Client | Connect Introduction

Hey there! It's Chris, your friendly neighborhood Internet Sherpa.

Let's talk a little Local Online Marketing.

It's not really a hard subject, but it can definitely be confusing.

You've got a lot of advice coming at you from a lot of different sources.
So I thought put this guide together and do my Independents a solid.

This guide has one purpose.

To make it make sense.

This isn't going to be a deep dive into individual tactics. Instead, it's a big picture look at what you're supposed to be doing online to attract new customers and how to do it without making marketing more complicated than it needs to be.

Let's jump in.

The Purpose of Marketing

When you cut through all the fancy terminology, the purpose of online marketing is simply to help you move someone from being a complete stranger to becoming a customer, and eventually a loyal customer.

There's no way to know where someone will first bump into you online. It could be at Google. It could be on Instagram. It could be Yelp.

Where they bump into you doesn't matter. What matters is that, wherever that is, what they see helps move them one step closer to contacting you and becoming a customer.

Here's the important part. Each platform has a different job to do. Each one helps people answer a different question about you.

Once you understand what job each platform is supposed to perform, your marketing can stop feeling like a random collection of tasks and you can start making it work like a system.

Your online marketing has to Help You accomplish four jobs:

Help people find you.
Help people understand you.
Make it easy to contact you.
Help you maintain contact.

Let's take those one at a time...

Job 1: Help People Find You

The first job of your online marketing is making sure people can find you when they're online looking for what you offer. That sounds obvious, but there's an important detail to keep in mind.

People will have a hard time finding you if the platforms they use don't understand you.

When I say "understand," I don't mean that the way people understand things.

Platforms are just algorithms and computer programs. They don't see people or businesses. They see data.

They compare inputs from different sources to make sure it all says basically the same thing.

When your information is consistent, they become more confident about who you are and who should see your business. When your information is out of sync, they're less confident and less likely to show you to potential customers.

And different platforms learn about your business in different ways.

Some platforms, like Google and Apple Maps, gather information from your website, your socials, your reviews and other spots around the internet to build a picture of your business.
Others, like Facebook, Instagram, and Yelp, are more self-contained. They primarily learn from what happens inside their own platform.
This includes your posts, reviews, comments, and responses.

This is why one of the most important things you can do is create a single source document that describes your business. Then use that same information everywhere your business appears online.

The goal here is simple. Give every platform the same clear picture of your business so they know when to show you to potential customers.

Once people can find you, your next job begins: helping them decide whether you're the right choice.

Job 2: Help People Understand You

Many Independents think online marketing ends once someone finds them online.
It doesn't. That's just the start point.

Job 1 was all about helping platforms understand you.
Job 2 is about helping people understand you.

When people first discover you, they rarely reach out immediately. They check you out online to see what you're all about.

They jump from your website to your Instagram, to your reviews, and anywhere else they can find information about you, trying to answer two simple questions:

Can you Solve My Problem?

Do I want to Work with YOU?

Of all the places they can look at online, these three do most of the heavy lifting.

Your Website:
Your website is where you explain your business.
It's where people learn what you do, who you help, and whether you're capable of solving their problem.

It's also the only piece of digital real estate you actually own and control, making it the foundation of your online presence.
Your Reviews:
Reviews are different because they're written by your customers, not by you. They give your future customers an opportunity to learn about your business from people who have already worked with you.
They are one of the most trusted sources of information about your business. That's why understanding how to use them effectively is so important.
Your Social Media:
Social media gives people a chance to get to know the person behind the business.
It shows how you communicate, what you care about, and what it's like to work with you.
That's why posting just to be posting misses the point. The goal is to give people a place where they can feel like they know you before they call.

Everything Works Together

The takeaway is simple. Different people respond to different information. No single platform tells your whole story, but each one helps people answer a different question about you.

When those platforms work together, people build a clearer picture of who you are, what you do, and why they should feel comfortable contacting you.

And sometimes, that's all the opening you need.

Job 3: Make It Easy to Contact You

When you get to this part of the process, you've done the hard part. You got the people you want to work with to look at you.

They're either on your website, scrolling through your social media, reading a few reviews, or checking you out somewhere else online.

Now it's time to do something with that attention.

The thing to keep in mind is that online attention doesn't last very long. You've only got about three seconds to do something with it.

Because information is so easy to get to online, we've been trained to be impatient. The next option is always just one click away.

When people discover you online, they're usually in one of two modes:
Buy Now or Buy Later.

If they're in Buy Now mode, they know exactly what they want. They're ready to book an appointment, request an estimate, or call your office.

Buy Later people aren't quite there yet. They're looking for information to help them make the best choice. That could be anything from a report on your website to an explainer video on your YouTube channel .

When you help them get where they're trying to go, they begin to see you differently.

You're no longer just one of many options. You've become someone who helped them.

Both types of visitors are valuable, so make it easy for each of them to do what they came to do.

You've already earned their interest. Don't waste it by making them work to find what they need.

Remember, there are plenty of other businesses out that are always just one click away.

Job 4: Help You Maintain Contact

Here’s a question where the answer sounds like common sense, but usually gets overlooked:

Who is more likely to buy from you, someone who already knows you, or a total stranger?

The answer is obvious, but you'd be amazed at how little effort most Independents put into to the people who already know they exist.

To be clear, I’m referring to two groups of people: your past customers, and the people who haven't bought yet but have shown real interest.

They’re the folks on your email list, the connections you made at a networking event, people who've responded to a promotion or contacts that are buried in your phone.

What makes these people so valuable is that you have a way to reach them. You don't have to hope they remember you.

So why don't more Independents market to these people?

Usually it comes down to a few assumptions.

Assumption #1: Once a customer gets through the door, your job is done.
Assumption #2: If you do quality work, your clients will automatically return the next time they need your service.
Assumption #3: If a prospect reaches out to you for information, they'll call you when they're ready to make a purchase.

None of those assumptions holds up under scrutiny.

Here's the honest truth: people are people. Life gets busy and folks have a lot going on.

They simply forget about you.

That is why having a list of contacts is such a powerful business asset. It means you don't have to cross your fingers and hope. You can actively stay in touch.

Of course, staying in touch doesn't mean constantly selling.
You don't want to be that business that only sends offers and aggressive promotions.

If the only time you reach out is when you're trying to sell something, people will tune you out pretty quickly.

Instead, your goal is to build a relationship.

Every helpful email, useful tip, answered question, or relevant update helps people see you as a trusted resource instead of just another business trying to make a sale.

Promotional messages still have their place, but they shouldn't be the only conversation you're having with your audience.

Staying connected doesn't have to become another full-time job. There's no need to blast something out to your list a couple of times a week.

You just need to stay in the conversation.

Eventually, the need for what you do will come back around. When it does, reaching out won't feel like taking a chance on a stranger.

It'll feel like contacting someone they already know and trust.

The Hidden Piece That Holds Everything Together

Up to this point, we've talked about the four jobs your marketing needs to accomplish. But there's one more job that makes all of the others possible over the long term.

It's the one that Independents struggle with the most: knowing how to fit marketing tasks into your regular routine.

Making It Sustainable

For successful businesses, online marketing is a routine business process. For too many Independents, it's item number 11 on the list of 10 most important things to do everyday.

Your goal is turn your online marketing into a simple system that’s easy to execute instead of something you constantly have to remember to do.

The easiest way to do that is by breaking your marketing into small, repeatable tasks that easily fit into your regular routine.

Some tasks, like adding new contacts or responding to unique situations, will naturally stay manual.

Others, like review requests, rebooking messages, and sending new client information, can be automated. And then there's AI, which opens up all kinds of possibilities .

The specific tools you use in your routine aren't important. They just need to help you stay consistent.

When you do that, marketing stops feeling like a chore and simply becomes part of how you run your business.

Wrapping Up

Successful marketing isn't about executing a series of complex strategies. It's about consistently doing the few things that help people find you, understand you, contact you, and remember you.

Now that you understand what each part of your online marketing is supposed to do, you can stop treating it like a collection of random tasks and start building a system that fits your business.

See an Example

If you’d like to see an example of a what a repeatable online marketing process looks like, click the link below and download my Local Marketing Playbook.

It fills in details we couldn't fit into this guide and shows you how to create a process that works for your specific day-to-day realities. It's also the framework Client | Connect is built on.