Working within the search marketing industry, one look at an email like this makes me want to puke. But we have had clients in the past telling us they've received a solicitation from a SEO company letting them know that they don't rank. They forward it to us and ask why?
Let's break down this email:
From Mark Peterson (maketopseorank@gmail.com). [Gmail? So this guy doesn't actually work for a company with a domain that I can check out? maketopseorank? really?]
Hello, [Hello who? You don't know me, do you?]
Hope you are well. As part of our client research [AKA – we bought a list of site owners], we came across your website “Marketingtechblog.com” and noticed your site is not ranking in the most important search engines like Google, Yahoo & Bing. [Where aren't we ranking? We rank #1 on hundreds of terms!] I was wondering if you would be interested in search engine optimization services for your website at a very low cost. [Low cost SEO will get you banned… it spells doom for site owners.]
Proper search engine optimization will increase your brand recognition, web traffic and grow your sales, which is why you have a web site to begin with right? [Yes… and why I would never risk doing business with someone who doesn't know me, doesn't know my site, doesn't know what I rank on, doesn't know what I'd like to rank on, nor knows what I'm actually selling.]
We can promote your website to 1st page placement on Google, Yahoo, or Bing in three to six months guaranteed with our “National SEO” package. [Guaranteed? 1st page placement? I can write a topic on anything and get 1st place placement on some term.] Three to six months is typical for all our SEO packages!
Let me know if you are interested and we will mail you more details, or we can schedule a call. It’s your option. We would love to work with you!
I look forward to your reply. [Great – I'm sending you a link to this blog post.]
Sincerely,
Mark Peterson,
Business Development Manager
Hey Mark… remove me from your list and stop trying to rip people off.
Another great post Doug! It is really informative.. Thanks for sharing, I had a great read…
Every single client I’ve ever had has forwarded me something like this. It’s a pain to be having to constantly tell clients to ignore these people without seeming like I’m trying to hard to keep them as clients at times by telling them they are mostly just a bunch of spam hats pushing buttons. Luckily I send them to posts like this to show them, it’s not just me saying these things.
It really is a terrible industry, Nathan!