online marketing Commandments! What do you think?

A few months ago, Kelli Wise, Michael Reynolds and I purged our complains about lousy/misguided/silly online marketing techniques. It was nice to get that off our collective chest. Now it’s time for some helpful hints to get you on track and navigating this jungle of social/technological/virtual relationships.

Kelli suggests:

1.  Give your friends & fans something for free.  The internet is an amazing way to help people out.  You can help people out by pointing them to useful information they might not have found.  Don’t always make your marketing about you. Point your clients to other businesses in town you use and love.  I like to promote a physical therapist I know who gets great results.  The PT doesn’t owe me anything for that, but it’s a good resource for my clients who need a great PT.  I’m spending some of my authority here, so I make sure I only refer to people I trust.

2.  Does your website look old and tired?  Update it with a premium theme.  Don’t have any content there?  Make your home page and About Me page a priority.  Those are the 2 most visited.  Get rid of any ‘under construction” pages and the links to them.  Only link to a page that looks complete.  Quit shooting for perfect and get something good enough. You’ll at least have something that looks contemporary and professional.  Your clients are going to put a lot of trust in you, make it look like they should.

3.  Think you have a product you want to promote on my Facebook fan page?  Send me a private email asking if I’d be interested.  Start by developing a relationship with me.  If your product is great, I might give you some love.  If I decline, be polite and professional.  It’s not personal, I may just not be open to product advertising.

It’s really all about being professional, polite and helpful.

Michael says:

1. Use online scheduling. If you are still playing phone tag with your clients to schedule an appointment, you are leaving money on the table. Use a service like Schedulicity to allow prospective clients to easily book an appointment with you 24/7.

2. Get over your fear of Twitter and start using it to connect with colleagues, do research, and find new clients. Make your ratio 90% helping others or distributing useful information and 10% (tasteful) promotion of your business.

3. Start a blog and write weekly wellness articles that educate, inform, and entertain your clients. Consistently use strategic keywords to target search terms to help you get found on search engines. Share your blog on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Bonus: start up an AdWords account and target search terms that will lead prospective clients to your website.

Allissa encourages:

1. Make it easy for your clients and potential clients to find your contact information. Assume that no one ever has your number stored in their phone and people will need to search for you online every time they need you.  Make your phone number, email and address easy to find on your webpage, Facebook profile and business page as well as business cards, brochures, etc. (I know many practitioners have home offices and don’t publish their address, you get a pass, but please make the rest obvious). Be sure Google, Mapquest, etc. place your building in the correct location.

2. Find and use the (free!) resources available to learn all this stuff. I’ll get you started. The SpinWeb Learning Center (don’t panic when you see the fee, there’s a free option, too.) The OMM (Online Massage Marketing) Solutions blog. Bodywork Biz blog. Oh, have you checked out Massage Learning Network yet? It’s launching in the fall, get on the email list to be alerted. And of course you already know about Kelli & Michael above.

3. Be patient with yourself. It took you more than a weekend to learn great palpation skills, right? That turned out to be pretty useful. Managing your website, using a Facebook page, crafting great client emails, these things all take practice. This technology is just another way to communicate and build relationships with clients and potential clients. Don’t take on everything at once, that’s just setting yourself up for overwhelm. Choose one or two projects and dedicate small blocks of time twice a week-ish to learn and conquer.

You can do this. We believe in you.

Posted by Melissa Alosso on May 2nd, 2011 | Permalink