Think strategically instead of hoping for magic remedies

An online strategy is essential for success.By Bernhard Kuntz*Due to the triumph of electronic media, service providers - such as consultants, lawyers and coaches - now have many more channels and tools available to communicate with their customers than in the past. This diversity confuses many service providers. They always complain about the same problem. Namely, that with their previous marketing system, they no longer reach their target customers. Especially the young ones.New market cultivation strategies are in demandTo counteract this, more than a few companies are increasing the number of marketing cycles. Instead of three or four, they send out five or six mailings a year and contact target customers more frequently by phone. If these activities do not have the desired success, the decision-makers sit down with an advertising agency and revise the design of the marketing instruments. With the consequence that they have new marketing tools one or two years later. But they still lack a strategy adapted to the changed purchase decision behavior of the customers on how to lead potential customers to the purchase decision.Dreaming less of saviorsToday, when people or organizations are looking for a consultant on a topic and don't know any, they usually enter the relevant search terms on Google & Co. For example, "process management consulting". And on the basis of the hits displayed, they get an overview of who could be a potential supporter. So one basic requirement of a modern marketing concept is that it must ensure that the consultant's target customers come across him quickly and frequently on the Web. Because only then can they consider him as a supporter.Develop an online marketing strategyNow, a consultant cannot be on the first hit pages for all potential terms that people enter into search engines. So a clean analysis is needed:

• What are the key terms that target customers use to search for services online?
• For which search terms does the consultant have to be far in front in the displayed hit lists (terms of the 1st category) and for which would this be desirable (terms of the 2nd and 3rd category)? And:
• For which search terms does the consultant have a realistic chance that his website will be in front due to its conception and for which does he have to take detours?

Today, every consultant who wants to develop a marketing strategy for his company has to do this basic work. Because based on this, he can decide, for example:

• How the website should be designed so that it is displayed as far up front as possible in relation to the terms "..." and "..."?
• On which terms the (source) texts of the website should be optimized? - Based on the goal "to be found".

Based on this, he can also make follow-up decisions such as:

•  On which terms related to AdWords ads?
• On which topics do you conduct online press relations so that target customers come across the website in search queries, if not directly then via articles or press releases?

Based on the overall goal of "being found on the web," the consultant can also decide:

• As a supporting element, still integrate a blog into the website or put videos on YouTube
• Or engage in social media to increase traffic to the website

Clean analysis helps save time and moneyConsultants should analyze all these questions properly before taking action. After all, moderating forums in social media and running a blog eats up a lot of time. And if such activities are not integrated into a coherent strategy, a lot of time (and money) is quickly wasted. Here's an example: With consultant websites, one often finds that they have hardly any traffic, i.e. visitors. Nevertheless, a blog is integrated into the website, which the consultant regularly fills with content. Then you ask yourself: What's the point? Because obviously the consultant has not achieved his goal of increasing the number of visitors to his website. So he might as well discontinue the blog and use his time for other things.A basic problem that consultants struggle with when formulating an (online) marketing strategy is: The network is itself a system. That's why you can't get very far with individual measures. Instead, a strategy is needed that dovetails the individual measures.The individual measures dovetailLet's assume that a consultant specializes in project management and optimizes his website for the appropriate search terms. Then he achieves at most that his website is displayed on page 10 or 8 in the Google hit lists. Further to the front he does not come, as long as hardly links of other web pages refer to his web page. Because for Google the number and quality of the referring links is a central indicator for the meaning of a web page. So, in parallel to SEO, the consultant should look into link building, for example through online press work.And the reverse case: There are already many links pointing to a consultant's website, but their (source) texts are not optimized for clearly defined search terms. Then the consultant can build up as many links as he wants, for example, through online articles and videos. This also leads at most to his website being displayed on page 10 or 8 in search queries. This is because the consultant has not done the basic work required for a top ranking: namely, optimizing the website itself for search engines.Goal: Not many visitors, but many inquiriesProcess-oriented thinking in the area of online marketing is also necessary because not-yet-customers, once they have found a consultant on the Net, very rarely contact him or her immediately. Instead, they first study the consultant's website. And if they then have the feeling that this could be a potential supporter, they enter its name - as well as those of the other three or four candidates - themselves as a search term on Google & Co. If no content-related hits are then displayed, such as references to articles that the consultant wrote or presentations that he gave, then the visitor quickly has the feeling: This consultant is not very important in the market. So he contacts a competitor for whom he has the impression based on the hits displayed: This seems to be a real "specialist for ...". Such factors must also be taken into account when developing an online marketing strategy. Otherwise, the consultant's website will end up with a lot of visitors, but unfortunately no inquiries will reach him because the visitors quickly disappear again. ------------------------------------------------------* To the author: Bernhard Kuntz is the owner of the (online) marketing and PR agency Die PRofilBerater GmbH, Darmstadt (D). At the beginning of November, the publishing house managerSeminare published the 4th completely revised and updated edition of his book "Die Katze im Sack verkaufen: How to market education and consulting systematically - offline and online". More info: http://www.die-profilberater.de