I lost a client today

After a long chat with the COO of a brand I’ve worked with for a few months, we decided to part ways.

It wasn’t because we couldn’t get results.

Or because it was too expensive for them.

Their business is simply heading a different direction.

They’re a 70-year old brick & mortar company that’s been pushing to grow the DTC side of their business for the last 12 months.

But because they sell perishable goods, they have to ship their pastries in refrigerated trucks.

That jacks up the shipping price a ton, especially if a customer wants them overnighted across the country.

Their online conversion rate is <1% — people don’t want to pay $20 to get their pastries delivered in 2-3 days. They barely want to pay $5 to have them delivered in 30 minutes.

And after months of testing & learning, they realized that continuing to pursue traditional DTC was probably costing them more than it was making.

The truth is that most of their purchases fall into one of three categories:

1) order online, then pickup in store

2) order in-store

3) order for delivery via Uber Eats & DoorDash

So they’re doubling down on the local scene, even planning to open 5 new locations in the next 12 months.

This isn’t a struggling company by any means — they’re just leaning into what the data says.

And quite frankly, I am not the best SEO to help them on this new path.

Sure, I’m missing out on a few thousand dollars a month, but I don’t specialize in local SEO — I specialize in eCommerce & DTC.

And I don’t want to take their money for selfish reasons, only to not be able to deliver them the results they’re looking for — I don’t operate that way.

I told them that, and suggested that they’d be better served by a local SEO team.

I’ve already referred them to a local SEO agency that I personally know — the founder of that agency is far better equipped than I to grow their local presence.

The good news is that they’ll have a head start — we grew their organic traffic from 3k/month to 14k/month.

The COO & I will remain Twitter/X friends — that’s where we met.

There’s no hard feelings whatsoever, he appreciated the transparency — he said he’s never met an agency owner who would willingly give up a client because it was in the brand’s best interest.

This is just the way I prefer to do business — honest & straightforward.

Hopefully, you feel the same.

Have a good weekend.

Kai