Building Strong B2B Relationships: How Our SEO Agency Masters Effective Communication

In this article, you’ll find out:

• Why long-term B2B relationships are valuable.
• The types of people (personas) you’ll deal with.
• What small, medium, and large businesses care about.
• What we should report to clients.
• If it’s enough to just know your clients and their needs.
• How different thinking styles shape our decisions.

In SEO – and really any field – long-term B2B relationships matter. They help promote your company’s image, increase loyalty, and can drive more revenue. B2B marketing is built on relationships. You’re not just working with a company, but with a person. When that person switches jobs, they’ll remember you, maybe recommend you, or even return with new opportunities.

Personal recommendations play a huge role in choosing who to work with. We often pick a company because we know someone there, or someone we trust has heard of their remarkable work, or their solution worked for someone else, so we try it too.

To build strong, lasting business relationships, you need to understand your B2B client’s needs and business. Knowing who’s on the other side and what’s important to them makes it easier to connect and build those relationships.

Look, when we start a new job or project, we all bring our own expectations and values to the table. Same goes for clients. As the Head of SEO, I know what I need to get the job done right, but I get that the client on the other side might not know my playbook yet. And guess what? They’ve got their own set of expectations, too.

So, what’s the first move? Simple – share those expectations. Every time we kick off a partnership, no matter the business, we start with a solid business brief that the client fills out. The next step? A meet-and-greet to go over that brief and make sure we’re all on the same page.

Why bother?

Because the brief alone doesn’t cut it. It’s just raw data. You need to hash it out and figure out what both sides are really thinking. Otherwise, you’re just guessing, and that’s no way to understand what the client actually wants.

B2B SEO Brief

Kickoff Meeting

This is what we focus on during a kickoff meeting with a B2B client:

• First, I get a feel for who’s on the other side.
• We set goals together.
• We exchange our values and expectations for how we’ll work together.
• It’s crucial to understand their decision-making process – this helps us gauge how quickly they’ll respond, which can prevent unnecessary spam or frustration.
• We agree on the frequency and most convenient ways to communicate.
• I explain how I like to work, and the client should do the same.
• We talk about how to flag potential challenges early on.
• We identify what’s important when it comes to reporting.
• We decide which communication style will work best for everyone.
• And, most importantly, we share what’s essential to both the client and me to make sure we’re aligned.

Building the Strategy & Earning Trust

It’s only after all this groundwork that I start creating a customized SEO strategy for the client. Without agreeing on those basic aspects of our partnership, there’s no way forward.

Below, you’ll find a breakdown of B2B clients and their characteristics – a simplified model, of course, because this can vary depending on who’s on the other side. And naturally, one Marketing Manager can be totally different from another, because, at the end of the day, we’re all individuals, even if we hold the same title.

Based on my experience with clients, I’ve highlighted the most common types you’ll likely come across. Remember, you’ve only got 90 days to earn your client’s trust. If you nail that, you’ve taken the first step toward building a solid, long-term relationship.

Small Business

Decision-Making Process

Timeframe: Quick – often within a week.
Style: Decisions can be impulsive.

Who Do You Talk to about SEO, and What Are They Looking for?

Target audience: Most likely the owner.

When dealing with small businesses, it’s common to be talking directly with the person who founded the business. This is someone who has invested their money and heart into it. If this is their only source of income, they’ve got a lot riding on its success. If they have other businesses or see this as a side hustle, the pressure might be a little lighter, but the stakes are still high.

What’s Their Main Goal?

• Revenue. The most important thing to them is whether their business is making money.
• They’re looking for someone to help them reach that revenue goal.
• Fast ROI is their primary focus.

Characteristics of a Small Business Client in the Context of Working with an SEO Agency

• They often have limited knowledge of SEO.
• They’re usually not familiar with technical aspects.
• Expect frequent communication.
• They’re focused on fast results, so your actions and communication need to highlight those quickly.
• They prefer straightforward language – keep it simple.
• Usually, they don’t have in-house development or marketing support. You can step in by offering advice on marketing or SEM strategies.
• They’ll see you as more than just an SEO Specialist – you’re their go-to advisor.
• They’ll entrust you with all things SEO, so you can implement changes directly or through your own dev team.
• They usually don’t have the time or expertise to make changes on their end.
• They’ll expect help with analytics.
• You’ll often be given full access to their CMS or server.
• They might prefer emails over video calls like Google Meets or Zoom.
• SEO/SEM might be the only marketing efforts they’re focusing on.
• Increased visibility won’t be enough to win them over – they’ll want to see results in terms of revenue.
• They might focus on specific keywords or categories, and they’ll likely compare themselves to competitors often.
• Decisions can be made impulsively.

How to Communicate

• Phone, email, meetings.
• They might call without notice.

Reporting

• Keep it simple.
• They’ll care more about sales results than about how much work you’ve put in.
• Always include information on revenue and explain where it’s coming from.

Medium Business

Decision-Making Process

Timeframe: 2 weeks to 1 month

Who Do You Talk to about SEO, and What Are They Looking for?

Target audience: Typically, the Marketing Manager, Marketing Specialist, Sales Director, or E-commerce Manager – rarely the owner. Generally, you’ll be dealing with someone in sales or marketing.

You don’t usually speak to the founder, which means this person often reports to someone higher up – like the CEO or the management team. This is crucial information to keep in mind when building your strategy. They usually have long-term goals and numbers set by upper management, along with an annual budget to allocate toward those goals, which they want to cascade down to the SEO agency they’re working with.

What’s Their Main Goal?

Achieving the objectives that the Marketing Manager or Sales Director has received from higher-ups.

Characteristics of a Medium Business Client in the Context of Working with an SEO Agency

• Discuss quarterly and annual goals as well as other marketing efforts that can go hand in hand with SEO activities.
• While not mandatory, it’s helpful to provide an estimated forecast of results to present to management – something general at the start of the collaboration.
• Typically SEO isn’t the only marketing initiative they’re focusing on.
• During the briefing and kickoff, it’s essential to understand the goals of the person you’re speaking with – the Sales Director will have different objectives than the Marketing Manager. You need to clarify how SEO can help them reach those goals.
• An SEO Specialist should be part of the team supporting the Marketing Manager’s efforts.
• It often doesn’t make sense for these companies to build an in-house team since hiring an SEO Specialist, Copywriter, Link builder, and Developer would cost them way more. Instead, they can outsource to an agency for a fraction of that cost and get an entire team on the other side.
• Typically, the person you’re talking to understands how SEO works – they know the importance of visibility, reach, brand awareness, traffic, and conversions.
• You can speak to them in more technical terms.

How to Communicate

• In-person meetings: It’s always good to grab a coffee with them at industry conferences.
• Regular meetings: Schedule weekly or monthly catch-ups to discuss current issues and future plans.
• Email communication
• Project management tools: Clients might work with you on platforms like Asana, Trello, or ClickUp, making collaboration and tracking progress easier.

Reporting

• Graphs from tools: Use charts from tools like Senuto and Ahrefs.
• References to goals: Include references to set goals in your reports.
• Personalization: Tailor reports to make them suitable for management presentations.

Large Business / Enterprise

Decision-Making Process

Timeframe: 1 to 6 months

The decision-making process here is much longer. This can be due to the need for detailed analyses, multiple levels of approvals, legal reviews, and alignment with long-term strategies and budgets.

Who Do You Talk to about SEO, and What Are They Looking for?

• Target audience: Head of SEO, SEO Specialist, Marketing Head, CMO, E-commerce Manager, Performance Manager

On the other side, you’re dealing with a team led by one or several individuals who report results in their department. These reports are then consolidated into a broader, often quarterly, plan presented to the company’s management. In this case, the SEO agency often communicates with the entire team on the client side.

What’s Their Main Goal?

• To execute actions according to the schedule.
• To achieve results that align with estimations.

Characteristics of a Large Business Client in the Context of Working with an SEO Agency

• Collaboration involves more complex procedures, including contracts.
• Signing an NDA is common and often carries hefty penalties.
• Expect detailed, technical audits.
• There will be meetings to discuss the audit findings.
• The implementation process has a lengthy decision-making timeline.
• Understanding how the decision-making and implementation processes work is crucial – it’s often the most important aspect of the collaboration.
• The results take a back seat to these processes.
• They expect stable growth and evolution, not rapid changes.
• Everything you do will be scrutinized from a PR perspective.
• They’ll expect you to have industry knowledge, especially if it’s a restricted industry like healthcare or gambling – having a team of specialists with experience in large industries is beneficial.
• Be prepared for ASAP requests, including being available on a Friday at 5:30 PM.
• You need to be an inspiration for them, showing new solutions that work in SEO.
• Often, you’ll complement their team with expertise they don’t possess, such as in-depth analytics or guiding the development team through repository changes. For instance, you might send a full-stack developer to communicate with their Scrum Master or Product Owner and work in a test environment before deployment.
• Working live is rare; it’s more about testing in repositories before going live.
• Content for their website and link-building efforts will go through an approval process, so factor that into your timelines.
• They require extensive and detailed analytics – each 0.5% change in conversion rate can translate to tens or hundreds of thousands in monthly revenue.
• Enterprises run non-digital advertising campaigns (like billboards or TV), so it’s worth discussing the media plan together to stay updated on which products will be promoted, allowing you to prepare and elevate them in the rankings.
• Stay patient, as what seems simple for an SEO Specialist, like changing a title or H1 tag, can take months.
• Every individual in their organization needs to be replaceable.
• There’s no room for delays; often, delays come with penalties.
• Since you operate on a large scale with large websites, your actions can have a significant impact – so you need to estimate the workload and the potential impact of your changes. This will help you prioritize which actions to implement first.
• Large websites have faced indexing challenges since 2021 – not all product pages get indexed by Google. This will be a critical area for SEO efforts. We use our own application, developed over the last two years, to expedite this process, allowing Google to index queued pages within 24 hours. This gives clients a competitive edge by getting their products indexed faster than their competitors.
• Educating enterprise clients is vital, so regularly meet with them for workshops. We often visit clients or have them come to us for dedicated days, as it’s essential for them to see you and your team as their source of information.
• Team members from the SEO agency often work closely with specific client team members – like a Copywriter collaborating with their Content Team or a Developer working with their Dev Team -sometimes in different formats, with some meetings weekly and the entire team meeting monthly.
• Precise estimates are necessary but often require an NDA even during the bidding phase.
• Signing a contract typically necessitates legal consultations from both sides – our legal team prepares a dedicated agreement, which the enterprise’s legal team reviews and modifies. This process can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months.
• Access to the client’s website is often restricted, so work will rely on recommendations and repository access (like GitHub).
• Advanced security procedures are common.
• Enterprise clients often expect a range of competencies, including UX, marketing automation, advanced analytics, custom reports, access to multiple tools, and frequent adjustments in copywriting elements like tone of voice and branding aspects such as color use and language.
• Invoicing methods and payment terms are specialized and often lengthy – our finance department may need to upload invoices to a specific program with designated formats and order numbers, which must be approved, processed, and queued for payment. Working with enterprise clients often involves significant investments, sometimes reaching tens of thousands, with payments made 30-60 days later.

How to Communicate

• Schedule regular meetings. Make sure these are on the calendar – whether online, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.
• Quarterly summaries and check-ins are often beneficial, along with progress estimates.
• In-person meetings can be valuable as well.
• Ensure meetings are longer to allow for in-depth discussions.
• Have plenty of status meetings to keep things moving forward and ensure everything’s on the right track.

Reports

• Provide detailed reports that go beyond the basics, often discussing the findings and implications together.
• Make these reports personalized and comprehensive to meet their specific needs and expectations.

At the end of the day, we all wear different hats. Whether we’re managers, business owners, experts, or salespeople, we’re also just people.

While it’s easy to focus on the business side of things, let’s not forget the human element – the P2P (person-to-person). Each of us has our own emotions, thought processes, and ways of doing things. Emotional factors often weigh more heavily in a supplier’s choice than rational ones. So, recognizing and addressing these feelings in our communication is crucial for building trust.

Let’s create our own User Manual for working together and don’t hesitate to ask for one from our clients too. A little clarity goes a long way!

Now, from the provider’s side, it’s all too easy to think, “He’s got something I need,” or “Why is he nitpicking?” But let’s be real – these things often aren’t personal.

By assuming good intentions on their part, we can tackle client questions with a clearer mindset and take things less personally. This approach not only keeps our sanity in check but also strengthens our overall client relationships. So, let’s keep it cool and remember: we’re all just humans trying to get things done!

Ever thought about why it feels like some people are super easy to chat with while others are a total head-scratcher? I mean, we’re all doing similar jobs, so why can some messages hit home while others just don’t land?

This isn’t just a B2B thing; it’s something you probably notice in your own office too. Trust me, I’ve been there, and it got me curious, so I dug in.

Why Does It Happen?

One big reason is that we all have our own unique styles and talents. Think of it like this: there’s this amazing research called FRIS that breaks down our thinking into four perspectives: FACTS, RELATIONSHIPS, IDEAS, and STRUCTURES. Each style shapes how we react and why we make decisions the way we do.

Here’s the lowdown on the FRIS thinking styles:

• Facts – Action-Taker
• Relationships – Partner
• Ideas – Visionary
• Structures – Analyst

That’s why, by watching how our contact person behaves and asking about their User Manual, we can make things a lot easier. Here are a few examples to help you figure out who you’re working with.

Partner

If your go-to person is a Partner, they’re all about clear explanations and a friendly touch. They want to feel heard and appreciated. Little things matter – like how you respond in meetings or just being polite.

What might throw them off:

• One-word replies or ghosting them.
• Rudeness or not explaining things.
• Piling on tasks without any context.

Analyst

If your contact is an Analyst, they want the whole picture – context, data, and a solid plan. They take their time making decisions and aren’t fans of sudden changes. They’re all about finding the best solution.

What might throw them off:

• Unexpected changes to plans.
• Working off vague ideas instead of solid data.
• Feeling rushed to make quick decisions without enough info.

Action-Taker

Got a Action-Taker on your hands? They’re all about speed and clarity. Expect short, to-the-point messages and practical solutions.

What might throw them off:

• A slow pace that doesn’t keep up with theirs.
• Over-explaining or going off on tangents.
• Meetings without clear action items.

Visionary

If you’re chatting with a Visionary, they want you to get their big ideas. They’re focused on long-term goals and love it when you engage with their vision. They’re creative and often have a ton of ideas.

What might throw them off:

• Trying to box them in with strict rules.
• Being inflexible. Visionaries love to pivot if they think of something better.
• Sticking to rigid processes that cramp their style.

Understanding these styles has been a real game changer for me. Once I figured out “why I am the way I am,” it helped me communicate better about what I need and understand where others are coming from. This way, we can respect each other’s styles and find common ground.

Remember, B2B is just P2P in disguise – at the end of the day, we’re all just people working together because there’s a human behind every business.