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Online Marketing For Service Businesses

Written by: Stuart Ayling

Article Overview: I know… you have a service-based business, or a professional services firm, and you probably don’t like the idea of marketing (or advertising, or selling). In fact, many service providers, professionals, and technical specialists think that if they need to promote their business to get clients, they can’t be very good. After all, successful businesses are built on word of mouth and referrals, right? And that should be enough to make you a success.

Online Marketing For Service Businesses

I know… you have a service-based business, or a professional services firm, and you probably don’t like the idea of marketing (or advertising, or selling).

In fact, many service providers, professionals, and technical specialists think that if they need to promote their business to get clients, they can’t be very good.

After all, successful businesses are built on word of mouth and referrals, right? And that should be enough to make you a success.

Sorry if I’m about to offend you... but those old-fashioned ideas about marketing your business just don’t wash anymore.

Times have changed – and so has the way your clients choose a service provider

Receiving referrals and attracting clients via word of mouth is still very important. But if you don’t promote your business, you are neglecting it.

And these days, online marketing should be an essential part of your marketing strategy.

Online marketing can be used to:

Enhance your professional standing.
Educate prospects and clients about your services.
Generate new business.
Attract media attention.
Attract the right sort of staff for your firm.
Launch new services.

When I talk about online marketing I don’t mean those cheap and nasty emails you see selling everything from shares, health products, and body parts! That’s called unsolicited email, or junk mail.

Professional online marketing means you have a website that is designed to educate and attract clients. And also that you are using modern (and ethical) promotional strategies to get your message to your preferred audience.

Here is a summary of the main online marketing tactics you can use.

Website Optimisation
Your website must be optimised so that the key pages are easily read by the major search engines. After all, research shows that over 70% of people check online sources before making a serious decision – especially when it comes to business.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is still a growing field. It combines the ‘science’ of search engine algorithms, with the ‘art’ of presenting your information in a unique manner.

Email Communication
Are you using a planned series of email contacts with your clients and prospects? Many service firms forget to communicate with previous clients. They just focus on the matters at hand. Don’t fall into that trap.

The world is much more competitive than it used to be and you need to have a relevant way of remaining in contact with clients. After all, they are most likely to refer others to you – if they remember you and think you care.

There are numerous options for using existing email service providers to create and send your own special email communications – call them newsletters, briefs, or updates, it doesn’t matter.

Pay Per Click Advertising
All the major search engines offer the opportunity to advertise on their search results pages. This works by showing your ad only when people are searching for the key words you have specified as being relevant.

This is vastly different from standard print advertising where your ad is shown to everyone who reads the paper.

Using Pay Per Click (PPC) adverting allows you to create multiple versions of your ad so you can easily see which ones work best. Your ad’s only appear on pages that list relevant search results. This means the people who see your ad are already ‘in the market’ for your services. And you only pay when people click on your ad to visit your site. You don’t pay for everyone who just sees your ad.

There are certain techniques and processes that should be used with PPC campaigns. Such as creating a special landing page for your ad’s, rather than just sending visitors to your home page.

Banner and Newsletter Advertisements
You can buy advertising space on other web sites, and when people click those ad’s they come back to your website. You can also advertise in email newsletters sent by other parties. Usually you will pay ‘per impression’ for this type of advertising, so you need to make sure you have a compelling message in your ad, and that you are presenting it to the right audience.

Keep up with the world your clients live in... and use online marketing effectively to attract more clients, increase revenue, and stay a step ahead of your competitors.

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