Your business has come this far. What’s next? Maybe you’ve recently launched… or perhaps you’ve been around for a while but you’re ready to push your business to the next level?
Next Steps: Scale + Grow
What better way to help your business expand in today’s market than by using digital advertising? Social media, blogging, and SEO are powerful marketing tools in their own right but when they all come together and work in unison, that’s when you really hit the holy grail of digital marketing.
You probably realize that you need to leverage the power of the internet to grow and scale your business, especially if you accelerate beyond a “small potatoes” operation and really hit the market on a larger scale. But where exactly should you start?
You need an integrated approach to your marketing with all of the digital components working together seamlessly to achieve your objectives. Ad hoc and DIY marketing aren’t going to get you where you need to go. You need real expertise to hit the ground running.
As experts in the digital marketing field with an international client base, we can assure you that the following components are critical to your overall marketing success:
1. A Business Blog & Regular News Updates
Business owners and entrepreneurs often ask, “Do I really need a business blog?” The answer is yes, yes, yes!
Why?
Content.
Content is the ticket to building trust and blogging is the most reliable way to create valuable content for your existing and potential customers.
If aren’t producing value-added content, all you’re doing is selling. Here’s a little not-so-secret tidbit: People don’t like to be sold to and nobody likes to be told what they want. It’s obnoxious and spammy and it doesn’t build a trusting relationship or brand perception. On the other hand, with the right copy, you can establish familiarity and trusting relationships with your target audience *without directly selling to them* and this helps to turn more “browsers” into the customers you’re looking for in a gentle, non-pushy way. Good content makes people feel that you “get” them, and when your prospects feel understood by you, they’ll feel confident making purchases with you.
Strategic content marketing in the form of blog posts and news updates will provide insights for your readers while also highlighting your brand’s expertise. Most importantly, it will show your readers that your products and services are exactly right for them without coming across like a sales pitch.
If you’re a very small business, the good news is that business blogging doesn’t have to be complicated. For a great breakdown of how to start business blogging see our post about it here. However, if you have a medium or large business or you aspire to grow, you really should have your blog managed by professional ghost bloggers, like our writers here at Barker Social. They’ll know exactly how to craft compelling copy and they’ll ensure that you’re keeping up with the necessary volume of writing needed in order to be most effective.
Just imagine how much your business could grow with high quality, enticing marketing copy to attract your prospective customers. Engaging, well-written copy helps build your brand in the hearts and minds of your potential and existing clients and customers.
But your content can’t achieve its full potential unless it also works in tandem with SEO.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
If you’re serious about growing your brand’s digital footprint, search engine optimization (SEO) services are essential. Your website is of no help to anyone if your target customers can’t find you. SEO is all about making sure that the search engine optimization makes your website visible when people search for the keywords associated with your offerings. When your site is properly optimized, it will increase the quantity and quality of your website traffic; it’s not just about attracting more visitors but also the right visitors—those who are actively interested in your offerings. That means driving the right people to read the excellent content that you’re providing on your frequently updated blog.
Need more proof that SEO is important? Well, on average, 33% of search traffic visits the site ranked #1 in their search results… But by the time you get down to the website ranked #10, only a measly 2.4% of the traffic visits the site? Yikes! Even more depressing is that as much as 95% of the traffic doesn’t even bother looking at the results on page two. Ouch.
If you’re not focusing on SEO and working toward getting to the first page of the search results, then you’re basically saying goodbye to the majority of customers that could come your way through internet searches… and in today’s world, that’s pretty much everyone. It’s a fact! Research has shown that 81% of people perform some research online before making a large purchase or decision.
Search engines like Google take a lot of factors into consideration when they rank your page. A website that’s updated frequently, is rich in keywords, and that Google deems to be helpful to readers will always rank higher. That’s why it’s so important that your business blog works together with your SEO; well-written copy in the form of blog posts and news updates aren’t just great for your readers, it’s also rich in keywords to help boost your visibility in Google searches so your prospective customers can find you first. Google LOVES an active business blog.
So it just makes sense to make SEO a priority in your business to ensure that you appear in front of the right people at the right time—right when they’re doing their internet research. For a full breakdown on SEO visit our helpful post here.
So what about social media? Where does social marketing fit into all of this?
3. Social Media Marketing
A business blog doesn’t just establish you as an expert for people who find you through Google. It also gives you fuel to find new clients and customers and to build brand trust, and social media is the perfect mechanism to do just that. All of the quality content from your blog is perfect to share on social media and to put your ideas and insights in front of new people. By sharing your content across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and even Google+, you’re creating enticing reasons for people to visit your website. See how it all works together?
80% of social network users connect with brands on social media and over 60% of those people are more likely to seek out a product or service after seeing it on social media!* Plus, brands that share fun, engaging, customized content on social networks attract three times more customers than brands that use traditional marketing methods.*
Being active on social media isn’t just about posting content every day, although posting consistently is important. It’s about creating an overall brand image, participating in conversations, and building relationships. Sharing engaging content that’s helpful or entertaining helps people care about your brand.
It’s also just as important to reach out and engage with other people to show that you’re part of the community as it is to share your own content.
Effective social media marketing campaigns are integrated, working seamlessly with the content from your blog to help you:
- Get your brand in front of existing and potential customers; strategically, tactfully, and often.
- Engage your target audience; know them, understand them, make a real connection with them.
- Give your audience the chance to get to know you while you get to know them.
- Build trusting relationships by understanding customers’ likes, hopes, and needs.
- Leverage social relationships to make more sales and to engage repeat customers.
- Achieve strong brand awareness and accelerated business growth!
It’s also very important that when you drive people from social media to your website, the user experience provides a clear call to action. This is even more important when you’re leveraging pay per click advertising.
[“source=barkersocial”]
