6 Creative Ways to Market Your Service-Based Business Online

Running a service-based business demands great commitment. There will always be problems that need solutions, irrespective of what happens in the world. Even in times of crisis, such as a raging pandemic, there will still be people out there who need your services. 

This is one of the key reasons why more and more local businesses make efforts to establish an online presence. It allows them to navigate through the tough times by adapting new streams of revenue and making sure they’re accessible for the customers that need them. 

In this post, we’ve put together six marketing strategies, which you can apply to any service-based business. 

6 Ways to Drive Customers to Your SME 

Revamp your local SEO tactics  

Google is known to improve its local search capabilities every year. Customers rely on this search engine to find different service-based businesses near them. If you want to get found by customers in your local area, make sure you’re showing up on both search engine results pages (SERPs) and as well as in Google Maps. 

How can you do that? 

Setting up a Google My Business profile makes sure  all the relevant accurate information about your business is on the web. This gives you greater visibility in local searches, leading to more customers to check out your business. 

Business listings contain everything a customer needs to make a decision about engaging with your business. The key is to provide complete information in every section of your profile—including your company phone number and address, working hours, and website URL.  

They’re also vital platforms where customers can leave reviews. Don’t skip on monitoring your ratings to maintain a sleek reputation online.  

Several online directories like Bing Places and Yelp have strong domain authority on Google, increasing your chances of appearing in the top searches. 

Start a business blog  

A blog is an excellent idea to better engage with your audience. Produce well–researched articles, infographics, and videos and establish your business as an industry thought leader.  

It’s a great platform to advertise about your business strengths, capabilities, and knowledge in your niche. Plus, it’s an opportunity to boost your SEO and rank higher on the SERPs. 

WordPress is an ideal platform to accessorise your website and blog about your business. Apart from being flexible and user–friendly, it allows you to customise your site with multiple themes and plugins fit for all niches. WordPress, coupled with a reliable web host and interesting content, can do wonders to promote your local business. 

RELATED: How to Maintain the Perfect Blog for Your Target Audience 

Build backlinks 

Link building is the process of earning links pointing to your website from other websites. These backlinks—whether from industry influencers or complementary businesses—will not only get your business in front of a wider audience base. It’ll also help drive quality traffic to your website. 

Here’s an SEO tip: Google uses backlinks as proof of trust in your business, especially if they come from authority sites. Gaining such trust from Google leads to higher search engine rankings, which leads to more traffic to your website.  

With quality backlinks, you can get noticed on Google for free. 

Some of the backlink–building strategies include: 

• Asking people you know to mention your website on theirs 
• Promoting targeted content to specific audiences 
• Offering a product testimonial that businesses can put on their website 
• Building relationships with other brands 
• Listing your company in authoritative and trustworthy business directories 

Mobile usability 

Consumers today access websites via a variety of devices—so the need to create a responsive website is a no-brainer. In fact, statistics suggest that mobile phones account for around 50% of worldwide internet traffic. 

All these customers expect a seamless user experience while surfing the web. This makes it important that your website looks amazing on every possible gadget.  

Plus, Google ranks websites that give mobile visitors a seamless user experience. 

READ: 5 Tools You Should Use to Optimise Websites for Mobile 

Target long-tail keywords 

Although short-tail keywords are often searched on a frequent basis, they are difficult to be ranked on search engines. Instead, it’s better to target long-tail keywords as it gives you a better chance of ranking higher for queries specific to your services, leading to better traffic. 

With advanced search engines and voice-to-text capabilities, customers are using more specific phrases to search for businesses online. 

Leverage social media marketing 

If you haven’t yet, make sure you have social media accounts for your local service business. Social media is one of the most popular free marketing tools available for businesses. Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn can play a significant role in driving traffic to your website. 

You can use these platforms to promote blog posts and other useful pages on your website. This allows you to draw quality traffic from these networks and turn your social media audience into website visitors. Make sure to produce regular quality content that’re worth sharing on their socials. 

Hard work pays off 

The success of any service business in the local market depends on being strategic with your marketing efforts. It also helps to create multiple streams of revenue to stay afloat during uncertain times. 

Increasing your brand visibility on search engines is not rocket science. All you have to do is take targeted steps that help you stay relevant in your niche. Following the strategies listed above—and checking out these marketing resources—can help you capture more customers and stay well ahead of your competition.