COLUMNS • SALES & MARKETING
What do clients really want? Paul Watkins uncovers some of the mystery of SEO and how advisers can better use it to reach potential clients.
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TMM 04 • 2021
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’m sure most of you have a small agency looking after your search engine optimisation (SEO), or some of you may be knowledgeable enough to do it yourselves. If you don’t, then no matter how amazing your website is, no one will find or see it. SEO is a bit of an art form. The most critical part of SEO is working out what people are searching for. But researching this for better rankings of the website in Google is not the only reason you would want to know this. It will also tell you precisely what people want to know from you. The more you know what clients really want, the more you can tailor your advertising and promotional activity to meet this demand. A good illustration of the need to do some keyword SEO research is seen in ads for legal or accounting firms. They often shout about the new partners in the firm. Is that a compelling reason to ask for their services? I would be surprised if anyone ever searched for “accounting firms with new partners”. It’s not what clients and prospects care about. We live our lives online now. The pandemic has pushed hundreds of thousands of Kiwis online that would not have otherwise done so. Shopping online, be it for click-and-collect, or delivery has exploded, and many Kiwis now see no need to return to some of the bricks and mortar stores for their shopping experience. What I am leading to is that we spend more time than over online,
‘The most critical part of SEO is working out what people are searching for’ so take advantage of that in learning about your clients and prospects.
The 5 basics This article assumes you already have the five online basics in place for your brokerage. 1 A well-designed, easy to navigate, informative website with an active blog. 2 A listing in Google My Business. 3 A business Facebook page (linked to an Instagram account). 4 Monthly emailed newsletters. 5 An active business LinkedIn page. These five online activities are no longer just a good idea, but mandatory for a service business to survive and thrive. While none of these are expensive money wise, they are all labour-intensive. If you do not wish to do them, or have an allocated staff member responsible for
