SEO leads: find local businesses that are losing customers online

Who buys from SEO and marketing agencies locally

The best retainer clients are businesses where one new customer is worth a lot, in a market where people compare online before they choose:

Business types to search, and why

Searches to run first

Signals that a business is ready to buy

Search one business type in one city and compare the businesses side by side. The ones worth calling stand out:

• Far fewer reviews than the leaders in the same city: the clearest gap to show, and one they can check in seconds.
• A rating below the local average, or recent negative reviews left without a reply: a reputation-management opening.
• A website with no clear service pages, no location pages or no contact form: the site cannot rank or convert.
• Good ratings but very few reviews: a good business that never asks its customers, an easy first win.
• Several locations with uneven listings and ratings: a multi-site contract waiting to happen.
• A business that recently opened in a crowded category: it needs visibility fast and has a launch budget.

A prospecting playbook you can run this week

1. Pick one vertical where a new customer is worth a lot, for example dentists or roofers, and learn its numbers.
2. Search it in one city and note, for each business, its rating, review count and website, next to the top three in that city.
3. Choose the businesses with a real gap and prepare a one-page snapshot: their numbers, their competitors’ numbers, three fixes.
4. Call the owner or practice manager, share one striking comparison, and offer to send the snapshot.
5. Follow up with a short call to walk through it, and propose a three-month starting package rather than a long contract.

Opening line for the first call

Follow-up email

Hi [name],

As promised, here is the one-page snapshot for [business name]: [link].

In short:
- You have [x] reviews; the top three practices nearby have [y] to [z]
- [Competitor] appears above you for [service] in [city]
- Your site has no page for [service], so it cannot rank for it

I usually start with a three-month package at [price] per month: reviews, listings and service pages, with a monthly report you can check yourself. Ten minutes on the phone to go through it?

[name], [agency], [postal address]
If you’d rather not hear from me again, just reply “no thanks”.

Follow-up cadence

• Day 0: call, then send the snapshot.
• Day 3: a call to walk through it in ten minutes.
• Day 10: an email with one free fix they can do themselves, such as asking every customer for a review.
• Day 45: send an updated comparison. If the gap has grown, call once more. Then stop.

Staying within the rules

In the US, CAN-SPAM allows business emails without prior consent if your sender details are accurate, the subject is not misleading, you include a postal address and you honour opt-outs within 10 business days. In the UK, PECR lets you email limited companies and LLPs without consent if you offer an opt-out; sole traders and partnerships count as individuals and need consent, so call them instead after checking the TPS and Corporate TPS. In Canada, CASL allows emails to an address a business publishes when the message relates to its business and it has not said it refuses unsolicited messages.

Never promise a ranking position or guaranteed results, and never offer fake or incentivised reviews: consumer protection rules in the US, the UK and Canada treat fake reviews as deceptive. Clinics and law firms also have their own advertising rules; check them before writing their copy.

More on the rules: B2B prospecting and data rules · cold emails to local businesses

How LeadsIt does step one

Building the list is the slow part. LeadsIt does it in one search, from public business listings and the businesses’ own websites:

1. Type a business type and a place, for example “dentists” in Dallas. A whole region or a country works too.
2. LeadsIt searches public business listings live, then visits each business’s own website to collect the emails, phone numbers and social links it publishes.
3. You get each business’s name, address, phone, website, published emails, rating and review count, with signals such as no website, an outdated website or few reviews.
4. Paste your own website and the AI ranks the businesses by how well they fit what you sell, with the reasons.
5. Export to CSV, or work the list in the built-in CRM: stages, tasks and notes (CRM from the 10-credit pack).

What it costs

Your first search is included, with no card. After that, credit packs start at $6.90 for 5 credits, with no subscription, and credits never expire. One credit searches one business type in one city; a whole region costs 13 credits.

Frequently asked questions