Do you already have an established professional practice but want to grow your business? An excellent opportunity that you can take advantage of to achieve this is to use the internet. Currently, there are many businesses on the internet but most sell or distribute products, they are virtual stores, etc. The real challenge is how to put your professional services business on the internet and that, in addition to being profitable, continue to stay like this: professional.
As I already told you in the previous articles in this series, today all businesses must have a presence on the internet, but promoting yourself on the internet (having a website, having profiles on social networks, etc.) is definitely not the same as having an online business. An online business not only requires promotion and advertising on the internet, but also implies that you attract potential customers, educate your community and provide your services online (through various tools using the internet).
In this way, you can realize that the internet is a very powerful tool and a communication channel that is a shame to waste. Think about the following… What do you do today when you want to know something? You google it…
Why is the Internet a powerful tool?
Now I want to tell you why I consider the Internet to be a very powerful tool. These are just some of the advantages you have when using the internet to offer your professional services:
- It positions you as an expert It brings you prospects even while you sleep It allows you to increase your credibility and trajectory being able to work with people in different parts of the world (diverse cultures, diverse problems) It allows you not to tie yourself to a particular economy It helps you connect with other experts to make collaborative alliances and grow your business It allows you to automate many tasks, to reach more customers with less effort
I imagine that you will be excited to learn then, how to start your online business and offer your professional services online, right? So here I leave you the answer to how to do it in 3 steps if you already have an established professional practice.
Step number 1 - Define the cornerstone of your business
This cornerstone or foundation of your business is the answer to three questions: Who? How? And for what? If you're missing this cornerstone, it's like wanting to build your house on quicksand. No matter how strong the structure is, the foundations are too weak. So, do this exercise with me:
Who? - Define at this point who will be your ideal client. But to get it right, you have to think about who will best benefit from your professional services, your talents, your experience.
How? - At this point the important thing is to define what is the service that will focus all your experience, your talent and thus solve the need that your client has. An inadequate service will give your client the feeling that you don't know what they really need.
For what? - Answer the question of "why" your ideal customer needs your services and you will find what their purchase motivator is. It is essential that your client needs your help, because otherwise, no matter how fantastic your offer and very interesting, they will not buy it, because they do not have the urgency and need to do so.
Step number 2 - Design a marketing strategy that allows you to position yourself as an expert professional
Why do you need to show yourself as an expert? It is simple, the expert sells more, has more credibility and reputation in the market. Ask yourself in your day to day, who would you prefer to give you legal or medical advice. You will always prefer that he is the most expert in his field (in addition to other factors that I will not deny, such as being a person with whom you can have a special harmony and feel that he understands what is happening to you).
So in this step what you should do is choose what means you will use to show your knowledge, expertise and background, and how you will do it. You can publish case studies, success stories, you can give free lectures, write books or ebooks (electronic books), package your services in online courses, write a blog, have an interview column, a radio program or even a TV show. online tv. Any of these options will help you at this point, so to make a better choice, find the one that is the most "economical" for you. When I speak of economics, I am not only referring to money, but also to time, one of the scarcest resources of professionals when they start.
Also what will position you as an expert is promotion and advertising, so let's go to the next level:
Step number 3 - Design your advertising and promotion strategy
Without a promotion and advertising plan, you will not attract customers and without customers, you have no sales. And you already know that without sales you don't have a business. In addition, you must work in an orderly and consistent way for advertising to be effective and have financially measurable results. So you must have a plan, you cannot be improvising. This will help you to do attraction marketing and conversion marketing.
You can use all the aforementioned options because the objective of promotion and advertising is to show what you do, who you are and why you are the best to solve certain problems or achieve certain results. So everything you do in your "expert marketing" will serve to attract potential customers.
Now, what are the most appropriate channels on the large internet platform? There are hundreds of tools you can use, but to get started, you have to keep it simple. Start by having a website. Many say that it is not necessary, and it really is not, but it is very simple and inexpensive to have one and it has enormous potential. Continue for a correct and strategic use of social networks (nothing to waste time for hours and do not feel that you should be everywhere) and improve your networking skills in these media.
These three basic strategies will help you to correctly implement your online business and thus be able to use this extremely powerful modern tool to promote, position and communicate your professional services on the internet.
