Consultancy Marketing Proposal PicJohnny’s both nervous and excited. He’s on his way to his first date with Amanda, and the butterflies in his stomach are doing cartwheels. He has the flowers bought, he’s wearing his favourite shirt, and there’s a very nice restaurant table with his name on it booked for 7:30.

He arrives at Amanda’s front door and manages to get the butterflies in his stomach to fly in some sort of organised fashion as he rings the doorbell and stands back to wait.

The door swings open and Amanda appears before him. “Wow!” he thinks and hands her the flowers, stuttering “You look gorgeous”

Dinner goes well, conversation is great, and as they are waiting on dessert to arrive, Johnny takes a deep breath and asks “Look, I know it’s our first date, but let’s get married”

Amanda’s mouth drops open, and awkward silence and stuttering ensues, but she manages to get her thoughts together and reply “Let’s get to know each other first”

What she’s really thinking is “Get me out of here!!”

Too much, too soon.

Let’s apply the same thinking to your website – when someone arrives at your website, are the only 2 options to buy or leave?

If they are, then unless you’re marketing a low-value / mass-market / impulse buy product or service, you should have an option for those visitors who aren’t ready to buy yet, but might after they get to know you.

And this is especially true if you offer any sort of consulting service.

What if you offer them something in exchange for their name and email address? Build a list of potential clients who are interested in your product or service, and build a relationship with them over a period of time?

One way is with an e-book / free report / white paper. Identify who your ideal customer is, and then figure out what their burning questions are about your industry.

For example. let’s say you’re an orthodontist. You create beautiful smiles for your clients. Your know your ideal client is someone who earns above x, lives in a certain postcode area, cares about their looks, etc

You may already offer a free first consultation to try to get me as a potential client through the door, therefore my choice on your website is either to come in for a free consultation, or leave your website and (probably) not come back.

But what if you went a step further? Offer me as a visitor to your website a free report including lesser known tips on improving my smile / pointers on how treatment will benefit me / things I didn’t know about teeth straightening / etc. And I can download it just by entering my first name and email address.

Then I have a third option if I’m not quite ready for a consultation yet, and I’ve also got something I can easily read in my own time, and I haven’t made a commitment to do anything.

You, on the other hand, have got an email address for someone who’s pre-qualified themselves as being interested in your services, and (after the initial set-up) it didn’t cost you anything, or take up any time for you or your staff.

You can now start to build a relationship, send more useful tips, send me an e-card at Christmas / Easter / New Year / etc, and I can get to know you better. Become familiar with your brand.

Then maybe we can look at taking it a stage further!