Samu
If you're cold calling to sell SEO services but your ads aren't being shown to me with my searches which usually revolve around marketing I'm going to assume you're a scam and/or you don't have the best strategy…now a form that shows up online that request my phone # for more information about effective SEO strategy might catch my attention if I was just starting out so if you're a good phone salesman that might be the way to go
Dave
Depends on your cold calling skills. If you don't have any verbal selling skills you won't last long, unless you can handle continual rejection.
However, if you know how to handle the snake in the pit without getting bitten, you will do very well.
Simply because, the skills of 99.999999% of cold callers are pathetic.
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Thomas
Best way to get clients – hands down.
Anyone saying it's not, is not a strong sales person. They're a task doer and order taker.
If you can really help a business, and know how to speak to business owners, they'll listen.

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Chris M. Walker ^👑
I'm sure there are comments here that say something like "iF yOu ArE gOoD aT SEO ClIeNtS wIlL sEaRcH fOr YoU yOu don't HaVe To SeLl" from people that don't get the difference between inbound and outbound marketing.
There is nothing wrong with cold calling or most any other form of sales and marketing. It's all just a matter of getting an offer in front of a prospect that's a good fit and selling to them.
The fact is if you are a good phone salesman and prospector then cold calling works for most anything including SEO.
Anyone that says otherwise is wrong.
If you're not (and most people aren't, especially in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)) then it's a waste of time.
I had some success with it years ago but I hated it so once I got established I stopped.
If I had to start over I would do it again until I got established again.
So you just need an overall marketing and sales strategy and to be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses and plan your growth strategy accordingly.
If you know how to prospect and sell on the phone then it can work. If you don't it won't.
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Pizano
It's tough but it works. My business ran an outbound call center inside of a state prison with some ex-biz ops inmates who were absolute monsters at selling anything. Obviously, they used their phone skills for terrible reasons (that's what landed them in prison) but we had an opportunity to train the inmates to sell our digital marketing services. I used the inmates to sell SEO and websites to businesses throughout Arizona and Florida for my company. Some inmates were in prison since the early 2000s and had no idea what SEO was. But I trained them to sell websites and SEO over the phone and after 6 weeks they were pros at it. They don't have access to the internet either so it was all 100% grit and learning the pitch. So yeah, it's possible.
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Ivana
Cold calling is a double-edged sword. According to stats, the success rates are typically 1-3%, and this can easily lead to associated negative emotions with your brand for the rest 97% of those prospects =and thus do more harm to your business.
But cold calling actually works when combined with other channels, such as email and social media. Depending on your business needs.
Send an email first, introduce yourself, or send a LinkedIn invitation, then call them.
Dato
I think a lot of people here are missing the point of cold calling. If you know about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and your website is ranking then you are not the target audience of the cold calling. Why would i call and offer SEO service to a business who clearly is already doing SEO on their website? With my previous company, our CEO is probably the best marketer I've met and he does cold calling and he offers his business to those who doesn't know and doesn't have SEO yet in their websites or businesses and it works.
Chris
Make a video of which page they show up on in a Google search.
Give them facts on how likely businesses on the 1st page make a sale or what percentage people actually click on the second page.
Show the results of your other clients.
Make sales.
Send this info in an email and then call them as a courtesy to be on lookout for it.

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Ballard
I built my SEO agency by cold calling. Granted, I had an extensive background in sales prior to starting my business.
The negative comments here are from people who have no sales skills and are failing to make ends meet.
Like anything, selling is a skill that takes a lot of practice and repetition to get great at.
Most people suck at selling because they lack the discipline and work ethic that's required to develop and improve over time.
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Gavin
Either way, whatever you're good at if that's sales calls. Then go for it!
I personally use a mix of campaigns and calling.
Even door to door sales can work better than you expect. With any form of sales, it's not going to be a simple call 5 people and make a sale it does take work and does pay off either way.
My advice though would be don't be too serious and straight forward. Be yourself and speak naturally when calling clients. Sounds weird but this really works perhaps because people like human interaction, I used to work as a call sales agent and door to door sales agent. A pitch believe it or not isn't always the best thing I noticed clients are more at ease knowing they can trust you. Point out how you can solve their issues and how this will benefit them or what they will get with your services get them excited. But be yourself.. ✔️ haha if this helps
James
Cold calling for most businesses are awesome. I hang up on most who call me because you own a domain name. Two things they fail at: poor English quality and presentation. They have no researched my domain if I am using it and if I am using it they have not done and audit to talk initial business with me. None of them have taken my cell and email to target me on social media. If they spoke clear English, did your audit and come with clear solutions, and branded themselves by re-targeting me they would increase their numbers odds. Most people are not willing to put in the work and they play the low numbers game vs high numbers game .

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