The vast majority of marketers agree that inbound marketing is a must for anyone. That is, anyone who wants to experience consistent, positive, marketing results for their business. For every industry, however, inbound marketing is different.
You may be wondering how inbound marketing for professional service firms like yours works. Here are three important steps that every professional services firm that succeeds at inbound marketing takes:
YOU CREATE HIGH-QUALITY CONTENT TO HELP POSITION YOUR COMPANY AS AN INDUSTRY LEADER
Who is developing the industry trends that everyone is following?
Being the company that is recognized as an original pioneer, helping to develop the next big thing in your industry, can have a huge impact. “Why?” you might ask. Everyone interested in the latest, greatest industry happenings will be looking in your direction.
This does not just happen at random. The best way to position your company as an industry leader is to create content that shows your unique perspective into current industry issues, display your expertise, talk about changes, and future projections.
The best way to position your company as an industry leader is to create content that shows your unique perspective. Click To TweetAs your presence as an industry leader is strengthened by the content generated for your company, people will start to rely on your company as a resource for learning. This, in turn, will create sales leads that will seemingly appear out of thin air.
YOU PUT YOUR CONTENT IN A POSITION TO BE SEEN BY YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
The quality of your content won’t matter at all if your customers never see any of it in the first place.
Which is why you should be sure to create as many opportunities for your online content to be seen as possible. This requires many steps, but we’ve narrowed down the ones we feel reach the highest results:
Leverage the Power of Social Media
Major social networks provide access to anywhere from hundreds of millions to billions of individual users. Because of this, social media provides a significant amount of inbound marketing benefits on its own. By synchronizing social media efforts with a content marketing strategy, you can enhance the benefits of both.
Create Guest Blog Posts
Many of your industry cohorts already have a strong following on their blogs. In order to enhance the quality of and expand the range of their own content, many are willing to invite guest posters (including individuals from your professional services firm) to post. For you, this is an opportunity to engage an audience you have yet to connect with and create some SEO citations and backlinks.
Make Sure All of Your Local SEO Factors Are in Order
Approximately 3.5 billion searches per day are performed on Google alone. SEO, (getting yourself ranked atop online search results lists) is clearly the best way to get found on the web. There are many factors to consider; as a professional services firm, it is critical that you focus in on better local results.
A few key ways to better your results include:
- Claiming your business on listing sites
- Earning as many citations as possible
- Getting reviewed often
- Including local references on your website
YOU CONSISTENTLY WORK TO IMPROVE YOUR WEBSITE
Regardless of your industry, your company’s website is the foundation of your online presence. If you aren’t utilizing your site, it’s safe to say your marketing efforts are doing no more than leading your would-be consumers to a dead end. If you’re wondering what to focus on, your website should include the following:
- Responsive Web Design: “the method of designing web pages that automatically appear in their optimized form on all devices. In other words, responsive design automatically reformats your website for all screen sizes so your website visitors can easily interact with your site no matter what device they’re using.”
- Compelling Content (as we discussed above)
- and Optimized Landing Pages
If a potential customer visits your site, you don’t want to lose them just because they couldn’t find your blog or your call-to-action isn’t visible. Make your page as inviting and easy to navigate as you can, but don’t forget to make your message clear from the moment they land on your page. Remember 55% of consumers will spend less than 15 seconds on your site. That’s not a lot of time, so you want to make sure you’re packing the most for your punch.
Remember 55% of consumers will spend less than 15 seconds on your site. Click To TweetBy using the information discussed above, you will have a starting point to launch a successful inbound marketing campaign for your professional services firm.
Yes, we know there is so much you can do, but don’t get overwhelmed. Make a clear plan with the new skills we’ve just bestowed upon you and get out there and make your firm a success!