5 Tips For Growing A Service Business Online

In 2020 the whole world moved online. As a business, it didn't matter if you were ready for it or not, online business is no longer a choice, it is necessary and normal.

I consider myself one of the lucky ones; I've been 100% online for the past four years.

I made that transition when it was a choice and that gave me the luxury to do it at my own pace.

A lot of businesses served their clients in person at the beginning of March 2020 and by the end of that same month, had to bring it all online!

But I want to offer some hope here. While this transition has been bumpy and uncomfortable for many service business, it may be the change you needed to grow your business and live the life you want to live.

Working online offers you more freedom, flexibility and the opportunity to scale that is just not possible when you serve clients in person.

To help you reach your goals in this new world and make the transition a little smoother, I've put together my five best tips that I've gathered over my four years of working online.

Keep your costs down by focusing on organic, non paid social media marketing.

This is content led marketing. It involves you showing up on social media, giving people valuable content and connecting with the these people in a real way.

I recommend focusing on two platforms to start with and mastering them. Focus on creating the best, value driven content for your ideal clients and becoming the go to authority in your niche.

Your organic social media marketing strategy can broadly be defined in two parts:

- value driven content

- authentic engagement and conversations

This is a winning combination that will create an audience for you, full of ideal clients.

This works. You can get results pretty quickly when you do it right, but it is a long term strategy. Meaning the more you put into it and the longer you are at it, the more it will pay off.

Move away from selling single sessions or classes. Instead, identify the transformation you provide for your ideal client and sell it as a high ticket transformation.

That way you can forecast your earnings and plan for the future. And you will be able to give your clients what they truly need.

Rather than having someone come to you every now and again for a session, you will be able to work with your clients on a much deeper level and provide them with real transformation.

For the results that you are able to provide through a full transformation, your clients will be happy to commit to the investment in your time.

Track every process you create so that you can outsource or automate it later.

Everything you do requires a process. Think about what happens when you get a warm lead.

You have a process, even if you are not aware of it. You reach out to them, you send them more information, you follow up with them, you get on a call with them.

These are all steps within your sales process. Once you track these you will not only save yourself time, but you will create an automated process that can be done by software or outsourced to a virtual assistant.

Tracking every process, no matter how small, will all go towards freeing your time up and enabling you to grow faster.

Ever heard of Shiny Object Syndrome?

Well, it's a real problem for business owners in the online world.

Shiny Object Syndrome is when you get distracted by the next new thing out there before you have finished giving the method you were working on a proper chance.

There is so much great information out there that it's easy to get distracted trying out all these methods. But if you never give one of them the time required to make a significant difference in your business, you'll just keep hopping from one thing to the next.

Every time a client joins my program I tell them to ignore every other program and strategy out there for our 16 weeks together.

That way, when they invest their time and money in my strategy, they see it through and make it work.

So when you start with a method or strategy, focus on it and give it time before you start looking for the next one.

Blinkers on, double down and the results will come.

Growing your business online through social media is all about connecting.

Connecting to your ideal clients in comments and direct messages on Instagram and connecting with other leaders to cross share audiences.

This is where we adopt the belief of community over competition.

By connecting with someone similar to you on Instagram and doing joint content together (IGTV or a LIVE) you both benefit from each others audiences.

You are still two different people and therefor not in competition with one another. Clients who gravitate towards you won't gravitate towards someone else.

We make our decisions to work with people we can resonate with.

There is huge power in cross sharing audiences. Seek out collaborations that you can see as mutually beneficial and create great content together.

Being forced abruptly online because of COVID 19 is a blessing in disguise!

Focus your time on an organic social media marketing strategy. This will save costs and allow you to grow at a steady rate.

Shift out of sessions and into selling transformations.

Track every process you have so that you can automate and outsource quicker.

Social media is a broad topic with many platforms and methods out there that work. Focus on one and master it before you move on.

Connect! The key to your online success lies in the connections you make and relationships you formulate.