Do you know what you can do with online marketing?
Two weeks ago, I started talking about what it takes to be successful in marketing your off-line business online. You can read it here.
Do you know what’s possible?
Online marketing brings endless possibilities to your business.
You can be developing and strengthening your relationships with your customers twenty-four hours a day.
You can be talking about new products and services you’re offering.
You can be selling products or services even when your business is closed.
These are just a few things that you can be doing.
Let me be clear, though, about what I mean by online marketing.
A website is certainly a part of your marketing efforts, but it’s just the beginning.
Every business needs a Web presence of some kind.
A static website tells people who are looking for you what you have, your location and hours of operation, and some other basic information.
A well-designed website will offer products for sale as well as functioning as a way to collect e-mails and contact information from potential clients.
This is all necessary, but it’s what most businesses typically have.
The next step is to develop a strategy to get people to visit your website.
You need to be out where people are spending their time and give them good information that leads them back to your website.
Where are people spending time online?
That’s easy. They check their e-mails, and they spend time on their social media platform(s) of choice.
The most common platforms are Facebook, the 800-lb. gorilla, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, and Pinterest.
Developing a strategy that will keep you in front of your potential customers on these platforms will make your business grow faster.
To get started, you need to limit how many of these you have a presence on. You need to be using e-mail and one of the other platforms. For the majority of businesses, I would recommend starting with Facebook.
Facebook is so commonly used that most businesses can find users who will be interested in what they have to offer.
Now, how do you find out how to do this, and what do you need to do next?
You need to get busy and learn what it takes. It does take some study.
Using e-mail for a quick communication versus using it to connect with customers are two different communication skills.
Using Facebook for fun versus using it to build your business are different, too—remarkably so, actually.
Many of the people I’ve trained over the past few years started out thinking they knew quite a bit about Facebook and what they needed to do to be successful, but they discovered the dynamics were different.
You need to be willing to put in the time to study and learn what works best and then try it.
It doesn’t take a lot of time and effort, but it does take some work.
Even if you’re going to hire someone to do it for you, you still need to know what’s possible. You need to teach yourself what can be done, and then hire
someone to do it for you.
Commit to doing this, and you’ll see your business growth take off.
Have a great week.