So, you’ve got a great idea for a new business. You’re enthused and raring to go, ready to join the entrepreneurial community and go get ‘em!
But how do you tell everyone about this great business you have started?
By definition, most start up companies are low on funds and find themselves in the ‘chicken and egg’ situation – they need clients but don’t have money for marketing, they know they need marketing but can’t do any until they have secured some clients. Right? Nope! Wrong!
One of the main things that I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE about inbound marketing and all that it entails is that it isn’t about the size of your wallet, it’s about the size of your brain! It isn’t about currency, it’s about creativity! Having founded a business myself, I totally ‘get’ how difficult the early days are. You fight for recognition in the marketplace, you shout to get your voice heard...
Which is why, I’ve written this blog – to share some basics with you so that you can execute some helpful initiatives to get you seen and heard!
Your top priority should be building and growing your online presence and to help you do that, I suggest that you consider the following – in the order in which they are listed.
NOTE: This is written from a content delivery perspective, I am (rightly or wrongly) assuming that you have got an appropriate brand identity and robust, fit for purpose website in place – if not, you need to back-track a little, visit some of our resources on branding and websites and then come back to me here!
Keywords
Make a list of the relevant keywords that apply to what you are doing. Keywords are a great base upon which to build your online presence. Coming up with a list of keywords now will mean that you don’t waste time and effort later on in your marketing and content producing process.
If you want to learn more about what keywords are and their relevance to your marketing effort, please read our blog here.
Keywords help you to write content and copy that isn’t ‘overstuffed’ with irrelevant and useless keywords, enabling you to focus on writing interesting, engaging and informative communications that get to the point and deliver value. By focussing on key phrases or topics that are important to your ‘buyer personas’ (people who will buy from you) you enhance your ‘searchability’ and relevance.
Okay, so your objective here is to have 40 to 50 phrases and keywords to get you off to a good start. Done? Let’s move on to the next stage...
Blogging
You’ve probably realised by now that we are huge fans of blogging. Once you have researched which keywords are important to your audience, create a blog on your site and start to write blog posts based on those words and phrases. Not only does this help to establish your credibility, it will also increase your chances of being found online as each now post you create provides another opportunity to be indexed.
Regular blogging will increase the amount of traffic that is driven towards your website, it will support your relationship building with potential clients and eventually deliver business results. However, please also be aware that this isn’t an ‘instant hit’ – blogging is a long-term relationship not a one night stand – you need to be committed and dedicated to delivering regular, up to date and consistent copy – results can often take 12 to 18 months to deliver – but if you dig in and blog a minimum of twice-weekly, you will eventually reap the rewards of your efforts.
Social Media (Distribution counts!)
Wait! Don’t just dive in – think about it – what is your strategy? As with all business efforts, you need to know what, why, when, to whom and what success looks like. Which social media networking sites do your potential clients use? Where do they spend their time online? Chose the channels that are relevant.
Having decided which ones you are going to use, take time to optimise your profiles. Don’t tell and sell – engage and nurture – interact with people, share interesting content of your own and of others. (Use the 80/20 rule – 80% helpful and valuable to 20% self-promotional). Also, try not to get too hung up on the ‘vanity’ metrics – your social media accounts are only valuable if your followers are actually interested in you.
