Why Run a Services Business?

I love service businesses.  Providing a professional service to individuals or corporations.

In fact, I love lots of different types of business, but there is something quite attractive about how service businesses work.

First of all, as you are providing a service, rather than delivering a product, the hardware or capital expenditure costs are often quite low compared to product businesses.  Many professional service companies really only need some computers and a few other bits and pieces to deliver their services – not forgetting, of course, the huge impact that the skills and experience of the professional staff have on delivering those services.  But the capital expenditure can be quite low.

This makes service businesses attractive for entrepreneurs with little capital who wish to start a business and the way that the business climate has changed in recent years has only made things easier – nowadays it is easy to produces a simple website, and international communication is much easier and cheaper, to give but 2 examples.

Service Businesses: Examples

There are many types of business that can be classified as professional services.  Here are just a few examples:

• Private Tutoring
• Computer Repair Services
• Website design
• Legal services
• Copywriting

Service Business Challenges

Of course there are many challenges with any business.  Challenges such as having sufficient cashflow, getting clients, finding the right providers and many others.

But let’s focus on 2 of the core challenges that service business owners face: getting clients and finding the right providers or team members to provide the services.

Depending on the industry, both of these can represent a significant obstacle.  But, from my conversations with service business owners over the years, it seems that the number 1 challenge is getting more clients.  Most business owners want to get more clients, and are interested in exploring new ways of getting those new clients.

Why Service Businesses Should Find Clients Online

Many service businesses have operated successfully for many years.

And they were around before the internet.

And they got clients through traditional advertising / word-of-mouth recommendations / cold calling and other strategies.

Other service businesses are relatively new and, in some cases, use more online strategies in order to get clients.

But, whatever your history, I would argue that finding clients online should be an essential component of your overall marketing strategy.

The reason for this is that there are a number of easy-to-implement marketing strategies that you can implement right now in order to boost your sales.  If you aren’t online, you’re leaving money on the table!

How to Get More Clients Online for Your Service Business

There are many different ways to get clients online.  From pay-per-click advertising, to social media engagement, chat software and many others.  Sometimes all of these plans and strategies can seem a bit overwhelming.  But there is a solution.

I am going to focus on a very simple plan which has brought me excellent results in different service businesses.  I am not saying that this is the best way to get new clients, but I definitely think it is a strategy worth considering.

Here it is.

Implement a 3-part strategy with the following components:

1.  Pay-per-click advertising with Google Ads

I really like using Google Ads to attract clients.  For a number of reasons.  First of all, it allows you to attract targeted potential clients – those who are actually interested in your services.

You can also target clients in a particular location, and choose keywords to make sure you are attracting potential buyers and not just those who are interested in finding out more about a particular industry.

The results are also immediate.  You can set up a Google Ads campaign today and start receiving qualified leads…..today!

2.  Content creation

The problem with Google Ads is the on-going cost, and the fact that once you stop paying, your leads stop arriving.  This is where content creation comes in a provides a perfect complement.

Content creation is a longer-term strategy.  Posting content to your site on a regular basis (every week, for example) can help you to increase traffic and brand awareness in the medium term.  Content is great – as long as you are providing the right kind of value-first content – and will enable you to increase customer engagement and ultimately to sell more.

If you do it right, and consistently over time, then you may actually get to a point where your content creation becomes much more powerful than paid traffic – it’s well worth investing in content over time.

3.  User Experience and Calls-to-Action

Some companies create great content on a regular basis, and invest in Google Ads, but when a visitor arrives to the site the user experience can be poor.

What I mean by that is that it is sometimes not clear what the visitor is supposed to do when they land on one of the site’s pages.   You should think about the action you want a client to take when they arrive at your site – do you want them to sign up for a newsletter, call you, or fill in a contact form?

After all, if a visitor arrives at your site, wanders around for a couple of minutes, takes no action and leaves, then it’s not very likely that you are going to be making the sales you hoped for.

One of the simplest and most effective calls-to-action is to simply place a button at the bottom of every post and every page, and have that button link to a contact form.   The text on the button could be “Contact Us” or “Get a Free Quote Today”, something that catches the visitor’s attention and points them in the right direction. The design of that call-to-action should stand out as well – great CTA buttons are often orange- or green-colored rounded rectangles with a short and snappy text.

Conclusions

Online marketing does not need to be complicated.

There are some simple but effective strategies out there.

Strategies that can be implemented today and help to achieve immediate results.

What are you doing for your services business online?

If you would like any help with your online strategies, get in touch with the Big Box team here.

All the best!

Paul