them a penny unless you actually live up to your promise of getting their site onto Page One of the Google Search Results for their main search term. Or to put it bluntly, they have a shot at increasing their client list exponentially, and they don t have to worry about paying you until they start seeing results.
Now I know a lot of you reading this are freaking out right now, wondering why I would ever agree to work for someone for free? I m not working for free. In fact, I charge $2,500 for one year s worth of SEO service, where I agree to keep the client s website on Page One of Google for one year. And I don t let them pay me off over time, either.
Once I can show their site is on Page One for two consecutive weeks, they pay the $2,500 to me immediately. That s why you want to target businesses and professionals in high dollar businesses. If you take on a client who makes $50 off each new client, they ll need 50 new clients just to break even. If you take on a client that makes $1500 off of each new client, by the time they sign up Client #2, they ve paid for your services for one year and made some money for themselves in the process.
But by agreeing that they can defer payment until they actually see that you can do what you promised, you ve removed the biggest objection people have with hiring SEO experts: How do I know I ll get what I pay for? By giving them what they pay for BEFORE they actually have to pay, they have no objection to signing an agreement.
They have nothing to lose and everything to gain. If you follow this plan in approaching the businesses in the niche you selected, don t be surprised if you get 3 or 4 calls from prospects in any one city, and usually within the first 24-48 hours after you send out the email. In the current economy, everyone is looking for ways to bring in more new business, at the lowest cost they can swing.
If you point out that by waiting until their site has remained on Page One for two consecutive weeks, there is a very good chance they will bring in enough new business during that time that your efforts will have paid for themselves completely, and there is no worry about having to dip into their personal bank accounts to pay for your services. The easiest way to prove this is to have whoever the gatekeeper is for the business (secretary, assistant, the owners themselves) ask every new client who contacts them How did you hear about us?
Once they start getting answers like I found your website online you ll never have to convince them to renew your contract next year. They might actually inquire about signing you up on a longer-term basis to insure the flow of new clients into their business (and NOT their competitors!) Once you ve sent out this email to your prospect lists, sit back and wait for them to start contacting you. Once you start getting contacts, it s time to move onto the next step.
Get Signing Up the New Client
This is actually easier than it sounds, even if you are the kind of person who is terrified to talk to someone on the phone.
Remember, your prospects NEED YOU! You do not need your prospects! This shifts the atmosphere of fear onto them: they need to fear that they are too late in getting in touch with you. They need to fear that you will not be able to help them make more money. You, on the other hand, have nothing to fear, for if Prospect #1 ends up being insane and decides against using your services, in all likelihood you have Prospect #2 waiting in the wings, and the odds of finding two in a row who are crazy are slim at best.
So keep this in mind when you are speaking with your prospect, or trading emails back and forth. If they try to get pushy with you, demanding to know what it is exactly you do for your money, don t answer. Don t sound too eager, like you are desperate for their business.
In fact, go the other direction. Tell them you never disclose your methods, and if they balk at that, tell them thank you for contacting you, but you have four other prospective clients from their town you need to return calls to, and it sounds like you just wouldn t be a good fit with their business. That s all you usually need to do to whip them back into line.
If you can find it, watch the movie Boiler Room. There is a scene about 1/3 of the way through where Vin Diesel is on the phone with a doctor, trying to sell him some stock in a phony pharmaceutical company. Actually, he s doing the opposite he s trying to not sell the stock. And the more arrogant and vague he gets with the doctor, the more the doctor wants to buy. (If you don t want to watch the movie, I ve found the exact scene on YouTube. Just use the YouTube search engine to look for Vin Diesel Boiler Room and that scene should pop up as one of the first options.)
You may not believe it until you experience it, but it works that way in real life too. As long as you are in control (or at least appear to be) you can make your prospect do just about anything to get you to agree to work with him. You are the one in control of the conversation, so steer it in the right direction make sure your prospect knows the answer to the only three questions that really matter to them:
1. What do I (the prospect) have to do to make this happen? Easy. Just sign the contract and I (you, the reader) take it from there. If you are going to do any on-page optimization, the prospect will have to get you access to their website. But other than those two actions, they don t have to lift a finger to get on to Page One of Google.
2. How soon will I see results? Remember that your prospect is already close to Page One of Google for their chosen key phrase. They usually only need a little extra push to make the jump to Page One, so seeing results in as little as 2 weeks is not an unreasonable claim on your part. Just make sure they know that it could take 4 weeks and even longer to get them to Page One.
I put a 90 day cap on my efforts: If I can t get them onto Page One in 90 days, we both agree that we can walk away and not owe anything else under the contract, even if they magically appear on Page One on the 91st day.
3. How much is this going to cost me? Here is where YOUR money is made. Instead of blurting out a figure like $2,500 or $5,000, instead, ask them how much a new client normally means to their business. If you ve followed my advice and targeted people in High Dollar businesses, the answer will usually be in excess of a thousand dollars. So instead of giving them a dollar figure, give it to them in terms of clients. If they make $1,500 per new client, and you charge $2,500, tell them it will cost them less than 2 clients. Before they get a chance to ask questions, do some quick math for them: In one month, 6,600 people are searching for Charlotte Plumbers on Google. You average $1,500 per new client. You d need to sign up 1.67 new clients in order to pay for one entire year of my services. Considering the traffic looking for Charlotte plumbers, once you get to Page One of Google, you could easily have paid for my service by the end of the first day.
This way, you ve minimized a dollar figure into something very small: less than 2 clients, which just about anyone on Page One of Google for a search term with 6,600 buyers per month should be able to handle in very short order. In your case, you want them to sign a contract, agreeing to pay you X amount of dollars for your services. In my case, I charge $2,500 to bump their site to Page One of Google for one specified search term, payable only after their site appears on Page One of the search results for that term for a period of 14 consecutive days. I monitor the search results on a daily basis, and once I reach the 14 day goal, I send them a bill for services rendered, payable immediately.
I do have a contract I spent some money having drawn up, and I ve included it as a bonus to this package. It is written using MS Word, so it should be a simple matter for you to insert your name into the first paragraph, and insert your name at the end of the contract where you will sign off on a copy after the client has delivered his signed copies to you.
What I like to do, though, is start working for the client as soon as I get the go-ahead from them, with the promise that the contract is on the way (via US Mail or FedEx/UPS). This way Google will start reconsidering where the site belongs in the search results immediately, not 4-5 days later when the contract arrives.
And even after I get them onto Page One, I continue with my linking campaign over the next 12 months, just to make sure that if any of the competition gets a wild hair and decides to take us on, we have the steady link juice pouring in to help us maintain our position. In the event the site falls off of Page One, I will mark the date and time I noticed it was missing, and that will stop the clock on the one year agreement I have with the client.
Once I get back onto Page One, the clock restarts and continues to run until 365 days on Page One is complete. And at that point, either the client agrees to re-up for another year (and another $2500) or we terminate our relationship and I can move on to the next client waiting in the wings.
If that happens, I ll show you in the next section how you can work backwards and remove most or all of the links that benefitted Client #1, and switch them to Client #2. In fact, I ll go over in detail what I do as far as linking/SEO is concerned in the next step.
For now, put the signed contract in a folder with the client s name on it and keep it in a safe place (preferably a fireproof safe). These few pages are as good as gold to you.
Post A Comment:
0 comments so far,add yours