Marketing a tangible product is usually easier than marketing a professional services firm, but it’s not impossible to market your firm successfully.
A popular business concept for entrepreneurs is a professional services business. However, marketing for professional services can be challenging. Here are some tips on how to market your professional services business effectively for small business growth.
Professional Services Marketing for Entrepreneurs
Selling a product in some ways is much easier than selling a service. A product lends itself to descriptions because it is tangible. Products strive to fulfill the wants and needs of a customer. However, a service isn’t something you can necessarily see and evaluate in advance, like a car or a new pair of shoes. That’s what makes marketing a service so difficult.
Professional services marketing for entrepreneurs can be tricky, but if you get it right, the rewards are vast. The trick is to market the value of your service as a resource that solves a problem for your target audience. You can do this in several ways:
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- First, focus on a lead-generating website to get your message out to an online audience. Unlike an e-commerce site, a professional service firm won’t have dozens (or even a few) products listed for sale. What it will have are carefully crafted service descriptions that show your understanding of the pain points you can solve for your potential customers. To design the perfect site for your professional services firm, ask why customers hire you. What problems do you solve? Reverse engineer your website from the perspective of your clients, creating a solid user experience that shows your value and illustrates why they should hire you.
- Next, use content marketing to fuel your small business growth. Content marketing is an important tool to establish your firm as a visible expert on a particular topic. Writing a blog or an e-book or publishing a video on social media can establish your professional services firm as competent in the area you’re targeting. This is a bit different from a landing page that screams “buy from us!” Using content marketing to establish your credibility on a particular topic is more subtle, but it’s important for moving prospects toward the sale.
- Third, use social media to promote your website, blogs, and ultimately, your services. If you’ve written a blog, you can publish it on your website, but also repurpose it on social media sites like LinkedIn, which is the leading business social channel today. Using social media is highly important to build your small professional services firm. We recommend selecting one primary channel to get started. Consider where your target audience is, and then use that social tool to reach them. This can be labor-intensive, especially at first. However, it is low-cost and highly effective. The key to social media is to establish a regular presence there. It’s not an effective tool if you’re dipping your toe in; you need to go swimming to get the best ROI.
- Finally, build a database and use email marketing to form relationships over time with your target audience. If you know your target, the next step is to find a list of potential leads to whom you can market your services. You can often purchase a list from your local Chamber of Commerce, a list broker, or even do online research to find your targets. Then use a regular series of emails with helpful tips or links to your latest content to stay in front of these prospects.
Marketing your professional services firm takes labor and time. If you’re struggling to find the resources you need to reach new customers, it might be time for small business funding. That’s where Benetrends can help. We offer 401(k) and IRA small business funding, as well as other programs to help your business thrive. To find out more, download The Definitive Guide To 401(k)/ROBS Business Funding.