How to build your SEO consultancy agency

How to build your SEO consultancy agency

I've written plenty of discussions here about SEO but never really talked about how you can build your SEO consultancy agency and be successful with it.  Well, today I'm doing just that, and I hope you can profit from this idea the same way I have

Becoming an SEO consultant isn't that difficult, you need a wealth of knowledge and enough time to execute, and you'll be able to put smiles on your clients' faces.  If you read one book about SEO and think you can be a consultant, you need to rethink your idea and go back to the drawing board.  The more knowledge you know paired with positive reviews from previous clients, the more you can make over time.  All of this will compile and make it so you can request more money from companies that need help with SEO but want to do it on their own.

Start Small and Deliver Big
When you're starting as an SEO consultant, you will quickly realize that no one will want to pay you $X,XXX per month for your knowledge.  You don't have reviews, testimonials, and you are a novice in the arena where the gladiators are pulling in millions a month helping fortune 500 companies.

Start by giving SEO advice at maybe $50 or $100 a month.  When I started I offered my SEO consulting services as a membership type deal.  They paid for a membership to my website, had access to all of my documents that would help them with their websites, and they could live chat with me whenever they wanted for more information.  It was a knowledge base where they could get all the information they needed, and if they couldn't find something they could chat with me directly, which is what they loved and they are still clients to this day

My consulting services started at $7 a month, and that gave people access to the knowledge base of information that could help them with their websites.  For $15 a month they could access the knowledgebase and email me directly, and I'd usually respond within 2 hours (longer if I was sleeping).  If they paid a premium of $47 a month, then they could get all of the above plus the ability to chat with me directly, and these clients loved that option.  Think about it; you can pay $47 a month and chat with someone that has been doing SEO, Online Marketing, Blogging, and everything else a website consists of since 2003 lol.

Over time I decided to give up that model and only focus on larger fish, the ones who would pay thousands a month and I only had to talk with one or two people.  It was much more profitable, less time consuming, and I wouldn't have been able to do this if I hadn't started small.

Target Startups and Move Up
Everyone wants to be a consultant for the big fish, but they never have the experience to do so.  You'll need to start small and target startups or small businesses that need help.  You'll never catch a whale unless you've caught a lot of smaller fish in the sea and that's because the whales want you to show evidence of previous work that was successful

Ask For Referrals
Whenever you have a happy client, you can always ask for referrals.  You can even incentivize this by saying something like "I'll give you 20% of whatever I make from your referrals," which is an affiliate system of sorts.  You can even set up an affiliate system so referrals can be tracked much easier, which your clients will love.

Ask Happy Clients For Reviews
If you're certain a client is happy, then you can always ask them for a review.  You don't want to ask just any client because that could backfire and you might get some average or negative reviews which will hurt your ratings. 

Only ask for reviews if you're certain the client is overly happy with your services.  Never ask for a positive review because that could get you into trouble.  Now, you can ask them for an honest review, and since you've already vetted them as a happy client, they will likely leave a 5 star overly happy review about all the beautiful things about your consulting services

Gradually Increase Your Pricing
Just like many things out there, the more you pay for something, the better it is (usually), and the same goes for any SEO consultant.  People should do their due diligence before hiring a consultant, but for the majority of them out there, they seem to be pretty good at what they do.

As you get more reviews and bring on more clients, you can gradually increase your pricing.  Think of what your bare minimum would be for a consulting service, then reduce it by 25%, and you'll have attractive pricing to bring on more clients.  After you get ten clients, increase the pricing, and keep doing that with every 10 or 15 you bring on board.  You'll gain reviews, build your brand, and if a client falls off then a new one will gladly pay the price you're now worth for your services


Final Thoughts,
Being an SEO consultant isn't the easiest thing in the world because it does take quite a bit of time, but it's worth it if you put in the time.  I built and sold my consultancy membership site and started to focus on bigger fish, but I always remember where I started, and that keeps me humble.  I may not get 20 to 30 new consulting clients each month for $7 to $47 a month anymore, but the clients I do bring on board are willing to pay a minimum of $1,000 a month for my help   I don't get a new client each month, mainly because I don't push my consulting services, but I may start doing a membership site as I did in the past, but instead I will target premium clients who still pay top dollar

Thanks for reading!

- Tommy
https://www.seoclerks.com/user/TommyCarey