How effective are your PC marketing campaigns? Are you getting the results that you need? And most importantly, are you attracting the right kinds of steady, monthly clients that need to see you on a regular basis?
You’ll learn about some of the best ways to generate a steady supply of monthly clients.
But let’s get one thing out of the way: An IT business that ignores PC marketing is on borrowed time.
For your small IT business to grow profitability, you need to have a cost-effective PC marketing plan.
This plan needs to continually create awareness among key local decision-makers who can hire your company and ultimately become incredibly loyal to your company's ongoing service agreement program.
1. Begin with the End Goal and Work Backwards
A lot of people do not realize this, but you want to begin with the end goal and work backward.
For example, if your goal is to build a strong recurring revenue base from a support agreement-centric business, that is where to spend your marketing time and dollars.
Focus on the decision-makers in companies that are geographically desirable, of the right size, in the right industry, on the right platform, and are used to paying for professional IT support.
Move these prospects from qualified leads to sales appointments. Move them from small “proving ground” projects to major remediation projects. Then move them to: “Gee, have you given much thought to how you would like your support handled on an ongoing basis?”
2. Reach Out to Prospects Much Earlier in the Sales Cycle
You have to nurture and train prospects much earlier in the sales cycle.
Show prospects that your company is the one-and-only best solution to their needs—way before they are ready to bring someone in to help with their business and IT problems.
3. Nurture Your Leads with Value-Added Interactions
Make use of white papers, seminars, and speaking engagements with local business groups and deeply niched technology providers to plant the seeds and create awareness.
Once the relationship is started, stay in front of leads and prospects and nurture them with regular follow-up on a value-added basis.
Here’s what this means: Do not constantly ask, “Are you ready to buy yet?”
Instead, offer valuable advice that provides a tiny sample of what your prospects can access once they become clients.
4. Get the Processes and Timing Right
You have to strike while the iron is hot—know the best time to suggest an ongoing support arrangement.
If the initial proving ground project goes well, there usually will be a follow-up remediation project.
When these new customers are patting you on the back, that’s the best time to ask how they would like to have these systems supported on an ongoing basis.
In IT, PC marketing campaigns that try to reach anyone and everyone will not draw in the recurring monthly revenue streams you seek. You have to know how to invest your time and resources in effective marketing that gets you and your company to the kind of revenue streams you desire.
What kinds of PC marketing best practices and campaigns have netted your company its greatest clients? Please share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
Creative Commons Image Source: Flickr Rob Boudon
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