Professional
services companies provide their clients with specialists (for example,
lawyers, engineers, auditors, architects, doctors and so on) whose
occupational training and knowledge makes them an authority in their
given fields.
As
a professional service provider, in order to market your niche
capabilities in a crowded market, you need to differentiate yourself
from the hundreds of similar service providers. One guaranteed way of
making your business stand out in a crowd is to use the Inbound Marketing approach.
Inbound marketing
is an efficient marketing approach by which you can attract visitors to
your website, gather leads and develop prospects, by distributing
informative content through websites and other digital channels, rather
than making cold calls and following uninterested parties.
Inbound
marketing can get you valuable contacts that can be then nurtured into
potential clients and eventually to loyal brand advocates of your
business.
Here is a short list of some of the main ways how inbound marketing can be of help to you:
1. Create relevant, and useful content for your (potential) customer:
Make your
website a powerful medium of showcasing your company’s subject matter
expertise, rather than just a place to list your functions and your
contact address. Publishing latest and in-depth information about
trending topics in your field on your website will establish your
company as a thought leader and give prospective customers a taste of
what they will get if they engage your services.
2. Make your website “discoverable”:
Research
shows that when a potential client needs a service, he will most likely
first run an online search. Now, if you have a well-designed,
well-written website that has been (search engine) optimized to show up
prominently in searches, the chances of your business being discovered
by the customer increases exponentially. Inbound marketing experts use
(SEO) tools that can make your website content more easily ‘searchable’
by search engines, and thus get the attention of the customer in the
critical ‘research’ stage of the buying journey.
3. Use your website to convert leads:When
prospects reach your website and have access to valuable information,
they should be encouraged to share their contact information for further
follow up via landing pages, which should have compelling design as
well as engaging content. This information can be used by sales teams to
engage them and solve their pain points, thus establishing brand trust
and developing a relationship with the customer.
4. Unleash the Social Media effect:
Rather than
keeping your powerful content restricted to your website, make sure to
place it where your prospects are most likely to be looking for it. For
example, post educational guest posts on popular blogs in your area of
expertise; use relevant forums to talk about and highlight your
company’s speciality and skill sets; and post topical information in
popular social media channels to keep your brand name visibility high.
The Key Factor:
Remember, the one thing that a
prospective customer looks for in a professional service provider is
TRUST. And the best way to project trustworthiness of your professional
services is to provide a wide variety of thoughtful, meaningful and
relatable content that is outstanding in quality, e.g. white papers,
blog posts, videos, webinars, eBooks, podcasts. The content in these
should exhibit your superiority in whatever you do.
Inbound marketing is the smartest and most effective way for professional services providers to attract, convert and maintain a relationship with their customers.
To know more about the advantages of inbound marketing, contact us at www.digitant.com
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