Growing My Buisness

[Dolmaa]

I have a website making business but my customers are all locals that I have been acquiring through word of mouth, local classifieds, low budget ads/billboards. I've wanted to expand to getting customers online so I have created a few social media accounts to get things started and for the past 3 months I have been mainly focusing on Instagram and I have even hired a marketer to increase the page's following ( which has not been working very well).

The results have been very poor so far, I have only acquired 1 customer in the last 3 months through social media which surprised me at first since my conversion method seems to work very well with customers locally and I cant reveal the conversion method, its basically the secret sauce of the business but clearly my inexperience with online marketing/customer acquisition has produced these poor results. So I turn to BHW to see if anyone can offer any advice or insight on what I am doing wrong or how to get more leads online.

thank you

 

[Daddykins]

Wouldn't be able to provide much help without knowing the niche. Some do well in social media, some do not.

The four things I think it's important to cover is 1) reviews, 2) where your site and Yelp page listings rank, and 3) active social media accounts, and 4) referrals

You could hire an SEO to help you, but if you want to learn, there's a lot of guides on here. You should see what keywords your competitors are ranking for and volume metrics. Rank your site for these.

Get your business listed on all listing sites. Yelp, yellowpages, Google places, etc.

Build tons of reviews to these (your choice, blackhat, or legit). Setup a review funnel. Google "dentists miami", the first site is a Yelp page. See if it's similar to your main keywords. The reviews will help you appear as #1 on Yelp, or whatever listing site is #1. Reviews are also HUGE for social proof. And will convert buyers if they're thinking about purchasing from you.

Social media can be beneficial. Depends on your niche. You can do direct marketing through it, or just use it as social proof. Social proof is great. When people look your business up, they'll see active accounts and (hopefully) a good following. You can choose to buy followers if you want. Only do it for social proof, not if you're doing direct marketing. A few active social media accounts with 3k followers and 100-200 likes per posts on a local business makes it stand out more. Good social proof for your business.


For referrals, not sure if your niche would be good or not, but you could offer discounts to your current clients. Get 25% off your next purchase if you refer me a customer. Or bring 5 people in and get a free X. Seems most of your clients are by word of mouth already, so that's good. Means you have a good service.

So basically, hire a SEO for your site. Get reviews to your listings, and be active on social media for social proof. Or do Facebook ads if your niche is good for it.

 

[blackbeans]

The best source of NEW business is your Existing CUSTOMER BASE

Think of ways to EXCITE your existing customers to refer new customers to you

Maybe give them a discount?

Maybe give them a free gift?

 

[Dolmaa]

Wouldn't be able to provide much help without knowing the niche. Some do well in social media, some do not.

The four things I think it's important to cover is 1) reviews, 2) where your site and Yelp page listings rank, and 3) active social media accounts, and 4) referrals

You could hire an SEO to help you, but if you want to learn, there's a lot of guides on here. You should see what keywords your competitors are ranking for and volume metrics. Rank your site for these.

Get your business listed on all listing sites. Yelp, yellowpages, Google places, etc.

Build tons of reviews to these (your choice, blackhat, or legit). Setup a review funnel. Google "dentists miami", the first site is a Yelp page. See if it's similar to your main keywords. The reviews will help you appear as #1 on Yelp, or whatever listing site is #1. Reviews are also HUGE for social proof. And will convert buyers if they're thinking about purchasing from you.

Social media can be beneficial. Depends on your niche. You can do direct marketing through it, or just use it as social proof. Social proof is great. When people look your business up, they'll see active accounts and (hopefully) a good following. You can choose to buy followers if you want. Only do it for social proof, not if you're doing direct marketing. A few active social media accounts with 3k followers and 100-200 likes per posts on a local business makes it stand out more. Good social proof for your business.


For referrals, not sure if your niche would be good or not, but you could offer discounts to your current clients. Get 25% off your next purchase if you refer me a customer. Or bring 5 people in and get a free X. Seems most of your clients are by word of mouth already, so that's good. Means you have a good service.

So basically, hire a SEO for your site. Get reviews to your listings, and be active on social media for social proof. Or do Facebook ads if your niche is good for it.

Thank you for your insight! I currently do not have a website for my business I just show my potential customers my portfolio through social proof like you said or direct links. I wanted to at least start through social media as my first footing into the online market, especially after seeing how so many people grow their business and reach an insane amount of customers compared to traditional methods.

My current strategy is to target real estate agents, fitness trainers, dental hygienists and basically anyone that I believe would benefit from a website or blog to start In most cases I would even offer it for them for free just get my name out there or get referrals out of it like you mentioned but I am still having trouble convincing them which is whats kinda of confusing me as to why wouldn't you want a free site? what do you have to lose especially if you are looking for a website to be made?

The best source of NEW business is your Existing CUSTOMER BASE

Think of ways to EXCITE your existing customers to refer new customers to you

Maybe give them a discount?

Maybe give them a free gift?

I do offer them free websites to be made and other goodies but still I want to have that online reach especially since I see how so many people use it to grow their business exponentially I just do not know how to do it and clearly the marketer I hired doesn't either..

 

[Lucas.ras]

Seems like you're not showing your value by offering free sites, I mean, what could you expect from a total random who offered you something for free?

Value yourself man, charge them and charge them hard! You need to show that your time isn't cheap.

 

[Dolmaa]

Seems like you're not showing your value by offering free sites, I mean, what could you expect from a total random who offered you something for free?

Value yourself man, charge them and charge them hard! You need to show that your time isn't cheap.

I love that hahah

all seriousness though I do charge people a very good amount depending on the work done but the free websites thing is just way to attract more customers especially when I am just starting on the social media side of things especially with so many people out there doing the same thing i wanted to at least be a little different? but what you said got me thinking that I may need to change my approach on the whole free website thing maybe its the way I am communicating it thats not enticing people?