There are so many ways to get attention and attract new clients for your service-based business. So how do you know which is the right one for you? As you've guessed from the title of this article, I'm already quite biased about the answer.
Ads, cold calling and speaking, oh my!
Radio and television ads are usually too expensive for small service-based businesses to even consider.
Google pay-per-click ads or other forms of Internet advertising can be highly targeted, but can also get expensive and complicated to manage. As well, they do nothing to develop a personalized relationship with a prospective client.
Cold calling offers a chance to connect, but can be quite intimidating and puts the service-based business owner in the position of having to sell their service. Most of us need a lot of help with our telephone sales skills.
Networking is also wonderful for building relationships, but works best if you give before you receive. Service-based business owners who don't want to give away their services (nor should they), often get stuck in the follow-up phase, because they don't have anything valuable to pass along to their new contacts.
Speaking, if you like it and learn to do it well, is an excellent strategy for gaining visibility and credibility, but until you build up the platform to earn large speaker fees, also requires follow-up to stay in touch with people and inform them about your other products and services.
The fortune is in the follow-up
And that's where article marketing comes in. Whether you're cold-calling, networking or speaking, if you have valuable content that solves a problem for your target market, you can now follow up with confidence. Instead of selling, you're giving. Instead of creating pressure or urgency, you're building a trusting relationship.
And if you're not out there making the calls, meeting people, or speaking, article marketing can pick up the slack and find the prospects for you! That's because unlike advertisements or cold calls, people are on the Internet every day actively seeking exactly what you're giving - information.
Other benefits and applications of article marketing
Service-based business owners with a storefront business can apply exactly the same strategies, and augment by publishing a column in a community newspaper right in their neighborhood. Or enhance your article a bit for submission to a trade journal, newsletter or magazine that's targeted to your specific audience.
Writing original content based on the very same solutions you have created to solve the problems of your target market can also help you to systemize how you deliver your services. More importantly, it gives people access to your solutions who cannot or will not ever hire you personally.
There are plenty of helpful ways to market your business, and you will be naturally more skilled at some than others. As you find the mix that works for you, please include some article marketing!
If you feel like you're lacking the discipline, skill or structure that you need to apply the power of article marketing to grow your business, please check out my latest offer - let's work some Article Magic!
If you're just getting started with marketing your business online, I believe that the most effective strategy is a combination of blogging, email, and article marketing. In a nutshell:
Here is how to put it all together:
1. Get a Typepad account - I have a Pro account for $14.95 per month, but you can choose the one that best suits your needs. Consider whether you'll want to use your own domain name (you'll need at least the Plus account, $8.95) or customize the design (you'll need at least the Pro account).
2. Get an AWeber account (starts at $19 per month) and set up the blog broadcast feature to send out new posts from your blog as soon as you publish them.
3. Create an editorial schedule of one topic per month. Piggyback onto the holiday times that people are sure to be discussing or looking for help with. You can also be strategic here and plot out possible chapters for a book.
4. Set up four separate idea catchers (e.g., draft posts in your blogging program, or four pages in a notebook) to collect your thoughts about these four types of blog posts:
5. Every week, flesh out one of those blog posts and publish it on your blog. As soon as you do, AWeber will send them out by email to your mailing list.
6. At the end of the month, compile content from some or all of the blog posts into an article and submit it to EzineArticles, searched by 1,000s of visitors every month, including newsletter publishers, consumers and the media - at the end of each article will be your bio and a link back to your website or blog.
Using this combination of strategy, planning and automation, you'll be on your way to generating an information empire in no time!
Of course, if any of this is going to result in new clients and customers for you, your website had better be working! Stay tuned for an announcement about a free class that Linda Claire Puig are offering called, "Help! My website's not working!" In the meantime, check out my website manifesto.
To continue this month's theme of patience, check out Nina East and Karen Van Cleve's latest "Lessons from the Certifiers" column in this month's VOICE, the newsletter of the International Association of Coaching. When you see how they answer the question, "How do coaches really become masterful?", you'll see what I mean!
IAC members, enjoy the whole article. Other readers, you can read the first section of this article, along with the rest of this great issue.
P.S. Are you interested in submitting your own article to the IAC VOICE? I would love to hear from you.
Now that the July issue of the IAC VOICE is "in the can," I am setting my sights on August and beyond.
Did you know that the VOICE has over 13,000 subscribers? And they could all be reading about you!
If you serve coaches in your business, or if you are a coach with an interesting methodology, niche or business practice, I would love to work with you to create an article for the VOICE.
Writing prompt: Submission guidelines are available on the website. All you really need at this point is a desire to submit and a mere inkling of an idea. Your next step? Email voice@certifiedcoach.org.