If you’ve just registered your company, decided to go out on your own as a consultant, are prepared to embrace online marketing strategy to get you where you want to go, then good for you! That’s awesome and I hope you really achieve what you’re setting out to do. It’s an exciting adventure.
No doubt you’re going to set up a website but have you really thought about how you’re going to use it? Is it just going to be a nice, pretty online business card? Something people will find if they know who you are and google your name? Something you will know exists but no one else does?
Or is your new site going to be an online marketing powerhouse that helps you get found; helps you generate leads and turn leads into customers?
Launching a Website is Not Hard
It’s not hard to get a website up and running these days. Web hosts like the one I recommend, Media Temple (no affiliate), enable you to set up a WordPress at the click of a button. You can then go out there and get a premium theme from say, StudioPress, which will get you going. In an afternoon you can have a website up with a bit of content that says who you are and what you do.
Mind you, if you don’t like fiddling with technological stuff, just email me and we’ll work out a way to get you started.
Planning Your Content Strategy is Tricky
Now having a great looking website is all fine and dandy. It’s something you’ll need at some point but initially it’s important that you don’t over fixate on appearances. At least, not to the exclusion of all else.
It amazes me how much time newbie consultants and small businesses spend mulling over what a small business website should look like; what colors should be used, what the banner should be like, what should go in the sidebar, etc. In comparison, experience tells me that they’ll spend very little time discussing content. It’s as if they see design and branding as the key stage here.
Great design is very important but design alone does not sell your services as, say, a consultant or small business – unless you are a designer, I guess.
You know yourself that if you have a burning question (“What is the best management style for working with a team of Japanese developers?” for example, or, “How can I use the LEAN business model to improve my business?“) the quality of the answer will be much more significant than the design of the page. Who cares if it looks pretty if the advice is rubbish? Who cares if the site is not spectacularly designed if the content is invaluable?
Be Prepared to Juggle Your Resources
Because content IS king, you need to juggle your resources sufficiently that you are not ignoring the time, effort and money it takes to develop great content. For example, if you’re keen to appear near the top of Google for words related to your business, you’re going to need to invest in search engine optimization, but also be able to write copy that will get you there. Resources like Scribe will help.
Instead of just paying a designer to make your website look awesome, and then struggle to create content, maybe you should think about investing in developing (or having developed!) content in the first place. You can then upgrade your site later on.
Many communications strategists, business blogging consultants, and PR consultants help businesses develop editorial “publishing” calendars. These are useful as they ensure you develop the right kind of content over time that will click with your target audience.
You’d be surprised how many newbie businesses want to talk design, but actually forget how they’re going to use their site and the content they’ll develop. Even if you spent 25 percent less on design and put that money into content creation, I am sure you’ll see benefit.
Do it Yourself Content Marketing
Sure, budgets are small in the early days of your business and you might not have the resources to put into design and content development to cover all your online marketing needs . If that’s the case you’re going to need to work hard to put everything together. That’s not to say it’s impossible. Like I said above, you can always go with a turnkey website plus a few tweaks here and there. Then develop your content strategy.
1) Identify Your Target Audience
There’s no point creating bundles of content whatever form it takes if you don’t know who is going to be reading, listening or watching it. What’s more, if your target audience turns out NOT to be online, you’ve just saved yourself a whole load of bother.
2) Work out the Questions or Problems Your Customers Have
Once you’ve identified your target audience, sit down with a pen and paper and jot down a list of problems your potential customers will have. Formulate these as questions. For example, I might write: “What is the best mic for podcasting?” because this is one the questions I get from listeners to my own show, The Online Marketing & Communications Podcast. Having identified this problem, I can then write an answer – a piece of content marketing – that addresses that issue.
When people Google “best microphone for podcasting” they have a good chance of finding my website. And I can see from the traffic to my site this is exactly what happens.
3) Create Content that Answers Your Customers Problems & Questions
Now you have to set about providing content that addresses your potential customers’ needs.
It’s not enough to write occasional blog posts. Nowadays because more and more small businesses and consultants get the Net, you have to push yourself to compete. Try creating video posts – because some folks prefer to watch instead of read. Try creating audio posts – because others enjoy listening, and it’s a great way of getting your content mobile.
Do this regularly, make sure your site is benefits from search engine optimization with, say, the All-in-One SEO Pack WordPress plugin, for example and slowly but surely you’ll start to be found. Especially if you start to engage on other sites like Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
Call to Actions
Finally, the other ingredient to the mix is a call to action to purchase your services or products or, perhaps more commonly for consultants, contact you.
By making sure your contact details are available across your site wherever your valuable content is made available, you’ll generate leads.
Sure, it might take time. Online content marketing is not something that literally catches fire over night for the majority of small businesses. But if you stick at it when people eventually start to find your valuable content, your sense of personality and service, the sales inquiries will come.
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