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Published 12th January 2015 |
Read latest comment - 12th January 2015

Hi all

As I said in another post, I am a partner in a firm of solicitors who will be leaving in March. I don't plan to really start promoting the business until March, or soon before. I have a plan of campaign to get punters through the door - leaflets printed, ads prepared, email campaigns drafted and ready, etc etc, and am already on 10-15 advertising sites. My web designer is tasked with SEO.

I'd like to hear from others here with their story - how you originally got the business coming in and how long did it take you to get to a steady state. I work as a partner now, but I joined an established firm, and whilst I have been heavily responsible for maintaining the work acquisition, I have never before started from scratch.

I would value your opinions.

Thanks

Dean

Comments

How long does it take until you get to a steady state?

It never ever does.

Business is all about peaks and troughs. Christmas time, this business performed really poorly - yet better than our competitors by all means. Feb is filling up quite nicely, and we're taking orders this week which makes Dec seem like it was last year... (I know it was ;-) )

Its mega important to be quick to react. If something isn't working, you pull the plug on it. You always try something new, and never ever give up on marketing

The most important thing to get noticed for are USP's (Unique Selling Points). 
Then presentation.
Then finish it off with awesome Service.

If you can go straight to the client, even better. So, depending on your type of soliciting, making friends, and giving incentives to estate agents etc is good. This is networking, and sharing business. I swear by it, and when someone else promotes my business, I get a little buzz from it - because they obviously like me - and that makes me feel good.

 


The First Choice for First Aid
From Cardiff to Calcutta...

I think for a new business one of the key things is expectation versus budget.

The bigger the budget, the more realistic the expectation and reality of leads being generated. 

As someone else has already remarked, your site looks pretty slick, so you look professional. Having a good landing page is key to generating leads. Even offline marketing now is still dependent on some form of online presence as savvy consumers perform their own due diligence.

A well optimised site is a vital starting place, something we didn't look at back in 2005 and retrospectively bolted on SEO as a post activity, something you can no longer get away with.

A short cut to generating leads for us was PPC, and turned out to be a highly effective form of marketing. It either works or it doesn't. You can make changes to a campaign and see almost instantly if it has worked or made things worse. You can set and work out exactly the cost you are prepared to pay for a lead or conversion.

In this new Google rules the world, PPC has arguably become even more important, particularly for new businesses. You can see which keywords and phrases are the most profitable for you and then concentrate SEO resource to try and win these organically if possible.

Then there is the brave new world of social media. Keep up the approach you are using. The human voice, become known across multiple communities, forums, google plus etc as the go to guy. Help in discussions, share opinions, but whenever a relevant discussion/debate to your industry arises, rise above self promotion like everyone else and let your opinion and expertise from debate soft sell you.

From there people will naturally start to refer to you as you will stand out. Not a quick fix, that's what PPC is for, but curating a positive and genuine online persona will stand the test of time, absorbing occasional bumps in the road which will naturally happen.

Best of luck 


Steve Richardson
Gaffer of My Local Services
My Local Services | Me on LinkedIn

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12th January 2015 7:56 PM

Thanks guys. Great advice and nice to know I seem to be heading in the right direction. Thanks for your advice.

Best wishes

Dean


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