- Mar 10, 2010
- 41,195
- 102,311
---- THREAD CLOSED 02/02/2015 ----
I was bumping around some news sites about a month or so ago and came across an article that reminded me of an old client so I looked his "stuff" up to see where he was at as far as his site, his social media, rankings, and such.
I was pretty surprised with what I saw as there was little done after I handed everything off to him. Very little FB/Twitter activity, only a few posts added to his site, no off site SEO to speak of, nothing in the way of press releases or other online public relations either. This client is not a bum; he has a viable business and has been in business for several years and has a bit of a customer base.
Also, when we parted ways, I gave him a PDF doc as to what he would be best doing to keep his position in Google on the local level as well as made videos for some of the step by step things he needed to do to continue his pursuit of a constant flood of new business and to continue to build his business to the $ amount he had projected.
So I shot him an email and asked how things were going... not a sales pitch, just a "How are things, Joe Client?" email.
His response was , 'Business is OK but not really kicking it, no real growth to speak of, nothing that he would write home about.'
When I asked him if he had trouble understanding some of the information I left him with to continue to build his online presence he said it was too much hassle and although he believed it would help just not something he wanted to personally handle and would I consider some kind of plan or something along those lines to help him out.
I put together a maintenance plan that I use for many clients in one variation or another for him that would make him relevant again in his local market (I actually shared this exact method of maintenance with Techxan before he passed) as well as help him get back in the local search algo where he belonged... nothing real heavy but something that would give him life in that end of his marketing again.
Bingo... a client from just going though "old files".
So what did I do, I contacted a bunch more former clients over the past few weeks and ended up with 6 new clients just by checking in with them and there are still a few in conversation that may come along as well.
The old file method of building a business has been around for years and has been used by just about every vertical in the business world and actually takes a little more effort than just snagging new clients sometimes. You have an edge in that you know the client, you lose an edge in that the client can say. "I've tried that in the past".
More often than not though, you know why the client is no longer a client and if you were a decent provider you have a shot at re-kindling the relationship once again.
Setting the client up again is usually not as hard as when you initially started with them as you have a pretty good idea (or you should) as to what their goals are, what things are important to their industry and what their target market is. That is pretty valuable information and saves you a ton of preliminary work with your "new again" client.
So if you are looking to expand your personal SEO service, dust off the old files you have laying around and see if there is a way to help out those that you have already helped out; it will be nice to reconnect at the very least, could be great for your old client to get some help with their online marketing and could lead to new business for you.
I was bumping around some news sites about a month or so ago and came across an article that reminded me of an old client so I looked his "stuff" up to see where he was at as far as his site, his social media, rankings, and such.
I was pretty surprised with what I saw as there was little done after I handed everything off to him. Very little FB/Twitter activity, only a few posts added to his site, no off site SEO to speak of, nothing in the way of press releases or other online public relations either. This client is not a bum; he has a viable business and has been in business for several years and has a bit of a customer base.
Also, when we parted ways, I gave him a PDF doc as to what he would be best doing to keep his position in Google on the local level as well as made videos for some of the step by step things he needed to do to continue his pursuit of a constant flood of new business and to continue to build his business to the $ amount he had projected.
So I shot him an email and asked how things were going... not a sales pitch, just a "How are things, Joe Client?" email.
His response was , 'Business is OK but not really kicking it, no real growth to speak of, nothing that he would write home about.'
When I asked him if he had trouble understanding some of the information I left him with to continue to build his online presence he said it was too much hassle and although he believed it would help just not something he wanted to personally handle and would I consider some kind of plan or something along those lines to help him out.
I put together a maintenance plan that I use for many clients in one variation or another for him that would make him relevant again in his local market (I actually shared this exact method of maintenance with Techxan before he passed) as well as help him get back in the local search algo where he belonged... nothing real heavy but something that would give him life in that end of his marketing again.
Bingo... a client from just going though "old files".
So what did I do, I contacted a bunch more former clients over the past few weeks and ended up with 6 new clients just by checking in with them and there are still a few in conversation that may come along as well.
The old file method of building a business has been around for years and has been used by just about every vertical in the business world and actually takes a little more effort than just snagging new clients sometimes. You have an edge in that you know the client, you lose an edge in that the client can say. "I've tried that in the past".
More often than not though, you know why the client is no longer a client and if you were a decent provider you have a shot at re-kindling the relationship once again.
Setting the client up again is usually not as hard as when you initially started with them as you have a pretty good idea (or you should) as to what their goals are, what things are important to their industry and what their target market is. That is pretty valuable information and saves you a ton of preliminary work with your "new again" client.
So if you are looking to expand your personal SEO service, dust off the old files you have laying around and see if there is a way to help out those that you have already helped out; it will be nice to reconnect at the very least, could be great for your old client to get some help with their online marketing and could lead to new business for you.
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