Want to know how to to get more clients via Internet marketing? Professionals in all industries can benefit greatly from implementing quick and easy Internet marketing and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ? you don?t even need any technical or Web experience to get started.
So long as you put a little bit of effort into your website or blog on a regular basis, you can build a thriving practice ? with customers coming to you, rather than you having to pay for advertising to attract them.
The nice thing about Internet marketing and SEO for professionals is that it is ?localized?. You can only treat patients who are close enough to commute to your offices, or represent clients in your city, so there is no point wasting marketing resources trying to compete in other states or geographical areas.
Why professionals should bother with Internet marketing & SEO
Regardless of whether your are a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or any other type of professional, a website or blog is critical to your practice. Whether or not you believe that a defense attorney needs Twitter followers, or a doctor needs to update her blog regularly, the fact of the matter is this:
?People find the information they need online!?
Professionals benefit from localized SEO & marketing
According to Google, the vast majority of searches are local. In other words, people are searching for products and services in their neighborhood, town or state. So if you don?t make sure that your website or blog is visible online, new clients and customers will go to competitors who do.
And yes, you?re very busy and rarely have time to mess around with blogs and websites. But, the suggestions I make here are pretty easy to implement, and shouldn?t be too time consuming (especially when compared to the potential rewards).
Internet marketing & SEO can easily be outsourced
To save time, you can always contract a professional Internet marketing and SEO consultant or company to plan and implement a great marketing and SEO strategy, tailored for your practice.
Check out this article entitled ?10 step assessment: How to hire an SEO consultant or Internet marketing company for your business? for more information on what to look for.
The top five Internet marketing & SEO tips for professionals
Each of the tips and techniques discussed in this list are chosen to give your practice the maximum ROI (Return on Investment) with the lowest input of time, effort and expense.
It?s not a comprehensive list, and if you want to get serious about driving traffic and converting visitors into paying clients, then you should consider hiring a professional Internet marketing and SEO expert.
1. Start a blog
Great content is the basis for any Internet marketing and SEO campaign. Without it, there is nothing for search engines to index, nothing for potential clients to read, nothing for people to share on the social networks, nothing for other sites to reference, nothing for people to discuss in forums, nothing for journalists and reporters to write about, and so on.
Blogging for professionals should:
- show off your knowledge
- discuss successful projects
- demonstrate your expertise
- be relevant specifically to your clients
- be targeted at potential clients in your catchment area
In other words, blog about what you know, what you do, and make the blog relevant to the people who you are trying to attract as clients. Talk about your projects and experiences in your locality.
If you don?t have a blog, the easiest way to get started is by using WordPress. WordPress is free and super easy to use.
You might also want to check out the following articles that will teach you more about blogging, and making money from blogging:
2. Get listed in Google places
Lots of people search on Google. Most searches are localized. Google places allows you to list your business or practice for free. Listed businesses show up in searches in their locality. Do the math?
To list your business or practice in Google places:
- Go to Google Places for Business
- Fill out your listing ? include contact information, pictures, promotions, updates, and any other information you feel is relevant
Now, when people search your locality for topics related to your practice, this listing will show up in the results, increasing your chances of being discovered.
3. SEO
The term SEO is so broad that it vaguely applies to any activity design to ?drive traffic and convert it?.
In terms of the type of SEO activities that are most applicable to a blog or site designed to provide essential information about a professional practice and its associated products and services, I would say:
- Analyze the most important keywords and phrases that people might use when searching for your practice
- Include important keywords and phrases in blog and page headings, as well as the first paragraph
- Ensure that you have analytics installed ? Google analytics is an excellent, free analytics service
- Use analytics to ascertain where traffic comes from, which articles and content are the most popular, and what people are doing while they are on your site
- Refine your content, marketing and website to maximize conversions
A conversion could be anything from phoning your offices (by accessing the number on your contact page), emailing an inquiry, purchasing a product or service, signing up for a newsletter, and so on.
The basic goal of SEO is:
- Drive more traffic to your website or blog
- Maximize the rate of conversion
- Repeat steps 1 and 2 indefinitely
You?ll also benefit from reading the following articles on SEO and its implementation:
4. Guest blogs & articles
?Authority? is one of the most important aspects of converting new clients via Internet marketing. If a potential client reads an article written by an expert, that demonstrates deep understanding and insight in that particular field, it is likely that they will perceive the author as an authority on that subject.
?With authority comes trust, and with trust comes new business. ?
On a regular basis, sit down and write an expert article for a leading niche news or blog site in your field of expertise ? you might even consider writing a column for a local newspaper.
By demonstrating your authority on a regular basis, in content that is published on quality sites, you build up a reputation as an expert in your field. People are predisposed to approaching the people they consider to be the ?best? in their field.
Always make sure you have an author credit with a link back to your own blog or website in the author byline or signature. Without this, there is no easy way for potential clients to contact you.
It is also important for SEO, as it helps to build up your own site?s authority and PageRank, which in turn helps it to appear higher up in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
5. Social media
Professionals, like entrepreneurs, startups, small business and large corporates, can benefit greatly from using social networks to drive potential customers to your website or blog.
How you go about implementing an effective social marketing strategy really depends on your business objectives and niche market. Professionals should, at the very least, join LinkedIn, fill out the profile section completely, and sign up and contribute to relevant industry groups.
Twitter is also a good social platform for professionals to share information and news, and gain a following of other industry leaders and potential clients.
While it can be a long and time consuming ordeal to build up a strong social media presence, it is worth being active in this sphere simply for the ability to connect with new people very easily.
Often potential business partners respond far quicker and easier to a Twitter message than they would to an unsolicited email. LinkedIn offers InMail, which they guarantee will illicit a response ? or they give you additional InMail credits.
Check out the following articles on social media marketing:
If you?ve had success (or failure) in marketing your professional practice, share with us here or join the conversation on LinkedIn or Twitter.
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