You need to develop online offers - Something of value. Not a free consultation. We are trying to get as many people in the sales funnel as possible. We want a soft yes. A free consultation (A.K.A. sales call) is a hard yes. What can you offer that will educate your target market as to why they should be buying from you instead of your competition. Explain the apples AND the oranges.- Online offers become lead bait - Lead bait could be industry specific case studies, whitepapers, buying guides, etc. The Headlines to these pieces of lead bait are key! Take your time on lead bait production and it will pay off down the line over and over.
- Lead bait allows you to educate your prospects – Lead bait collects the contact information and when you have the contact information your triggered educational email/direct mail campaigns can begin. Now you have their ear and you can begin class.
- Website copy needs to be customer-centric – Make sure to double check the copy of your site to make sure it’s all customer-centric. Answer their questions, ease their worries, explain how you do business. Getting down in the weeds and explaining what you do in in detail isn’t what your prospects want. Show the benefits, not the features. Stay away from brochure-speak or business jargon.
- Your “About Us” page needs to explain why you are better than your competition – Next to your “Home” page, your “About Us” gets the most traffic on your website. You need to be very clear here about what your unique selling proposition is to your prospects. Take your time here. Show your key personnel off here and how to contact them.
- Back up your assertions with testimonials – Post relevant testimonials on each your service or solution pages. Like it or not, you are presumed guilty before innocent so testimonials are key!
- Video, video, video, did I say video – Words are great, a picture is worth a thousand words, and video is an educational nirvana! Find the budget!!!!!
- Tips 1 through 7 don’t matter if you can’t get traffic to your website - You need a mix of online and offline marketing tactics to get people to your site. Below is what Main Street Marketing believes are the best ways to draw traffic to your website.
- Networking (1-1,Group, Events, Etc.)
- Joint Venture Marketing
- Content Marketing (Blogs, Posts, Email Marketing)
- Search Engine Optimization
- Most everything else is too costly for small businesses or just old fashion advertising (consumers don’t want disruptive advertising in most cases)
Main Street Marketing does this everyday for our customers using your Website, a CRM system, Email Marketing Software, and Variable Data Printing (when appropriate). Contact us if you would like to learn more!