The best part of providing online marketing services for business owners is that you don't have to look very hard to find clients. There are thousands of independent businesses that need your expertise. In this part of the course we will cover how to find the ideal candidate for your services.
The first place to look is the very places that you patronize regularly. These can be restaurants, auto repair shops, hobby store, insurance agent or any other local independently owned business. Since you already use their services, you should have a pretty good idea of ways you can improve their marketing. You have already used their products or services which will give you good insight into their customer relations and sales process.
The next place to look might seem a little too obvious, but an online search can be very effective in locating businesses. Just do a search for the product or service plus the city name/area. The key is to skip the results on the first page since they most likely already have an online marketing plan in place. Instead concentrate on the results on page two and beyond. Visit each site and see what type of online presence they have. Take special note of the ones that have no online lead capture or call to action on their sites. These will be the perfect candidates for your services.
Another great way to engage potential clients is through local business networking events. You can often find local luncheons and breakfasts hosted by the Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau. Lookup these organizations in your area and let them know you are an expert in online marketing. Offer to give a presentation at their next event. Just make sure to do an informative presentation that doesn't look like a sales pitch. Give them enough good pieces of information that they will seek you out afterwards. Be sure to bring enough business cards!
Next, go pickup your phone book and find one of your target categories. Look for the businesses that have purchased an advertisement in that section. These are businesses that you know already have an advertising budget and our prime candidates for your services. Many businesses spend a large portion of their budgets for these ads when they could be paying for your services and get a better return for their money. Another print publication to look in is your local community newsletters. These can be found for free in local establishments. Look at the ads and notice the businesses that are advertising. Again these will be well targeted businesses because they are already spending money.
At this point you should have a pretty good list of potential clients. Now it is time to start pursuing these businesses and sign them up as a client. Coming up next we will show you exactly how to get your foot in the door and get a meeting with the decision maker.
No comments:
Post a Comment