The brand strategy top SEO agencies use (but never share)

Today, we are going to be talking about defining your SEO agency to attract the right clients. So if you are a one-person operation, a boutique agency or, you know, a larger pure player in the industry, this course will be useful for you. This is the type of advice you will probably not hear on LinkedInn because this is the type of stuff that nobody tells you, and what industry veterans talk about when we are together and nobody else is looking. First up, you need to figure out your unique selling point, or USP. And please make sure that it is unique—not everyone else's unique selling point. So, let's take an example. My unique selling point (so not my agencies, but me as an SEO expert), I train people, and my specialty is figuring out what people want, what people need, and what people expect, because what they buy is not necessarily what they expect to get. And these three things, once you can actually find a balance, and deliver,

it's a great way to differentiate yourself in this space. So what can you do to figure out your own unique selling point? Your reputation is built by being the best for your clients, not the best out there, period. Okay? Once you have figured out your unique selling point, then you will be able to craft a great brand story because people don't really remember facts. They don't really remember statistics. They remember how you make them feel or how you made them feel. And in order to be able to, you know, craft a wonderful brand story that will resonate with people, you should start with your company values. They're not easy to figure out. They really are not. So let me inspire you and get you started figuring out your own. My company is named PRAGM, and I'm a co-founder. We are two people. I have my personal brand, my personal values,

but the company has its own values. And our values are curiosity is our motor. That's the number one. That is how we explain to people that, yes, there is a reason we are up to date as experts. We love what we do and we're always curious. That's what enables us to stay on the edge. Another one of our values is that we stay nimble. We are a boutique agency, meaning that There are no interns. There are no juniors with us. You just have two senior experts operating. And this means that we are a bit more flexible than larger operations. Once again, this is a great way to find the right clients. If they're looking for this, great. If they're not, it's not a fit. Another one of our values is that we are allergic to boredom. We like to work for people, projects, and brands that are highly interesting to us. And this can explain why we specialize in specific industries. I hope that you can develop your own values because next up, you

should be crafting a wonderful brand story—with this structure in place. Your brand story matters. People like brands that they can relate to, that resonate with them. And this is why you need your own unique selling point, your brand values, and a good story to catch people's interest. If you have this very, very good brand story and deliver high quality work, your clients will seek you again and again and again. They may change jobs and still seek you out. So make it matter. Develop your own brand story. That's not an easy matter, though. So let's look at a few brand stories within the SEO space that can inspire you. First up, meet Olga from SEOSLY. Olga opted to launch a boutique consultancy in the middle of the pandemic, not an easy feat. However, she and her co-founder are very successful. Why? Because Olga built a solid brand story. If you know Olga,

you know that she provides tutorials, articles, and answers difficult SEO questions in a podcast. She teaches you how to do what she does for free. But once you're stuck, she's the first person you think of to help you. And if you like running marathons or pet pigeons, Olga is your gal. That is part of her brand story. The pigeon and the marathons are an intricate part of it. Now, next up, let's meet Jamie Indigo from Not a Robot. Yes, that is an awesome company name. So the brand story already writes itself. If you need specific help for any JavaScript rendering issues, Jamie is most likely the first SEO personality you will think of. This blue haired maven is well renowned for sharing Dungeons and D ragons' knowledge along with SEO tidbits you really need. And they are highly specialized. So once again, when people know that they have tried

everything else in terms of technical SEO and the problem still stays, they reach out to Jamie. Now, last but not least—my brand story. So be careful. This is not my company's brand story, PRAGM has a bit of a different story. This is mine, but it's an integral part of the agency story. I became an accidental freelancer while I was on a couch in Budapest coming back from Berlin and headed to Zurich. That's already a hell of a story. But the truth is I didn't know I would become an agency owner that day. I just called a friend of mine and said, “Hey, I quit my director job.” And he said, “What I'm hearing is that you are available for mandates and that you are a consultant.” And it's true. I realized it was true. So now I travel the world with my co-founder and life partner with our miniature sausage dog. That's how we work, and that's what people love about it. The dog is such a branding asset.

I hope that this helps you get started figuring out what your brand story is, what clients are going to remember about you and what they're going to find in common with you, what will resonate with them. We all have a brand story that resonates with different clientele. And you should have your own, whether you are a freelancer operating on their own, like Jamie Indigo, a boutique consultancy, like the great company, PRAGM, or SEOSLY, or a larger scale player, like the Candor Agency or Blue Array. And this can be done easily when you have your own unique selling point—your brand values. The brand story kind of flows. So you may be wondering how to go about crafting your own brand story. This may be a bit stressful to you. Relax. It's not about you. It really isn't. Let me explain. You as an agency are

the guide. You are here to help the hero, your client, achieve whatever quest they embarked on. So now, let's just take this in and realize that a brand story has multiple elements. You have a villain to every story. You have an external push that gets the hero on their way, you have their internal struggle, and you have the guide. So I'm going to take some liberty here and try to tell you SE Ranking’s brand story. Now, this is done from the outside. I am not affiliated with the company. They will be telling you their own brand story, obviously. But if I had to analyze it, here's how I would. The first thing you have to know is that the big villain in the SEO industry when you are an SEO expert operating in an agency is that it's really, really hard to extract sophisticated insights from the wealth of data that SEO tools give

us. And doing that for the right price, that's an adventure in and of itself, right? So when we think about this, the external problem for SEO agencies is, how do I get this done? How do I extract sophisticated insights that no other agency could offer our clients, and how do I communicate those insights easily with our clients without, once again, breaking the bank? So now that you know this, you know that the next step is our internal struggle. Well, how do I balance the type of data that I need, the type of output I expect, and client communications together? How do I figure out how to add a new member? Because I have employees that need access to this. As we grow, or as we develop, our needs change, they scale. So you can understand—it's rather easy now. Who's the guide? Well, SE Ranking is the guide! Why? Because this company figures out what you need, listens to feedback,

guides you and offers a proper interface to be able to do this. You need to communicate with clients, white label functionalities and reports. You need to access data to help you gain insights. The interface is thought out for this. It's made for you to guide you. But is SE Ranking the only brand we can look at? Of course not. Let's look at the Ordinary. The Ordinary has a similar story. They are a beauty brand that many people know about. Why? Because they know what the hero needs. The big struggle that we face is we are dealing with big packaging, big marketing campaigns—very little value for beauty products. The Ordinary positions itself as a guide to help us through the internal struggle that we have, which is: how do I find stuff that will work for me at a price that does not involve me paying for fancy packaging versus efficiency? How can I find

proper ingredients? And they position themselves as a guide by explaining everything. But also, they are one of the few beauty brands that do not invest in heavy packaging, and—lower prices. Yes, they're famous for lowering beauty product prices. So you understand how they position themselves as a guide to the hero, which is a client looking for real value in the beauty space. Let's talk about Brighton SEO's brand story. So who's the villain of that story? Very often. It's marketing conferences that cost a lot, but are not very attendee-focused at the end of the day. That's a common problem in our industry. So what is the internal struggle? Me, as an attendee, I want something that is focused on my learning and what I can get out of the conference. So what does Brighton SEO do to help overcome this? There is an app that helps you, you know,

set up some meeting time with other experts that you can talk to. It's much more attendee-focused. It's less overwhelming. They focus their talks to be 20 minutes long, so you get high value out of your time and you feel like this is focused on your own learning and development. So you can see brand stories really do matter and they are the red thread that guide the entire experience. So how do you make a great first impression? With a great branding story that positions you as a guide. Once you start showing empathy and authority, then you start to sound like a guide for your hero. But how do you show authority without sounding like you're bragging? You need logos, testimonials, case studies, maybe it's podcast interviews, maybe it's conferences. Maybe you are quoted in someone else's work. There's a slew of things that you can do in terms of

branding to express authority and give a good reason to trust you because that's how you start to sound like Yoda. It's not just a syntax issue. You really do need to showcase your authority. Now, showing empathy—that's not something that we can teach you in this class. But it will be a very strong element in the way you handle client relationships, your deliverables, your communication. So we establish that a brand story is key for your company. Great. But where do you tell that story? One of the key places you should be telling that story is on your website. Yes, you should have a website. Not everyone needs one. I trust you to evaluate this. You are a professional, but hear me out. A good website is like social lubricant. It will speak in your stead. It will explain to people what you do, how you do it, why you do it, and reduce frictions. Because it makes

people want to contact you. It answers some questions that they're not ready to ask you. And I know that my company website is a great way to do that. There's two reasons that I can talk about here. Number one, I actually did get a job because I have ADHD. Let me explain. A psychiatrist ended up on our website and she read the content, it resonated with her, but it resonated in a different way as well. She went and said, “The person who wrote this probably has ADHD, and I am looking to sell an ADHD planner. I need someone who understands my clientele and who can speak to them beyond the SEO services that they would get. I need this.” And that's part of the brand story, I guess, because, absolutely, this psychiatrist was right in their assessment of the website. I do have ADHD and I did write the website.

Now, next up, if you have a special interest, if you have something that makes you unique that you love, but that you do not consider to necessarily be part of the job or, you know, your brand image—think again. One of the really, really fun things I discovered is that pets, along with special interests, are a great way to establish rapport with people. And this works on our company website. You will see our sausage dog everywhere, and I always get clients contacting me and going, “I love the sausage dog. I used to have one where I love these dogs.” This is a great way for them to feel comfortable. It removes the friction. They feel comfortable reaching out to me because they have something to tell me beyond SEO. But if you do not have a pet, that's fine. If you do, you should take a picture with them and include it in your website or as another consultant did after our conversation in your LinkedIn profile photo. She told me it's working like a charm. Your special interest

could be dungeons and dragons, could be marathons, or it could be hot sauce. So this is a trend. Here me out. There's quite a few people who work in tech that are devoted to either barbecue or hot sauce. If you're one of them, show me that you are on your website. Your website is not the only thing you should think about. You also need a flywheel. So what is a business flywheel? It's your growth engine, and you need to be able to visualize it. So, for example, when we talk about my business flywheel, it incorporates multiple elements: my visibility generating activities, my business generating activities, and personally I chose to include also the work in progress (all the bits that I want to do to help my growth engine because each element that you list in there is supposed to reinforce the next one). It's an entire system that enables you to grow. Concretely, it means that you are not doing

things as a one off, as a maybe. I don't want you wasting your energy for branding activities that do not really fit into your ecosystem, into your flywheel. If we go back to me, here's a concrete example for conferences. How do conferences work for me? My process is very one off. It's bespoke. It's unique. Okay. Currently, what I'm trying to tell you is, I came up with this because it works for me. You need to come up with something that works for you. I start off on social media snarking or complaining about something that people keep getting wrong or that we, as SEOs, are not doing the silly right. And once I have complained a few times, I will normally go on a podcast or two to flesh out my complaints and say, “we can do this better. Let me explain it to you.” And once I've done these few podcasts, I get the opportunity to pitch out a conference,

which is great because I already know what I wanna talk about. I practiced it on the podcast. I got feedback from social media. I know exactly how to craft my page and my talk. But obviously, it doesn't stop there. Remember, I said that it's a flywheel, it's an ecosystem, it's a growth engine. So I go from the conference into an article that can be published either as an article that is in a different publication or on my own blog—my company blog. And you can see how this is a system that feeds into, each element feeds into each other. So great. Why is that important? Because once again, everything makes sense in your ecosystem. Everything has a follow-up that you can reuse and it's an opportunity to reach your clients wherever they are. They could be on social media. They could be reading your article or listening to you in the conference. At the end of the day, you should take the time to map out your own business flywheel and which activities are key to getting you visibility,

which activities are key to getting you leads, and which activities are actually getting you money. Let's recap everything we've learned in this module. Or, if you're having one of those days, this is the too long, didn't listen version. Okay? This is what you should know out of everything else. First and foremost, you need to figure out your unique selling points. So, for example, Blue Array in the UK, they're the largest pure SEO player in the industry. Why am I telling you this? Because now that this is taken, you have to figure out something else. What's your unique selling point? What's the one value that you bring that nobody can take away from you in our industry? What makes you special? Once you have that, you need to figure out your brand value. So that's the second key takeaway. Figure out your brand values because they will help you align better with the types of clients you want—obviously. And with these brand values, you get to craft a wonderful brand story.

And we've discussed how to craft a brand story, but here's an added tip, okay? If you don't know how to create a story that speaks to the hero, the client, maybe you could start by being an anti-story. Let me explain. Start listing everything you hate about all the other agencies. And then start from there. Figure out what you would like to say. Last but not least, once you have done all of that and once you have put it in your wonderful website, you need to figure it out. You need to list it because it's probably already in your head—your growth engine, your business flywheel. So that's a self-reinforcing loop of key activities that will move your agency forward. And bonus tip: please take the time to actually draw it out. Okay? This will help you figure out the gaps or the things

that should be in there that you forgot. I hope that this has been very useful to you because you will need to go through this once in a while. The SEO world is not static. The clients are not static either, and they're not guaranteed. So you need to take into account different types of feedback and figure out where the market is at to realign your unique selling point, your brand values, and brand story along with that growth engine. Thank you very much.