Businesses open every day. Many new consulting practices – opened by quality professionals who may have recently found themselves without a job – are opening across the country. A new business start-up is a surprise a minute for the new entrepreneur as the new proprietor must now take on accounting, sales and management in addition to providing her/his service.
Many new enterprises face stiff challenges in generating new sales and revenue streams. New businesses probably don’t begin with a long client list or an established list of contacts. Even talented consultants may not have extensive skills in the sales arena, so each business operator must confront the issue of revenue generation. There are really only two methods for bringing in new revenue though; personal selling and external marketing.
Marketing includes prospecting for new customers and can involve a number of methods. The most popular method of prospecting though is on-line marketing via the internet. Studies have shown that buyers usually conduct research on line before they buy – especially for larger priced services and products. Reaching potential customers at this point in the purchase process can be an extremely efficient way of winning new customers.
Internet research is primarily done via the internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo. An entrepreneur or new consultant that posts a web page that these search engines can recognize and find, increases the chance that the page will be found by those doing pre-purchase research. And once connected with prospective buyers, it is possible to close new deals. Accordingly, on-line marketing has emerged as the main process used by new businesses and consulting practices to build a client base.
On line marketing of course requires a web page. These are not difficult to produce and many web designers are available at fairly reasonable fees to construct one for a new practice. Once build, there are three essential elements to On Line Marketing that the web page should either address or contain. Optimization Including supporting content Establish value
Optimization: Known as Search Engine Optimization or SEO, page optimization is the method of presenting a web page so that the search engines can both recognize it and understand its content. When prospective clients then search for information relevant to the page content, the client page is more likely to appear. Learning SEO can be a challenge, but several Low Cost SEO options are available.
Supporting Content: Content is ‘King’ in the internet world. Unique and valuable content that supports the web page owner’s claim of value is important. The better web designers will build a client web page by subdividing the value and features offered by the company into separate pages. As a general rule, the more content within a website the more confidence the internet search engines have that the page contains valuable information about the topic area.
Establishing Value: This can be tricky. Usually, a web reader will only give a few seconds of attention to a web page before moving on to another. Therefore, the entrepreneur’s message must quickly establish the value of his service in the headline and in the first sentence or two of text. Capturing reader interest through bold statements of value – such as “cut manufacturing costs by 35% by….” work well.
A note seems appropriate here about Twitter and other social network methodologies. Typically, these can work, but require a great deal of time to work the system. Remembering that you are competing to get your message out with thousands of others doing the same thing makes it a constant challenge to keep one’s message in front of prospective readers.
Investing time and energy in learning SEO, page optimization and in personal selling are necessary to compete in today’s economy. However, by managing the process one piece at a time, it is possible for a new consulting practice or new business to attract new clients and build a thriving revenue base using the internet.
Matthew Stone delivers Low Cost SEO and Search Engine Marketing 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.
