Selling Consulting Services On Line
Getting clients is perhaps the most daunting task facing any new entrepreneur seeking to create a new business by providing consulting services. Especially during recessionary times, many new consulting businesses may emerge in a particular field selling services within shrinking target markets. In the end, success or failure of a consulting business will depend on both the value of the service and the ability of the consultant to sell it.
Internet sales has perhaps overshadowed personal selling ability in the minds of many new consultants in terms of which may be more important. Many techniques, including Low Cost SEO are available to help market consulting services, but ‘cold calling’ or reaching out to prospective clients without an invitation is a task most would rather avoid. In truth, both methods are required to successfully bring a new consulting practice to profitability.
Personal selling ability and on-line efforts should work together. Personal outreach via phone, direct mail or personal visits will never be an outdated business skill. Nothing can illustrate the value of a service better than the one providing it. Still, on-line marketing programs allow the consultant to cover much more ground and reach out to individuals that may have a need for the service at the point in time the prospective client needs it.
Achieving success using the internet requires construction of a web page that the search engines such as Yahoo and Google will recognize and be comfortable displaying to those searching for information or solutions to business problems. There are three key components to a profitable and successful on line marketing effort. These are: Service Differentiation Nice Identification Active Positioning using the website and email
Service Differentiation: This requires the consultant to identify exactly what traits or bits of additional value he/she provides to clients. In other words, the consultant must be able to tell prospects why he/she is a better investment than the client might make in other services. This constitutes the essence of the consultant’s ‘value proposition.’
Niche Identification involves choosing a target market perhaps from within a larger market area where particular business types are more likely to need the exact experience provided. This is more difficult that it may sound initially because prospective clients within the niche should have both the need for the service as well as the ability to pay for it. Many new businesses need marketing services for instance, but so many of these are undercapitalized and cannot afford to tell their target market.
Active Positioning: Forming the value proposition and reaching out to the target market with personal sales and internet marketing constitutes the Active Positioning part of the consultant’s sales effort.
Developing a web page strategy using keywords and on-page optimization techniques first requires the identification of the niche and differentiating characteristics. Keywords or keyword phrases that are short terms describing the prospect’s need or niche must be applied to the web page title, headlines and in other areas to help the search engines understand what the consultant’s page is about. A web page using the keyword phrase “Water Utility Rate Consulting” describes a consultant providing valuable assistance to water utilities or utility customers that are wrestling with the steady upward pressure on their water service rates.
Geographic identifiers can also be helpful in positioning a service on an internet web page. Many consultants specialize in a service within a specific area or region, so a geographic identifier might be an important part of niche identification. Services to improve one’s golf swing might be provided by a sports consultant only in – say – Dallas and wouldn’t be practically available elsewhere.
Consulting businesses tend to spring up during times of recession or economic downturn. Positioning a web page to be found when an internet user is searching for information about her/his problem is a great way to increase the number of prospects that are familiar with a consultant’s services.
Matthew Stone provides Low Cost SEO and Search Engine Optimization services to businesses across the country. Assisting companies of all sizes compete for new revenue and sales using the internet search engines, Matt’s company drives new business to client web environments. You can get a unique content version of this article from the Uber Article Directory.
Keyword Selection As Part Of A Low Cost SEO Strategy
Investing time in keyword research prior to an SEO campaign can pay off in new internet sales traffic and can be an important component of a Low Cost SEO strategy. Keyword research is a creative process though, and may require some degree of trial and error. Implementing an SEO strategy without keyword research can simply waste time and money and may not deliver additional customers.
The World Wide Web is the primary tool used by prospective consumers to research products and services prior to purchase. It is important to understand then how users would search for one’s products and services using the internet and how they would describe the need or problem they are looking to solve. Major companies pay a great deal of money to better understand consumer behavior on this level, but a little intuition and research can accomplish much the same for a small enterprise.
Understanding common language usage as it relates to one’s products or services is also important. How would current clients describe the product or service provided? What terms or word phrases would they use? This level of understanding in one’s business niche is important to structuring a useful keyword string or set of words used in the SEO strategy.
Usually, keywords are grouped into phrases of multiple words to create a keyword phrase or search term. Two or three words in a given phrase are quite useful. As the optimization plan is created, Google and others offer tools to test possible keyword phrases to find out in advance if a theoretical term would attract traffic.
Small business enterprises should avoid highly competitive terms. After all, a small rural bank would be ill-advised to compete for “internet banking” as it will run up against some of the most aggressive competitors in the world. Look for smaller, product related terms that fewer people would search for, but that the company has a shot at being number one on a search result list. Narrowing the search term is useful in slowly building internet strength and attracting traffic.
As the keyword term is constructed, there are other considerations that will help attract internet traffic.
“Interchangeable” words in the keyword string are highly useful in attracting traffic when words are used in different order within the search term. For example, the search term “Water Utility Consultants” offers the opportunity for a consultant specializing in advising water utility organizations to compete not only for traffic using this term, but also for those using “Utility Consultants” or “Water Utility” within their search term. Here, three carefully selected words offer different keyword combinations that can attract internet readers.
It is also important to include a term that describes where the product or service is available. Especially for smaller enterprises that are competing with larger companies, use a geographic identifier can allow the organization to better compete for local sales. The internet is truly world-wide so it is important to identify where the product or service can be acquired. After all, it doesn’t make sense to appear on searches for “Golf Instruction in Sacramento” when the business is in San Antonio.
Using “Long Tail” titles -especially on blog posts- that include some or all keywords also increases the likelihood that search engines will recognize the page as relevant to the user’s search request. The long tail title adds further descriptive terminology that search engines can read and recognize. When users look for information and use one of the words in the text or article title, the page is more likely to be shown as a result.
Prior consideration of how keywords are to be used in the overall web traffic strategy can yield real traffic increases without great expense. In the current economy, earning new revenue is more difficult than ever and marketing expense budgets are tight. Proper keyword research can lead to increases in new buyer traffic and can be done at minimal cost.
SEO Consultants Denver delivers Low Cost SEO strategy creation and execution to enterprises of all sizes. Specializing in link building strategies and article marketing, the company helps organizations increase internet traffic and sales. Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.
Simple Keys To Increasing Blog Traffic
Customers earned via the internet begin their relationship with a company as simple web page readers. Converting those readers into customers is then the key to earning revenue and increasing sales. Blog readers want information that can help them, but usually desire a strong and positive message to guide them in their activities as well.
Inspiring readers to return to the site is one of the major goals of internet marketing, so It is worth exploring just what characteristics win readers’ willingness to return. Businesses must first of course organize the page and content so that it can be found using the search engines. (Some Low Cost SEO methodologies exist to help in this effort.) But once the reader finds and opens one of the website pages, what should happen next?
Meaningful content and ‘value’ are the central content inclusions for any web page or blog posting. Fresh and updated information lures readers back for future visits. However, it is helpful to remember that blogging is to a small degree, a form of entertainment. Entertaining stories that communicate the value are extremely useful in attracting readers and also inspire them to return in the future.
Posting a comic or joke at the top of each day’s blog post might not be appropriate for one’s line of business. However the reason many email campaigns and blog posts use a joke or ‘daily chuckle’ is that humor invites the visitor to continue reading through the material. It also provides a free bit of value the visitor gets from clicking onto the page. Still, the reason visitors will hit your site are fundamental, so making the business blog a page that attracts future readership, the author should make sure that each post includes: Value – outlining the value found by reading all of the material “Moves the Ball” – showing an incremental advancement that the reader can quickly achieve Support – otherwise known as ‘cheerleading’ or providing some moral support for the reader that is facing obstacles and problems
Value: Client success stories or testimonials are hugely valuable and should be included in blog posts or on the main web page as frequently as possible. Potential clients and customers want to see how the company has helped others. Story telling is highly useful in this environment, but the author should keep the stories as short as possible – perhaps in the neighborhood of 500 to 700 words. Readers are probably time-constrained, so don’t overrun the reader’s attention span.
Using the post to discuss one single point of value is also effective. Readers in a rush to get to the point appreciate brevity and also appreciate knowing the point of value early in the text. Bold statements such a “improve profit margins in retail by 20%” with a certain product or methodology inspires the reader to continue and to look for that point of value within the copy.
“Moving the Ball:” This old football metaphor refers to the importance of making incremental progress if even by small amounts. Under the best of economic conditions, enterprise operators are continuously challenged to make more sales and improve efficiencies so progress is difficult. Showing a reader how to achieve small bits of progress is an attractive reason for a reader to return to the site. Claims of thousands of dollars in income each day using a new internet technique tend to turn these readers off though, so claims of progress should seem reasonable to a well-seasoned entrepreneur.
Support: Keeping entrepreneurs motivated and pursuing their dreams is a key element to success of the site. Most enterprise operators occasionally feel overwhelmed so it is important to demonstrate within the blog post that you have the expertise to not only meet their business need, but may also have the ability to help meet unexpected or unique industry challenges. Humor can also be useful here. The site that offers this is one that readers will look to for expert advice and understanding as it addresses challenges faced by most within the industry.
Be sure to specifically invite the reader to return to the page periodically. Depending upon the frequency of postings to the site, ask readers to visit every day or every other day – whenever new information is posted.
Being mindful of these simple inclusions for each page or post can establish the organization’s blog site as an authority site – which both readers and internet search engines love. The web page and blog can be turned into effective business sales engines by first attracting readers to the site and then by encouraging repeat visits. Over time, many of these readers can be converted into paying customers.
Consultant Matthew Stone provides Low Cost SEO consultation services to clients nationwide. Specializing in link building, blogging and article marketing, SEO Consultants Denver helps companies of all sizes increase sales and income using internet search methodologies. Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory
On Line Selling Tactics for Products and Services
The internet, specifically search engines such as Google and Yahoo, have emerged as powerful sales tools for those businesses savvy enough to have their websites appear when users look for information. Major companies invest a great deal in positioning their web pages so that they will be likely to appear when consumers search for data regarding their products and services. The process of Search Engine Optimization or SEO allows companies to compete on the internet for new business. SEO does win new business, but many organizations are missing additional opportunities to create buyer interest when they only perform the optimization process on the main company web page.
Search Engines such as Google and Yahoo! catalogue most company web pages and all their sub-pages so that when customers ask them to find information, the search engines can offer them as possible results. Search engines have become such a powerful sales generation tool, that many companies invest in the process of ‘optimization’ so that their website will appear when customers are researching a purchase. And getting in front of a prospective customer during the buying process is of course essential to making sales.
Major companies have further determined that increasing on line sales can be accomplished by posting individual web pages within the main website that focus on specific products or services. This strategy works well for companies that have a diverse product or service offering. Selling on line then involves optimizing each product page within the website environment to maximize exposure on the search engines. SEO Consultants in Denver optimizes company product pages to increase sales for its clients using this methodology.
Insurance agencies generally provide a wide range of financial products and services. Annuities, life insurance and other products are available through the same agent. How would the agent combine all these products effectively into a single page to attract customers? Well he probably can’t. There is simply too much detail to effectively compete for all the possible customer search terms using only one page. By subdividing his site into separate product areas, the agent can focus on the need-serving capability of each individual product or service and in this way, his individual product page can compete for search engine traffic.
Separating the pages according to product or service line usually won’t attract additional reader or internet traffic though. The individual product or service page must be optimized separately, just as the main page would be. So, following completion of the product or individual service page, there are still a couple of necessary tasks to turn the individual web page into a powerful sales tool.
- Develop unique keywords to support the product – Establish Link-Building Strategy for each page
Keyword Strategy – Keywords describe for the search engines what the page is about. Selecting effective keywords then involves selecting ones users would employ in a search. Revisiting the Insurance Agent example, the keyword string for his life insurance page might be something like “low cost term life policies in Minneapolis.” This phrase describes the product, a feature and where it may be easily acquired.
Link Building – Each page in the web environment should have external links pointing back to it. These links increase the chances that search engines will find it and associate it with the keywords and keyword phrases used. Setting links directly to a product page, bypassing the main splash or entry page is termed ‘deep linking’ and directs users straight to a product page that provides useful information relevant to the readers immediate need.
“Optimizing” the separate product web pages can really return significant value over time. Several weeks may be required for the search engines to fully understand the content of each page, but savvy organizations make an ongoing effort to keep product pages fresh and optimized for the best results. These organizations have discovered that competing for reader attention by optimizing each web page can earn significant revenue.
Denver SEO Consultants help companies of all sizes increase income and improve on-line sales by attracting new customers and clients via the internet by attracting readers to properly optimized web pages. You can get a unique content version of this article from the Uber Article Directory.
