Leaders,
You plan to start you own business? – Great. Congratulations! You have a bunch of ideas, already a business plan and you are just about to start? Perfect! Have you thought about how your prospect clients will find you amongst the many different other services and products out there? No?! Ok, then your time is worthwhile reading this article, because even the best ideas will not make any money, if nobody knows about them.
First of all, you can only get visible in Google, YouTube or other search engines, if you provide good content (or invest money in advertisement like Google AdWords)! Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not anymore about being ranked for any keyword you want. Google shows results based on what is best for the user. The question is, what exactly is that?
Think about your own search behavior, e.g. when you want to buy a new TV, and you google something like “best TV”. You will find tests of different TVs, pricings, and contrasts of different benefits. This is what most people want to find, a comparison between different products or providers, not a single provider, which will of course tell you that this product is the best ever.
How to Find out What your Clients Want to Read:
When you think about your clients, think about what content you can provide for them that would be of benefit to them. Here’s how you can approach this:
- Think about potential problems your clients can solve with your product or service
- Think about typical situations your clients are in, when they use your product or service
- Think about which feelings your clients have before or after using your service/product
- Think about topics that relate to your business
- Ask colleagues and friends what they would search for when they wanted to find your service or product
Write all the answers and ideas down. After you have identified aspects, benefits and topics that relate to your service and product, the next step is to find out, if you and your clients speak the same language. You can do this in three steps:
- Use the Google Keyword-Tool. You can use it for free, and it shows you the search numbers for different terms and keywords. With this tool, you can identify, if your clients and you are using the same words.
- Use the keywordtool.io to find out in which context the terms and keywords you identified are searched by users
- Type the terms into the google engine and scroll through the results, what do you see? Companies, news pages? At this point you ask yourself, if it is possible to get on the first Google results page? No? Then try it with another keyword or term, or try Google AdWords. If the answer to the question is yes, then you should try to provide content around the terms and keywords you identified.
What is Good Content?
Content is good, when it provides your readers with a benefit, with information, with answers to their questions. Content that is pure advertisement has practically no chance to be ranked within the organic search. Think about what you – personally – would want to read! Good content is written for human beings not for Google. Please check if the relevant keywords are in your text, but do not overdo it. Google is very good at identifying keyword spam.
There are many ways of getting in touch with your prospect clients, for example, via referral, being recommended or word of mouth (WOM). Online-Marketing is one vehicle. Its relevance and effectiveness strongly depend on your target groups and products or services. Nevertheless, thinking about the value and benefits of your services and products is always helpful when you start your own business, with or without a focus on Online-Marketing.
Annette and I set up the Inspired Executives website to present the topics Annette covers as well as to position her as an expert in those fields. In her people-oriented business, however, recommendations are the predominant way of getting new clients. Both, Annette and I, provide services to start-up companies.
Contact me if you feel you would benefit from a consultation on online-marketing, especially if you are about to start your own venture. And reach out to Annette if you want your overall business plan to be challenged or if you need support in telling the story of your business.
