How Do I Get Clients For My Local Business
Whenever I speak with local business owners, getting clients for your local business using the Internet is always a cause for concern.
They can see the validity of having an Internet presence if you’re a global company and, they feel they ought to have a web site because their competitor down the road has one. For most local businesses though, they find it hard to combine having a website and generating more leads or more sales and many will sadly resort to their old ways of marketing despite the fact that these same old strategies are responsible for cleaning out their bank account and bringing them very few new leads or sales.
So, if this is you, in other words, you’re a local business and you want to use your website to generate more leads and more sales, this is what you do:
Have a Web Site
First of all, if you don’t already have a web site, you need to get one and second, if you have a web site that isn’t bringing you targeted traffic, it’s time to look at ways you can optimize your site so that you can find new customers via the web.
Unlike selling from a High Street store, if you want to sell a service successfully online, you need to build credible relationships with your potential clients. Also, on the High Street, the look and location of the shop can mean the difference between success and bankruptcy.
On the Internet, looks matter, but they are just a tiny element of what creates success since you can’t rely on “passers by” and so you have to promote your website in a way so they can a) find you amongst the millions of other sites online and b) buy from you rather than one of your competitors.
The other most important element of being found online and attracting targeted traffic is content.
I have heard so many local businesses, independent professionals and small business owners say that no one makes any money from their web site but this is because they are taking advice from the wrong people and conversing with the naysayers who have what I call a “glorified brochure” as a web site.
Back in 2003, I was a member of the Professional Speakers Association, here in the UK and, the amount of speakers who used to say “no one makes any money with their website anyway,” was amazing to me. And yet, across the seas in the US, was a respected speaker called Tom Antion whom all the speakers knew and respected because not only was Tom regarded as a great speaker, he made the most of the Internet.
If you compared what Tom Antion was doing with his online business compared to what the others were doing, it was obvious why their websites didn’t sell. Tom Antion made the web his business and used it to grow his business, the other speakers used their sites merely to advertise their speaking service.
This brings me on to what I think is perhaps the biggest reason outside of search engine optimization that people fail online …
Unique Content
Looks are good online, but content is definately king and, the more unique that content, the better.
By creating content that people want, you establish credibility which inspires trust and motivates your prospects to make that first contact to hire you or, to locate your store so they can visit your shop and buy from you or, get their credit card out to buy from your online store.
Whether you are a plumber, local Italian restaurant, grocery store or chiropractor, if you follow this basic process and put some time and effort into building an online presence rather than just building a web site, I guarantee you, prospects will want to hire your services or buy your products and you’ll attract more “walk-in” prospects because of the free information you’ve provided on your site that has made you a respected and credible expert.
Try it and see for yourself. 
Watch out for more articles on online client acquisition strategies.
RSS for Information Publishers
If you want to read about RSS and how it benefits to blog and website readers, you can check out my last blog post entitled “What is RSS?”
Today though, I want to give some focus to the benefits of publishing a RSS Feed if you are the owner of a website or blog.
But Why Syndicate your Content?
In essence, if you are an online publisher and you don’t publish a RSS feed or syndicate content, you’re missing out on potential free new readers. Feed syndication is a simple and low cost way to get your name and your content in front of new readers and automatically keep existing readers updated.
Syndicated content includes not just the headlines to your most recent articles, but can include photos, videos, podcasts, news updates and, almost anything else that gets updated regularly. So after taking the time to create the content, why wouldn’t you want to broadcast that information to as wide an audience as possible?
And, with all the issues that email delivery presents these days, RSS also provides an excellent method for getting your message delivered without being blocked by your subscriber’s ISP and, there is no need to concern yourself over “Can Spam” laws. The thing I love most about publishing my content via RSS is that my subscibers receive my information because they’ve asked for it.
Since I use double optins for my newsletters, my suggesting that subscribers didn’t ask to receive information from me might sound strange but in my experience, if you offer a free report, audio download or, as Alex Mandossian would call them, “ethical bribes” to encourage people to sign up for your newsletter or blog updates, you’ll get people unsbuscribing on the grounds that they never requested the information in the first place. What the heck … they’ve got your freebie and now they never want to hear from you again.
There are arguements for and against offering “ethical bribes” but the point I want to make is that with RSS is 100% permission based, and your subscribers can access your message when they want it, how they want it and delivery is 100% guaranteed since your message isn’t going to be filtered out or blocked by an ISP.
How to Publish RSS Feeds?
There are various ways to add a RSS Feed to your site including the addition of javascript or PHP code or, by using third party services such as FeedForAll.
The drawback with using javascript is that the content of the feed isn’t recognised by the search engine spiders and therefore, it won’t be indexed. Using PHP however to display your feed is a little more complex but the feed is considered search engine spider and robot-friendly and, it always displays the most current information from the RSS feed and the web page content .
It isn’t uncommon for people to use third party services to display their feed but because these services operate on a different domain server there is an arguement that there is little benefit to end-users by displaying their feeds in this way and, there is always the risk of losing your feeds should the third party system fail for whatever reason.
So, with all of that said, by far the easiest way to publish a RSS feed, is to publish a blog.
Depending on the platform you have used to create your blog, your feed will be published automatically and because a blog usually benefits from freshly updated and relevant content, they are liked by the search engines.
Managing your feed
Once you’ve either built your blog or added a RSS Feed to your site, my suggestion is that you use Feedburner, a popular service (now owned by Google) and used by many online publishers to publish an existing feed.
The advantages to using Feedburner is that they will enable you to:
- Publicize your content and make it easy for people to subscribe.
- Optimize distribution of your feed so that your content is properly formatted for all of the major directories and so the content can be consumed by subscribers wherever they are.
- Analyze your traffic to learn how many subscribers you have, where they’re coming from and what they like best.
There is plenty more that could be said about publishing a RSS Feed, but I hope that from this post, you’ve at least gleaned the major benefit of “Content Distribution” when RSS is used effectively.
The wider the distribution of your feed, the higher your chances of getting targeted traffic to your site and combined with higher search engine rankings you have a near perfect recipe for bigger profits.
Until next time,
Blog Marketing Works For Getting More Sales And More Clients
Blog Marketing is about getting more exposure for your business or for what you’re selling and it’s more than just about getting lots of traffic.
What’s the point of traffic if you can’t convert them into sales right?
In terms of blogging and blog marketing, my main focus is helping people who already have an offline business get their business online. So, the initial focus is on attracting more clients and, making more sales whilst we strategize for how to get passive income from information products, based on their service.
For weeks now, I’ve wanted to talk to you about one of the ways a client of mine is approaching blog marketing but, until now, I’ve had to bite my lip ….
Gavin Ingham of www.GavinIngham.com is a sales trainer and motivational speaker and since building his blog in 2007, Gavin has been consistently blogging and making his presence known online and then earlier this year after each show of Sir Alan Sugar’s “The Sales Apprentice,” Gavin sat down and wrote a review of the program for his blog.
In fact, I know that on one occasion, Gavin was so tired, he didn’t do the review and went to bed. He woke the next morning to about 25 emails asking “where’s the review of last night’s show?”
Don’t you just love it when your readers beg you for more content!
Anyway, I digress … As a direct result of Gavin’s reviews, two of the Apprentices have been in touch with him about partnering on a project or two. You can see Gavin’s post, The Return of the Sales Apprentice for more information.
The real point I want to make here though is that blog reviews extend beyond trying to make a quick buck from an affiliate product.
It seems to me that small business owners, entrepreneurs and independent professionals are still a little slow adapting to blogging and blog marketing. It’s not seen as a serious business building tool by some and others just complain that they just don’t have time to blog – these are generally those that don’t have time to build their business either.
Now, don’t get me wrong, if you’re marketing online and doing great with the online strategies you’re implementing, then blogging may not have to be a serious consideration for you right now. I will say however that I personally believe in the long-term, if your competitor is blogging and you’re not, you’ll lose out.
But back to my business of reviews …
I think Gavin’s approach of reviewing The Sales Apprentice program after each show was not only an excellent idea and credibility booster, indirectly, he was making more sales. He’s a professional speaker and he’s selling himself essentially in selling his services.
But, he didn’t need to litter his blog posts with links to products or even his services. He just provided an honest and frank review, gave away some great sales tips and not only do I know he has been booked for speaking gigs as a direct result of these reviews, he’s now been contacted by two of the apprentices theselves.
Dave Taylor of AskDaveTaylor.com told a true story of a lawer who didn’t have a blog but left a comment on Dave’s blog. The comment was read by either a news reporter or authority in a large organization (can’t remember for sure) but the result was that he landed himself in a very high position job.
One comment and no blog but one helluva reward at the end … can’t be bad for a few minutes work.
So, what business are you in and what can you review to get some more exposure for your business?
Is it the last book you read? Maybe the last ad you saw on TV, a seminar you attended or even a company review that would help your readers see you as a potential giant or even giant in your field?
As a service professional, you are seeking authority and credibility because people buy from those they know like and trust and I’ve proved over and over again that blog marketing works for getting clients and making more sales and isn’t just limited to selling $29 eBooks.
In my blog post Easier To Sell A Product Than Your Services Online, I pointed out technically, it’s harder to sell your services online than a product … so many will tell you anyway but most of my consulting clients are acquired as a direct result of my blog and, my services cost way more than the average information product that is launched online.
So, if you’re looking for more clients, if you’re looking to make more sales and if you’re trying to sell products, I highly recommend that you add blogging to your marketing mix sooner, rather than later.
To Your Success,
Blog Marketing Tips and Insights
www.trishjones.com
Using double-optins to create highly-responsive lists
One of my clients asked me an important question about the effectivement of using double optins to grow your subscriber list.
But, before I give my answer though, let me not assume that everyone knows what I’m talking about when I use the term “double optin.”
Basically, if you are using an autoresponder such as Aweber or 1Shopping Cart to collect names and email addresses on your site, once those people complete the optin form, depending on your autoresponder setup, you can either get the system to send them a confirmation email where they have to click a link to confirm they definately want to hear from you or, you can just have them added to your database without any further steps on their part.
And to be honest with you, when people started talking about building “double-optin” lists, I was a bit reluctant. I knew that it wouldn’t be possible to build as large a list using that technique as it is with single-optin. And, everyone knows that “larger lists produce larger profits”, right?
Well this may have been the answer I would have given him a few years ago, but from personal experience, this is wrong. The reality is “loyal lists produce larger profits.”
The whole purpose of building a list is to get your messages read (and ultimately to produce profit), right? So, here’s an easy way to accomplish that. When you build “double-optin” lists, then you generally have a much higher quality list (I.E. Better responses) for two reasons…
Reason #1: More interest. Obviously, if someone is willing to make the effort to subscribe to your list, check their email, click on a link, and actually confirm their subscription, then they are likely to be expressing a general interest in your list.
More interest = better responses.
Reason #2: More inbox. And, if they go through the “double-optin” process, it also means that you got your initial message into the intended recipient’s REAL email inbox. No fake email addresses. No email by proxy (where Joe subscribes Bob to your list). Fewer “unused” email accounts. And – at least for now – you got your message through the spam filters.
More inbox = better responses. Use DOUBLE-OPTIN because subscribers have to verify their email address and confirm their interest in joining your list.
Your lists won’t be as big, but they will be more responsive because they want to hear from you and believe that the information you are sending them whether it’s in the form of an article or a product or service that you have for sale, could be of value to them.
I’m sure it was Marlon Sanders who coined the phrase “the money is in the list,” and whilst many interpreted that to mean build bigger lists, I have learnt through experience that the money is in the “responsive” list.
So, don’t feel that in order to sell your product or service that you have to have a huge list because a responsive list of 2,000 subscribers is going to give you much better returns than an unresponsive list of 10,000.
If you’re not building a list at all, then the time to start is now.
I highly recommend Aweber since deliverability of your broadcast message is high and, they have some great videos on how to get started with your email marketing campain as well as tutorials on how to get started with Aweber.
Until next time,
Oh My Gosh! Where Have All My Blog Posts Gone!?
Yep, if you’re one of my regular readers or you know this blogs been around for some years, you’ll have good reason to think I’ve shut up shop and gone home.
That’s not the case though but I have taken a seriously drastic measure and decided to rebuild TrishJones.com from ground zero … except the new design which, I still like. But it means that I’ve removed every one of my previous posts and I’m starting again with my blog marketing strategy from scratch – on this blog at least.
Why would I do such a crazy thing?
The truth is, since turning my web site into a blog in 2006, I’ve changed direction a few times and well, it felt as though the blog had a mish-mash of articles which in my view were not focused enough for my target market.
I’ve been working with more and more service professionals, entrepreneurs and small business owners over the last 18 months who want to use their blog as a marketing tool to attract more clients online but, whilst they want to know “how to” attract clients with their blogs, most neither have the time or interest to build their own blog which is why they hire me.
And, if you weren’t aware of it, I built my consulting business from scratch via my TrishJones.com blog … Which makes it seem even crazier now that I’d decide to “smash it up” and start again during a recession of all times. But trust me, I’m not killing the golden goose, I’m fattening it!
In addition to wanting to give TrishJones.com more focused direction, some “smart alec” decided to hack my blog last week resulting in me losing all my page rank and, my home page was not even being indexed by the search engines. But it’s cool, I didn’t panic but it did spur me on to do what I’d felt like doing for months. So message to hacker … ”you meant it for my harm but God meant it for my good!!”
So, TrishJones.com is going to be focusing more on blog marketing strategies particularly for those who want to use their blog as a marketing tool to attract more clients or leads and less on the technical elements of blogging.
I’m sorry … I’ve had this conversation in some of my older blogs and I have to reiterate it here … my target market are more interested in building their business and making money than knowing the ins and outs of designs and html and so I’m following an age old marketing principle of “giving the client what the client wants.”
All of this change does not mean that I’m giving up on affiliate marketing though! In fact, it’s something I encourage my clients to embrace so the Internet can work for them even when they’re not.
I hope as a reader you’ll appreciate and enjoy a more laser focused TrishJones.com and, if you’re an entrepreneur, small business owner or service professional, I hope you find enough evidence here to convince you, you need to blog!
Until next time,
Trish
