Getting Client Buy-in

www.i-com.net | info@i-com.net | 0161 402 3170 Copyright © I-COM 2015 | All rights reserved
Finding the Words:
Getting Customer
Buy-in for Your SEO
Strategies

www.i-com.net | info@i-com.net | 0161 402 3170 Copyright © I-COM 2015 | All rights reservedwww.i-com.net | info@i-com.net | 0161 402 3170
@justhipper
Head of Digital at I-COM
Over 10 years' experience in SEO, Social
Media and Content both in-house and agency-
side
Full service digital agency
Primarily SME clients
About Me
@I_COM

Let me tell you a story about a small
business client who was getting
phenomenal results.

He had the most experienced member of the
team leading his campaign.

The client asked
for someone new
to lead the
account.

What happened?
LACK OF VISIBLE ENTHUSIASM
The client didn’t feel that his SEO lead was excited to work on his account.
DIDN’T TELL THE STORY WELL
The client felt that his SEO lead wasn’t very decisive, as if he didn’t believe his plan would
work.
DIDN’T DEMONSTRATE EMPATHY
The client felt that he didn’t click with his SEO lead and that they weren’t a good fit.

Your strategy is a narrative.
“...narrative might well be considered a
solution to a problem of general human
concern, namely, the problem of how to
translate knowing into telling...”
– Hayden White

Framing the problem
What was the problem for our client?
Lack of USPs
1 keyword delivering 80% of the traffic/revenue
Big brand competition
Smaller competitors punching above their weight
Limited budget
Imperfect website
Profit coming from huge volumes or repeat business

Framing the problem
What was the narrative we were creating?
Rankings for a small handful of keywords were an appropriate focus rather than quality,
retained business.
Limited ability to make the website convert on the budget
Social media could only work with loads of time and big ideas
Emulating competitors was the only option for links
The client’s business model was wrong
Google wasn’t behaving like we wanted it to

TLDR;
We didn’t enjoy working
on the account.
and
We didn’t have a
strategy, we were trying
loads of stuff our
competitors were doing
and hoping something
would work.

We needed to turn our
narrative into a story that
showed:
we understood our client,
we felt invested in his
business,
we were taking decisive
action,
what his expectations
should be.

Every strategy
is an epic*.
*And the best epics are as much about the journey as the ending.

Telling the story
Clients don’t want us to be
the teacher, thinker or
scholar, they want us to be
the action hero.

Do any of these sentences sound familiar?
“We are establishing whether or not your site would
benefit from...”
“We are thinking about changing the structure of...”
“This month we are looking to create...”
“We are hoping to build upon...”
“Your website has seen increases over the last 3
months...”
“We have managed to acquire an authoritative link...”

Focus on actions and deliverables.
Set clear expectations.

What they should have said...
“We are establishing whether or not your site would
benefit from will conduct research and implement...”
“We are thinking about changing will modify the
structure of...”
“This month we are looking to will create...”
“We are hoping to Our work will build upon...”
“Your website has seen increases o Over the last 3
months we have driven increases of...”
“We have managed to acquire acquired an authoritative
link...”

Using active voice
The hero should take action
In active voice, the
subject of the
sentence completes
the action.

Using active voice
Your campaign was
launched by
zombies (who ate
its brain).
vs.
We launched your
campaign and it
killed the
competition.

Writing the narrative
Our client needed leads and repeat business.
What we did:
Focus on SEO tactics for improved ranking positions.
What we should have done:
Focus on the end goals of data capture and repeat
business.
How would this have helped?
It would have framed the narrative in active language
the client understood.

What does this look like when it
works?

Framing the problem
What was the problem for our client?
Flat online traffic & revenue
Board of directors who did not believe in digital
Small internal marketing team who needed support
Limited budget
Imperfect website
Target market aged 65+

How we got the initial buy-in
What was the narrative we created?
If we could raise the brand profile we could lower the target market’s age and drive
additional revenue through the site.
The product was so great that anyone who learned about it
would want to buy it.
We could work with the existing developer on a new site to
improve conversions, whatever the constraints.
Bringing the brand to a new audience would take time as we
had to build relationships, but it would pay off in the end.

We showed them a trailer
for our action film that
got them excited.

We focused on a narrative the stakeholders understood & actions that excited them
We ensured that narrative also met the needs of the campaign
We ensured the narrative could buy us time until the results showed
We ensured that our narrative had achievable deliverables that would meet the
objectives the client laid out.

Key Takeaways
Make your narrative an action story

Key Takeaways
Be a willing and decisive protagonist

Key Takeaways
Tell your story in the client’s own language

Getting Client Buy-in

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