There are so many ways to get attention and attract new clients for your service-based business. So how do you know which is the right one for you? As you’ve guessed from the title of this article, I’m already quite biased about the answer.
Ads, cold calling and speaking, oh my!
Radio and television ads are usually too expensive for small service-based businesses to even consider.
Google pay-per-click ads or other forms of Internet advertising can be highly targeted, but can also get expensive and complicated to manage. As well, they do nothing to develop a personalized relationship with a prospective client.
Cold calling offers a chance to connect, but can be quite intimidating and puts the service-based business owner in the position of having to sell their service. Most of us need a lot of help with our telephone sales skills.
Networking is also wonderful for building relationships, but works best if you give before you receive. Service-based business owners who don’t want to give away their services (nor should they), often get stuck in the follow-up phase, because they don’t have anything valuable to pass along to their new contacts.
Speaking, if you like it and learn to do it well, is an excellent strategy for gaining visibility and credibility, but until you build up the platform to earn large speaker fees, also requires follow-up to stay in touch with people and inform them about your other products and services.
The fortune is in the follow-up
And that’s where article marketing comes in. Whether you’re cold-calling, networking or speaking, if you have valuable content that solves a problem for your target market, you can now follow up with confidence. Instead of selling, you’re giving. Instead of creating pressure or urgency, you’re building a trusting relationship.
And if you’re not out there making the calls, meeting people, or speaking, article marketing can pick up the slack and find the prospects for you! That’s because unlike advertisements or cold calls, people are on the Internet every day actively seeking exactly what you’re giving – information.
Other benefits and applications of article marketing
Service-based business owners with a storefront business can apply exactly the same strategies, and augment by publishing a column in a community newspaper right in their neighborhood. Or enhance your article a bit for submission to a trade journal, newsletter or magazine that’s targeted to your specific audience.
Writing original content based on the very same solutions you have created to solve the problems of your target market can also help you to systemize how you deliver your services. More importantly, it gives people access to your solutions who cannot or will not ever hire you personally.
There are plenty of helpful ways to market your business, and you will be naturally more skilled at some than others. As you find the mix that works for you, please include some article marketing!
If you feel like you’re lacking the discipline, skill or structure that you need to apply the power of article marketing to grow your business, contact me to today about how I can help!