Think the most effective way to market your service business is through traditional marketing or even word-of-mouth? Whether you are a financial planner, provide landscaping services, or sell handmade jewelry, your service business will benefit from digital marketing. Why? The short answer is that your customers are online, and you need to be there when they are searching for your service.
Here are 7 ways to promote your service business online through digital marketing:
1. Have a great website. When a customer is searching for your service online, and clicks on your website in the search engine listings, you have a very brief moment in which to capture their attention and make a strong first impression. If your website makes the wrong impression, the user will likely click back to those search results and choose a different service provider. Your website not only conveys essential information about your service, but it also conveys trust. Should a prospective customer choose to purchase your service? The success of your website in many cases will determine the answer to that question. If your website is lacking, it may time to consider a new website design and development.
2. Optimize your website for search. Today, it is not enough to have a great website–you must also optimize your website for search. That means ensuring that your website is easily “crawled” by search engines like Google when it generates search results for online users. If your website isn’t crawled, your site will not rank well in search results, meaning many valuable users online will not find your business.
3. Compete in local search. There are many local listings–Google Business, Google Maps, Bing Business, and more–that are yours to claim for your business. These local listings can serve as valuable profiles for your business if you take the time to ensure they contain accurate information. We recommend optimizing these profiles with customized images that showcase your products or services.
4. Invest in social media. Social media gives your business the opportunity to engage in conversation with your existing customers as well as prospective customers. Rather than trying to maintain a presence on 5 or 6 channels, start with 1 or 2 and manage them well. Have a plan for social media content creation that you can manage, as well as a process for how you will respond to inquiries or engage with your audience.
5. Start blogging. A blog on your website is a great platform for sharing relevant information with your audience. What is that information that your customers are seeking? What can you offer with your unique expertise? Those are the topics you should tackle on your blog. Another reason to have a blog is that, if updated regularly, your blog will signal frequent content creation to Google, giving the major search engine another opportunity to crawl your site as well as demonstrating that your website is a source of high-quality information for users. Both of these lead to better search engine rankings for your website.
6. Keep your customers engaged in your brand through e-mail. Are you engaging in an e-mail marketing campaign? If not, you are missing opportunities to keep your brand at the top of mind of your customers. Whether you send a monthly newsletter or a weekly e-mail with sale or product discount information, have a plan for e-mail marketing that keeps you engaged with your customers.
7. Determine your company’s differentiator. No matter the service or product you provide, your business likely has significant competition in the online marketplace. To give your digital marketing campaign an edge, determine your company’s “differentiator,” whatever it is that you believe sets your business apart from the competition. This could be the quality of a certain product in how it is manufactured, or an industry-leading warranty. Whatever it is, be sure to highlight this “differentiator” in all of the above, from your e-mail marketing to social media to your blog articles.
Company 119 has worked with many companies in various service industries to strengthen their digital presence and help them gain leads through digital marketing. Let’s talk about how we can help your business grow in the online marketplace. Give us a call today.
