I posted this in one of my groups in response to a guy who has been working for years to generate more business, though I would post it here as well in case it is helpful to anyone.
We are talking about SEO/Web Dev. here but it can apply to most industries, particularly consultants.
If you are struggling to get new business or clients, give this process a try.
First thing I would do is figure out an industry to target and focus on that.
- Become THE company when that industry needs SEO/web design.
- Learn all the little details about it such as the terminology they like to use, what they don’t like and so on.
- Then break it down even further from there.
- Create a customer avatar.
What I mean by customer avatar is create a fictitious person that represents your ideal customer… their age, gender, type of business, whether they are married or not, what they want, what they need, what type of pain they are in, and how you can take them from that pain state, to a happy state.
Once you have that all figured out create your funnel based on that.
From that information, you should be able to determine where they hang out online, which in turn will give you what type of traffic source to use to best reach them.
Some potential traffic sources are:
- SEO… though this will take longer and isn’t really direct response.
- Linkedin… best bet here is to provide content to build trust.
- Google Ads… same issue with SEO but still useful
- Content Marketing… blog posts, podcasts, Facebook groups/page, Instagram, Youtube and so on. Frank Kern calls this intent based branding.
- Facebook or Linkedin ads… in my experience it works better to send them to an advertorial then it does directly to a sales page or an audit form.
- Highly targeted, non spammy cold email campaigns… self explanatory.
- In person marketing at networking events, chamber meetings, etc…
- And don’t be afraid to straight up post on your personal Facebook and ask if anyone needs help with SEO… you never know, and you shouldn’t be shy to promote your business.
Now you have a niche, an ideal prospect, and traffic sources.
Now you need a sales process.
- Determine if you will get on a phone call, skype, in person, email etc… with them.
- If they need to fill out any kind of form ahead of time
- How you will have them pay, if you will have a proposal etc…
- Make sure you have some sales training and some scripts you have down pat so you can close them.
Be obsessed with implementing this EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Schedule it out.
Spend 12 – 18 hours a day on it. It won’t take long to fill your pipeline and grow and scale your business.
I hope that helps.
Best,
CMW
