Professionals Need to Adopt New Marketing Strategies to Attract More Clients

Every professional that I speak with will claim that they get most of their new business clients through referrals from happy customers.  This is nothing new.  Word of mouth advertising still works even in this digital age of social media and the internet.  People will trust the recommendations from their friends and acquaintances and a trusted referral will most likely produce a phone call or a visit. 

There is one thing that has changed over the past few years when it comes to word of mouth referrals.  The change is a shift in the power of the consumer.  In the past, when a friend recommended a business or professional to me, I trusted his word but I had no way of conveniently conducting my own research as a consumer. While my friend is happy with the company he referred, it does not guarantee I will be as happy.  I may be looking for something special or unique.  How could I ensure that the referral given to me would be one that would satisfy my specific needs?  The internet has now changed this. 

As a consumer, I now can conduct my own research whenever and wherever I want by simply adding the professional's name or business name into Google on my computer, laptop, tablet or smart phone. From my search results, I can usually find the website, blog posts, other directory listings, reviews, testimonials and volumes of other information on that individual or business.  In reality, I have all the information at my finger tips to make an informed decision. 

Now many professionals are heavily investing in their websites, SEO, Pay-per-Click advertising (PPC), banner ads, pop-up ads, retargeted ads and other forms of online promotion.  Here lies the challenge.  As consumers, we have become experts at filtering out the advertising noise on radio, newspapers, TV and now the internet.  We delete advertising as soon as possible when it appears on our screens.  For Pay-per-Click ads, consumers automatically discount the top and right side of the Google search results knowing that this is advertising.  Pop-up ads can annoy and most often irritate the consumer to a point that they will avoid that brand.  What we want as consumers is information to make a wise decision.  Some professionals are leading the way and providing good content that will help me make a good decision.  There are some professionals that are still stuck in the mindset of a decade ago. 

For those professionals, it is no longer enough to invest in advertising and a nice flashy website.  Professionals need to elevate their professional stature as an expert in their field or at least more of an expert than their competition.  To accomplish this, then need to educate their potential clients.  In this age of information, a professional's expertise can be easily published online and also re-purposed into different formats so the potential clients can consume this information in the format that they find most appropriate. 

To accomplish this, it requires careful thought on an effective online marketing strategy and then execution of that strategy.  A properly thought out campaign will create new content and information,  optimize the content to be easily found online and link or mesh this new content with the online properties such as the professional's website, social media and Web 2.0 properties.  The strategy a professional adopts will depend on their client's needs and habits, the types of services and products provided and what their competition is doing.   

If you are a professional and want to see how you look to your potential clients, search for your name and for the name of your practice in Google.  Look at the results that show on the first page.  Is the information accurate, informative and current?  Is there regular activity on your social media properties?  Are there positive reviews and testimonials about you and your products and services? 

Next conduct the same exercise with your competitor. What shows up for them? If you were to compare your results with theirs, who would you select to do business with? Your potential clients may or may not be searching online for products or services you provide. At least not yet. I will guarantee they will use the internet to research you and your company when they are thinking about doing business with you.

As a professional, how do you come across online?  Are you an expert in your field or just another professional?