Sometimes great questions come to my attention via Google Alerts, which was the case recently. A new Virtual Assistant asked:
“I am just starting out and doing lots of research. I was wondering if anyone has tried using classified and Yellow Pages for advertising. Also, if anyone could let me know other forms of low budget advertising, I would greatly appreciate it.”
Here’s what you have to understand about such advertising: the amount of money you’d have to spend in order to make those forms of marketing pay off for you in terms of real clients (we call that “ROI–return on investment”), you would have to spend the kind of money–repeatedly and for a great length of time–that most new business owners simply don’t have. And even then, the ROI/conversion rate on that kind of advertising is generally as low as 1%.
That’s not a very good return for the money and effort expended. AND it won’t necessarily bring in specific clients you want to work with.
The good news is that there are alternatives to marketing professional services that actually work FAR better than classifieds and cost very, very little beyond your time and education. It’s called relationship marketing and it’s really very simple:
1. Get really clear about what you are in business to do.
2. Determine a target market. This would be a niche within a profession/industry/field that would have the most need and want for what you are in business to do.
3. Profile your ideal client.
4. Once you know very clearly what you do and who your intended audience is, you can gear your message specifically for that market on your website so that it attracts and draw to you exactly the clients you seek to work with.
5. Knowing who your intended audience is also helps you figure out where to reach out and connect with those likely prospects, both online and off. Once you find those avenues, you begin interacting. Speaking up and participating is what helps people get to know, like and trust you. You’ll begin to build relationships this way, people will send referrals your way and all the while you are creating rapport and establishing trust and credibility, which leads to more prospects contacting you.
Of course, this is where work and effort is involved. And while the steps are simple, getting them done does take some help. I’ve created a step-by-step guide to help folks accomplish this much faster and easier called Articulating Your Value: How to Craft Your Own Unique & Compelling Marketing Message. It’s helped a lot of people make huge hurdles in their business so check it out.








