A long-time friend and mentor recently asked that thought-provoking question. He was working on a conference keynote focused on the undervaluation of SEO projects and what agencies should do to get more compensation for the incremental value they provide. Actually, his question was “how to win” a million-dollar SEO project.
I told him that one does not win a project that size but rather “earns it. While I no longer do enterprise SEO, I have earned several multi-million dollar SEO projects, most will fall into the $100k to $ 500k range that requires a similar level of effort. I explained that earning a million-dollar SEO project is highly challenging, especially in the current business climate. If you are lucky enough to be approached by a company with the budget and belief this will return an ROI, the following are my thoughts on what it takes to earn a project of this size.
Present A Bullet-Proof Data-Driven Business Case
First, you must do significant upfront data analysis and, where possible, use their data to champion changes. Companies willing to spend this much on SEO need a significantly different approach to Search Marketing than what most agencies are used to performing. Breaking down the project involves managing processes and changing how things are done rather than what needs to be done for better results.
In most cases, responding to an RFP involves going through the procurement or selection agency gauntlet, often with interesting questions and hoops to jump through. Pay attention to these elements and ask questions if necessary to get clarification on what and why they are asking for them. You must also understand who will be in the room when presenting this business case. It is often procurement-heavy, focusing on finding the right fit at their price point to invite for an in-person presentation.
Deeply Understand the Client’s Needs & Pain Points
- Research the Business: Know their industry, business model, competitors, and target audience. This demonstrates that you’re invested and can provide tailored solutions.
- Identify Pain Points: Understand why they need a different approach to SEO and where the gaps are today.
- Align Solution to Strategic Goals – Tie your solution to their strategic goals, at least those listed in their annual reports and other shareholder statements. Align to initiatives to expand globally, dominate niche markets, or reduce acquisition costs. The deeper the alignment, the easier it is to allocate tent pole resources.
- Speak Their Language: Senior stakeholders care about ROI, scalability, and risk mitigation. Frame your strategy in terms of business outcomes and avoid traditional SEO metrics.
Demonstrate Economic Value
- Demonstrate the ROI: Show the potential impact of SEO by projecting realistic traffic growth, conversion improvement, and, most importantly, revenue gains based on market data and benchmarks.
- Demonstrate Economic Value: There is never any new money. Any budget allocation for SEO will come at the expense of other forms of marketing, and those stakeholders will fight to keep their budgets. You must demonstrate how SEO will generate more revenue than other marketing methods. At a minimum, incremental revenue must have a 10 to 1 ratio.
- Demonstrate Long-Term Value: Frame SEO as a continuous strategic growth driver, the gift that keeps giving, rather than just a cost center. Illustrate its contribution to strategic goals as both a revenue generator and a cost saver, reducing customer acquisition and support costs.
Foster Trust and Credibility
This is one of the biggest hurdles to overcome. It would be nearly impossible to win a large-scale SEO program without demonstrated experience and references from previous work. Sure, your HBS buddy may fast-track you into a meeting. It is impossible to close the deal unless you can prove your ability to perform without any doubt, minimizing the risk to the approving executive.
- Highlight Expertise: Showcase your team’s qualifications, certifications, and experience in handling projects of this scale and measurable results.
- Collaborative Approach: Position yourself as an extension of the client’s team, emphasizing open communication, transparency, and a partnership mindset. Use “we,” “us,” and “our” to emphasize that you are part of the team.
- Prove Scalability: Reassure the client that your team has the capacity and resources to handle a project of this magnitude.
In those early days of Global Strategies, we created our “Reputation Value” statement to ensure that our entire team understood why we focused on delivering client results and focused primarily on enterprise multinationals. In a few cases, we won business by having Cisco, IBM, and P&G as clients to demonstrate our enterprise abilities. Still, often, they wanted to ensure we were delivering actual results for them and would call not only the contacts we gave them but their senior management friends asking them how we were doing. We needed to ensure that not only did we deliver results but that senior executives were aware.
- Our reputation for creating value (client revenue) gives us the basis to “request” an initial dialogue with Global 200 companies.
- Our differentiated methodology and track record give us the basis to “earn” the business from Global 200 companies.
- Our program performance enables us to deliver economic value to grow clients through the Search Maturity Lifecycle (SML).
- Our SML phase shifting allows us to increase our revenue and margin without increased sales and marketing costs.
Visionary, Data-Driven Strategy
- Bold Vision: Frame your proposal as a transformative initiative that positions the brand as a leader in the digital space and a world-class program. The majority of my million+ projects were to create world-class Search programs.
- Create a Custom Solution: Propose a tailored SEO roadmap that is jargon-free and is focused on collaboration, process, and business transformation at a scale that is all about them and achieving unique outcomes for their business.
- Demonstrate your Uniqueness: Avoid cookie-cutter approaches at all costs and avoid looking like other agencies. Highlight your unique value and skillsets, specifically innovative approaches or proven frameworks.
- Focus on Enterprise Ecosystem Workstreams: Define your plan across process improvement, technical excellence, and content strategies and how you will work within large-scale website ecosystems and teams.
Leverage Case Studies: Showcase examples of similar projects where you delivered measurable success. Use before-and-after data to build trust.
Address Concerns Proactively
- Mitigate Risks: It may seem counterintuitive, but discuss potential obstacles, risks, and challenges like team culture, technology barriers, algorithm changes, and competitive landscapes early in the conversation and how you’ll mutually address them.
- Showcase a Sustainable Plan: Highlight how your approach will deliver long-term benefits, not just short-term gains, outlined in the goal attainment section.
- Ongoing Reporting: Promise and deliver detailed, regular reporting and actionable insights to demonstrate ongoing progress aligned to strategic goals and KPIs.
Follow Through with a Stellar Pitch
- Pitch First Where Possible: If you know you are different from the agencies, pitch first so they are compared to your approach. It is hard to pitch last when you are radically different, as you spend time explaining the differentiation.
- Engage Stakeholders: Present your plan to decision-makers with confidence and clarity. Do it in person where possible to get a better sense of body language and attentiveness.
- Stick to the Key Topics: At this pitch level, you must mitigate risk and show economic value. Explaining how SEO works and the many things you found wrong on the site wastes valuable time. I try to do high-value pitches in 10 slides or less, focusing on the elements of the plan and strategy covered previously.
- Watch, Listen, and Adapt: Listen to what they say and try to understand the “why” behind the comment or concern. Respond thoughtfully to their feedback, concerns, and objections. Watch their body language, how they react to key statements, and how attentive they are during the pitch.
- Show Enthusiasm: Let your passion for their success and your confidence of success shine through.
Key Takeaway
Over my nearly 30 years in Search, I have won numerous million-dollar projects with some of the biggest companies in the world. Winning a million-dollar SEO project isn’t just about technical expertise. It is about mitigating the risk of spending that much money and its economic value versus the many other activities they could undertake. The more confidently you can alleviate these concerns by demonstrating your experience, aligning your strategy with the client’s broader business goals, demonstrating tangible value, and establishing trust as a long-term partner, the greater your potential to compete confidently for high-stakes contracts.