When you’re looking to resell SEO, it is critical to consider various factors and tips before selecting an SEO reseller! As you are well aware, Google keeps you on your toes, so it’s extremely important and necessary to stay up to date on the latest algorithm updates, releases, refreshes, etc. Thus, we wanted to revisit the topic and share our insights on how to resell SEO since SEO has changed (over the years) and continues to evolve. Watch this Daily Brown Bag to learn our six steps that can help you resell SEO.
Also available on YouTube.
Hello, and welcome to the Daily Brown Bag. Today we're covering the six steps to resell SEO. I'm Chad Hill and I'm joined by Adam Stetzer.
Good morning, Chad. There's a great topic today. There are a lot of people out there trying to consider should I be reselling SEO. Today we've got a great video here. We're going to pound through the six easy steps you should follow as you're on this process.
6 Easy Steps That Can Help You Resell SEO:
1. Educate Yourself
I'll launch off with step number one. If you're considering being an SEO reseller, the first thing you need to do obviously is educate yourself. You're considering this because you have a client need, and that's awesome. We know we see a lot of folks who call on us every day, Chad, web design shops, consultants, marketing consultants, people doing PPC social media. They're getting requests for SEO. It's very logical to think well I don't have this core competency but I sure would like to make this revenue. That's the right instinct. We think you're on the right path.
However, just because you're going to outsource this doesn't mean you don't need to understand it. In fact, you do. You're going to be selling it, and you're ultimately going to be servicing these clients and your brand is at stake. Education as key. As you go out to look for a white label SEO partner, I highly recommend you work with someone who has a lot of materials, who's willing to consult with you, and who's willing to bring you down the path and educate you so you really understand this product so when you bring it out to your clients you'll have a great outcome.
2. Find an SEO Reseller Who Follows Google Guidelines
The number two one is to really understand philosophically whether when you're looking to resell SEO about where you are and where the SEO outsource you'll be using is in terms of Google guidelines and their approach to SEO. We strongly recommend that you go and you read the Google Webmaster guidelines. We and probably many other firms have actually responded to that so that there's a very clear alignment with what Google's saying is okay and then how an SEO company approaches that. Make sure you educate yourself and you understand what are things you want to be doing and what shortcuts do you not want to take that aren't as effective as they once were or potentially could get you in trouble. Make sure you do some education, read those Webmaster guidelines and then talk to your SEO outsourcing company.
3. Establish Your Pricing
Great. All right, number three in how to resell SEO, pricing. Chad, we know this is a big one. Every day we're on calls with potential SEO resellers who are checking out our white label program. The number one question they all have is pricing. It make sense. You're bringing a new product to market. Pricing is one of those critical, critical issues. You price something too low, there's not enough profit margin. You're not going to be excited about it. You're not going to be able to hang with it. You're going to want to get out of the business. You price it too high and your customers are going to be very dissatisfied with you. They're going to start seeking the services somewhere else where they get a better deal. The first couple of months might have great profits for you, but they won't stick around and that trend will ultimately kill you.
Pricing and establishing your pricing is a really important process. Again, the white label SEO firm you're working with should have a lot of experience with this and should be able to help you out. They should be able to guide you in terms of contracting, what schedule you're going to be invoicing on, how to stay organized on that, as well as what kind of markup you should be giving. You get their wholesale price. What should you take that to market at? How much markup should be in there for you that finds that perfect sweet spot? Are you going to sell a la carte, or are you going to sell only packages? Are you going to bundle with a lot of other things that you could do, particularly if you're a consultant or you're a gifted web designer? There are great opportunities there. These are all conversations you should be having with that potential reseller you're thinking of partnering with.
4. Establish Customer Service & Workflow Guidelines
Number four is establish customer service and workflow guidelines. This one is so critical when you're reselling SEO. Regardless of the person you select, you're going to be doing a lot of work either on up front communicating to bring clients on board, and then just as the accounts move forward there is a lot of back and forth. You want to make sure that there are very...You want to interview your firm that you're selecting to make sure that they have really thought through the workflow of how you're going to communicate, whether that's by phone or whether that's by ticketing support or email.
More importantly, how are they actually tracking the work is getting done? If it's going to take three or four days every time you need a work report to know where things are on your campaign, that may be okay for you or it may not be. I usually would think that it's not. You don't want to waste a lot of time when you have a question like that. Make sure you understand where can you go to get questions answered about status on various projects whether that be software or whether that be some type of status report. Really understand that because you're going to need it once you get into this business.
5. Monitor & Track Campaigns
That's a good lead in to number five, Chad, which is monitor and track your campaigns. Yes, we're talking about how to resell SEO, but I think a huge mistake is made by a lot of folks here. They think they can just sell it, set it and forget it. That's not really how the white label business works, because you still have the customer relationship and you still want to retain that customer. Remember, this is a very valuable revenue stream for you for years to come if you do it right, but if you're not monitoring and tracking your campaigns and you're only focused on gaining new customers you really mess that up.
You need to have a strategy in place for staying on top of how the rankings are doing and for communicating some of what Chad just covered in how you do customer service. More importantly, step number five is really making sure those campaigns are working. This ties into the expectations you set with the customer and talking them down off the ledge when they call in 60 days and say oh I'm not on page 1 yet, what have you sold me. Hopefully, you've done a good job up front and you didn't set that expectation, but occasionally you don't sell it maybe the best that you could have.
You're going to really have to have strategies in place to say look, my work's all getting done. Look at these reports. Look at the progress we are making. We've moved from page 88 to 15. No, the phone's not ringing yet, but all the work's getting done. I did what I promised and the process is working.
Remember, SEO is a long term strategy. You're going to have to have some of those discussions ready to go in your toolbox and some of those reports ready to back up your opinions as you monitor and track these campaigns and work with your customers to stay with you through the long hall.
6. Be Ready to Communicate
The last one is be ready to communicate. It's definitely staying on the same theme here. When you're reselling SEO you really want to...There's going to be a lot of communication. Again, think about what you want to do from a client standpoint.Are you going to have a monthly meeting? Are you going to have a monthly report that goes out?
Ask the company you're interviewing to understand what types of support they can provide in communication, whether again that's an automatic report that goes out or whether there are other correspondence that can go out throughout the month.
We like to break the client communication in two different types. There's proactive account management which is the more you're sending information to your client, the more they're feeling like you're doing work and staying informed.
Then of course what happens when there is a question that comes back? If they ask you the question, who are you going to turn to to get that question answered if you're not able to immediately respond? Again, is that going to turn into a phone call to the company you've hired? Is that going to turn into a ticket? What are the response times for that? How confident are you the response you're going to get is something you can turn around and give back to your client?
That's one side of it. Like I said, the other side of it is what are the communication procedures going to be with the company you're using to resell SEO? Are you going to have, again, a direct contact with that company? Is that a pooled support group? What are the hours of operation? Is it in your time zone or not?
These are all things you really want to get into, because once you have clients and once you're in the business there will be questions that need to get answered. Despite what other people might say, it's never as black box. In fact, it usually isn't black box at all, because again you're trying to deliver a service that requires input from the client and requires input and your thoughts. You want to make sure you have a team that's going to be able to support that.
Tips & Takeaways: How to Resell SEO
Great, Chad. Well, those are our six steps on how to resell SEO. Kind of a different approach than you see from a lot of other places you might be researching. We're less focused on the hype of the sale and just closing. We don't believe in set it and forget it, as you heard. We're much more into the long term relationship growing a real business that will have a revenue stream that will last for years.
If you're interested in more, we'd love to hear from you. Give us a call or join our 4:00 webinar sessions. As always, we ask you to subscribe to our video series, and we'll see you back here real soon.
