If you own a small business, chances are you want to do whatever you can to market your company and differentiate yourself from the competition. Many businesses know how to promote their companies whether it be through a website, blog, social media, or networking. However, when everyone is doing these same strategies and tactics, it can be difficult to stand out.A marketing agency called Service Lifter has grown quickly due to their ability to set themselves apart. In the first 8 months of being in business, Service Lifter has surpassed 500K in revenue and is looking to hit 1 million in their first year! Co-owner Schieler Mew has some helpful tips for marketing agencies as well as other small businesses to help reach this same level of growth:
1) Niche Down! I can not say this enough. We save so much time and energy at our company because we can re-use/spin content that we’ve written or produced literally hundreds of times now on service pages, home pages, blogs, and so forth. Not only that, but consumers don’t want a DMA that takes on all verticles/niches, they want you to specialize and be able to speak for them on their behalf!
2) Create your SOPs! From the way you design websites, to how you expect your Google My Business posts to flow. If you find yourself doing something that can be broken down into tasks, document it, integrate it, and hold people accountable for it!
3) Finding good employees and workers is hard. A lot of people are only doing what is good for them and may treat your company as a clock in and clock out opportunity. If your hires never use the word “Team” or “We” and only use the word “I” or “Me”, take a very close look at if they fit your company culture or not!
4) Start with a foot-in-the-door offer and provide add ons to clients you have already performed for. They will be 100% more likely to buy any extended services. At Service Lifter we are an all-inclusive agency for our single price-point package for each niche. This means we already do everything for one cost, nonnegotiable. Where our “up-sell” comes in is with our answering service, which is more of a solution than an up-sell. Our clients don’t like taking calls, they want to do the work, so we solved this problem for them and opened a micro call center!
5) Re-build websites! If a client is not on your host, your page builder, and using your processes, you’re going to spend and waste a lot of time trying to learn their technology or how another company built their website. Stop doing this, it’s a loss-leader and makes it very hard to perform with SEO!
6) This may be one of the most important tips and is something frequently overlooked. Be your client’s biggest advocate and want them to win more than you want yourself to win. If you win for your client and provide solutions they will reward you with loyalty, ongoing monthly services, and in the end will grow with you. Put them first, go above and beyond, and do not ever stop!
7) Refund clients, just because you can. If a client cancels and you have completed all the work but the month hasn’t ended, refund a pro-rated amount. I don’t care if it’s a loss-leader. It’s the kind that will save your reputation, and you only got one of them! Money talks because people work very hard to earn it. When you show a client that you value their money they will reward you with reviews and recommendations, even if things didn’t go the way they wanted because you are above reproach!
8) Stop fighting your clients! Educate them but do not belittle them. If they want to rank for a no-volume search term, do it and make it look easy as pie. Then when they get no leads from it, ask them if they would like to turn to your suggestion. This is their business and they feel empowered when they are in control. You will earn their loyalty by letting them know their input is needed, wanted, valuable, and appreciated beyond any shadow of a doubt!
9) Focus on leads! Drop the traffic reports, lengthy reviews and let your client know how many calls, form leads, or sales they are getting compared to last month or year over year. SEO is the process, revenue generation is the goal. Focus on your client’s goals and keep your 20-page reports to yourself. Show your client you are making them money, providing for their company and their companies employees. This is what they care about, not the random blog you wrote that got 6,000 views last month and ZERO client acquisition!
10) Never stop giving and do it freely! Expect nothing in return but continue to provide an abundance of knowledge and dedicate some of your time to helping the world around you! The people in and around you will always have your best interests in mind and seek to reward you if you give them what you have spent years cultivating! Let the universe come back on you 10-fold for doing everything in your power to increase the value of life for those around you!
Originally posted in Google SEO Mastermind Facebook Group by Schieler Mew.
Learn more about Service Lifter by visiting their website!
