Is an online presence really necessary? That depends. Do you have all
the clients you want? Do you know that in performing a simple search of the
internet for “Texas Process Servers” using Google, one of the primary search
engines, there were more than 2,000,000 (that’s two million) results. Not all of those are going to be exclusive of
one another, but if you expect to get even a small portion of the business, the
need for an online presence is pretty much a given.
So,
what do you need for an online presence? For starters consider social media.
But I’m a process server, not a techie, you moan. What do I know about social
media? Do you have opinions about your industry? Do you have helpful advice to
offer? Do you have fun or interesting information to share? Then you can do
social media. There are many different avenues for social media; some are
geared more toward business than others, so you will need to do some research
to figure out which will work best for you, your style and your business. The most important thing to remember for
social media is to be consistent. You don’t have to post something every day.
But, whether you post daily, a few times a week or a few times a month, be
consistent so that your followers will know when to look for your next helpful,
fun, or educational share.
Next, you want to consider the importance of a website for process servers. What do you
need in a website? Websites can range from relatively inexpensive and simple,
self-produced, generally template based, one page informational, no interaction-type
of sites to an expensive, custom-designed multi-page, interactive site with all
the bells-and-whistles. So how do you choose which is right for
you? First let me say, not all template
sites are inexpensive, nor are all custom-designed websites expensive; but the
wrong type of site without proper SEO (search engine optimization – which helps
you to be located in the sea of internet information) can be very costly. The
other thing you need regardless of how simple or extensive your website may be
is that it is “responsive”. Responsive
means that it can be viewed on any mobile device. If it can’t, you might as
well not even have one.
 |
| www/rtr-i.com |
To begin with, the type of website you select
will probably come down to what your budget can afford at the time. Like all business
tools, the budget should look at not just the initial cash outlay but cost over
time and ROI. Remember, as your business
grows your “tools” can always be updated in line with the growth of your
business. Feel free to take a look at my site. www.rtr-i.com.
You may think that the first step to building your website is to purchase a domain name (generally your
business name or some variation thereof) aligning with your branding, followed by a hosting service. A hosting service is the business that stores the
data for you. In reality, the first steps are to know your target market and then develop a
plan as to what message you are trying to convey to that market. Classes are
held all the time to help small businesses with website planning and design. Once you know who your target market is and what message you are trying to get across, determine your domain name and then get your hosting service. Now you are ready to begin building a site.
If you are just starting out, a basic website set up by yourself or others might
not draw in a lot of work without any “search engine optimization” or all that
fancy computer “stuff” (as I call it), but get it started. You won't be found as easily without the optimization, but you will at least be online. Over time, as your company begins to bring in
steady revenue, you can always get the right service to upgrade and enhance the
website so that customers can find it whenever they conduct a search on the
internet for a process server. What little I do know, as I am not an expert in
website design, the best thing one can do is to optimize the website so that
search engines can easily pick it up.
This requires the ability to understand “key words” and to be able to
know how to submit your website to the various search engines, like Google,
Yahoo, etc. I rely on a website hosting
service to handle this for our company.
There are also businesses, who are not hosting companies, who specialize
in search engine optimization (SEO).
Another
way to draw traffic to the website is to consider exchanging links with other
businesses as this is known to draw traffic toward your website. But first and foremost, get the site up and
running at the very least. Then, if you
have the funds, hire a “qualified” web professional who knows how to submit
your website to the search engines and knows how to push traffic towards your
website. And what I mean by qualified,
in my opinion, is ask someone who already has a website where the website is
getting traffic on it. The last thing
you want to do is spend a lot of money to have someone set up a website for you
and they promise to get the internet traffic to it, too, and then you find out
that person or company doesn’t know what they are doing and they are just
taking you for a ride on the information superhighway at your expense. Research the purchase of this tool as you would
any vital tool for your business.
If you've read my book “The Business
End of Process, Running a Process Service Company From the Ground Up” I'd appreciate a review in the comments below or where it is available on Amazon.com. If you haven't read it yet, it's an easy read with what I consider to be some handy tips for running a process service business. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=%22The+Business+End+of+Process%22&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3A%22The+Business+End+of+Process%22&ajr=0.
