Steffie here from Founder Folks, with a recent story I did with Tyler Scionti from Centori.
Here is his story of how he started and grew his SEO business.
Name: Tyler Scionti
Company: Centori
Employee Size: 1 full-time (myself), 3 part-time, and 2 contractors
Technology Tools: Notion (for the company wiki and organizing information), Our software (for managing SEO and content strategy), HubSpot (for marketing campaigns, email, and CRM), Slack (for customer communication), Zoom (for client calls), Webflow (for our website), and Stripe (for payments).
Revenue: $12k – $15k per month
Founded: 2018
Website: www.centori.io
Introduction:
I'm Tyler, founder of Centori, and we offer fractional SEO services to help companies build qualified traffic and leads.
I began my career in Customer Success at HubSpot where I learned a ton about how fast-growing SaaS companies are run and how to deliver an amazing customer experience.
This led me to product where I worked as a Product Manager, a role I would have for most of my professional career at HubSpot and a startup in Boston.
At Centori, clients come to us when their traffic is dropping, SEO isn't generating any leads, or they had a poor experience with a previous agency.
We think strategically about SEO, and focus on driving leads and revenue for our clients rather than purely thinking about traffic or keyword rankings. We build and manage a strategy for them and direct their team on implementation, and for a select few we implement the strategy for them.
Unlike a "traditional agency," we get a bit deeper into our clients' businesses to better understand how they work and who they sell to so that the strategy we build is aligned with their goals.
The Inspiration Behind Centori:
I've been interested in SEO and writing for the web for a very long time – I blogged "before it was cool!"
At the same time, I've been dissatisfied with the way that many seem to approach SEO, and I found I wasn't alone.
Most founders and marketers I spoke with felt that SEOs they worked with took a surface-level approach and didn't align their work to the goals and strategy of the business. I realized there was an opportunity here for an approach to SEO that focuses on value, leads, and revenue over traffic to a few blog posts or a set number of backlinks acquired.
From Idea to Reality:
It all began with a freelance client in 2018.
I have done SEO work before for myself, but I got my first paid client in 2018 and began to build an SEO practice from there.
Over the years since, I developed software to manage my clients and switched from services to a "coaching" offer where I taught marketers and founders how to do SEO.
I realized that while coaching was nice, I could create more value by being more involved and pivoting into a fractional SEO offer where I work as a part-time head of SEO for my clients. This has continued to evolve and scale to the point where I am now and allowed me to quit my full-time job as a product manager to pursue Centori full-time.
Attracting Customers:
I practice what I preach!
We use SEO to drive traffic to our website and we convert that traffic into leads. It's the same process I use with my clients, and it works.
Beyond that, I do a lot of networking and earn referrals for the good job that we do. I've found success in online communities like Indiehackers and Slack communities – I never "pitch" my services, but I'm helpful and answer questions which is usually good enough to start a conversation. This helped us get our first few customers, and it's scaled from there.
Overcoming Challenges in Starting the Business:
Building anything is a challenge.
First, you need traffic. We're in a crowded space of giants who know how to do SEO so standing out can be quite difficult. By being strategic, we have been able to stand out and build substantial traffic
Then there's the challenge of turning that traffic into leads. Again, we practice what we preach here and have been able to effectively turn visitors to our website into an engaged audience.
This is the core challenge most companies face: getting the word out there and getting people to sell to (beyond cold selling). We spend a lot of time here because if we can get this right we'll have no shortage of potential customers and we have more tools and strategies to share with our clients.
Costs and Revenue:
People are the #1 cost, we have 2 part-time marketers, a freelance designer, and a part-time SDR. We invest in people though because that's what will help us scale that much faster and deliver even more value to our audience.
Beyond that, we spend money on our own software and systems. We have an SEO software platform we built to manage the strategies for our clients and we give them access to it too to provide even more value for them.
A Day in the Life:
Some days I'm working with clients to strategize and help them build their strategies.
Other days I'm managing our team and walking them through our goals or holding one-on-ones with them. When I get a chance, I like to have some think time to strategize for the business and think about ways to refine our offer to deliver even more value for our customers.
I spend a lot of time thinking about our marketing strategy as well. I manage our content strategy, oversee our email campaigns, and design our ad campaigns too.
The Vision for Centori:
I see us growing well beyond the point where we are now.
I want to make an impact. I've seen the results we have generated for our clients over the past few years and know that we can deliver the same value for many more businesses across the world. I've stopped thinking in terms of specific milestones and thought more along the lines of "let's just keep growing quarter over quarter, and keep helping as many people as possible."
It's allowed me to build a 6-figure business, and I see this scaling into a 7-figure business in the near future.
Guiding Principles for Entrepreneurial Success:
Focus on solving problems and creating value.
I spent a lot of time thinking of ideas that I liked and I wanted to build and forgot that someone needs to pay for it or it'll just be a hobby (which is fine if that's what you want).
If you want to build a business then you need to solve a problem and clearly communicate your value. That's the single most important thing I learned.
Also, make friends and build relationships in your industry. Leaving a full-time job gets lonely quickly, so it's important to build a support network that you can continue to rely on.
Posted by FounderFolks