how to market your services
TRANSCRIPT
How to Market Your Services
Prepared by:www.almondsolutions.com
1. Prepare a mission statementThe mission includes a description of (usually in a few sentences):
• Nature of the business• Services offered• Markets served
2. List and describe target or niche markets
Step 1: Create a marketing plan
List and describe potential groups of
users or clients
Identify various segments of a market
Type 1: Specific types of people in a company.
for example, chief executive officer, chief financial officer, or marketing director
Type 2: Department heads.
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3. Describe your servicesDetermine what it will take to provide your services in terms of staff, expertise, and costs.
4. Spell out marketing and promotional strategiesMarketing strategy is the goal of increasing sales and achieving a sustainable competitive
advantage - Detailed information will be covered in step 2.
5. Identify and understand the competitionYou can compete based on:
• Value• Price• Product or service• Or some combination of these
Step 1: Create a marketing plan
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Tools to Research Your Competition
1. Alexa
Alexa's been around since 1996. It's a (mostly) free service that will help you analyze traffic on your competitor’s ecommerce store. Type in your competitors URL and Alexa will give you their global traffic rank, number of sites linking in, search analytics, audience insight, average site load time, and a whole lot more. You can really dig deep with Alexa, but it's important to note that there are inaccuracies with Alexa's information, since they get their data from those who have installed their toolbar for IE and Firefox or installed their Google Chrome extension. Take the numbers with a grain of salt.
Step 1: Create a marketing plan
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2. Google AdWords Keyword Tool
This service will allow you to easily analyze keywords and the amount of traffic generated by those keywords. It also allows you to narrow down your search by including URLs and specific categories, such as apparel, cosmetics, or whatever. You can use Google AdWords Keyword Tool to estimate how much your competition is paying per click for their ads. Also, you should use Google Traffic Estimator to find out the number of ad clicks and current bid prices for various keywords.
Step 1: Create a marketing plan
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3. SpyFu (www.spyfu.com)
This is a paid service ($79/month) that lets you spy on your competitor's AdWords and keywords. SpyFu really lets you dig deep. You'll be able to see what worked and what didn't work for your competitors AdWords campaigns. When you can trace the steps of your competition, you can avoid the mistakes they made.. it's like they're doing market testing for you.
4. Open Site Explorer (www.opensiteexplorer.org)
This service has a limited free plan and a paid service that is $99/month. Here you can compare your online store with up to four competitors on page authority, domain authority, linking root domains, total links, and with the pro version, you can also compare social stats.
5. Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts)
With this free service from Google, you can receive email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your queries. You should already have Google Alerts set up for your online store name, but it's important to set up alerts for your competition as well.
Step 1: Create a marketing plan
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6. Establish marketing goals that are quantifiableMarketing goals can include:
1. Setting the number of new clients you would like to acquire.
2. Setting the number of people you would like to reach.
3. Setting the amount of income you would like to generate.
Things to be considered for implementing and integrating your goals into your marketing plan effectively:
1. Skills
2. Resources
3. Budget
Step 1: Create a marketing plan
Prepared by:www.almondsolutions.com
7. Monitor your results carefullyThis can be done by:
1. Tracking and evaluating customers’ responses to each marketing strategy.
2. Surveying or interviewing regular users for comments about why they find a service important.
3. Meeting with clients for detailed feedback and ask them for ideas and suggestions.
Step 1: Create a marketing plan
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Regardless of your company's product or service, a strong set of promotional strategies can help position your company in a favorable light with not only current customers but new ones as well.
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Step 2: Promotional Strategies
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On-Page SEO
Website Content
Page Title
Meta Tags
301 RedirectALT
Name
Page Load Time
URLRewritin
g
Sitemap
Flash
404 Errors
Step 2: Promotional Strategies
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Off-Page SEO
Blogging
Forum Marketin
g
Directory
Submission
Social Bookmar
kingPhoto Sharing
Video Marketin
g
Business Reviews
Local Listings
Article Submissi
ons
Social Media
2. Social Media
Personal profiles: Are designed for people to connect with friends and family.
Group: Is ideal for small communities of people who share a similar interest.
Page: Are created to promote your business.
Step 2: Promotional Strategies
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Twitter FB Page g+ Page In Page
FB Group g+ Group In Group
3. PPC Advertising
Step 2: Promotional Strategies
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Google AdWords
Facebook Advertising
Bing Ads
4. Email Marketing
Step 2: Promotional Strategies
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