Are you looking to grow your service business or expand your online offerings? I’m Suzanne McDonald with Angles & Insights, and here’s a formula to create a turnkey offer for service-based businesses.
Provide a Limited-Time Special Offer
When your product is really a service, it can be really challenging to get people to sign on when they don’t really want to put up a whole bunch of money all at once. So a quick way to do it would be to design a limited-time special offer, maybe it’s a free coaching session or a bundled service—something that offers a great deal without a huge commitment. You can entice folks to try before they buy.
Use an Online Scheduling Tool
A first step when you want to set up an online offer is to investigate an online scheduling tool like YouCanBook.Me or Calendly. What it allows you to do is set office hours and embed that grid into your website. So when someone comes to your website and they want to schedule something with you, they can pick a time that works for both of you. It integrates into your Google Calendar. You can use your Google Calendar to remove a certain time slot—let’s say you’re busy, you have a doctor’s appointment. Both YouCanBook.Me and Calendly have freemium offers, which means there are free versions. There are also paid versions said to have more integrations, such as integrations with PayPal.
Have a Landing Page on Your Website
So from there, once you have that booking tool set up, what you want to do is have it on what’s called a landing page on your website. What is a landing page? It’s something that is not in your navigation typically; it’s a link from your special offer. If your special offer is existing outside—through a different networking group, let’s say—they’ll click on a link that will bring them to a landing page, so people aren’t just coming to your website and stumbling upon it.
Focus Exclusively on the Offer
There are a few key things to keep in mind with your landing page. You want to be focused exclusively on that offer. A lot of times you don’t even want to have your navigation on your landing page. You want to make sure that the images and the words match what’s on the offer. Let’s say it’s on Facebook. When they click on that link and they go to your website they see the same headline and the same images. Those are really important.
Think about how distracted people are. They want to make sure that they’re making that connection and they don’t say, “Hey, why did I end up here?” and click away. Your landing page ties together all the details of your special offer, whether it’s free coaching or some great package. It’s going to let somebody book a time slot right away using an online booking tool like YouCanBook.Me or Calendly, and even pay you.
About Suzanne McDonald
Former Boston Globe journalist and CEO of Angles & Insights marketing consultancy, Suzanne is an omnivore of all things new media & client success. She’s pioneered award-winning courses at area universities and digital marketing campaigns, including “Best Viral Video Award” for #Ticknado.
Suzanne also founded and curates Newport Interactive Marketers networking-learning community, providing marketing insights to SEOs, social, PR & content pros and to brands and nonprofits big and small.
Suzanne holds a master’s in Mass Communications and Journalism from University of South Carolina and engineered a BA into a journalism program at Framingham State University, magna cum laude.
She has 15 years’ experience at daily newspapers, 6 at The Boston Globe, until she took a voluntary buyout to launch Designated Editor in 2008. In 2015, Suzanne launched Angles & Insights to better reflect her expanded abilities to meet clients’ needs beyond SEO, social & content.
Suzanne has a rare ability to solve clients’ root problems with technology that removes guesswork and makes employees’ lives better. Current Angles & Insights projects harness technology – like CRM, marketing performance, and Analytics – to drive not just clicks and engagement but sales and brand loyalty.