Starting a business can be daunting, especially for the fact that you are usually the Sales Manager, Accountant, Product Developer and Marketing Manager and running the day to day can leave you feeling stretched thin. However, with the right tools & strategy in place it can be an exciting time to watch your business grow from strength to strength.
When launching your business, the first few things to get sorted is your business name, logo and website so you can start reaching potential customers. But the question from here is “how can I reach my potential customers?”. To help you we have listed out the top 4 marketing activities you can implement on a small budget.
1. Get your business on social media
Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram are great ways to promote your business for a low cost. It can also help with your search engine rankings so your customers will be able to find your business online when they need you. How you are perceived and how you participate on social media is part of the algorithm that Google use to rank websites. The key to success for social media marketing is to be consistent on each platform, meaning you need to be posting minimum 3 times per week to see any traction from this activity.
2. Create a blog
Blogging is a great marketing tactic where businesses can answer customer questions that usually wouldn’t fit into an email or a social media post. The key to a successful blog is about quality content, not quantity. You won’t see any benefit in writing a blog if it doesn’t answer your customer’s questions or educates them in one way or another. Give your readers something to take away from your blog. Blogging once a month is a great starting point!
3. Email Marketing
Having a database of email addresses can be hugely valuable to your business. Emails are a BIG part of our lives personally and professionally, giving businesses an opportunity to stay connected with consumers on a regular basis. Not only does email marketing allow you to reach a large group of people at a low cost, but it can help you build a loyal customer base as well. In your monthly newsletters share team updates, projects that you have been working on or provide helpful tips that your consumers can walk away and implement. These little touch points will help build customer loyalty and in the long run increase sales.
4. Search engine optimisation (SEO)
Search Engine Optimisation plays a big role in your online marketing success. If the content you create isn’t optimised then you will struggle to get traffic to your website. Start your SEO journey with the tips below:
• Research: Look into how your competitors are using their website. Take note of what sort of content they are creating and conduct a Google search to understand where your business ranks on Google compared to your competitors.
• Select highly searched keywords: Once you have conducted your research on your competitors and general search terms, then start incorporating those keywords into your website, your social media post and your blogs.
• Google Analytics: Create a Google analytics report so you can understand how well your website is performing and learn how to improve your content overtime.
• List your website on directory websites such as auslistings.org – Brisbane Business Listings; and seolist.org – Queensland Search Engine Optimization Listings
If you’re a business owner who is just starting out and marketing is on your to-do list then check out Social Direct. We can take Social Media Marketing off your ‘to-do’ list so you can focus on growing your business in other areas. At Social Direct, our purpose is to help small business owners advertise on social media without the big price tag.
