Welcome back!
After reading Matt McGee’s awesome post on Why Trust Matters in Search, I saw some of his commenters talking about building trust with individual clients and it got me thinking about what I’ve done personally to retain my clientele. I’ve had my fair share of ups, downs and everything in the middle with my clients and although Primary Affect hasn’t been around all too long, we’ve stayed consistent and have even gotten busier which has been awesome!
Here are few pointers that I’ve found have worked real well for me:
1. Stay In Touch!
I hate waiting for emails. I hate it!! The funny thing about that is that I hate responding to emails…so it’s a catch 22, unfortunately. Whether you have one of those clients that doesn’t say much, or it’s one that sends you an email everyday asking, “so when do you figure we’ll be #1?”, you have to keep them in the loop.
In my contracts with my clients, I mention that they’ll receive 1-2 ranking reports per month (more if requested). The now expect that and I’m held accountable. I actually like to be accountable because I know myself well enough to know whether I’ll do it or not. I’m no control-freak, but I do like control.
Back to the point, keep in touch with your clients at least once a week, more if you’re able to. It makes them feel warm inside. If you’re running a viral marketing campaign, a couple emails within a 48 hour period is good. Whether it’s to let them know of a significant increase in exposure, a flaw or even just to let them know you’ll be out for the weekend…send them an email. It takes less than 5 minutes to send a quick update. This way, you don’t leave them biting their nails at the edge of their seats waiting for an update/response.
2. Be Real.
Quick FYI (in case you didn’t know), most clients won’t understand your SEO talk. Page segmentation, anchor links, bounce rates all just sound like “blah blah blah” to them. Instead of trying to act like some profession marketer of sorts, why not just be yourself? You probably didn’t score them as a client with all that SEO babble, so why be so technical and boring?! I’ve made a good effort to just be myself with all my clients and they seem to like that (maybe). 90% of my clients I talk to very casually as if they were my good friend. Clients appreciate being treated like they matter instead of feeling like a client or a statistic, so treat them that way.
3. Say It Like It Is.
Beating around the bush never got anyone anywhere (except maybe pissed off real quick). I have a couple decent stories of where I dropped the ball with a client. The thing was, I told them what happened straight up and then I told them what I was going to do in order to fix it. And I did.
About 2 months ago, I hired a blogger to write an article about my client with specific detail…it was basically a copy/paste job, I just wanted her trusted site. She agreed and later posted the info…with a little bit of her own spin to it. Long story short, she actually argued and somewhat discredited my client and his views and put him in a bit of a green light. Before I even knew it was posted, I got an email from my client with a subject line that read, “WHAT ON EARTH HAVE YOU DONE?!” (yes, it was all caps too). I called him right away, let him vent a bit and then told him I would get to work on it and would have results by tomorrow. The post was deleted and de-indexed in Google within a few days. Crisis averted. Later, the client told me that he appreciated my straight-forwardness in responding to him and not filling him full of crap.
Just be ballsy for a brief moment, plan a course of action and take care of the situation.
4. Hurry Up!
I’ll reiterate myself here…I hate waiting for emails!! If I’ve asked you a question or need some info, I’d like to get a response soon so I can get to work. Your clients have the same mindset…it’s their business! If they send you an email, answer it! Most of the time it won’t take long and even if it will, at least you can let the client know that you’ll get right to work on it and they can go back to their warm glass of milk watching Matlock (or whatever clients do).
For those of you who use the GTD principles, remember…emails are not part of your to-do list, it’s for holding unprocessed items. Answer their email with a simple response and add the work to your task manager.
5. Get To Work!
Nothing will make a client happier than seeing results! Period. No amount of updates or “how ya doing?” emails will measure up. Whether that’s a first-page ranking, increased conversions or increased brand recognition, your client will love the results and see the ROI before they even think about asking you what’s going on. So get off of Twitter and do some work!!
I’d love to hear what other things have worked for you all too…I know I have only touch on a few of many possibilities.
Also, BTW, peeps…my good friends Chris Bennett and Mat Siltala will be speaking at SMX West. It’s worth the trip and cash just to get out there and meet the awesome people that are in the industry and build your network.
P.S. Kudos to you if you spotted the Happy Gilmore bit in the image 
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