In today’s world, more people are connecting online than ever before, meaning there is a huge opportunity for businesses to reach out to their customers and potential customers. However, in order to do this, you need to embrace new technologies and ways of working in order to be able to connect with your audience and grow your business.
Here, we’ll discuss how you can use online marketing to grow your business, with advice on both sides of the coin.
On the Positive Side
If you’re reading this, I assume you’re either an entrepreneur looking to get started or are already operating a business and looking for ways to improve. Hopefully, you’re seeing the value in marketing this product or service and want to expand your efforts.
With the right approach and using the right tools, you can exponentially grow your business’s reach and find new customers. Here are just a few ways to do this.
Marketing Plan
Before you begin any marketing activity, you need a plan. This plan should consist of both short- and long-term goals, as well as benchmarks to track your progress. Using a tool like Marketing Planner from BizEaze, you can create a comprehensive plan with all of the steps that may be needed to market your product or service.
You should develop this plan with the help of a marketing strategist or specialist, as they can help you choose the right platforms for the type of product you’re selling and advise you on the most effective approach to take when conducting marketing campaigns.
Create Unique Offers
The key to engaging and retaining customers is by providing them with unique offers. In order to do this, you need to have a clear understanding of what your product is and how it works. If you’re selling health and fitness products, for example, you may want to consider offering a money-back guarantee for one of your programs. This way, anyone who is interested in buying your product will know exactly what they’re getting into.
Offering some unique feature or benefit that no one else in your industry provides will engage your audience and create a competitive edge in your marketing efforts. Consider the Apple Watch. It is a smartwatch that allows you to make calls, send texts, and access the web without having to remove their Apple iPhone X from their pocket. This is a winning combination for any business, as most people own iPhones and Apple Watches.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a business owner is to try and do everything yourself. Hiring a professional to help you market your product or service is an essential part of growing your business. Having someone who is experienced and knows exactly what to do and say can help you get the most out of your online marketing efforts, resulting in higher conversion rates and more profit for your company.
Run Social Media Campaigns
You can use the ever-popular social media platforms to promote your business and gain exposure. These platforms, like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, allow businesses to connect with current and potential customers and engage them into buying products and services. To maximize your social media efforts, you need to create content that is valuable to your target audience and post regularly.
On the downside, if you don’t have a clear understanding of who your audience is and what they want, you may end up wasting your time running social media campaigns. To create effective social media content, you need to engage with your followers and potential customers using language that they can understand and value.
Forbes released a study in 2018 which found that 59% of marketers use content creation tools or platforms to generate marketing content. If this sounds like your situation, consider investing in content creation software, like Hootsuite or HubSpot, to keep track of all of your content and create customized campaigns. This allows you to precisely target your audience with the content you create, resulting in more conversions and a greater overall return on investment. With the right tools, this can be an extremely effective way to engage with your audience and grow your business.
Conduct Email Marketing
Another way to market your product or service is through email marketing. This is where you send out regular emails to your audience, promoting your business and its products or services. You can use a tool like MailChimp to easily create and send out emails that are relatively quick and simple to set up.
If you have a database of subscribers, you can use your email to promote your business and offer a special discount or coupon. You can even use your email to directly promote a specific product or service by encouraging your audience to click through to your website or social media platform to learn more about what you offer.
Many businesses completely ignore email marketing, thinking it is not worth the time and effort. However, having an open and committed relationship with your customers via email means you can keep in touch with them even when they aren’t browsing your products or services. This provides a sense of continuity and trustworthiness which may cause them to feel more engaged with your company and thus more likely to make a purchase or take action when promoted via email.
Be Active On Social Media
Finally, keep in touch with your followers and potential customers on social media. You can use a tool like Hootsuite to easily manage your Twitter account, keeping in touch with your audience and creating conversations and engaging with potential customers.
By regularly interacting with your audience, you show you are willing to listen to and value their opinion. This builds trust, which in turn, may result in increased conversions and business growth.
Choosing the right platforms and tools for your business is important. If you want to see your business grow, you need to choose platforms that are relevant to your target audience and utilize the right tools. With the right approach and the right tools, you can create an effective marketing plan and build a base of interested customers who want to hear more from your company in the future.