Maximizing your professional services firm's web presence is heavily emphasized today that everyone tries to leverage this medium in one form or another. However, it can be hard to always hit the mark for your business with all the different platforms available. Here are a few reminders of what you can do and not do to ensure the success of your online efforts.
Do set your professional services organization's online goals and objectives
First, you need to define the online marketing goals for your business. Write down what you want to achieve within a year or in any other time frame. The goals can be to increase sales from by 10 percent or to get more professionals to attend your webinars. From these goals and objectives you can develop the content optimized to achieve them.
Do create and nurture your customer database
Customers need to be appreciated whether they're new or current customers. Often, a business only cares about new customers. Once those new customers are established, they end up getting ignored later as the focus strays away from maintaining their loyalty. It's important to strengthen your online reputation by showing how much you appreciate your customers and ask for their feedback in different online outlets.
Do track visitor behavior
The behavior of your clients speaks volumes about your site. If visitors leave before the page loads completely then it means your pages need to be lighter to allow them to load faster. Also observe how your visitors access your website. Is it on phones? Computers? Considering many people access the Internet on smartphones and tablets, you may need to optimize your website for mobile.
Do paid search engine optimization
Paying for search engine optimization can improve your web presence in a way you never thought possible. The work of optimizing your site is complex and can be difficult to manage without expert guidance. The use of paid services from professionals not only frees up your time to focus on the business, but it also ensures that your site gives your clients the best experience by following the latest search engine algorithm updates.
Don't build new sites before recognizing why the old one failed
Dumping the old site to start a new one won't solve the problems with the old one if you don't know the root causes of its failure. This lets you learn from prior mistakes to prevent them from happening with the new site. Creating and sustaining trust in virtual teams, for instance, is a great practice to master before moving on to your next endeavor.
Don't use social media blindly
The use of social media as a marketing tool for your B2B business can be an effective tool. Its effectiveness, however, depends on how you engage with your followers. Social media has a lot of power including the ability to make or break your business. All the hype about social media marketing never tells you that your business image can be destroyed quickly due to a small mistake you made in social media.
Don't misuse email marketing
Studies continue to prove email marketing is the most effective marketing tool for lead generation and nurturing them until they become clients and remain your clients. Track the interests of your email subscribers and send emails based on their preferences. You can achieve this by segmenting your email lists based on the clients' preferences. Send relevant emails to each list while taking care not to send emails too often. Or else, readers will see it as spam and unsubscribe.
Final thought
These dos and don'ts may sound obvious, but even the most skilled B2B marketer can overlook simple mistakes. Remember to achieve your goals, focus on quality over quantity. From creating checklists to doing damage control, do have a game plan for every scenario that may come your way and don't be afraid to make mistakes from time to time. (Remember to learn from the mistakes to avoid repeating them.)
