If you are in the SEO industry, you most likely show your clients the monthly reports. We, at 411 Locals, improve our work based on the reports, but most importantly, we show our own customers the positive statistics. The trick to satisfying your customers is to actually make them understand the numbers and everything.
Marketers should realize their clients probably don’t have a clue about SEO
Most of us live in our SEO bubbles and fully disregard the fact that a layperson does not understand SEO the way we do. Our team’s goal is to bring awareness of that and make people think about more effective communication methods with their customers when it comes to SEO reports.
What our customers understand about SEO is that they are paying us in exchange for more visibility in searches which leads to more business for them. When a person like that receives a report full of digital jargon, chart of data, etc, they usually zone out – completely.
Truth is, if we want to keep a client for the long term, creating a report that shows real value to the client, is a must. Even if you broke a record and your report shows ridiculous growth in ranking and organic traffic, it would be useless if the client doesn’t understand it.
What to and NOT to do
- Do not talk about link
- Get rid of the dashboards
- Enough of the rank trackers
- Just get to the point
Everything that your client needs to know is how their money is spent. Of course, you can show your client some of the links you got, but it doesn’t really prove value. And the rank trackers are amazing tools, just like the dashboards, but they are only meant for internal teams. Before anything, you should realize that our job is to make our clients more money, and that’s all. Keep your report simple, a single page should do, and get to your client’s bottom line.
Show how organic traffic and leads improve over time. Basically, that is everything really needed. Of course, if a client needs specific information, set up a custom report.
In conclusion, when you are communicating with your clients, you need to stop thinking like a marketer. The 411 Locals’ team wishes you all the best and remember, keep those reports short!