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Mary Ellen Bates
Bates Information Services, Inc.
8494 Boulder Hills Dr.
Niwot, Colorado 80503 USA
Tel: 303.772.7095
Email: mbates@batesinfo.com
Skype: Mary.Ellen.Bates
Twitter: www.twitter.com/mebs
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/maryellenbates
Bates Information Services, Inc.
8494 Boulder Hills Dr.
Niwot, Colorado 80503 USA
Tel: 303.772.7095
Email: mbates@batesinfo.com
Skype: Mary.Ellen.Bates
Twitter: www.twitter.com/mebs
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/maryellenbates
I was talking with AIIP member Jane Langeman the other day, and she mentioned that a colleague challenged her with the question: "if I wanted to find you on Google, what words would I use to find you?" In fact, this is a great way of helping you figure out how to describe yourself to other people in a way that is both memorable and useful. Think of the difference between describing your business to someone and telling them when and why they would want to use you. For instance, I describe my business as twofold—I provide business research to business professionals and info pros, and consulting services to the information industry. However, I doubt that people who are interested in my coaching services will search Google for "consulting services to the information industry".
If I want to be found by prospective coaching clients, I have to make sure that my web site has the words they would use to find me, not merely the words that describe what I do—in this case, words and phrases such as coaching, information broker, and info-entrepreneur. The goal, of course, is to make sure that my web site is easy to retrieve by people who are looking for people like me. Simple proposition, but how does your web site stack up?
Note that I'm not talking about heavy-duty search engine marketing or search engine optimization; the key is not to fight your way to the top of a crowded search result page but rather to show up at the top of the heap when someone is searching specifically for people who do what you do. I'm not going to try to be the top-ranked search result for a query like "business research"—that's too generic and I assume that bigger players (with larger SEO budgets) already "own" that search results space. I would much rather identify the niche areas where I stand out.
So, mentally pull up your elevator speech (you do have one, yes?) and think about how your clients would look for you on the web... OK, how your clients would Google for you. What are the buzzwords of the industry you're best known in? What are your clients working on or worrying about just before they slap their foreheads and say "this is obviously a job for {insert your name here}"? And if you don't know the answer to that question, it's time to start doing some listening. Consider doing some informational interviews to learn more about how your clients think and what their pain points are. For those of you who have a copy of Building and Running a Successful Research Business, you'll find a description of how and why to conduct informational interviews on pages 73-76.
Make sure that you include your Google terms—the words that your clients would use to describe their informational pain points—and make sure those words or phrases are on your main web page. That might be competitive intelligence and pharmaceutical, or business valuation, or public records research. depending on your expertise and client base. What I found most interesting about this exercise is that it forced me to think about me from my clients' perspective. How do they think of me? What do I represent in their minds? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you make yourself more memorable in all your communications—in a networking meeting, on your web site and blog, at a conference, and in your presentations.
If I want to be found by prospective coaching clients, I have to make sure that my web site has the words they would use to find me, not merely the words that describe what I do—in this case, words and phrases such as coaching, information broker, and info-entrepreneur. The goal, of course, is to make sure that my web site is easy to retrieve by people who are looking for people like me. Simple proposition, but how does your web site stack up?
Note that I'm not talking about heavy-duty search engine marketing or search engine optimization; the key is not to fight your way to the top of a crowded search result page but rather to show up at the top of the heap when someone is searching specifically for people who do what you do. I'm not going to try to be the top-ranked search result for a query like "business research"—that's too generic and I assume that bigger players (with larger SEO budgets) already "own" that search results space. I would much rather identify the niche areas where I stand out.
So, mentally pull up your elevator speech (you do have one, yes?) and think about how your clients would look for you on the web... OK, how your clients would Google for you. What are the buzzwords of the industry you're best known in? What are your clients working on or worrying about just before they slap their foreheads and say "this is obviously a job for {insert your name here}"? And if you don't know the answer to that question, it's time to start doing some listening. Consider doing some informational interviews to learn more about how your clients think and what their pain points are. For those of you who have a copy of Building and Running a Successful Research Business, you'll find a description of how and why to conduct informational interviews on pages 73-76.
Make sure that you include your Google terms—the words that your clients would use to describe their informational pain points—and make sure those words or phrases are on your main web page. That might be competitive intelligence and pharmaceutical, or business valuation, or public records research. depending on your expertise and client base. What I found most interesting about this exercise is that it forced me to think about me from my clients' perspective. How do they think of me? What do I represent in their minds? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you make yourself more memorable in all your communications—in a networking meeting, on your web site and blog, at a conference, and in your presentations.
