Don’t you think the ‘internet’ has become the most unbiased, democratic and interactive medium for all?
I feel that the Internet has evolved into this beacon for ‘equity’ – A platform which gives a fair share to everyone in expressing their voices, talent, creativity and vision - opening up opportunities to learn, share and ‘sell’ in this increasingly disrupting and digitized, global marketplace.
Gone are the days when only the ‘bigwigs’ called the shots in business.
In the world as we know today – with its worldwide web, mobile devices, apps, cloud computing, e-commerce, Internet of Things (IoT), Tweets, Likes, Snap-Chats, SaaS etc.; endless array of digital products/services; and constantly disrupted digital culture of doing businesses with equally evolving consumer behavior – it is possible for anyone to call the shots, despite the size of their wallet and provided they have the knack and passion to pursue their business goals.
Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company; a ‘high-school-mates-startup’ in your mum’s basement; or the hot-dog vendor down the street; innovation in technology and digital culture of business processes, has leveled the ‘playing field’ for all – to the point that; with the right tools and strategy, anyone can achieve their business goals; even with small investments.
You may not have a marketing department like the established players, or a sales team to roll in promising prospects each week - It could just be you; or perhaps a co-founder and a couple of dedicated staffs; if you’ve tread a bit further down the ‘growth lane’.
Yet, even with these limitations, it is possible to optimize your business processes and realize your dream of putting a dent in your chosen industry, with accelerated profits.
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Here are 3 quick tips worth putting into practice for those looking to optimize their businesses, even on a shoestring budget:
1. Build Your Digital Marketing Strategy
Needless to say, success in business today is realized through an effective online marketing.
The race here is to potentially - stand out from the crowd in your pursuit to building online presence; which in turn will attract targeted customers and you make profits while keeping them happy with your products and/or services.
When we speak of Digital Marketing Strategy, we are generally talking about a series of well-defined actions or activities that we undertake to accentuate the brand’s presence in the online ‘digital’ space - to realize our overarching ‘goal’ of expanding the customer base and boosting sales.
Let’s take a look at some of these marketing tactics which you can apply without spending much money:
i. Optimize your site for Search Engines -SEO
Wouldn’t you like your customers to easily find your website, when they simply search for the keywords related to your products or industry? That’s exactly what happens to a well ‘search-engine-optimized’ website – It will become easily discoverable when you rank higher on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) of popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.
If you’ve got some cash to shed, you can always hire a marketing agency; but that could also turn out to be a costly affair. The neat part is, you can actually learn SEO and do it yourself. There are countless guides and books on the subject. Here’s a link from CMI to get you started: Excel at SEO With This 15-Point Plan
ii. Create good ‘Content’ – To drive the Sales Funnel.
Content Creation or Content Marketing lies at the heart of any Inbound Marketing Campaign. For a website visitor to turn into a customer, s/he has to go through various stages of the ‘Sales Funnel’ before finally making a purchase.
Your drive as a marketer is to attract, nudge or convince the user, through compelling content, to proceed through the Sales Funnel which consists of 3 stages: Top of the Funnel,Middle of the Funnel and Bottom of the Funnel.
The different stages of the funnel relates to its corresponding ‘psyche’ of the buyer personas:
- Top of the Funnel:The "awareness" stage, where people are looking for answers, resources, education, research data, opinions, and insight.
- Middle of the Funnel: The "evaluation" stage, where people are doing heavy research on whether or not your product or service is a good fit for them.
- Bottom of the Funnel: The "purchase" stage, where people are figuring out exactly what it would take to become a customer. Courtesy: HubSpot
Your content can come in the shape of: Blogs, eBooks, white papers, videos, ‘call to action’ banners and ‘pop ups’, podcasts, webinars, trial offers, etc. – Which are crafted within the web pages to address the need of users at various stages of the Funnel. This helps to: educate the users and provide solutions to their queries, build users’ trust with the brand, engage and nurture leads and finally convince the leads to make that ‘purchase decision’.
“Competitors can copy your products, your services, and your processes, but the only thing they can’t copy is how you communicate. This is why content marketing has become so important.” —Joe Pulizzi (Content Marketing Institute)
iii. Leverage through Social Media – Creating Content ‘Buzz’
Social Networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram etc. are a great source to direct traffic to your websites. They work as ‘amplifiers’ for your content and brand image. With Facebook having daily active user base of 1.03 billion, businesses are increasingly recognizing the possibilities of reaching new audiences.
Capturing leads through links of Blogpost on Facebook timeline is one such marketing tactic used by businesses all over. Just as with Facebook, other social media such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. all possess immense potential to direct qualified customers to your website.
And the best part is you can join and create yours or your business profile and get started for free.
iv. Build Email Lists –Through Newsletters
Email lists are a great tool for marketers to showcase their products and share their stories. Running a monthly, if not ‘weekly newsletter’ to build an email list through voluntary organic opt-ins are a great way to build a sizable customer base.
You can create newsletters to inform people about new developments with your product; an amazing offer round the corner; an opportunity to join freely on your next webinar with authority figures; share your new eBook – it is up to your imagination!
You can ask users to sign up through ‘subscribe’ buttons; through social media channels or blogposts – but it is essential that you don’t sell their emails to third parties or spam them with ‘pushy’ sales email; or else you risk losing them and your reputation.
v. Become a Guest Author
An easy way to amplify your presence is to write for or get your blog posted on other company’s blog. You will benefit from the referral traffics and links channelled from these sites.
When you blog for authority sites like Huffington Post, Forbes, HubSpot or CMI; usually they provide space for external links, author bios and calls-to-actions, mostly at the bottom of the blogpost.
If the visitors find your posts interesting, they are sure to click the link to explore more. It is also good to answer and interact with blog comments posted by the users - This gives a sense of being valued to the visitors and will help accentuate your image.
2. Use Analytics & Productivity Tools
The amazing take with businesses running on the digital plane is that they can be measured. Digital Marketing has become a game of numbers and metrics. It is possible to measure how your marketing campaign performed; what were the output of your focused effort; what worked and what didn’t.
All these tests, tweaks and calculated risks can be performed and instantly measured with the help of Analytics tools, such as: Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, LinkedIn Analytics, Instagram Analytics – and the best part is they are all free. This blog on Google Analytics from Neil Patel at Quicksprouts can get you started: These 3 Numbers in Google Analytics Will Help You Make Better Content
As for the Productivity tools, there are ample ‘free’ tools you can download to enhance your productivity and accelerate your business processes, such as:
- Trello: It is a cloud-based, visual project/task management tool
- Dropbox: Useful in sharing and collaborating files, photos, videos etc.
- Google Docs: to create, edit and share documents online with a smart editor.
- Google Calendar: For keeping schedules and event reminders.
- Coursera: Free online courses from top universities
- Slack: A cloud-based team collaboration tool with real-time messaging.
These are just a few out of hundreds of Productivity Tools you can find as an App or as a SaaS product on the internet.
3. Being ‘Mobile Responsive’
As more and more people are using mobile devices to surf the internet, it is key for any business to build their sites to be ‘mobile optimized’ or to be ‘mobile responsive’. Given the range of mobile devices in the market, consumers will expect your site or your blog content to seamlessly adjust to the device screens they’re holding.
As with the display, people are increasingly being impatient with the loading speed too. It is estimated that 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less and 40% abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. (Source: Kissmetrics).
There are many online tools/sites that help you verify whether your website is mobile responsive or not, such as: Responsinator
Finally…
The successes of any businesses will ultimately rest on its ability to balance the incessant digital transformation brought about by disruptive technologies and find a ‘human’ face amidst this technological avalanche.
If you would like to know more or would like to contribute to this article I want to hear from you.
Call Andy Fox (me) on (03) 5249-5570 or email andy@element7digital.com.au
Website is element7digital.com.au
