Hello Nate,
I currently work in-house with an agency in Europe and I am working towards starting my own SEO consulting business sometime next year targeting the HVAC niche. My target market is the United States and Canada and I am trying to figure out the best way to go about this since I do not reside in either country. Firstly, I need to navigate the process of registering the business and secondly getting clients. My question is on client acquisition:
In your experience are there any benefits to niching down to specific industry than going broad e.g targeting 'home services'
Apart from referral from existing clients, which client acquisition strategies worked for you?
I am thinking of building some leadgen properties, rank them in specific cities and use that as a leverage to approach potential clients (since I could guarantee some leads from my leadgen properties). Is this still a good strategy? The challenge here could be fewer leads since there is no GBP linked to any of the leadgen properties.
I look forward to your response.
Hello teebosa,
Thank you for visiting our forum and asking a great question!
Niching down to a specific industry helps with client acquisition in many different ways, one you can market specifically to your target audience versus using broad terms or messaging. Also, it helps establish you as an authority on the subject and makes building topical authority around your industry much easier.
The very first step to niching down is understanding your clients pain points such as during the summer they are going to want to target AC keywords and during the winter they will want to target heating, furnace repair etc.. and then being able to get your messaging down so it's like you are specifically speaking to them about their problems and guess what? You have the solution!
You can get a better picture of what your target audience does, where they hang out, and more using systems like SparkToro. In this industry I had great success showing up in person with some licorice and my stickers on the tub which I left with the gatekeeps (receptionists) since that isn't an option I think your strategy is a good one, I use to do something similar with Google Maps. Also, don't forget to use video because this helps build trust that you aren't just some scammer in another country. Your biggest issue is establishing that connection I use a variety of different strategies and techniques such as social media, YT, Ads, and organic SEO to acquire clients.