Selling your service to customers both locally and around the world via a through a well thought out website is one of the most overlooked opportunities in marketing. With a well set up lead generation website focused on your service, you can attract lots of new customers from your local area as well as from around the world.
Now just because you probably make most of your current sales to local customers, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think seriously about generating customers globally by using the Web as well. Despite the fact that it doesn’t take a lot of time or effort to share your skills and experience with a ready-to-buy, worldwide audience, most business owners who sell services still fail to see the potential.
You can probably see the potential of selling your services to a much wider audience, so how do you get started?
To get started selling your services online, you need to first establish a relationship with your potential clients. A content-rich website and an informative newsletter that helps to build trust and credibility will go a long way to developing a bond with your readers. Most people assume that because the Internet is a global marketplace, local businesses have no chance to profit from it. But the fact is, the Web works for both local and global businesses – you just need to know the rules.
An information filled Website can let your potential clients get to know you and your service better than a small flyer or newspaper ad ever could. And an prospect who is informed and open to buy from you means they’ll be more confident about making a decision to use your service. If your competitors don’t have a website that inspires this confidence, you have a head start on getting that follow-up contact about using your service.
Remember, your focus should be to turn your website into an information resource, and the trust and awareness it creates in your prospects can generate more loyal clients and ongoing sales for your business than any other marketing method.
Another important factor for service business owners to consider is that a website is a relatively cheap form of long-term advertising, and a single lifetime customer can bring ongoing profits to your business. A website truly is a great way to get the Internet working for your service business.
So, what are the steps involved in using a website to promote your service business online?
The key is to build your own Theme-Based Content Site focusing on answering your ideal client’s most important questions – the questions they’d normally ask before they hire you. A website that does this can give you the highest ROI of any marketing you do, but most service business owners never get around to it.
Set up correctly, your website will pull in highly targeted visitor traffic and get more prospects to contact you about your service (and hire you for the job).
If this has got you thinking about using the web to boost your service business, here’s some final thoughts.
In content you write for your articles, PREsell your visitors, don’t try to sell them immediately. Give them well written, informative content that is of tremendous value to your visitors and potential clients. Try to get them to join your newsletter mailing list by offering a valuable bonus in exchange for their email address. Try to create an irresistible first offer to get the customer to try your service, and then guarantee your work to remove the risk of working with you. Use testimonials from happy customers (with pictures and website links if appropriate) to prove what you say is true. And finally, ask your readers to contact you, and make getting in touch with you easy and painless.
If you focus your efforts on using your website to start a two way dialogue with your prospects and customers, and make an incredible offer that makes it a no-brainer for them to at least give you a try, it will prove to be one of the best business investments you’ve ever made.
