How I get quality SEO clients with cold email 2024

Summary

In this video, Sergio, founder of Axel Leads, explains how his agency helps SEO clients book qualified sales meetings through outbound strategies. He discusses the challenges of using SEO for lead generation, such as market saturation, commoditized offers, and low urgency. Sergio highlights the importance of differentiating your offer by creating unique value, using case studies, and offering guarantees. He also shares how custom videos showcasing specific SEO opportunities can create demand, build trust, and drive revenue. By scaling this approach, agencies can fill their sales pipelines with ideal prospects.

Takeaways

• 🚀 SEO agencies face stiff competition, making it difficult to stand out by ranking through their own services.
• 🎯 Referrals can work but are unreliable for consistent lead generation; paid ads and outbound outreach are better options.
• 📧 Outbound email marketing for SEO faces challenges: it's a saturated market, SEO is seen as a commodity, and the audience is already aware of SEO's benefits.
• 🔑 SEO agencies often struggle because their offer gets lost in the noise or lacks urgency for prospects.
• 💡 Two main approaches for outbound: either hope prospects are currently looking for SEO or create demand where it doesn’t exist.
• 👥 Customizing outreach by focusing on specific outcomes (e.g., revenue, brand awareness) relevant to the prospect increases engagement.
• 🎥 Offering a lead magnet, like a custom video audit, adds value and helps differentiate from competitors.
• 🏆 Case studies, testimonials, and industry-specific success stories can build trust and authority with potential clients.
• 💼 Offering a guarantee can mitigate risk for skeptical prospects, potentially increasing trust and conversions.
• 📊 SEO should be framed as a revenue-driving solution rather than just a technical service, making it more compelling for decision-makers.

Q & A

What is the main objective of the video?

The main objective of the video is to explain how the speaker helps SEO clients book qualified sales meetings and the strategies used to achieve this, particularly using outbound lead generation.

Why is it difficult for SEO agencies to generate leads using their own SEO services?

It's difficult because SEO agencies are competing against the top agencies globally, making it hard to outrank established players with more resources. This pushes smaller agencies toward referrals, paid ads, or outbound strategies.

What are the three main challenges in pitching SEO via cold email?

The three challenges are: 1) SEO is a saturated offer, 2) SEO is a commoditized offer, and 3) the market is already aware of SEO services, making it harder to stand out.

What are the two major problems that result from these challenges?

The two problems are: 1) Getting lost in the noise, as many companies are pitching SEO, and 2) SEO is seen as a low urgency offer because it's considered a 'nice-to-have' rather than a 'must-have' solution for businesses.

What are the two approaches SEO agencies can take when doing cold outreach?

The two approaches are: 1) Reaching out to people who are already open to SEO services and hoping to catch their interest, or 2) Creating demand where it didn’t previously exist by educating potential clients and offering value.

How can SEO agencies create demand that didn’t already exist?

Agencies can create demand by framing SEO as a solution to business problems like increasing revenue, improving brand awareness, and reducing the cost of lead acquisition. By doing this, they educate potential clients and position SEO as a strategic business tool.

What role does offering a guarantee play in cold outreach for SEO services?

Offering a guarantee helps build trust with potential clients, especially those who have been burned by SEO in the past. It reduces their perceived risk and increases the likelihood of them considering the service.

How does targeting specific roles within a company improve the effectiveness of cold outreach?

By targeting specific roles, such as a VP of Sales or Head of Brand Marketing, and framing the offer in terms of the KPIs they care about (e.g., more inbound leads, increased brand awareness), the agency can make the outreach more relevant and appealing to the recipient.

What is the importance of using lead magnets in cold email outreach?

Lead magnets, such as a custom video audit, are important because they provide value upfront, demonstrating how SEO can help the prospect. This engages the prospect, builds trust, and encourages them to consider the services being offered.

Why is scalability important when conducting cold email outreach?

Scalability is important because not every prospect will have the budget, interest, or availability to respond. Sending personalized outreach at scale (to hundreds or thousands of prospects daily) increases the chances of filling the sales pipeline with qualified leads.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Introduction to Qualified SEO Sales Meetings

In this introduction, Sergio, the founder of Axel Leads, explains how his company helps SEO clients fill their calendars with qualified sales meetings. He highlights their recent success of scheduling 14 calls for an SEO client in one month. Sergio acknowledges that using one's own SEO services can be challenging, especially for smaller agencies competing against larger ones. He emphasizes the importance of alternatives like outbound marketing, which he personally uses, and sets the stage for the video by explaining that it will cover strategies to overcome common SEO lead generation challenges.

05:00

📈 Key Challenges in SEO Lead Generation via Cold Email

Sergio outlines the three main challenges of pitching SEO services through cold email: saturation, commoditization, and market awareness. The SEO market is crowded, with many agencies offering similar services like free audits and full-service SEO packages. This commoditization makes it difficult to stand out, and prospects often choose the lowest-priced option. Additionally, SEO is not a new concept, so many recipients are already familiar with it, making it harder to capture attention and urgency. Sergio frames these as significant barriers that need creative approaches to overcome.

10:01

💡 Two Approaches to Overcoming SEO Sales Challenges

Sergio introduces two main approaches for dealing with SEO sales challenges. The first is reaching out to prospects who are already open to SEO services, though this is a limited pool. The second approach involves creating demand where it didn’t exist by providing value and education, positioning yourself as a trusted advisor. He emphasizes that generating demand requires more effort but can be highly effective in building a unique position in the market. The goal is to make prospects realize the value of SEO, even if they weren’t initially interested.

15:02

🧠 Framing Your SEO Pitch to Stand Out

Sergio discusses how to craft an SEO pitch that resonates with potential clients. He explores scenarios where prospects may already have SEO covered or are actively seeking SEO services, stressing the importance of differentiating from competitors. He suggests leveraging case studies, testimonials, and authority by referencing past success with similar clients or well-known companies. For prospects who have tried SEO before but didn’t see results, he recommends offering guarantees to build trust, while ensuring that your service can deliver consistent outcomes.

🔄 Addressing Prospects’ Skepticism and Offering Guarantees

In this section, Sergio focuses on prospects who have been burned by SEO in the past and are now skeptical. He advises offering a results-backed guarantee to ease their concerns, explaining that guarantees provide peace of mind and reassurance without a high risk of refund requests, as long as the service is solid. This strategy aims to reverse the risk for prospects, making them more willing to engage with an SEO agency. He reiterates that prospects will only trust SEO again if they are convinced of its potential through credible, proven results.

🔍 Understanding the Desired Outcomes of SEO

Sergio elaborates on why SEO is important by reframing it as a solution for specific business outcomes like increased revenue, brand awareness, and lower lead acquisition costs. He provides an example of targeting a VP of Sales by explaining how SEO can drive more inbound leads, which are easier to close than outbound leads. He also emphasizes the importance of tailoring the message to the recipient’s role within a company, whether it's sales, marketing, or another department. This personalized approach can turn a cold pitch into a more compelling offer.

🎯 The Power of Custom Videos and Lead Magnets

Sergio introduces the idea of using personalized lead magnets, particularly custom videos, to capture prospects’ attention. He explains how these videos can showcase specific SEO opportunities for the prospect’s website, demonstrating how targeted keywords can increase traffic and lead to higher revenue. By providing data on search volume, keyword difficulty, and potential results, these videos help prospects understand how SEO can directly impact their business. This strategy builds trust by providing valuable insights before the prospect has even engaged with the company.

📊 Scaling SEO Outreach for Maximum Impact

In the conclusion, Sergio stresses the importance of scaling these personalized outreach efforts to maximize results. He recommends sending hundreds or thousands of custom videos and ensuring they land in the recipient's primary inbox to avoid being marked as spam. By doing this at scale while maintaining personalization and delivering value, Sergio assures that sales pipelines will remain full of qualified prospects. He closes by highlighting that even with the right approach, persistence and volume are key to achieving consistent results in SEO lead generation.

Keywords

💡Qualified Sales Meetings

Qualified sales meetings refer to appointments with prospects who are likely to convert into paying customers based on specific criteria, such as interest, need, and budget. In the video, Sergio emphasizes that his SEO services help clients set up meetings with qualified prospects, ensuring that these leads are a good fit for the business. This is key to increasing efficiency and improving conversion rates for SEO agencies.

💡SEO Saturation

SEO saturation refers to the crowded nature of the SEO market, where many companies are offering similar services. Sergio mentions that SEO agencies face difficulty standing out because so many competitors are pitching the same service. This saturation makes it challenging to attract potential clients through traditional methods like cold outreach or even through SEO itself.

💡Cold Email

Cold email is a strategy used to reach out to potential clients who have had no prior interaction with the business. In the context of this video, Sergio highlights the specific challenges of using cold email to pitch SEO services, noting that it's difficult because SEO is a widely known and commoditized offer. He proposes methods to overcome these challenges, like offering personalized value and case studies.

💡Commoditized Offer

A commoditized offer is when a service or product is perceived as interchangeable with others, typically leading clients to base their decisions on price rather than quality. Sergio points out that SEO services have become commoditized, meaning that many agencies offer similar packages, such as free audits and full-service SEO, making it hard to differentiate their offerings.

💡Demand Creation

Demand creation involves generating interest in a product or service that a prospect may not have considered or prioritized. Sergio suggests that instead of waiting for prospects to seek out SEO services, agencies should actively educate potential clients on the benefits of SEO, creating a need where none existed before. This proactive approach can help SEO agencies stand out in a crowded market.

💡Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is a piece of content or a service offered for free in exchange for a prospect’s contact information, often used to attract and engage potential clients. In the video, Sergio explains that his lead magnet involves creating a custom video for prospects, highlighting SEO opportunities on their websites and demonstrating the potential impact of his services. This personalized approach helps build trust and generate interest.

💡Case Studies

Case studies are detailed examples of how a service or product has helped past clients achieve positive results. Sergio emphasizes the importance of showcasing relevant case studies to potential clients, as these provide tangible proof of the effectiveness of SEO services. He suggests using case studies to stand out from competitors and build credibility in the eyes of the prospects.

💡Risk Reversal

Risk reversal refers to reducing or eliminating the perceived risk for a potential customer, often through guarantees. Sergio discusses offering guarantees as a way to reassure clients who may have had negative experiences with SEO in the past. By guaranteeing results or offering refunds, agencies can encourage skeptical prospects to give their services a chance without fear of losing money.

💡Inbound Leads

Inbound leads are potential clients who have shown interest in a company's services by actively seeking them out, typically through search engines, websites, or social media. Sergio contrasts inbound leads with outbound outreach, explaining that inbound leads are often easier to close because they are already interested in the service. SEO plays a crucial role in generating these inbound leads by improving a company's online visibility.

💡Personalization

Personalization involves tailoring communication and services to the specific needs and context of a prospect. In the video, Sergio stresses the importance of creating personalized outreach, such as custom videos for each potential client, to demonstrate a deep understanding of their business and how SEO can uniquely benefit them. This helps build trust and differentiate from generic pitches.

Highlights

Helping SEO clients secure qualified sales meetings.

Put 14 calls into the calendar of an SEO client in one month.

SEO agencies face tough competition when using their own SEO for lead generation.

Referrals are valuable but unreliable for consistent lead generation.

Outbound email is a viable strategy when paid ads are not affordable or effective.

Challenges of cold pitching SEO services: saturated, commoditized offer, and market awareness.

SEO is often perceived as a low-urgency, 'nice-to-have' service.

Cold email strategy should either capitalize on existing demand or create new demand.

Use relevant case studies and testimonials to build authority and trust.

Offering guarantees can help overcome skepticism, especially for clients who’ve had poor experiences with SEO.

Focus on outcomes that matter to the prospect’s role, such as increased inbound leads for VPs of Sales.

Reframe SEO as a revenue-driving solution rather than a generic service.

Use custom videos as lead magnets, showcasing specific SEO opportunities for prospects.

Scale outreach by reaching hundreds or thousands of prospects daily while ensuring proper inbox delivery.

Personalization and consistency in outreach help build excitement and trust in your SEO solution.

Transcripts

hey I'm Sergio uh the founder at Axel

leads and I just wanted to make a quick

video going over what I do to help SEO

clients uh put sales meetings into their

calendar not just any kind of sales

meetings but qualified sales meetings uh

meaning basically the kind of people or

prospects that our clients want to work

with this last month we put 14 calls

into the calendar of just one of our SEO

clients um and you know this is

basically what I'm going to be going

over in this video is exactly what we

did for them and what we do for all of

our SEO clients so let me get right into

that now let's be honest um if you are

going to generate leads for yourself as

an SEO agency the best possible way of

doing this is by using your own SEO

services for your own you know business

the problem with this is that in the

particular case of doing SEO for an SEO

agency you are competing with literally

the people in the entire world at this

one particular practice so even if you

are you know an All-Star at this if you

don't have the resources of someone like

a web FM or like an ignite visibility or

you know one of these huge SEO agencies

out there then you're probably not going

to be able to you know outrank them um

so then you're kind of stuck with

referrals which of course referrals can

be amazing but they are unreliable so

that leaves us with either using paid

ads which which again if you don't have

the resources of other agencies out

there then you're just kind of sending

money out into the void or um outbound

and that's what I use um and that's what

of course if you are watching this video

you might have already considered this

maybe you've already done this yourself

or attempted it maybe you've worked with

another agency in the past and you're

probably watching this because you

didn't get the results that you were

looking for and there are a few reasons

why that may not have happened so I'm

going to be getting into exactly what I

do to get around those reasons um

specifically talking about the

challenges when it comes to pitching SEO

using cold email and trying to generate

leads using cold email um the problems

that those challenges create and what

all the solutions there are out there

that you can use to attack these

specific problems the the first

challenge is that SEO is a saturated

offer you know a lot of people are

pitching SEO Services there's not much

more to it that's the first challenge

the Second Challenge is that this is

also a commoditized offer so what I mean

by that is that you can package your SEO

Services however you want but at the end

of the day just for my experience

everybody is offering some sort of free

audit you know up front and also you

know they all kind of label themselves

as a full service SEO you know to

whatever degree that they mean that is

one is another thing but everybody

offers a free audit and they offer full

service holistic approach SEO so that

means that when whenever you are

pitching this believing that you are

offering something of unique value while

you may understand that this is really

valuable and you are putting a ton of

work into getting them results they are

see seeing this pitch over and over

again so they are commoditizing your

offer meaning that you are just in a

position now where if somebody is

interested in SEO Services then um

they're going to just go with whoever is

pitching them the lowest price because

you know it all looks the same to them

and the third challenge that is specific

to pitching SEO with email is that the

market is already aware right and what I

mean by that is that you aren't pitching

anything that anybody hasn't heard of

unless it's like in the local space but

you know other than that you are

pitching SEO Services which is something

that everybody's already heard of it's

on everybody's radar they've either

tried it they've considered it they

decided it wasn't for them whatever it

is but it makes it more difficult to opt

in for an offer that you are already

very aware of what the benefits are for

that so those are the three unique

challenges trying to pitch SEO using

cold email it's a saturated offer it's a

commoditized offer and the market is

already aware of what you're pitching so

these three challenges create two

problems that make your offer

uncompelling and the first problem is

that you get lost in the noise so

basically since people are getting

pitched this really often then it's

really likely that you're not going to

get results or good results from your

Outreach um because either people are

uninterested in your offer in the first

place or they are interested but if they

are interested then they probably

already said yes to the a offer that

came in you know a couple days but years

so that's one problem the other problem

is that it's a low urgency offer so

basically with SEO it's a nice to have

it's a vitamin solution it's not a

painkiller solution CEOs business people

are putting out fires every single day

and that's where their focus is with

their business and SEO almost never puts

out a fire right and if it does put out

a fire then they are going on Google and

searching for a solution there anyway or

they're asking for a friend and that's

how they're you know solving this

problem they're not necessarily waiting

for a stranger to send them an email

okay so now that puts us in a position

of you have really having two different

approaches that you can take one of the

approaches is to reach out to people and

just really hope that they happen to be

open to SEO services and don't get me

wrong that actually does happen that's

how we get some of our leads but it's

obviously not a great majority of our

leads because of everything I just

mentioned uh before this but the second

option that you have is to create demand

that didn't already exist this is a lot

more work but it does put you in a

unique position to be like in an blue

ocean where your prospects become more

informed they are more bought into the

idea of SEO and they are grateful to you

for providing um you know additional

value and I'll get into what I mean by

that in a second so now that we have you

know full context of the challenges and

the problems that are involved with

trying to generate leads using cold

outbound for SEO Services then to think

about the solution you have to think

about it in the frame of you know okay

all of that is true so what do I have to

say to these people to opt into my

services when they ignored everybody

else before me so with that frame you

have to think about what are all the

possible scenarios you know scenario one

um they have SEO covered they have this

in-house they are paying somebody to do

this and they're getting good results in

this case they don't need you move on

another possible scenario is that they

can benefit from SEO and they're out

there looking for providers maybe

they're hiring some somebody maybe they

are entertaining um you know cold

outbound um emails that they're getting

in this case you still have to make sure

you figure out how to make yourself

stand out from the competition that's

out there what can you say that other

people possibly or probably cannot say

too now again just as a reminder

everybody's offering some version of a

free audit and they're all doing full

service SEO but there are still things

that you can say that are unique to you

that maybe others can't say so for

example when you're thinking about one

Prospect have you gotten results for a

similar company to that prospect that

was in a similar situation you know case

studies can really show that you have

relevant experience or maybe you've

worked with really well-known companies

especially ones that were in their

specific industry stating this can give

you Authority or do you have any

evidence that you've made other clients

really rich and really happy then

testimonials will earn their trust you

have to remember that whenever we're

talking about cold outbound you are a

complete stranger to these people so you

have to do whatever you can do to show

them that you have relevant Authority

and trust a third possible scenario of

where a prospect might be is that they

have maybe tried SEO in the past but

they didn't see results and they can

still benefit from SEO but they just

don't feel like that's the case anymore

and in this case of course everything I

mentioned before um is still the case

you know if if you can show them case

studies if you can show them

testimonials if you can um show them

well-known companies that they would be

familiar with that you have worked with

and provided results for then all of

those things can help make the case for

you but these are people who have been

burned in the past so they don't really

trust SEO as much anymore in this case

what you can do is offer a guarantee now

of course this requires you to be sure

that you can deliver consistent results

and of course the immediate thought

whenever somebody says you know you

should offer a guarantee

is that like um you're going to have to

end up paying all these refunds and like

you know there's going to be a big

problem on the other end but you know if

you don't think about the negatives but

only think about the positives in that

you in this way you are able to let

somebody know that they have no risk in

working with you but you can deliver

them the results that you're talking

about then this reframes everything and

it works so much more in your favor than

against you I mean there are stats out

there that you can probably look up

where it shows that like 95% of

guarantees never get you know you never

have to refund you know as long as you

actually deliver on the service so it's

not so much about the fact that you're

going to have to be refunding people

it's just more about giving them the

peace of mind that the likelihood that

you're going to be able to deliver the

results that you're saying that you're

going to deliver um is a lot higher and

and it's backed up by this risk reversal

but what I like to focus on is the

fourth possibility of where a prospect

might be and it's that SEO can benefit

them but it's not really a priority for

them at the time from my experience I've

noticed that like 80% of prospects are

in this exact situation this is where

the possibility to generate demand that

didn't already exist before is this is

where you know you have to take a step

back and think about what is SEO for you

know at the end like what is the desired

outcome of SEO you know nobody is buying

SEO because they want to feel really

good about their website coming up you

know at first whenever they look

something up on Google they're doing SEO

because maybe they want more Revenue

maybe they want more brand awareness

maybe they want to reduce the cost of

acquisition of a new lead maybe they

want more um inbound leads because

they're easier to close so you know with

that in mind let's just say you're

reaching out to the VP of sales at a

company right do you think it's possible

that the VP of sales at a company is

probably going to be really happy for

there to be a larger influx of inel

leads coming in through their website

somebody who's the the VP of cells

understands that inbound leads are so

much easier to close because

psychologically people want to work with

somebody that they chose to work with

you know with outbound it's a lot harder

because with outbound you have to

convince somebody that you are

approaching them for their best interest

but with inbound leads they are coming

to you so a VP of cells knows that

somebody who is coming to you is going

to be so much easier to close so if

we're reaching out to a VP of cell

saying hey we can increase the number of

Inbal leads that are coming into your

pipeline by targeting these specific

keywords then you know obviously a VP of

Sals they aren't necessarily the

decision maker when it comes to

marketing services or you know

Contracting marketing services or

vendors but because they see the benefit

of how it's going to affect their

performance and and the metrics that

they care about now they are part of the

people on the inside of that company who

are advocating for working with you you

know that's just one example you know

like that's the VP of Sals you know

somebody who is the head of brand

marketing then you talk about brand

awareness and how SEO can help with that

you know like there are so many desired

outcomes in different parts of different

companies and if you can reach the

person that you are reaching out to with

the specific thing that matters to them

then you are much more likely to get

much better results with your Outreach

now saying everything I just said in a

cold email especially the first cold

email is a lot of words and nobody's

going to give you the time of day to

read a 600 word essay about how your

specific SEO Services can be reframed to

help them meet the kpis that they care

about you know so what we do instead is

offering a lead magnet basically the

point of this lead magnet basically with

this lead magnet it doesn't have to be

anything crazy I so all I do is I'll let

them know you know hey can I make you a

custom video then I make them a custom

video by you know I go to their website

I try to identify opportunities on their

website that would um you know like

certain key wordss that they could

potentially be ranking for that maybe

they're not ranking for right now um I

show them the opportunity that's out

there how many how how what's a search

volume um what's the keyword difficulty

what is their current context in terms

of like domain Authority and how the

services of the company that I'm talking

about can help them you know with their

Authority and and and everything that

needs to happen for them to rank for the

specific keyword that's going to be

bringing people who are looking for

their specific solutions to their

website and by the these being the very

specific people who are looking for

their very specific Solutions so let's

say um you are offering a asset

management solution for manufacturing

companies so if there are people out

there who are looking for you know

searching for Asset Management solution

for manufacturing then of course the

company is going to want to be in front

of these people as often as possible so

by showing them how they can rank for

this specific keyword and how this is

going to bring potentially hundreds of

people who are looking for their

specific solution to their website um

you know then they can obviously make

the connection that bringing these

people who are actively looking for

their solution to their website is going

to lead to more people on their website

that are looking for their solution and

and and that's going to lead to more

people clicking on that get a demo

button or or um book a call button or

whatever it is and that's going to lead

to more people hopping on sales calls

with them and that's going to lead to

more people who are going to become

clients for them and that's going to

lead to more people who are going to

bring in Revenue to their company right

so they can make that connection when

you explain to them how there are people

out there that are looking for their

specific Solutions and that is something

that SEO accomplishes so once they have

that frame of mind that SEO is a revenue

driving solution not just by telling

them hey I can boost your Revenue by

$600,000 like I did for this company you

know like that's just like so abstract

but you know by showing them in a video

how specifically your services are going

to lead to revenue then not only can

they make that connection but also they

just spent 5 minutes entertaining your

services so they have your familiar face

or somebody who is representing your

company's familiar face and now they

have your trust now they are more

informed of um your services now they

are more excited about the prospect of

working with an SEO agency and since you

know now that this is the moment that

they've been most excited about SEO then

this is the moment that they're going to

be most likely to want to find an SEO um

solution out there and you're the one

who's reaching out to them so this is

exactly what I do to generate leads for

our clients I actually make these videos

myself for them and this is something

that you can do as well to bring in

clients and and keep your pipeline full

but you have to make sure that when

you're doing this that you're doing this

at scale because even if you can make

that connection for people sometimes

people just don't have the the budget

for this sometimes people are really

skeptical whatever the case may be maybe

they're just out of office whatever it

is so you have to be able to do this at

scale and I'm talking about sending this

to hundreds or even thousands of people

on a daily basis and you have to make

sure that you're lending in the primary

inbox because there are dozens of things

out there that can send you to spam and

if you don't know what you're doing then

you're going to be lending and spam so

you have to make sure you're doing those

things right and providing all of this

additional value and if you get all of

that done then I promise you your sales

pipeline is going to be full of the

prospects that you want to work with