Quick answer
Prioritize the marketing activity that addresses your biggest obstacle to getting clients. If people can’t find your business on Google, work on SEO. But if your website gets visitors but few inquiries, improve your website copy and calls to action. If you rely entirely on referrals, build another way for potential clients to discover you. You don’t need to work on every marketing channel at once. Identify what’s missing, fix that first, then decide what deserves your attention next.
You started your business to do the work you’re good at and also enjoy… Definitely not to spend half your week figuring out what to post on Instagram, or chasing the next referral.
Marketing can easily become another full-time job when you’re trying to be visible everywhere. But sometimes, the opposite happens: you’re so busy serving clients that marketing gets pushed to the back burner. Then work slows down, and you’re panicking to find your next client.
Either way, the goal is to decide what you need to focus on so you don’t spread yourself thin and can build a strategy that keeps working in the background, even when you’re busy serving clients. That’s what we’ll explore in this article.
- How to decide which marketing strategy to prioritise
- How to tell which marketing activities are worth your time?
- When should you prioritize your website?
- What role should social media play?
- How to build a marketing system that works 24/7
- Sold Out SEO: the marketing system that helps you put the pieces together
- FAQ
How to decide which marketing strategy to prioritize
Before you decide if you need to spend more time on your website, social media, networking or email marketing, look at these 2 things:
- how your most recent clients have been finding you
- how much effort it’s been requiring from you. Is it a “healthy level” of effort or the kind of effort that drains you while giving little results?
These different scenarios require different decisions, because adding another marketing channel before understanding what’s already working can leave you with more tasks and very little improvement in your results.
Start by answering these 3 questions.
1) Where do your best clients come from?
Beyond the total number of inquiries, take into account which sources bring people who value your expertise and are a good fit.
2) What happens before someone becomes a client?
A referring partner might introduce someone to your business, but that person may still visit your website, read your sales page and check your credentials before contacting you. Your website definitely needs to help you get more clients even when it isn’t the original source of the inquiry.
3) What would you like to change in your current client-acquisition strategy?
You might want more inquiries from Google (who wouldn’t?), fewer conversations with people who aren’t a good fit, or a more reliable flow of bookings that doesn’t depend entirely on someone recommending your business.
Your answers will help you identify the source of the problem you’re trying to solve.
For example, if you’re getting clients through referrals but it’s unpredictable, you may want to build another source of inquiries that works in the background. If people visit your website but rarely contact you, you need to improve your website copy before investing more time in attracting new visitors.
To summarize, you need to choose your next marketing activity based on what your business needs and your capacity. Your business is unique, and so are you, I know this sounds cliché, but that’s true… And as I always say, cookie-cutters belong in the kitchen, not in the marketing strategy department.
How to tell which marketing activities are worth your time?
Some marketing strategies don’t bring you instant results. For example, someone might discover your business through a Google search, read an article, return to your website a few weeks later and book an appointment 3 months after. Tracking your actions and results will help you see what’s been working.
But don’t worry, you don’t need a complicated spreadsheet with 10 tabs and 30 things to track… That’s another full-time job (and sounds like a nightmare for many of us…).
For each marketing strategy, consider three things:
- What does this activity help me achieve? For example, social media might introduce new people to your work, while your website explains your services and encourages inquiries.
- How much time does it take? Include planning, writing, publishing, replying to messages and all the little jobs that seem to multiply around the original task.
- What results can I connect to it? Look at relevant website visits, inquiries, bookings, email sign-ups or sales. I’d definitely recommend taking likes and reach out of the picture. They’re never proportional to your number of clients, from experience.
A social media post that receives decent engagement but brings no client isn’t really useful compared to a website page that brings in visitors who inquire. And talking about engagement, you also need to see who actually engages: peers or potential clients?
Attending a networking event that brings you 2 clients is worth your time more than a month of publishing social media content.
The number of activities you’ve completed isn’t a reliable measure of their value.
Give yourself enough time to evaluate your results, I’d say 3 months is a good average. SEO can take longer, especially if your domain name (your website address dot com) is brand new. Some marketing activities can generate immediate inquiries, while SEO generally takes longer to build visibility and produce consistent results.
A few weeks without a sale doesn’t automatically mean a strategy is failing. But you shouldn’t keep investing time indefinitely without checking if it is moving you towards your goals. That’s why consistency can be a trap if we stick to one thing without stepping back to analyze our results… (I’ve definitely fallen into that trap before… not glorious…).
Once you know what each activity brings, you can start prioritizing. (Your nervous system will thank you.)
When should you prioritize your website?
My honest answer: always (ok I’m biased… But honestly, this article will explain why: Why every service business needs a website).
I’d definitely recommend it, especially for service providers and practice owners whose clients need to trust them before making a decision.
A veterinary practice, therapist, lawyer, accountant or consultant often needs to explain more than what a service costs. Your future clients generally want to understand how your service works, if it suits their situation, what makes you qualified to help and how to get started. Your website can answer those questions before you ever speak to them.
It can also help your business be discovered when they search on Google for a solution to their problem or a professional in their area. Search engines and AI-powered search tools can indeed show them your website if it matches what they’re searching for.
If your website only has a few visitors per month
This is a sign you need to improve your SEO. (SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.) And if you’re wondering whether you should optimize for traditional search engines or for AI, don’t worry, doing one works for both.
Search engine optimization helps search engines understand your website and determine which pages are relevant to particular searches.
For example, a veterinary practice needs to appear when local pet owners search for a specific treatment or veterinary service. A consultant might want to attract a specific type of business owners rather than everyone searching for general business advice.
The goal is to attract people who are looking for what you offer.
This blog article will give you more information: Is SEO worth it for a small service business?
If people visit your website but don’t inquire
Focusing on getting more visitors won’t solve your problem. If your current visitors aren’t taking action or contacting you, it’s a copy problem.
Your messaging is probably vague and people can’t really see why they should choose you over someone else.
Effective website copy answers the questions your potential clients are already asking themselves. It explains who you help, what you do, which problems you solve and how your approach is different from everything else they might have tried. It also needs to make the next step obvious.
This article will give you more information: What to write on your website to attract clients and sell
You want your marketing to keep working between appointments
Your website can attract visitors and answer questions while you’re working with clients, taking a day off or sleeping.
That doesn’t mean a website automatically generates inquiries without a minimum of ongoing effort. It needs to be discoverable, useful, clear and maintained. SEO takes time, and website content needs to match what your potential clients are looking for.
However, once you have relevant pages showing up in search results, they can continue to attract potential clients without requiring you to monitor everything daily… (Contrary to social media.)
If you want a marketing system that works without you manually promoting your business, your website is 1000% worth it.
What role should social media play?
Social media can help people discover your business and become familiar with your work. It’s also a way to build trust and help you stay connected with existing clients and contacts.
The problem is that social media is usually treated like the default answer to every marketing challenge.
Not enough inquiries? Post more often. Low engagement? Try a different content format. Feeling invisible? Show up every day. Noooooo, I definitely don’t agree with that. Unless you genuinely love social media. If that’s your jam, go for it.
But the majority of the service business owners who become my clients usually don’t enjoy it. (One of my exceptions: I have a social media agency owner inside my Sold Out SEO Academy… Proof that a website that works for you is a good complement, even if you’re successful on social media).
I’ll never tell you to give up on social media (unless you want to). But you do need to decide what role it should play in your marketing system.
For some businesses, social media is a significant source of qualified inquiries. For others, it works better as a supporting channel. And for others, it’s a no-no. Whatever you choose, it’s ok.
And if you decide to keep using social media, you might see that one platform is enough. Choose where your potential clients are likely to spend time, rather than being on every platform just because someone said you should.
Your marketing channels should support your business goals, not create an endless list of obligations.
You can read this blog article if you want to know more about how to get clients without social media.
How to build a marketing system that works 24/7
A marketing system that works for you 24/7 needs to get you visible and attract the right people with the information and the next steps that help them solve their problem. That’s how you make them want to become clients (at least increase your chances to do so).
Instead of treating your website, SEO, content, email and social media as separate projects, consider how they can work together.
Here’s one example of how that might look for a service business.
Someone searches Google for a solution to their problem and discovers one of your blog articles. This article answers their question and links to a relevant service page. That page explains how you help, who the service is for and how to inquire.
The visitor may decide to contact you immediately. Alternatively, they might download your free resource and join your email list. (Here’s an example of a free resource that I offer). This gives you an opportunity to stay in touch until they’re ready to take the next step.
Back to your blog article, this is one piece of content hosted on a platform you own and control. You can then use social media to distribute it, for more eyeballs to see it. Pinterest is another way.
Each activity has a purpose, and the pieces support one another.
A useful marketing system starts with your services and your ideal clients. So your marketing foundation needs to identify what those people search for, what questions they need answered before buying, and which pages or resources can help them move towards a decision. You can then prioritize the marketing activities that will bring you more results.
You don’t need to build every part at once. Start with the gaps that need bridging, then develop the system as your time and resources allow.
Sold Out SEO: the marketing system that helps you put the pieces together
If you’ve been trying to improve your marketing but aren’t sure what to work on next, pause. You need a clearer plan for getting found, communicating your value and turning website visitors into clients.
That’s what Sold Out SEO™ Academy is designed to help you build, thanks to my Sold Out SEO system.
The program teaches you how to combine SEO, sales copywriting, and content that doesn’t disappear after you hit publish, so you can build a client-acquisition system centred on your website.
You’ll learn how to make your website easier to find on Google and AI-powered search, create content that attracts relevant prospects, write pages that encourage inquiries and connect your marketing activities so they support one another.
You’ll also have practical resources to work with, including templates, weekly group calls and weekday feedback on your implementation.
The program is self-paced over 6 months. This gives you time to learn the strategy and apply it to your own business with support along the way. And once the 6 months are over, you can renew monthly or at a frequency you choose (I’m flexible on purpose).
The goal is to help you develop marketing assets that can continue working after you’ve finished creating them. Your website becomes a place where people can discover your business and take the next step without you being constantly on.
Sold Out SEO™ isn’t a done-for-you service. You’ll be learning the system and implementing the work yourself, with guidance and feedback to help you make progress.
If you’re not sure whether Sold Out SEO is right for you, it’s worth working out what your marketing actually needs.
Start with a free marketing priority call
You could spend the next six months trying to improve your SEO by yourself and posting more on social media. If you haven’t identified which activities make the most sense for your business, it’s difficult to know where your time and money are best spent.
During a free 20-minute marketing priority call, we’ll discuss how you’re currently getting clients, what you’d ideally like that to look like, and whether a website-centred client-acquisition system is the right fit for your business.
I’ll help you identify where to focus: your website, social media or another complementary strategy.
Then, if using your website to attract the right people and turn them into clients with copy is the right next step, Sold Out SEO™ can help you put the pieces together.
Book your free 20-minute marketing priority call. No strings attached. This free call doesn’t commit you to anything and I won’t chase you. (I can’t stand those tactics.)
Key takeaways
- Start by identifying where your best clients currently come from and what you want to change about your marketing.
- Measure marketing by relevant inquiries, bookings and sales, not simply by the amount of content you publish or the engagement it receives.
- Prioritize your website when it’s currently not doing anything for you
- Use social media how YOU choose to.
- Connect SEO, useful content, persuasive website copy and clear next steps so your marketing activities support one another.
- Start with ONE thing, instead of trying to improve every channel at once.
- Book a free marketing priority call if you need help deciding where to focus before committing to a new strategy.
FAQ – Marketing strategies for small business: what should you prioritize?
It depends on your audience, services, goals and current sources of inquiries. A local professional may benefit from local SEO and a well-written service page, while another business may generate more suitable leads through referrals, networking or an established email audience. Identify where your potential clients look for help and choose channels that connect with those behaviours.
There isn’t one ideal number of hours. Your available time, growth goals and existing client workload all need to be taken into account. Start by deciding how much time you can realistically allocate, then prioritize activities linked to your most important marketing goal. Track the time required and the results produced so you can adjust your schedule based on evidence rather than arbitrary posting targets.
Totally up to you. It depends on your budget and how involved you want to be. Hiring a specialist can make sense when you need expert implementation or don’t have the time to learn and apply SEO yourself. Learning SEO can be a good option if you want to understand your website, make improvements independently and build long-term marketing skills.
Yes, absolutely. You can attract clients through organic search, referrals, partnerships, email marketing, networking and other channels. Which combination works depends on your services and audience. If social media takes considerable time without producing suitable inquiries, it’s worth evaluating whether another channel deserves more attention. Sold Out SEO also teaches you these strategies.
Look at your website traffic (your number of visitors), the search terms bringing visitors to your pages, the pages people visit before enquiring and the number of relevant inquiries or bookings you receive. Google Search Console can show which searches generate impressions and clicks, while website analytics and enquiry records can help you understand what visitors do next. Remember that some clients may discover you through one channel and use your website later to check your credibility before making contact.
SEO results vary depending on your website’s existing visibility, competition, the searches you’re targeting and the improvements you make. This blog article will give you a more detailed answer: How long does SEO take to bring in clients?
SEO helps people discover your website through search engines. It’s the home for one type of evergreen marketing strategy. Evergreen marketing refers to content and resources that remain useful over time and can continue supporting your marketing without needing to be recreated for every campaign. A well-optimised article that answers a question your potential clients regularly ask can serve both purposes, attracting visitors through search and helping them understand your services.
Still not sure where to focus your marketing effort?
Knowing what to prioritize is the first step. The next is connecting your SEO, website copy and content so they work together to attract potential clients and turn them into inquiries. That’s what I help you build inside Sold Out SEO™ Academy.
Not sure whether it’s the right next step for your business? Book a free 20-minute marketing priority call, and we’ll figure out where to focus first.
Talk soon,
Morgane
Sales Copywriter & SEO Strategist for Service Providers and Practice Owners
