When your chosen keyword competition is ferocious, you will not succeed unless you choose an SEO specialist that has proven success in search engine marketing services or SEM services.
Depending on your location, Google usually provide around 80% of the internet's search requests, so it is vital to find a consultant or company that can get you top rankings for your target keywords or key-phrases. Do not be afraid to ask for previous experience and proof of current rankings to determine the consultant's level of expertise.
To stand any chance of accomplishing your goal, you need an SEO expert or SEM company that can implement a strategy that will deliver targeted leads and enquiries to increase sales and revenue.
Another major factor for your marketing plan is the coding and search engine optimisation of your site. Whether you have an html, dynamic or a flash-based website, there are important steps that your SEO expert should take to ensure your site is search engine ready.
One of the key elements for a rock solid internet marketing plan is good quality content focused on your business and it's industry. Literally the more quality and unique content there is on your site, the better off your site will be, in terms of rankings.
Once your site is search engine optimised, your internet marketing strategy will can commence and you can then start to work on one of the other more important factors that search engines look for, which is the trust factor of your site. This can be achieved by partnering with other web sites that are regarded as trusted and have a good rank on the search engines already. This will give you that all-important page rank that will start to increase your website's listings in the search engines.
Flash animation web design may look good but are notoriously poor for top ten search engine rankings, thankfully there are steps you can take to still get your site listed and ranked on the major search engines. The same applies to dynamic web sites that are written in programming languages such as PHP, ASP and .NET.
After performing all of these steps, your internet marketing agency or SEO consultants will have your site well under way to achieving a top ten search engine ranking and you can sit back and watch your website receive targeted enquiries, leading to increased turnover and ultimately increased profits.
Not all Search Engine Firms and not all SEO consultants are created equal however. There are many who only have a rudimentary knowledge of the workings of SEO but can feign significant expertise. There are many who overcharge for basic services, sometimes charging $800 just to create 100 back-links. You want someone who comes highly recommended and who can provide you the results you need to improve traffic to your site and also improve the conversion rate of this traffic.
In professional services, if there's one thing that stops people investing in online marketing, it's the idea that you can't sell consulting services over the web. There's some truth in this, but also a whole lot wrong with it. So read on if you want to look at this differently and transform your approach to sales pipeline building.
Of course it's true that people won't get their credit cards out to buy high priced intangible products that normally have long sales gestation periods and require expert conversations before a deal takes place. However don't let this fool you into ignoring the stages of the sales and marketing process where the web can make massive contributions, it can shrink sales cycles and automate lead generation by taking people out of the process. What it can do for you is bring more prospects to the table, win their trust and get them deeper into your sales funnel without expensive people ever having met them!
Once you've moved to this way of thinking, you'll have prospects knocking on your door rather than you on theirs, your sales pipeline will be a lot healthier, your expensive people will be better utilized and your cost of client acquisition will be much lower than it is today.
If you are going to move to this mindset you need to work on three key things:
1. Talk in the ?needs' language of your target audience.
2. Provide useful information that educates them and earns their trust.
3. Make your website the hub for all marketing campaigns.
Here's how:
1. Talk in the ?needs' language of your target audience.
The buying language of consulting consumers is often very different to the selling language used by consultants on their websites. This results in a misalignment between the buyer and the seller. It's a common perception that consultants like to talk in complex terms about themselves and their expertise, than they do about the business outcomes they deliver! When your clients go online to do their research, you want to be the one that sings their song and presses their buttons. So if you do your homework and identify with their needs, wants and issues, rather than your products, services and company, then you'll be the one to grab their attention and bring them one step closer.
2. Provide useful information that educates them and earns their trust.
Most of the time consumers of professional services do a lot of online research to develop their issue or thinking before they decide on their provider. Would you like to help them do their research? You bet! These people will be grateful to you for good quality information, help and advice. Consulting is a relationship business, so when they're ready to buy, you'll be right up there in their mind as someone they trust to provide the expertise they need. So if you make it easy for them by providing valuable and useful information in the form of white papers, advisory articles, presentations, research reports, podcasts etc. then you'll be the one they trust and they won't be reserved in picking up the phone to you.
3. Make your website the hub for all marketing campaigns.
Most consulting firms who have a marketing plan treat their website like a separate strand of activity, along with direct mail, telemarketing, event speaking, sponsorship, advertising etc. Most marketers also struggle with measuring the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. If you make your website the central hub for all marketing activities, then you can measure the return on investment from all of your campaigns. Make sure you've got a good visitor tracking tool installed (e.g. Opentracker), build special landing pages for each campaign, automate the delivery of your information products and capture contact information for use in on-going marketing communications. If you do these things you'll be well on your way to ?lights out lead generation'!
So is it stupid to think you can sell professional services and consulting over the web?
Well it's doable for advisory products at a sub $1000 price point, but generally speaking you cannot close a complex deal online. But you can use the web to get your first meeting with a prospect, and if you use this as your main objective then you'll soon be pushing leads into your sales pipeline with much less effort and cost.
Both Jet Lee & Tony Rice are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Jet Lee has sinced written about articles on various topics from Family Concerns, Arts and Golf Guide. Webstigma.com a helping design online businesses. We work with small businesses, Web 2.0 startups and entrepreneurs that have emerging business con. Jet Lee's top article generates over 5400 views. to your Favourites.
Tony Rice has sinced written about articles on various topics from Wedding Bells, SEO Search Engine Optimization. Tony Rice is a partner at Equiteq, . He has spent his career marketing to blue chip companies and was CEO of a. Tony Rice's top article generates over 1600 views. to your Favourites.