Why Google is the Best Source of Clients for Your Service Business (and What to Do about It)

Do you know where your clients come from?  I mean, really know?

I recently explored this question for my own service business.  And I was shocked.

I do a lot of networking around Boston and have directly met a number of good prospects that way.  And I regularly ask clients for introductions to other business owners.  So I know I get a lot of business through personal connections.

But I also practice what I preach: SEO-optimizing my website’s visibility in organic search results and running ongoing Google Adwords campaigns for additional reach. But I hadn’t fully taken stock of what that really meant.

Until now.

Here is the % breakdown of client revenue by lead source for my internet marketing service business for the past 12 months:

• In-Person: 30%
• Referrals: 30%
• Adwords: 24%
• SEO: 16%

Think about what that means.

You very likely get clients through personal connections.  You may also get clients through partnerships (like a masseuse renting space in a spa).  But how often do you get clients because perfect strangers contact you out of the blue?

40% of my revenue for the past year came from strangers contacting me, asking for my help.  If I look at just the past 3 months, the number is closer to 60%.

Would you like half of your clients to be people who you’ve never met seeking you out with little ongoing effort on your part?

Turn cold-calling on its head

I don’t do cold-calls, cold-emails, or cold anything.  I made that decision early on, and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made – for my business and for my sanity.

“Cold calling” means contacting strangers with the hope of either:

1. Catching them at the exact moment that they happen to need your service and are ready to buy, or
2. Convincing them that they need your service now even if they don’t

That can mean hundreds of pointless and unpleasant phone calls to find just one good prospect.  If you instead send emails to do the job, expect to send thousands.

The numbers don’t make sense.  It’s not fun.  And most importantly, it wastes time that could be much better spent!

Instead, I decided to focus on building an automated system for attracting ideal prospects to me at the exact time that they needed my services.  No, I didn’t use positive thinking or mystical incantations.  I used Google.

Google holds the key to your service business

Facebook is where people go when they want to escape the real world.

Google is where people go when they want to solve real world problems.

Through both my SEO and Adwords campaigns with Google, I reach prospects who are actively looking for what I offer.  They are seeking both general solutions (“get more customers online”) and specific solutions (“internet marketing services”).  When they contact me, they are already “warm prospects”.

Your service business gets soooo much easier when you decide to deal with warm prospects instead of cold ones!

SEO provides a foundation for long-term growth

Early on, my SEO efforts yielded an authoritative website for a variety of organic searches.  Now, by design, most prospects find me through my blog posts, which also rank very well in Google.

When prospects are looking to solve an online marketing problem, and they encounter one of my posts that provides the answer, that initiates a bond of trust that can readily blossom into a new client relationship.  And reaching all those prospects costs me nothing more than the time required to publish a couple of blog posts a month.

Adwords drives immediate traffic and ROI

Adwords opens up many additional opportunities for prospects to find me. Through SEO I can rank really well for a handful of high-value keywords.  With Adwords, I can place my ad as high on the page as I want for hundreds of targeted keywords.

Of course, you pay for those Adwords clicks.  That’s why you really need to know what you’re doing in order to achieve sufficient long-term ROI.  Google makes it very easy for you to waste as much money on Adwords ads as you want.

But for those of us in the service business, it’s actually easier to achieve good ROI with Adwords.

Why?  Because the lifetime value of a single customer is high.

If you sell a $20 product with $10 of margin, then you need to spend less than $10 to gain each new customer just to break even.  If you’re paying $1 per click, that means you have to convert at least 1 out of every 10 visitors into paying customers.  That’s a tall order.

On the other hand, if you typically sell $5,000 worth of services to a new client, then how much are you willing to pay to get each client?  $100?  $500?  More?  Now you have some room to breathe in your Adwords campaign.

(Also see 3 Big Reasons to Love Google AdWords)

But… I’m new and I have no money!

What’s that you say?  Your website has meager SEO authority and you can’t afford to improve it?  And you also have little money to spend on Adwords?

Then you’re one of the lucky ones.

Because that means you need to go to the effort now of clearly defining your target market segments and your unique service offering with laser-like clarity.

And if you do, your niche will set you free.

When you become “the guy who helps Venezuelan coffee plantation owners sell to co-working offices in New York and London”, you have no competition.

When you become “the gal who runs Facebook photo contests for Caribbean family resorts”, you have no competition.

You will show up in organic Google searches because no other websites cover these topics.

You will pay pennies per click in Adwords because no one else is focusing on the needs of this niche.

Each of us eventually needs to find our niche in order to find explosive success (I’m still searching for mine).  And necessity will get you there faster.

Step 1 is to speak to your niche on your website.  Ignore everyone else.  You don’t want the wrong prospects, and they don’t want you.

Summary

SEO and Adwords with Google can be the ticket to long-term success for your service business.  If I can get half of my clients through Google searches, so can you.

And if you focus first on defining your specific niche and attracting your ideal clients, then your budget barely even matters.

Just be prepared when perfect strangers begin contacting you, asking if they can please buy your service!

What has your experience been in using SEO or Adwords to gain new clients?  Please share in the comments below.