While the world around us is adjusting to a new normal, the world of business and entrepreneurship is experiencing a boom.
More and more people are ditching the nine-to-five office job for the freedom to be their own boss. Those that made the decision to go it alone can be exhilarated by the opportunities that lie ahead. However, those that made the decision to stay can be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work that lies ahead.
How can those that own and operate a business stay connected to their target audience when they are unable to physically be present?
The answer is marketing. Having a healthy marketing budget can get your product in front of the right audience at the right time. But how can you spend money efficiently when you don’t know where to start?
If you’re looking to grow your startup, here are a few ways that you can use online marketing to achieve your goals.
Focus On The Basics
The first thing to consider is focusing on the basics. While it might be tempting to throw money at the first billboard you see, that’s a mistake. You need to focus on creating a quality product that people want and then communicating that to your target audience. The better you perform on these fronts, the more effective your online marketing strategies will be.
That’s not to say that you shouldn’t spend money on other aspects of marketing. Having a top-notch website is a must. If your site isn’t secure, customers will hesitate to share confidential information.
However, you should never underestimate the power of a solid product and a good pitch. A quality product that people want will speak for itself and allow you to grow your business quickly. People may not always know what they want until you tell them. Using a tool like Seva to listen and understand their needs is essential for product development.
Once you’ve got your product ready, take a few days to reflect on what worked and what didn’t. Did you hit upon a pricing scheme that appealed to your target audience? Did you test multiple variations of your product to find the one that is most successful?
If you can answer these questions in the affirmative, you can rest assured that your next marketing project will be more effective. If you can’t, it’s time to regroup and get back to the drawing board.
Pro-Tip: Measure The Success Of Your Campaigns
A big mistake that businesses make is believing that just because they spent a certain amount of money on an online marketing campaign that it will yield the desired results. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Only after you measure the success of your campaigns can you determine how much money you should be spending.
Measuring the success of your campaigns is a complex task. You won’t always see the direct results of your campaigns right away, especially if you’re a new business. That’s why you need to take the time to step back and analyze the data. Only then can you determine if your efforts were effective or not.
There are many different metrics that you can use to measure the success of your campaigns. Some of the more common ones include:
- Page views
- Traffic
- Interactions (likes, shares, or comments)
- Return visits
- Demographics
- Top of the funnel metrics (interest, trust, or enthusiasm)
- Sales
Different factors will inform the success of your campaigns. For example, if you’re raising awareness about your product and want to see the number of people that are aware of your product increase, a marketing campaign that focuses on shares and comments will be more effective than one that focuses on page views.
Each piece of data that you can obtain about your campaign will provide you with important information about its success. By looking at the overall results of your campaigns, you’ll have a much clearer picture of how well they are performing and if they’re worth continuing or expanding.
Diversify Your Audience
In this day and age, it’s important to stay relevant to as many people as possible. One of the things that made the Renaissance Period so successful was their ability to spread throughout Europe and capture the interest of people that never heard of any of the poets or playwrights they promoted. This is called a “networking snowball effect” and it is how you develop and maintain a diverse audience.
There are several ways that you can go about doing this. The first and most obvious way is by targeting different demographics with your marketing efforts. You might want to try and attract younger audiences with your marketing content or spend more time focusing on the interests of older audiences. The more that you can appeal to the entire spectrum of people, the better.
Another way to diversify your audience is by engaging with different groups of people. You can start by engaging with your customers on social media or via email to get feedback and determine what they want and need. From there, you can determine how best to provide value that will keep them interested in your product or service. Some businesses provide perks or coupons for people that follow them on social media. This is a simple yet effective way to build credibility with current and potential customers.
As an entrepreneur, you’re probably used to hearing that your product or service will appeal to a certain audience. However, that doesn’t mean that it will be easy to reach them. Even when you have the best product or service in the world, it won’t matter if no one is listening. The only way to get people’s attention is to put yourself in their shoes and imagine how you would feel if you were in their position. Only then can you develop the right marketing strategy to reach them.
Target The Right Locations
It isn’t enough to simply have a product or service that people want. You need to understand that not everyone wants the same thing and that you should not offer the same thing to everyone. This is especially important if you’re growing your business organically, (i.e. you didn’t spend money on advertising) as you don’t want to dilute your audience.
You can target different locations to reach people with your marketing efforts. If you want to grow your business in Australia, for example, you can start by looking at the Australia Post Office (Australia’s largest postal service) directory to see which businesses are located in that area. You can also look at the White Pages to see which businesses are registered there.
After you’ve got your business listings, you can use a service like Seatbelt to find the telephone numbers and emails of those businesses that you contacted.
The advantage of having a business in a particular location is that you can target people that are already interested in your product or service. This is especially effective if you are looking to grow your business organically as you can avoid the costly and time-consuming process of getting to know new customers. Instead, you can use what you know about existing customers to tailor your marketing strategy.
Grow Your Email List
An entrepreneur’s worst nightmare is getting stuck with a bad email list. If you are unable to grow your business due to a lack of awareness among your email audience, you are essentially wasting your time and money. The same way that social media can help you stay connected to your audience, email can do the same for you. Every business, big or small, should have an email list and you should be using email marketing to grow your business. That way, you can ensure that you’re keeping up with the ever-changing world of communications and keep your customers informed about new products and offers. (See also: How to Start an Email Marketing Campaign)
There are several ways that you can get started with email marketing. One of the simplest is to take advantage of the services that most companies offer for free. You can sign up for a free trial or use a service like AWeber to get started.
Run Advertorials
This is a form of advertisement where a product or service is introduced in the form of an article or editorial. In most cases, the product or service is provided by the company that publishes the editorial. In some instances, the product is also featured in the editorial. This is a popular method among news publishers as it provides them with additional content and the opportunity to build credibility with their audience.