Although more and more consumers turn to the Internet every single day, I see a lot of business owners complaining how it’s now harder than ever to succeed online.
Google has become more strict with their penalties, the competition is stronger than the coffin nail in each and every niche, and the consumers – well, they’re no longer mindless sheep that can be tricked into buying anything and everything.
Everyone who does some sort of business online knows that today’s shoppers are insanely experienced and educated. All their decisions are data driven. Nowadays, you cannot just push generic advertisements on your leads and expect them to convert.
No. You need to step up your game if you want to see some positive results.
Whatever they’re looking for, most shoppers know that there are at least 50-60 distributors out there who would basically stab you in the neck for their dollar.
It’s a war zone out there, people. If presented with a chance, your competitors would crush you in a blink of an eye.
I know this is kinda hard to swallow, but hey – that’s capitalism for you.
However, all this aside, I think that, if you really apply yourself, you could still earn some serious cash online.
Just look at the numbers. Although the competition is getting more and more serious, the percentage of people who make a big and steady monthly income online is constantly growing.
So, what does that tell us? – I think something around the fact that the Internet is still a pretty fertile ground for all sorts of different entrepreneurs.
If you carefully define your business approach and marketing tactics, I think that you’ll have a shot of making your mark online and getting tons and tons of people to try and eventually buy your products and services.
Should I Even Bother Competing With The Top Players?
The answer is: Yes.
How come? – Although a certain niche is saturated, that doesn’t really mean that you cannot make a fortune within it.
Sure the competition is hard, and you need to step up your game if you want to survive, but tell me this:
Have you ever met a Nike fan who hasn’t bought another brand of sneakers at least once in his lifetime?
Apart from that, have you ever met a person that buys all his groceries, 365 days per years, only from a single store? No? Ohh, okay.
Have you ever met anyone that bought the same car twice in the row? No?
Exactly. It doesn’t matter in what kind of niche you operate, people are always interested in new experiences. If they see your brand as interesting, they’ll give you a chance and do business with you. At least once in their lifetime.
So, How Do I Get People To Do Business With Me, And Not My Competitors?
The Internet is all about sharing knowledge. To win in business online in today’s world, it’s not nearly enough to just offer great products and services. No. You need to reach out to your customers and make personal connections with each and every one of them.
As a business that makes its bread and butter on The Web, you need to know who your customers are, what they like, what they dislike, where do they hangout, how to speak their language, and how to provide value through your brand and communication channels that they’ll cherish.
If my rich experience has taught me anything, it’s that there are basically only 2 ways to get clients:
1. Go after them and chase them,
2. Have them come to you and chase you.
As I already said on this blog, numerous of times, I’ve been in the content marketing for years now. Five, to be exact. I served loads of clients, and, I gotta tell you, in almost every single case, the ones worth keeping – came to me.
Why is this important? – Let me elaborate.
When I first started, I used to send out emails, featuring all sorts of different free advice, on basically any type of contact, event or website where I thought I could make a conversion.
I was doing my best to pop in front of anyone’s eyes that could possibly be interested in my services or expertise.
If someone on a board, forum, or social media site said they were looking for a person to create good and compelling content for them – I’d send a message or an email.
I was basically everywhere. It doesn’t matter in what kind of industry or niche my “potential clients” operated, I made it clear to them that I was eager to jump on board.
I was chasing my clients. Scratch that – I was hunting them down. It was ridiculous.
Although I invested an insane amount of work into this, the soul crushing truth was:
9 times out of 10, people that received my content never wrote me back.
After a while, I got bummed out. All this chasing around worn me down. I kept sending all those emails, and the results – well, they were very, very bad.
I couldn’t go on much longer like this. I desperately needed to change something, so I decided to make a radical shift in the way I got my clients.
Instead of seeming needy, and whoring myself online, I figured out that it’s SO much easier to get people attracted to you and coming to you for new copy.
Without giving away the farm, here’s how I’ve done it:
If You Want To Catch The Mouse, You Have To Provide The Cheese
First, before I even started to think about conversions, I focused my entire energy on figuring out how people actually work. What makes them listen, and what drives them away.
That’s when it hit me: If I want to attract a specific group of people, I have to prove to them that I got the goods. I need to make them instantly see that I can help businesses improve their sales and cash flow.
So, I started thinking.
After days of bashing my head against the wall, you know with what I figured out? – What better way to do that, than by creating valuable content that PROVES that I know what I’m talking about.
By producing all sorts of case studies, white paper reports, blog posts and slideshares that demonstrate knowledge about a certain field, my mission was to make it quite clear to a lot of businesses online that I’m the right person to hire, and the best choice for them.
For example, a few weeks back I wrote a blog post, titled: 4 Important Things To Have As A Niche Content Writer, and published it on my LinkedIn page.
Thanks to that specific piece of content, I received two job offers:
This is only the tip of the iceberg. Whatever type of content you create, make sure it SHOWS and PROVES your skills first hand.
It of crucial importance here that you highlight the very reason why you think you’re the best and most logical choice for someone who’s (piggybacking on the above-mentioned example) looking for a great niche content writer.
If you want to turn heads and win your potential employers hearts, you need to show some snippets of your work and your expertise.
Show how you’re a valuable investment, and not just a cost or commodity.
Work hard on your content, make it good enough that once people read it, they automatically see you as someone with whom they want to work with.
If They Dig Your Content, They’re Basically Pre-Sold
Once you have that, use it anywhere and everywhere you can. Facebook ads, forums, popular blogs -share snippets of your content anywhere you think your potential clients could hangout, and just wait for someone to engage you.
If you, for example, recycle your content as a great and highly insightful comment to a popular blog post that generates an insane amount of traffic, and you get someone to reply to it – you basically done half of your job here.
Once you get into a back and forward discussion with a certain person who applauds your contribution, you’ve literally pre-selled that client on wanting to work with you. You have him coming to you, and you can dictate price and terms, instead of you having to send out emails or applications to jobs that may not pay what you want.
Believe it or not, this strategy really worked numerous of times for me. If you invest a certain amount of time into creating a piece of content that truly speaks volumes about your expertise, clients will become pre-sold on you and your skills.
Chasing clients isn’t a viable long-term business strategy. Believe me, I’ve tried. You’re much better off building a solid system of offering up amazing value in a piece of content that shows your skills, writing ability, and results/track record.
This demonstration will pre-sell prospects enough where they come to you and want to work with you, at YOUR price, instead of you chasing them.
Thank you for taking the time to read my latest blog post. I hope you find it valuable enough to consider sharing it with your friends and coworkers.
That’s it for now,
See you soon again,
Kind regards,
Goran @ AltusHost B.V.
The author is highly qualified and writes blog posts weekly.
