One of my clients whom enjoys very nice rankings just forwarded me an email which he’d been responding to. The initial email to my client read:
I was doing some due diligence for a current client and came to your site. I was wondering how someone can purchase a product off the website. If I wasn’t in the interactive business a really scaled through the site I would never know.
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Anyway, I just wanted to let you know your site needs a ‘Call to Action’ to increase conversions. Let me know if you need help.
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Good luck,
XXXXXXX
Now the kicker is who it is signed by…a MAJOR BIG SEO Company.
My client, not knowing who this company is, responded with:
We require new clients to call in orders. We’ve had web stores in the past, and our return rate goes up to around 4%.
Let me know if you have any more questions.
(to Me with the phone number plastered all over my clients pages, with the “We Love Phone Calls” makes it pretty clear that if you want something, you need to call up the company….but hey, I could always look over the process for a “call to action”…if there’s really a problem)
The guy from the Big SEO Company then responded back to my client with this:
The only question I have Bob, is if you were given an opportunity to increase revenues a minimum of 30% in 60-90 days through a strategic online marketing campaign while lowering your cost per sale and increasing your conversion rates…would you do it?
and another excerpt from the following email exchange from the BIG SEO Company.
There are some deficiencies, although easy to fix over time on the organic side…
It was this last line that I really took offense to, and I would have ignored it, but damn, this is a Big ole SEO company telling my client he’s got “Deficiencies….on the organic side….”. This client Rules in the rankings, and has for a few years now. Deficiencies my ass!
So what I’m wondering is if the initial email was a “spam” that they send to every site they come accross…hey, you need a “call to action”….respond to me and I know you’re interested in making your site better, and I’m going to make you a crazy promise with no guarantees, but I’ll charge you 10K+ per month for 12 months for you to find that that wasn’t a great decision.
When I contacted back my client I told him:
You should ask him for a few examples of these “deficiences” and also ask him how he thinks he can increase your organic rankings. Also ask him what link services he sells….I’d actually love to see his answers.
Anyone else get emails like this from MAJOR SEO Companies?
12 Responses
Some of our clients have also been approached by larger SEO companies in the same manner. You can never control if the client stays or leaves you, but if you provide a great service they will probably stick with you. Just like the email your client got, my client got something similar about their site optimization. It did not make sense on how they were going after the client because they ranked well on the major search engines.
If a SEO company is trying to pitch a company they should at least do a good analysis of their website before emailing them.
Unfortunately spamming works. Such approaches also result in superficial projects that eventually leave the client poorer and very dissatisfied. It’s been going on for a few years, so there’s greater visibility about the dissatisfactions. SEO often has a poor reputation as a result.
The only good side to all this is that the resulting chaos of spammy websites created only for generating extra links and reciprocal links has now choked the search engines. They’re having to find methods that will find the gold among all this dross. So whatever minimal results these so-called SEO experts might have produced in the past will disappear.
Effective Internet marketing is so much bigger than just SEO. That’s the message that’s got to get out. Anyone just offering improved Google rankings should not be let through the door.
That’s not the worst scam of them all eyt, my client got something better recently: the email was from a guy posing as if he had no relation to the site whose services he was pushing, it started with suggesting to get listed in DMOZ, get listed in a couple directories and then use the services of the company he was pushing. I imagine a lot of less savvy people would buy on that.
Yes, quite often, and when I know that they have never been to my site, I just do what a lot of clowns do to me… ask for a proposal and estimate (this is good for “intelligence gathering”), ignore their follow up emails, and finally say “I went with somebody else who offered the same for way less”.
Yeah, I get them occasionally. These overly aggressive sales reps trying to close business. Sometimes I decide to speak to them to ask some questions which I know the answer. It’s be nice if they actually knew the answer. I guess I’m subconsciously hoping for a good conversation. But, these guys fumble all around. Sometimes they ask me if I mind if they ask someone else in their organization. IMHO, the very large SEO companies are all a scam, and way overpriced for their value. Smaller SEO companies, and consultants are the way to go.
Jim,
How about sharing the name of this “big SEO company?”
Bostonscott – I was hoping someone else would name them so I wouldn’t have to….just in case there’s a 2% chance that this was “legit”…but if other have received emails extremely similar to this one from any Big SEO Company, feel free to name them for me 😉
Hi Jim,
Have you ever thought about working with one of these big companies as a sub contractor?
I wouldn’t ….why…because I want a 1 on 1 relationship with the client and my company. I don’t want communication through third parties…fyi, we’ve got a new webuildpages.com coming out June 15ish, and one of the requirement to become a client is that they have to come visit with us for one full day. I want the client to meet me and my team, and to make sure we’re all on the same page…this wouldn’t work with subcontracting.
Subcontracting could be as bad as having a “bad” salesperson selling SEO…if the one communicating with the client doesn’t know what they’re talking about….it just makes everyone look bad….that’s why I had Todd on sales (someone who is an expert and knows what they are talking about) …and now that he’s gone, I’m the only one who does sales here now.
WOW Jim. I would love to know which SEO sent that email.
I could guess, but one could only assume. Sounds like a great email template that someone put together and had some college guys/gals send out in mass distribution.
Piracy is the best form of flattery? 🙂
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