How to provide value when clients slow at executing

[Mikey008]

Hi guys,

Been working at a large media agency for the last couple of years, on quite big brands doing their SEO_._

Its getting to the point where i'm becoming frustrated by the lack of action taken by my clients in executing simple things like - basic 301 redirects, creating new content/pages, improving existing content, implementing basic meta descriptions, push back against CRO, etc. It can take 6+ months to a couple years for them to implement our recommendations.

I literally feel like my role has become simply reporting on a monthly basis or doing audits (content, technical, etc) which i know won't even get implemented.

I love getting result and providing value. But unfortunately its difficult and SEO becomes uninspiring when clients are slow at executing.

I was wondering if anyone has similar experiences, or suggestions.

Cheers.

[Toddfoster]

Hello Mike,

This is definitely a situation where proper analytics and consistent reporting that show losses when changes are not implemented (and gains made when they are) is necessary. If you can prove that slow action (or inaction) on their part is hurting their bottom line, then they will be spurred to make the necessary changes. It can be a challenge to maintain willpower and work ethic when you know that small changes on the part of your client will make discernible differences to their success.

I have a client that followed this same pattern - small alterations such as additional content or meta tags were multi-month endeavors. The action we took was a combination of the ideas offered by Martijn and EGOL - we began by making monthly analytics reports for 3-month periods showing the cost of inefficiency (noting changes and the average amount of time they took compared with revenue figures before/after said changes were made). After 3 months, we made the alterations ourselves at no cost to see what kind of difference it made. Within 2 months of the changes we made, their bottom line had increased by 18% when compared to their average monthly earnings.

When we showed them this, we made the argument that we could be responsible for their ongoing updates (for a fee) and they were happy to move ahead with that system. 2 years later and we still have a great working relationship with them. As marketers and SEO's, it is our job to lead our clients to revenue, even if they don't understand how it works or place little value on it. We have to provide value and get their buy-in. After that, we can take on more challenging (and inspiring) projects to keep ourselves entertained.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas for moving forward. Keep plugging away and feel free to fire any questions you have my way.

Best regards,

Rob

[EGOL]

Jobs like these might go undone for many reasons.... lack of time... other pressing work... lack of skill... IT guys are cranky... afraid of making errors.... forgetfulness..... somebody on the staff nixing your work.     So, offer to do these jobs for them, charging a fee, of course.

Tell them that you will implement immediately so that they get the full time value of your recommendations done correctly.  Explain the loss of potential revenue by not getting the improvements on the site right away.

They might be very happy to get this work done quickly.    I would pay extra for implementation.

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

But are you also reporting on the results that certain SEO changes have an impact on? Otherwise it will never be clear what the changes of anything will result on the bottom line. I'm an SEO, moving a bit more to general online marketing though, and love talking about all these geeky SEO things and implementations but as long as I can't even prove for myself that it will influence the bottom line why would I pick these things up. It's same working for bigger companies, they don't care about links and domain authorities probably but revenue and more visitors.