Feb
Marketing Your Location Independent Business Online: Part 1 Overcoming The Challenges
Photo by Fenchurch!
This is Part 1 of a series of posts for those of you new to marketing a business online.
To those of you who’ve been marketing your business online for years, skip this post…it’s not for you! It’s also not for you if you’re aiming to make your money purely via websites or blogs (through affiliate income etc.) – although you may find some of the information useful.
This post is for you if you are considering becoming location independent but you’re worried about how and where you’ll find customers and clients for a business that needs to be marketed 100% online…
After more than a year of being on the road and finding clients using purely online marketing tactics, we’ve learned a lot about how to attract ongoing business and market ourselves online…and we’re not talking about small business transactions either – a hundred dollars here or there – in some instances we’re selling a over a thousand dollars worth of work to clients we’ve never met and some we’ve never spoken to – except by email.
Marketing a business online poses some key challenges which you firstly need to be aware of so that you take measures to overcome them.
The kinds of challenges you face include:
- Getting yourself in front of the *right* people for your services and products.
- Convincing those people that they want/need what you’re offering them.
- Getting them to trust you enough to hand over their money to you.
But these are not unique to an online business, they’re challenges faced by any business. The additional challenge of doing all of this online means that all of the above need to be done without you ever actually meeting a prospective clients and in some cases, without ever talking to them.
So just how do you overcome these challenges? Here’s a brief guide…
Getting yourself in front of the *right* people for your services and products.
Step 1: Identify who those people are.
This is the same advice you’ll hear over and over again for any business, online or offline – identify your market and ideal clients.
Our example: We help coaches and consultants who run offline businesses but haven’t yet got themselves marketing online, know they probably should but have no idea how best to do it.
Step 2: Find out where they hang out online.
Do your research and find out where these people are online – do they read other blogs? Are they part of specific online communities (groups on Facebook, industry forums, other online networking communities)? What websites do they visit on a regular basis?
Our example: Many of our prospective clients can be found in online business networking forums, industry mailing lists and support groups or socialising in their own offline networks and communicating by email.
Step 3: Be there.
Once you know where they are, make sure you’re also there. Join the relevant forums and communities; begin to interact with them and begin building relationships. Before you start doing this, it’s advisable to have your own online presence (at the minimum a decent profile, ideally a blog and/or website), that the people you start interacting with can visit.
Our example: We’re members of the key networking groups and have been for a year or more; I have also taken the time to connect and build up relationships with key centres of influence within the industry. This hasn’t been a deliberate strategy but one which has happened organically. I’ve had some sort of blog for over a year and a range of targeted websites, that are designed specifically for our ideal visitor/client.
Convincing those people that they want or need what you’re offering them.
Step 1: Understand what they want.
Another key rule of marketing…understanding your market’s needs means you’re in a better position to provide the right solution for them – one that they do actually want and need, and not one that you just *think* they need.
As soon as you understand what your visitors are looking for, you can give it to them!
Our example: Most of our clients need more than just a logo/brand, website or blog; many of them need the added consulting and advice we can give them about how to do what they want to do in the most cost-effective way possible.
We can provide this advice, because (a) we’ve been there (b) we understand their key problems (c) we’ve found solutions that work.
Step 2: Be crystal clear on what you are offering.
Your product or service offering needs to be very clear and defined if you’re solely marketing it online. It’s obviously less than ideal if you’re offering something that requires an in-person demo or an in-depth presentation just to explain what it is.
Similarly, no matter how simple or easy you think it is to understand what you offer, have someone else read the description on your website/blog to see if they understand what it is you’re offering.
Our example: We’re constantly refining what we offer based upon the needs of our market; once we understand their key problems, we can provide the ideal solutions to help them and use language they’ll understand.
Step 3: Provide all the relevant information they need
The chances are high that your offering won’t be the only one a visitor considers before they make their buying decision. As they’re likely to have a choice, you need to make your case for being the ideal option as clearly as possible – online. You may only get one chance.
You do this by providing all the information (including prices or ballpark figures) that a visitor might need on your blog/website.
Why? For two main reasons:
- To ensure the visitor has all the information they need to make an initial decision (that’s why you include the prices) – and either ruling themselves out or expressing further interest (probably by emailing you), identifying them as a “serious” prospect rather than a time-waster.
- To cut down the amount of time you have to spend responding to the same sorts of queries by email or phone call.
Our example: If you check out one of our business websites, you’ll notice we have prices on there for virtually everything. This cuts down the requests for custom quotes (although we still get these) and enables visitors to instantly figure out whether what we offer is in their ballpark.
Getting them to trust you enough to hand over their money to you.
Step 1: Give them a way to get to know you and hopefully like you
This is where a blog comes in. Your blog can convey your personality far more effectively and accurately than a static website. Writing on it regularly, in a way that is useful but also conveys your personality is one of the most effective ways I know to market what you do.
You can also back this up with the occasional or regular teleseminar, podcast or videocast (so they can hear your voice and see you).
Our example: I write on several blogs – this one, my personal one, Freelance Switch, Vagablogging and a number of other now-defunct blogs which all give people a way to get to know me. At the beginning, I used to hold group teleseminars but no longer do this.
Step 2: Give them a way to begin to trust you
Providing quality and valuable advice via your blog, ezine, podcast, videocast or whatever is a vital tactic to help people begin to trust you.
The manner in which you conduct yourself online also says an awful lot about you – even when you’re not aware of it. Do you respond to emails/networking messages in a timely and courteous manner? Do you use correct spelling and grammar? Do you use appropriate and professional language?
Our example: I have my own personal, informal Rules of Online Conduct which are:
- My overriding aim for all my blogs (even my personal one) is to provide information and posts that provide value and positivity.
- I aim to respond to all business/prospect emails within 48 hours and all *serious* emails (i.e. not just someone wanting something for nothing) within 5 days.
- For online networking interactions, I aim to demonstrate added value rather than overtly sell myself (that’s my way of selling myself).
To bring this post to a close, I’d like you to consider this…if you were to purchase from me or anyone else online, what would you need to hear, read, see and feel in order to be confident enough to hand over your money to me?
Once you’ve answered that, make sure you’re doing it for your business!
In part 2 of this series, I’ll be summarising the key tools available to you to help you market your business online. Why not subscribe to the blog, so you don’t miss the post?
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- Pingback by Traveling & Remote Working As A Couple. | Bizlift Blog on March 16, 2008 @ 8:25 pm
Really useful post, thanks but one thing I struggle to see is how people will trust me enough to pay me anything without ever meeting me and what if I don’t have a blog?
Hi Sarah – good question…if you don’t / won’t /can’t blog then you will need to find another way to provide prospects with a way to get to know, like and then trust you. Perhaps you could try teleseminars or free consultations as a way of at least speaking to interested prospects. If you do go that way, aim to make these as “non salesy” as possible so people aren’t put off thinking they’re just going to be faced with a sales pitch.
You might also want to focus on generating referred business – word of mouth and recommendations from people they trust is a great way to overcome the trust thing, especially if you can’t be there to convince people yourself.
BTW – What are you selling? What’s your business?
Hi Really fascinating reading your website -I really envy you travelling the world and would love to even have the freedom to take off occassionally while running an online business. I’m just having a website built for my new online business which is relocation coaching -supportin those who relocate and find themselves needing to talk thingd through and needing to quickly settle in to a new environment. Do you have any ideas for me as to how to find companies who relocate employees but don’t already offer relocation coaching through their HR departments? I don’t want to waste time where companies either have departments with coaches supporting employees, or are too small and don’t relocate employees? Thanks Bebe -and lots of luck to you -and maybe we’ll meet up one day the other side of the world?
I have just found your site today and wanted to comment–and decided that this was a good post to start with. Basically, content is king in having people / potential clients feel that they can get to know you. Your site is a great example!