How You Look: Keeping it Real

Potential clients want to see themselves in your work.

They want to know that you understand their desires, that you can see things from their perspective. They need to know you get it. They come to you with a situation, and want you to bring skills and experience that can accomplish something tangible.

SEO Copywriting is not usually about satisfying an artistic ego. Although let me qualify that statement--because the better you get at doing SEO copywriting, the more of an art form it becomes. But really, it is purposeful writing designed to increase profitability. While there is definitely an art to it, it is all about the numbers. If you can't increase and maintain higher web traffic and conversion rates, you are not satisfying the most basic purpose of SEO Copywriting.

How you pitch potential SEO clients, and how you look at what you do is something I have found essential to succeeding in this business. Keeping it real is often kept simple by having some numbers to crunch. I was very reluctant to embrace numbers, being the word nerd I am. However, these are excellent tools to make the Suits perk up and take notice.

Being a creative in a non-creative environment is always a little strange. But meet them on their terms, and it is amazing how much freedom you can receive. If I go to a company and pitch an SEO project, I know that we need to talk about my writing in real numbers. We need to look at what they want to invest, and what kind of return they can expect from this investment. It is up to me to manage this correctly, letting them know I understand the goals and bottom line.

If I am successful in pitching my dreamscape using real numbers, they tend to let me do what I do without much interference. I get a wide berth, sometimes a budget, and a deadline. SEO work is great, because you can see results almost immediately when things are all clicking well. This means I don't have to promise the moon. I can say, "I will help to drive the traffic from this proven keyphrase" and it is always received well, especially if I can show positive traction in a few weeks or less. When you are able to punch it up with some traffic stats and some supporting sales data, the intrinsic value of SEO copywriting really sells itself.

Let Them See Themselves in What You Do
Be easy to work with. I try to show a new client what happened in the past, and what I learned from it. I have some case studies showing numbers--I have screen shots of former successes with the stories behind them. I have spread sheets, and graphs if these help to illustrate a point. I try to use whatever language and whichever tools work best to have a new client see what their own efforts can become if they take me on board--I want them to see themselves in the same position as one of my previous success stories and visualize how I will impact their projects.

I am honest, and don't promise glitter on snowflakes or anything I can't really do. Since a lot of what I do is SEO, I don't promise top-10 rankings--instead, I try to promise progress, but only if I am sure I can deliver it. I can't guarantee how a search engine is going to treat a website, but I have a pretty good idea. So I can almost always reasonably promise progress, and monitor the numbers to make sure I can deliver something that can be measured. I stick closely to what I know I will be able to control, and steer clear of issues that are not within my scope. I make my pitch in a warm, authoritative tone using a language they can understand, and then I back off to let them decide if they agree.

Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. I don't get every job that comes up, and have had plenty of disappointments because I was passed over for something I really wanted to do. I have found though, that it works for me more often than not.

I may not land all the gigs I want to do, but of those I do tackle, none feel forced, or something I am doing reluctantly. Because I can honestly believe in my clients, and like them, and want them to succeed, it is much easier to enjoy what I do for a living and avoid professional burnout.

And I can't help but think that this is a big part of the reason why I have been pretty successful so far. I love what I do, and I am willing to take the time to learn how to speak to people in their most comfortable language. If I need to, I am now more able to crunch numbers, or use some charts and formulas if they are what is called for in a meeting. I am learning that speaking a wider range of business languages increases my own bottom line, and that is pretty cool.

My real point to all this is I have found that as an SEO copywriter, I need to be able to speak in real terms (and yes, even use numbers and charts and stuff) about the real impact to expect from a project. If I can help them understand what it is I do and why I want to work for them, it makes what I do tangible and real. At that point, like I said, the SEO writing part of it really sells itself.