You have built your website and your business is up and running, but things aren’t going quite as fast as you would like. This is entirely normal for any new enterprise and there are a few things you can be doing to speed things up. In fact, there are three things you can start doing right now with very little cost.
Social Media
If you want lots of people to see your business, social media is absolutely the way to go. As of June 2017, Facebook has 2 billion monthly users. Now, obviously not all of those 2 billion users will be interested in your business, but the best thing about social media giants like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter is that they allow you to target the people who are.
Start your Facebook journey with a basic business page. This will tell people who you are, where you are and what you do. It’s a good idea to give your business a bit of personality here, and you might consider posting pictures of staff socials, comments on today’s news and any interesting insights you have come across as well as your own content.
Once your page is made, you can start to target specific audiences with Facebook ads. Since this is also Facebook’s best source of revenue, they are more than happy to provide you with all the info you need to optimise and distribute your ads. Keep a note of what is working best and always do several ads to make comparisons. It’s a lot easier than it might sound but it does take practice!
While you are busy conquering Facebook, it’s a good idea to have a look at their sister site, Instagram. You might think that Instagram is just about pictures and short videos, and you would be right, but an eye-catching image or video is a perfect way to draw people to your site. And you can advertise here too.
Twitter may not have the same number of users as Facebook, but it is still a brilliant resource for finding new clients. Adding hashtags to your tweets will immediately give people an opportunity to find you, and you can join conversations that are already happening across the world. Ads on Twitter work in a similar way to Facebook: you can choose your audience, set a budget and amplify tweets you have already composed.
You could also treat Twitter as a networking site. Follow brands around your location as well as the kind of brands you might like to work with. This method will help to establish your business in your location. There are all sorts of follower growth tools you may wish to look into once you are comfortable using Twitter. These platforms help you find people interested in the sorts of things you will be tweeting about and by following them, you are encouraging them to follow you back.
The real networking site, LinkedIn is a professional social network. This is a great place to share your content, link back to your business website and make new professional acquaintances. LinkedIn is a great place to share (and make the most of) business advice, but you can advertise here too.
It is important to remember that your personal profile on LinkedIn will reflect upon your business as you will be listed as an employee. The advantage is that you can give your brand a face and make connections personally as well as professionally.
Between the three social giants, your business will gain valuable customers, social followers and potentially brand ambassadors too. If you don’t do anything else, you must join at least one of these social sites. That, and you should make some awesome content too.
Image Credit: Pixabay
Create Content
Content is King. How many times have you heard that? It may sound clichéd now, but the adage holds true. People love reading content and watching content and looking at content. In fact, your digital marketing content is probably the best way to draw people to your site. Customers like to know that businesses are looking out for their needs so take the opportunity to show them you care.
Write Blogs
Blogs are the standard form content takes. This is certainly no bad thing – if you can write an interesting and relevant blog, people will certainly read it and maybe even share it too. Blogs are a great place to show off new products, talk about the team, share advice and even insert relevant links back to your site too.
It’s a good idea to vary your blogs and decide how many – roughly – you are going to write each week. The most important thing is that your blogs aren’t too random. You must always be able to link a blog back to your business in some way because that is what your readers are expecting.
Make Videos
Video is taking over the internet, and it is definitely a great way to market your business. You could do simple interviews or video diaries about your business, or you could go full-scale ad and create something really spectacular to share on your social media. The important thing to remember is that you must hold your audience’s attention for the full length of the video for maximum impact. This probably means that your videos should be no longer than 2 minutes.
Create Guides
People like to learn how to do things for themselves, so creating guides is a brilliant idea. Not only are you giving your audience exactly what they want to know, but you are also demonstrating your expertise as a business. Sharing knowledge like this improves the relationship between you and your customers as they will come to trust you and see you as an open and honest company.
Gated Content
If you want your content to work a little bit harder, make it accessible only to people who give you some details such as their name and email address. Downloadable guides and whitepapers are ideal for this sort of thing as customers are more likely to provide an email address for something with a bit more weight.
Data collection is the perfect way to see what your customers want from you, but it is mostly used to create an email marketing list. With all those email addresses, you can advertise to your customers directly knowing that they already agreed to hear from you. You could send offers, links to your site and make them aware of all sorts of news and content this way.
Have Fun
There are so many different types of content; the world really is your oyster. You should have some fun with your content, mix things up and figure out what your audience is looking for. Consider the fact that different forms of content are better for different ideas; a picture gallery of your work’s night out would be brilliant, but a video would be better for explaining how to use a product. Similarly, a blog is great for sharing a small(ish) idea, but a guide is better for long-form writing with plenty of details.
Image Credit: Flickr
It’s All About Interaction
Social media, content, and email marketing are all great ways to boost your business online. While each works well on its own, you would be well advised to create cross-channel campaigns to reach as many people as possible. Using one brand message in multiple formats across different channels will help you to reach many different audiences with content tailored to them.
But, once you have created your campaign, it’s not yet time to rest on your laurels. Social campaigning is about interaction with your audience so you need to be as responsive as you can. For small companies and new enterprises, this can be a lot to take on all at once, so it is well worth considering using a digital marketing agency, at least to get you started.
Email Campaigns
If you have a database of email addresses, then email campaigns are a perfect way to reach your customers directly with personalized messages. You might want to use an email to tell them about new deals or products on offer, but you could also direct them to the content you have created or encourage them to follow you on social media.
Creating an email is quite simple, but if you want it to look amazing, it may be worth outsourcing to a specialist company. Bear in mind that lots of people will ignore a basic-looking email as they don’t look as professional as the e-shots they get all the time from big name brands. Try experimenting with different layouts, pictures and even moving components to really catch their attention.
With a boost from online marketing, your business will be in the best possible position to flourish. Talking to customers and clients, tailoring content for them and being responsive on social media are all great ways to improve your brand appeal and gain followers. And the more followers you have, the more conversions you are likely to get.
It’s time to get started!
