The Many Ways to Market your Business
Marketing is made up of many tools, methods, tactics and strategies working together to get the word out about you, your product and service, and your company.
You can’t just use one marketing tool of advertising to spread the word - we now have a wider range of tools to consider putting in the mix of a marketing plan, and one of the most important things for you to understand is that your customers and prospects react differently to different marketing tools available.
These days it’s all about knowing your customer and where to engage with them.
So starting at the beginning : What are some of the most common marketing items that a business initially needs to get going in the Print area?
- Business Card
- Email Signature – remember you can add to these with things like : This months special, Reminders, new product release etc
- Word Doc Letterhead
- Flyer
- Brochure
- Pricelist
Then they will want to develop a Website.
What are some of the main things to consider when developing a website?
- Is your website to be a Profile or Ecommerce site
- Must be Mobile Friendly
- Build a list of Keywords and Phrases of your business
- Maybe get a Copywriter involved – helps with SEO
- Develop a sitemap to establish content, images and navigation
- Check out your Competition – see what they are doing you like and don’t like and do it better!
Mobile Stats:
Google says 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing and 40% visit a competitor’s site instead.
So looking at a Home Page layout -
What are some of the most common elements to consider?
- Make sure the businesses purpose is immediately clear
- Logo
- Image – picture speaks a thousand words
- Easy to navigate – not overloaded
- Contact info – phone and email
- Call to action
- Testimonial
- Sign up for Newsletter
- Using Keywords and Phrases
- You may have seen sites where the whole screen is an image but their copy is all below when you scroll down – it is very important to have all your keywords on the home page for Google search engines to find and recommend you.
- Video
- Social Media buttons
What are common Navigation pages within a website?
Home – About – Services – Products – Contact – FAQs – Testimonials – Gallery – Case Studies
All these other pages, besides Home and Contact, are opportunities to inform and educate your viewer so don’t be afraid to fill them out with lots of information to answer all their questions – this builds credibility for you and helps Google search.
Google is seeking to provide more accurate answers to queries so there is more importance placed on content being useful. And it is increasingly looking for content that is relevant and trusted – content with authority. Authority is gauged by links and references from reputable sites and social sharing.
Once again know your audience and engage with them.
One page I will expand on is the:
Case Studies Page
Case studies are an invaluable asset when it comes to establishing proof that what you're offering is valuable and of good quality.
The Goal, The Approach, The Result
+ Client comment of happy ending!
You can also squeeze a lot of value out of them:
- Sample on your Home page
- Write about them in a Blog
- Add a Video testimonial about the job + from the client is very powerful
- Post on other Social Media sites – esp You Tube
- Use in Email Marketing
- Use in Print Newsletter
- Equip your team with Case Studies
- Add a link to your Case Study in your email signature
- Use Case Studies in Training
So the website is all finished and live – just remember it should be added to Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools – this submits the sitemap of a site.
Stat : Google owns more than 70% of the Global Search Engine Market
So it pays to keep in with Google!
Now we move onto Internet or Online Marketing.
It is a way for many businesses to reach thousands of their target market.
Online Marketing is divided into different types:
Affiliate Marketing:
It is a marketing practice wherein a business pays an online retailer, e-commerce site or blog for each visitor or sales that these websites make for their brand.
Display Advertising:
This refers to advertisement banners that are displayed on other websites or blogs to boost traffic for their own content. This, in turn, can increase product awareness.
Email Marketing:
From the name itself, this is a marketing process that involves reaching out to your customers via email from your compiled database.
Inbound Marketing:
This type of Internet marketing involves sharing of free valuable content to your target market to convince them to become your loyal customer. This could be done by setting up a business blog.
Search Engine Marketing:
This is a form of marketing that promotes a business through paid advertisement that appears on search engine result pages. This includes paid placement, contextual advertising, paid inclusion or through search engine optimization.
Search Engine Optimization:
Contrary to SEM, SEO uses the unpaid and natural process of promoting content on SERPs (search engine results pages). This includes keyword research and placement, link building and social media marketing.
Social Media Marketing:
Based on its name, social media marketing is the process of promoting a business through various social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and more.
So how and where do you engage with your customers?
“Social Media is not going away : it’s up to businesses to board the train or get left on the platform.”
- You can build relationships with other businesses
- Generate enhanced exposure of your business
- Develop brand loyalty
Check out what SM channels your competition is on and what are they doing.
To engage online with your customers you need to know where they hang out to put the effort into developing the right channel or channels.
What are some of the most common SM channels:
- Facebook – FB Live – live streaming (Periscope – live video/360 video)
- You Tube
- Blog
- Google+
Ways to boost social engagement:
- SM and visual content go hand in hand – images result in greater interaction
- Games, Contest, Giveaways
- Ask questions and invoke conversation
- Link and Participate – be a guest blogger
- Don’t be afraid to show your personality
- Post frequently and consistently – respond quickly and thoroughly – not just ‘yes’ or ‘no’
- Get timing right when posting – each has it’s own optimum time
for example FB on average 1-4pm getting the highest click throughs, worst is weekends before 8am and after 8pm - Also FB algorithm will favour an original post, over commenting on a post, over sharing a post, over liking a post.
- Also the more you are active the more you will ‘reach’ – you may have noticed when you go back into FB after not being active on it for a while and you post something – the reach will be low – in other words for all the ‘likes’ you have on your page it will only reach a few of them - not all.
I have briefly covered ways to market a business and as you can see there is a lot to decide on when developing a marketing plan for a business.
From print to web and online – using various strategies to engage your target market.
I know this can all seem overwhelming but that’s what I’m here for – to guide businesses through the steps and work with their timing and budget.
So give me a call today and let's get you started - phone 021 2121306 or email me.
I look forward to hearing from you!