Marketing A Small Business Online Starts With Picking And Mastering One Strategy
When marketing a small business online it is easy to get overwhelmed with the number of strategies to use, so pick one and master it.
Over the last few posts, I have spoken about the delving into your customers mindset and demographics. Who they are, where they hang out and what they are looking for as a solution? Also, I have spoken about the various stages that your customer goes through in the buying cycle which leads to making decisions.
Based on the information that you have already collected it is time to pick a marketing strategy for your business. As a small business owner or solopreneur, the thought of marketing your business may be overwhelming.
Maybe you are not aware of the marketing channels that you can leverage so I hope to alleviate those concerns today. This is a popular saying that people can become a “jack of all trades and master of none”. This is relevant to marketing a small business online because with so much choice it is easy to test the water too much.
You can find yourself getting to a point of throwing so much mud at the wall to see what sticks. Only to find out that it all falls to the floor and you become frustrated and hit hard in the wallet. With that comes a sense of panic because you can’t get anything to work and constantly trying new angles. You start to chase money and that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow gets further away. So, what can you do?
Consistency Is Key When Marketing A Small Business Online
Marketing your business online falls into the category of income producing activities and must be practiced. This must be done daily to move your business forward and you must accept that there is no silver bullet. That is in no way meant to sound negative, it is just a fact of life.
So, what would be referred to as income producing activities? Really you are limited to your imagination and marketing is better served when you become creative. If you enjoy writing, then creating your own blog for your business is a great way to deliver value. Also, it is a powerful way to establish the language and tone for your message and develop an audience and readership.
Your own blog website is a platform that you control 100% regarding what content you publish and monetize. It is a persuasive form of marketing because you can highlight problems that people are experiencing. Then through the power of building a relationship through your message you gain trust which people then act upon.
Creating videos may be your thing and I must say it is my favourite medium to use when marketing my businesses. I realise that this could be a barrier for many people because you subject yourself to public scrutiny. Saying that it is by far the most powerful strategy to create engagement with your audience.
Video hosting sites such as YouTube has hundreds of hours of video uploaded every single minute. Why is that? The reason is that people love to watch videos and during the current pandemic crisis these platforms have been a godsend.
Individuals have been under lockdown and many of them have been looking for solutions and to be entertained.
Placing Advertisements Online
One of the most powerful income producing activities you can do is placing advertisements online. This is where the rubber meets the road because you are putting yourself at the forefront of the publics gaze.
This can become a scary proposition because you are literally putting your money where your mouth is. I say this because every time someone clicks on your ad it costs you money.
They could be simple text ads, video or an image designed to catch the eye. Regardless of what they are there is one metric that you must keep a close eye on. That is return on investment, or (ROI) for short, because for every $1 you spend must have more coming back. Hundreds and thousands of dollars can easily slip through your fingers if you are not careful.
Everything I have mentioned up to now has one very powerful thing in common and that is content. Every piece of marketing that you create will revolve around content so you must become good at it.
To do that relies on what I said earlier which is being consistent at creating it daily. As time goes by you will better and better and I say that from experience. I love doing videos and now I feel very comfortable in front of the camera, but it wasn’t always like that.
If I look back at my earlier creations, then they feel a bit clunky on how I presented them. Practice makes you feel more comfortable though and it is second nature for me wherever I am to press the record button. What I will say though is that I have always delivered value to my audience which is the most important thing.
Choosing Your Marketing Channel & Strategy
You may already have an idea of which marketing channel you want to leverage because you know where your customers hang out. If not here are some options for you to investigate to see which is the best fit.
I will start with social because it is the platform that people first think about when marketing a small business online. The big daddy of them all is Facebook which currently has over 1.5 billion active users so there is huge potential. That can be said for platforms such as Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp to name a few.
Then you have platforms such a YouTube which I have already mentioned and my personal favourite. I personally have hundreds of videos on my YouTube channels which organically generate views years down the line. In case you are not familiar with the term organically I will cover that shortly.
I have used YouTube extensively and it is my main marketing strategy and that is down to studying how it works. With that said though I like to keep my finger on the pulse and continue to learn. I am currently going through a new course just to hone my skills and learn new methods which are working today.
These are just a few options when it comes to social media and there are many more. It just takes a bit of research on your part to see which is best for you and the products you offer.
Search engines such as Google, Bing & Yahoo are marketing channels you can use. They have self service ad platforms to create ads and have them published in just a few minutes. It is possible to have traffic more or less instantly, but you must know what you are doing.
Paid Marketing Or Free Marketing?
Every single marketing platform I have referred to has two types of marketing strategies. They are where you pay to have people visit your pages or offers along with offering free marketing solutions.
Paid marketing is where you place those text, video and image ads for people to click on. They are then directed to your lead generation or sales pages instantly after they have clicked.
Paid marketing is designed for quick, and sometimes instant results, because you will start to receive traffic. I say that with a caveat in place because you must learn how to target, copy compliance and your metrics.
You are at the mercy of these platforms and if you do anything against their terms and conditions, they will shut you down. Businesses have been closed overnight if they are seen to fall foul and it is hard, sometimes impossible to open again.
Free marketing is often referred to as organic, especially blogging and some video creation. If you are great at creating high quality content this this may be the perfect way to build your business. It does take time so you must be patient, but it is a strategy that can work for years.
With this strategy you must learn how to create content that the search engines think is valuable. They look at many factors such as the quality along with the relevance to the subject which the content is based upon.
Creating Your Marketing Strategy
Considering all the information I have shared with you today it is now time to pick your path. You must look at the product and services you offer and what audience they are a fit for.
Then where does that audience hang out must be clarified. In many respects this will determine which marketing platform you choose. After that you must decide if you are going to invest money into that platform. Or you are going to take a more conservative approach and take the time to build things up through free marketing.
There is a lot for you to think about, but the most important thing is this. When you have made the decisions on which platform and strategy you are using you must learn them. This is crucial to your success because if you don’t you will find it hard to move forward.
Pick one platform only, stick with it and master it. Only when you have mastered do you think about looking for another platform. When that time comes you then do the same process of learning, implementing and mastering. Then it is a rinse and repeat process.
This is the marketing a small business online advice I have given to my Build Your AU mastermind members. We have gone through a comprehensive process of building authority business models. Now the group is exploring different marketing channels to then collaboratively bring idea to the table. If building your own brand online interests, you then click here to register for a video series which shows how the process works.
Helping you build your authenticity, authority and audience.
Trish Davies
Build Your AU
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