Many of my clients come to me with preconceived notions about who they are and what their customers are looking for. Sometimes they’re on the money, but that’s beside the point. Being rigid and inflexible about being found on the ‘net can lead to a severe lack of business.
Say your pipes break at 3 AM. Going old school, you grab the phone book, turn to those pages of a certain color, and look up Plumbers. In this particular medium, everyone has agreed that the publisher will sort the listings for you, and they’ve all decided (randomly?) to sort in ascending alphabetical order. So “A-Plus Plumbing” is listed before “Baker Family Plumbing,” which is listed before “Carruthers’ A#1 Pipe Service,” ad infinitum. You go down the list in order (that is to say, in alphabetical order) and try the numbers. The first one that answers gets your emergency business. For almost a century, businesses have had an incentive to name themselves “AAAAA SomethingOrOther” because of this means of searching for a business contact.
On the web, in most of the search engines, you can plug in as much information or as little as you want and search. In the above example, you want someone who does 24/7 emergency service, but your “search engine” forces you to read every single ad in alphabetical order. The first company on the list to answer could be in another county, or specialize in something you don’t need.
On the ‘net, you can sort by percentage matched to your exact criteria. But just like the paper model, what if the best person for the job simply has a small listing that says, “I’m here” – how do you find them during a search?
You need to put yourself in places where you’ll be tripped over.
Write articles about your profession, or about your hobbies. Participate in on-line discussions and blogs. Post pictures from industry conventions. Get recommended by your fans, and cursed out by your competition. Anything and everything! Whatever you do, always always always include a link back to your main sales site. When you’re tripped over, people who didn’t even know they wanted to business with you may become paying customers.
Here’s the secret: you need to place yourself and your company to be tripped over all over the place – not just the Internet! Articles, books, discussion boards, charity fundraisers, political action groups. . . anywhere people interact and will see your name.