Summary: Every
independent professional should have a web site, an ezine, and an email marketing
strategy, right? If you're not taking maximum advantage of web technology to market your
professional services, you are behind the times, and missing out on huge opportunities.
Every independent professional should have a web site, an
ezine, and an email marketing strategy, right? If you're not taking maximum advantage of
web technology to market your professional services, you are behind the times, and missing
out on huge opportunities. At least that's what most marketing experts would have you
believe. But how valid is this advice? And is it for everyone?
Before email was widely available, marketing newsletters
were printed on paper and sent by mail. There's no question that e-mail is a more
economical solution for sending a newsletter. Instead of being able to afford only a few
hundred newsletters at a cost of $1 or more each, you can send tens of thousands for only
pennies.
With an ezine, technology can save you money and allow you
to extend your marketing reach. This is one of the many ways that web technology can be
your friend. Here are some others:
- A web site can attract new customers to
your business from across the street or far outside your local area. If your site has high
rankings in the search engines under appropriate categories, or many links from keywords
prospective clients might search for, you may get dozens of inquiries from people who
otherwise would never hear of you.
- Using email autoresponders can help you
automate your follow-up with likely prospects. Just subscribe a prospect to an
autoresponder list once, then send periodic broadcasts to the whole list, encouraging
prospects to hire you or attend your learning programs.
- Participating in online discussion lists and
message boards can allow you to network with a large group of people in your
target market without leaving your home or office. Appearing on live chats or
"webinars" permits you to be a public speaker without the time and expense of
travel, and speak to national or global audiences.
For these reasons and more, it appears that using web
technology is an affordable way to reach prospective clients easily. You can potentially
attract larger numbers of prospects for fewer dollars than with many more traditional
methods of outreach. But there are pitfalls.
Broadcast email can be an efficient solution for following
up with prospects who already know about you. But it's a terrible way to introduce
yourself to a prospect for the first time. Far too many coaches, consultants, trainers,
and other professionals add subscribers to their ezine or autoresponder lists without
their permission. Not only is this ineffective as a marketing strategy since most readers
simply delete e-mail from people they don't recognize, but it can seriously backfire when
someone is offended by your unsolicited mail.
Here are some other ways that using technology in
marketing can become your foe:
- Technology makes it easy to hide. When
you have a web presence, an ezine, and use e-mail autoresponders to contact your
customers, you may think there's no reason to contact them in person. You may feel
justified in not picking up the phone, attending a business event, or suggesting a lunch
date if you think your technology is doing the job for you. But a web site or e-mail isn't
an equal substitute for a prospect hearing your voice or seeing your face. It's pretty
rare for someone to hire a professional without talking to him or her first, so if you put
off the talking, you may also be putting off the hiring.
- Launching and maintaining an attractive and
useful website, and achieving high search engine rankings for it, can be an expensive and
time-consuming project. Unless you pay close attention to your budget, you can
easily find yourself spending much more to land each client than you would ever pay using
offline marketing methods. A high-traffic web site is a valuable resource for a business
that can take advantage of a global presence or a large volume of new clients. But if your
business is primarily local or you only need a few new clients each year, you may end up
paying for a level of visibility you don't really need.
- Too many inquiries from the web can waste your
time. Anonymous visitors to your site will often email to ask about prices and
other details. These inquiries are completely unqualified -- you don't know anything about
the people who are writing. If you take the time for a thorough reply to each one, they
can consume a significant amount of energy. On the web as well as off, prospects who are
referred to you by people who know your work are much more likely to hire you than those
who find you by accident. If that's so, perhaps it makes sense to put more effort into
building referrals than into building a broader web presence.
Web technology is really no different than any other method
of marketing your services in that you must judge the appropriateness of each strategy for
your unique circumstances. If you find writing to be a chore, perhaps a regular ezine is
not the best choice for you. If you only need a few large, local clients each year, you
may want a web site for prospects to explore after you contact them, but not spend your
money on web directory listings or search engine optimization. Autoresponder reminders may
be effective to increase enrollment in public workshops, but not such a good idea to sell
in-house training to corporations.
Just because a strategy is the latest and greatest doesn't
mean it's the best. Publishing a blog may be terrific if your target market spends a lot
of time online, but not so good to reach those who rarely open their browser. Webinars can
be an effective tool for attracting high-tech or corporate clients, but not for home
business owners or consumers who operate older, slower computers with dial-up Internet
access.
Relying completely on technology to bring in clients can
also give you a false sense of productivity. When you are writing copy for your web site
or setting up autoresponders, you feel like you are taking action about marketing. And
these activities can be important behind the scenes steps, but you shouldn't confuse them
with direct outreach to prospective clients. Web copy won't make any sales until people
see it, and autoresponders will have no effect until people are subscribed to them.
Web technology provides just another set of marketing
tools, not a complete solution. Using every marketing tool the web has to offer is not a
requirement of doing business. The purpose of your marketing should be to bring you enough
clients to earn the level of profit you desire. When marketing technology adds to your
bottom line, it's worth employing. When it doesn't, there's no reason to use it. |
