A lot of people sooner or later get fed up with being someone’s employee and want to start a free sail into the business world. Every company and startup began from just an idea; some might have stopped due to a number of reasons, but some are still growing and developing. All the ideas, before turning into a successful business, are based on two pillars – seed investment and marketing. When the financial part is defined, it’s time to show your creation to people. In the time of brick-and-mortar business, the advertisement was quite costly, which was an obstacle on the way to making profit. However, the era of the Internet changed everything, including the ways of promoting business.
What are the most effective ways to advance your business through internet tools?
Social media
At least two-thirds of the world’s population use social media platforms. Initially, they served as a way of communication, however now, the functions multiplied. Social media presence is quite obligatory, as it’s the main source of communication and not just personal. According to the research, 80% of the users check the reliability of the business using its social media page, posts, and reviews. As there are various platforms used, it’s worth starting the several pages to have more influence and engage more readers.
Social media followers like to read middle- or short-lengthed posts with catchy pictures. You need to be precise in your message, and not be wordy, as your posts will be skipped.
Social media activity can help to maintain the publicity of the business, which is a highly-recommended for the starters. If there’s no time to keep the page active during the day, it’s worth having the SMM worker on the team.
Business Blog
Another useful tool to declare your existence is blogging, which allows keeping the readers engaged and informed about the news, changes, and products. Blogs, unlike social media, take more time to promote, yet they have a long-lasting effect. Blogging works beneficially if you have a high search engine ranking which requires writing the information specific to the industry where you work.
To make blogs more engaging it’s worth adding visuals like photos, diagrams, infographics, presentations, and images. It always works best when the visuals are created specifically for the website, not just borrowed from others. Luckily, there are online services that can help with creativity and personalization – timeline or slideshow maker, video makers, presentations online, etc. Using the patterns and drafts you will create high quality and informative visuals – just what you need for a blog.
The more people visit your blog and share your information, the more chances they will become your customers one day.
Online communities
Various forums and communities available in the webspace allow people to participate in discussions, share knowledge and experience, build a network of clients, introduce new services and products, etc. It is important to be very cautious when offering your services or goods, as everything that is imposed is taken suspiciously. There’s no need to force people into becoming your customer, it’s just important to show how good the produce is, letting the person choose.
If there’s no understanding of how such communities work, check for Quora or Reddit and see how everything is organized – free discussions, tips, and pieces of advice, etc, but no pushing.
SEO strategies
SEO is not just one technique to be used, it’s a set of practices that help to rank the website higher in organic search results and improve its discoverability. Effective SEO practices include title tags, meta descriptions, keyword research, using ALT text for images, a clickable phone number, etc.
Affiliates
Affiliate marketing is creating a network of people who will advertise your blog in exchange for payment, commission, or cross-advertisement. The contacts are typically made with people who have better following rates. When they share a unique link, you can trace how many new clients reached your website and pay respectively.
E-mail marketing
Direct mail shouldn’t be taken as spamming. It’s a way to let people know that you exist and that they can find you online or on social media platforms. Besides, you can send notifications about new content, goods, or services on the website and get feedback about the quality.
The most difficult task, when using this type of marketing, is to get the list of e-mails. How can you do it?
- – Create the ebooks, booklets, manuals, cards, worksheets, and handouts to share, so that people will need to register in order to get them.
- – Host the webinars or workshops, with e-mail registration.
- – Collect the emails after the purchases.
- – Newsletter offers, etc.
Customer reviews
In the Internet era getting feedback from the customer is quite easy. It defines your rate among other websites with similar products or services. It’s crucial to be responsive to the reviews and solve the issues, as it’s highly appreciated by the customers, increasing the chances of them coming back again.
Starting a business requires courage and persistence. It’s not enough to just come up with the idea; nowadays the success of the marketing approach defines how the business pace into the future. When following the above-mentioned strategies, you can reach all the anticipated goals.