HELLO! Knock Knock. Wakey Wakey. New Clients Are Looking for You.

If you are going to use the Internet to try to find clients, you must first understand how new clients are going to find your business on the web. Despite what you think you may know, I recommend you begin by thinking about how potential clients are going to see your business. The only way to do that properly, is to put yourself in their shoes.

Understanding How People Search On The Web

Allow us for a minute to assume that you are in the business of helping people with Knee Pain in St Kilda. Alot of people with this new business would probably first sit down with the new website, and create content with the keywords, “Knee Pain Consultant,” or “Pain Coaching”. Those terms won’t do much for you in terms of giving your website good, targeted traffic from new potential clients.

In fact, the only people who are likely to search for those specific terms above are people like you - that have a business similar to yours. General searches performed by potential customers looking to solve a problem wont typically search for things like “coaching” or “consulting.”

To ensure you are getting good quality traffic to your website, you must begin to understand exactly how prospective customers are going to search when looking for a business such as yours. More often than not, they would search for generic phrases “knee pain,” otherwise they may be a little more specific and search for something along the lines of “knee pain help” or “treatment for knee pain.” Other potential clients will use more of a question-based approach, such as searching for “how can I reduce knee pain?” In the case of many niches, such as the knee pain example, it’s likely that potential clients will also use a geographic or regional term. They assume they’re going to need to see someone in person for treatment. So “knee pain help St Kilda” will be a common search phrase.

From Information to Solutions

Something else you need to think about in terms of how potential clients are going to find you on the web, is what stage of searching the potential client is at. Understanding whether or not the potential client is ready to buy is key to your marketing strategy.

There are several stages a person goes through before they’re ready to buy:

Identification

This is the earliest point at which a potential client can identify a need. It might be knee pain, for example. It might be a desire to make their car faster. It might be that the person wants to learn a new skill, take up a new hobby, or just improve their overall well-being. At this stage, the person isn’t usually ready to buy. They’re still feeling their way through the problem, and putting words to it.

Web searches at the identification stage tend to be information-based. The objective isn’t to solve a problem, it’s to understand the problem. At this stage, a person might search for “types of knee pain” or “knee pain symptoms,” but they aren’t as likely to search for “knee pain help.”

Clients at this stage are the least likely to buy. However, if you can hook a potential client at this stage, you may get her to come back later on when she is ready to buy. Many people never leave this stage; once they learn about the topic they want to learn about, they simply leave it alone forever. They decide that it’s not a problem they want or need to invest any more time and energy trying to solve.

Information

Once a person has identified a need or a problem, they usually set out to learn about it in-depth. They start seeking the advice of experts. This is a transitional stage, where it is more likely that they’ll buy than at the identification stage, but where most people don’t rush into anything. At this stage, web searches tend to be information-based again. However, these searches tend to focus on the other end of the need or problem: how to fix it. So here a person might search for “knee pain solutions” or “knee pain treatment options.” This is where real value-added content comes in handy on your website.

Being able to provide usable and reliable information helps to position you as an authority in your niche. Once the customer is ready to buy, they’ll remember your expertise and come back to you.

Purchase-Ready

At this point, the potential client is ready to buy. They understand the problem or need, know what can be done about it, and are ready to pay someone to get their solution. These are your best prospects, and the easiest people to convert into a sale. People who are ready to buy can get very specific in their search terms. They might search “knee pain treatment in St Kilda” or even “knee pain physiotherapist.” Their search terms indicate that they don’t just want to know about a problem or a need, but that they’re ready to fix it.

Many potential clients don’t search the web at this stage, however. During the first two stages of their web search process, they have probably identified a reliable source of information. At that point, they’re more likely to go back to that reliable source than they are to search randomly for someone else. If that authoritative source doesn’t offer a direct solution, that’s when the potential client will start their search.

Marketing Across the Stages

Effective marketing for your business will at least touch on each of these stages. While the details and specific tactics may vary from one niche to another, most will want to spend their time in the second stage. By providing useful information to potential clients, you build your image as an authority in your field. While not every client will wind up coming to you for services, many of them will. By adding real value, you create a positive experience for the client and engender a certain degree of trust. When the time comes for a solution, they’re going to come to you rather than randomly searching on Google or the Yellow Pages.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 7th, 2009 at 8:18 am and is filed under SEO & Online Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.