You can have the best products in your industry. You can have an impressive
organization. You can have the knowledge your customer’s want. You can have all the
elements that it takes to grow a successful company but it won’t happen without good
marketing.
Your marketing plan is what separates successful businesses from those that won’t
grow. You can’t increase revenue if no one sees what you offer. You’ve personally been
exposed to good marketing and it’s the reason why you’ve purchased products and
services.
Marketing can be expensive. You can pay for advertising and hire professionals. But,
there are also free ways to marketing a business that are highly-effective. You can use
these strategies right now to grow your customer base and bring in more sales.
1. Harness the power of podcasts.
According to Podcast Insights, 44% of the U.S. population has listened to a podcast.
On average, 73 million people every month (in the United States) listen to podcasts.
The numbers are staggering when you factor in global listenership. This creates a great
marketing opportunity for organizations.
You have the opportunity to pitch a podcast, have a member of your leadership team
get interviewed, and have what your business does be marketed to new potential
customers. Podcast listeners are great because they’re trained. They understand
subscribing to email lists, following the company (that’s featured) on social media, and
even buying products and services.
The good thing is there is no shortage of podcasts your organization can pitch. Where
too many companies get it wrong is that they pitch leading with who they are and what
they do. No one cares. Instead, lead with the specific value and takeaways you can
bring to that podcaster’s audience.
Show them how you’ll educate their listeners on what your company does. You’ll get
your chance to promote your organization at the end after you’ve added value. That’s
how marketing should work anyhow. You can find shows that are looking for guests
using free services such as Radio Guest List.
2. Leverage larger audiences to grow yours.
If you don’t have a large audience online, you can go to where an established audience
already is. The idea is to take your expertise and train someone else’s large audience.
That entrepreneur or organization would be willing to agree to this kind of arrangement
because of the value their audience would be getting.
You can train in large Facebook groups. You can create content for large media
publications that get millions of monthly visitors. You can do joint-webinars. There are
many ways to leverage an already established audience and create a win-win scenario.
Use this strategy. It’s free and can get your organization exposure to millions of people
rather quickly.
3. Go deeper with the content you create.
Not enough organizations harness the power of strong content. Good audio, video,
and written content can be leveraged and repurposed. While it can take some work on
the front-end, content will be dividends for your business.
Your content helps potential customers know, like, and trust you. It starts the buying
process in their mind. Good content gets shared in many places, which creates wordof-mouth marketing for you. That’s a warmer way to market.
Don’t skimp. You can giveaway a lot in your free content and customers will still buy
from your company to get the next steps. Creating content is free and will market your
business far and wide when distributed on social media, through media exposure, and
to your email list.
If this is going to be a year of increased growth in your sales, you’re going to need to
step up your marketing online. The good thing is you can use these three free ways to
bring new customers and audience growth.
4 Reasons Your Online Presence Isn’t Growing Quick Enough
Today, your organization can either fail or succeed based off of how well your company
does in your digital marketing. Your sales online dramatically affect your growth. When
companies release their Quarterly Reports, the growth of the business online affects
whether investors buy or sell shares in that company.
We live in a time of unparalleled access. Billions of people are logged on the Internet
and social media as you read this article. There is opportunity, but there is also a lot of
competition. If you’re going to turn leads into customers, you have to stand out.
If your organization’s online presence isn’t growing as quickly as you’d like, it may be
because of one or all of these four reasons.
1. You’re relying on old marketing strategies.
Technology and digital marketing strategies move fast. What used to work might not
even work in two months. There are some tried and true strategies—such as email
marketing—but if your organization is relying on old school tactics to grow your online
presence, you will be disappointed.
SEO strategies come to mind and social media is following the same path. There’s a lot
of advice that’s been passed around like it’s law, but it’s not and it won’t help your
business. Buying links and followers are all old school strategies that won’t grow your
online business or presence.
2. You’re trying to copy the industry leaders.
It’s natural to see another successful organization and want to copy what they’re doing.
The problem is that your potential leads and customers will do business with the
original—not a clone. What worked for someone else doesn’t necessary mean it will
work for you. Your goal is to get potential customers to know, like, and start to trust
you. That process can’t begin if you’re not being authentic.
3. You’re relying too heavily on social media marketing.
In the last ten years, social media has been great for businesses all over the world. In
the last few years, however, the landscape has changed. What used to be tired and
true tactics don’t work because today you have to pay to reach your audience.
Most of the popular social media platforms are now public and need to generate profits
for their shareholders. Social media is a rented platform and a lead generator that
should be directing potential customers towards your website. That’s where the sales
will happen.
4. You’re trying to be the “expert” company instead of building connection.
The standard (and bad) branding advice is to make your organization as unavailable as
possible. That way, you can command a higher price for what you sell. Maybe that
worked at some point, but not in today’s connection economy.
Today, if someone doesn’t feel connected to your brand or message, it’s very unlikely
they’ll do business. Don’t be the ‘”expert” company that’s on a pedestal. Do what you
can to connect with your audience as much as possible.
Large organizations such as Delta do this well. If there’s an issue, you can send a tweet
and get a quick response. It’s that more personal connection that creates customer
loyalty.
If your online growth has stopped or slow, take some time this week to go over your
marketing plan and the strategies you’ve been using.
Essential Tactics to Build Your Digital Marketing Strategy
In 2015, customers spent $107 billion on online courses, according to Global Industry
Analysts. The number of internet users increased from 738 million in 2000 to 3.2 billion
in 2015, according to the International Telecommunication Union.
In 2017, 2.46 billion people used social media every day, according to Statista. The
internet and social media have created an immense opportunity for organizations.
Never has there been a time during in which companies can market their business to
a global audience as they can today.
While the opportunity is great, companies aren’t capitalizing on all this potential.
According to research firm Clutch, 46 percent of U.S. small businesses still didn’t have
a website as recently as of 2016. Millions of potential leads are lost by not spending a
few thousand dollars to create an foundation online.
There are marketing departments that could make a few adjustments to their strategy
and start significantly increasing their revenue. With all of this opportunity available,
there is no reason a company can’t use the power of the internet to grow. Use these
strategies.
Bring clarity to your branding and messaging.
If you have studied internet marketing for any amount of time, you’ve heard talk about
the need to carve a niche. You’re told that you have to be different to stand out. In the
desire to be different, organizations brand their businesses in a way that does just the
opposite.
Potential customers won’t invest their time or money if they can’t understand what you
do and, most importantly, how it will help them.
While new age branding sounds good, it confuses them, and confused buyers don’t
spend money. Your branding and messaging have to be clear. Everyone who visits your
website and online presence needs to understand exactly what you do and how it
could help their lives in some way.
They want plain language that speaks to them. They need to see your story, see that
you understand their pain points, and that you have practical solutions through your
paid options.
Build an audience beyond in multiple ways online.
Social media marketing has been the go-to strategy for companies for years now, and
for good reason. You have the opportunity to reach billions, but all the major social
media platforms are now publicly traded companies.
They answer to their shareholders when profit isn’t there. These platforms make a profit
is by limiting your organic reach and offering their ads platforms to reach the audience
you’ve built. They charge you to reach your own people.
Social media advertising is powerful, but you need a diverse marketing strategy to
grow. There are many ways to market your business without paying for reach:
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- Get interviewed on podcasts relevant to your business. Podcasts have millions of
listeners who spend money. - Create content for large business and personal development publications. The
large media publications you read every day get millions of targeted readers. - Contribute good content and the readers will want to know more about your
business. - Do webinars and online training to build an email list.
- Get interviewed on podcasts relevant to your business. Podcasts have millions of
First, create value.
Don’t ask for the sale if you haven’t added value first. The good thing is that we live in a
time in which there are many ways online to add value. You can publish free blog
posts, do podcasts, publish articles on large publications, host free Facebook Live
Q&A’s, host free webinars, make YouTube videos and add free value posts on social
media.
When you release valuable content that helps your potential customer before they ever
spent a dime with you, not only will they buy, but they’ll become raving fans. Raving
fans tend to bring in new customers.
Use software to make sales 24/7.
The internet age has spawned a new wave of software and innovation. There
is powerful software that enables you to set up an automated sequence that leads to
sales 24/7. And there are so many more tools and software that grow your business.
There are all kinds of options that help you develop systems and make the overall look
of your business professionally. What’s nice is that a lot of this software is plug and
play. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars hiring someone to set it up.
Use the software and different platforms that are available today to build systems and
automation into your business.
Having a strategic promotion’s plan.
A business lives or dies based on its marketing and promotions. You can’t promote
your organization only when you feel like it. You need to map out a real strategic plan.
You should know what you’re going to promote, when you’ll promote it, what tools
you’ll use and the steps you need to take each promotion cycle.
Use these strategies to build the online portion of your business. Use them to create a
marketing plan that builds your online presence.
