As we come to the end of 2018, the number of ways in which you can market your business can seem overwhelming. There’s social media, CPC, SEO, content marketing and PR, and that’s digital alone. With so many ways to market your business, it can be hard to know what platforms to use, let alone how you should do so.
The marketing techniques you have used in the past might have worked well, or they might not have, in any case, what’s worked to get you to this point, won’t necessarily get you to the next stage. Here’s four marketing areas you can work on to help expand your business.
Social Media
In 2018, if your business isn’t on social media, there’s a huge amount of customers you’re likely missing out on. No matter what you’re target audience is, you can assure that they’re on at least one of the numerous social media platforms that are out there. There’s a high potential for growth and engagement on social platforms, which means you cannot ignore it as marketing channel.
With so many social media platforms rising to popularity, it’s important to understand what one is best for your business. This will be decided by a couple of things. Firstly, different social media platforms will suit different businesses. Facebook is great for businesses that have a lot of content and need to have personal engagements with their customers. Instagram on the other hand is perfect for image heavy businesses.
Knowing what social media platform to use and how to leverage it can be instrumental in growing your business. It’s important to research your customers and find out what social media platforms they’re using. Whatever ones they’re on should be what you’re on. From there, find out what content your audience engages with best and leverage social media to promote it.
Social media has become extremely powerful, and whether you’re using it organically, or investing in paid ads, you’re sure to get results.
Search Engine Optimisation
SEO seems like weird internet magic to many people. It’s highly misunderstood, if understood at all. However, if you can learn how to utilise search engine optimisation it can be instrumental to driving traffic to your website and expanding your company.
SEO is about doing things to your site, both on and off-site, that appeal to Google’s algorithm. This in turn will help your site rank high on the pages of google and drive more traffic to your site.
It’s important to realise that SEO is a long-term play. It involves a lot of things from technical on-site changes, to off page link building and brand reputation. Each of these sections alone take a lot of time to master. When it comes to SEO the easiest and quickest way to get results is to contact SEO professionals, however, if you have a small local business, for example, you can learn a few strategies that can be affective. It’s all about researching from credible sources and giving it a go on your own site.
Content Marketing
Content Marketing can be an extremely powerful tool if used in thoughtful manner. Not only can it help with your SEO efforts, but it can position you and your business as an authority in your industry. Starting a blog might seem like a lot of work, and to be honest, writing regular articles will be, but in todays competitive markets, it’s a necessity to growing your business, especially online.
Creating content ideas is easier then it sounds. Firstly, take a look at what your competitors are doing. It’s likely that they’re writing regular content, however it might not be providing much value to customers. Take these ideas, your own ideas and customer pain points, and create content out of these topics. Make it original and better than your competitors.
Pay-Per-Click
Pay-per-Click or PPC is arguably one of the easiest ways to get new leads but it can be very expensive. The way it works is a live bidding system, where websites state how much they’re willing to pay for each click on the ad. While this might sound simple, it’s important that you are targeting the right keywords and have optimised your pages for conversions. If you’re getting a lot of clicks on the ads, but no sales, it will turn into a very expensive campaign.
Similarly to SEO, PPC can be learnt, but obviously it will be easier to hire a professional, if you have the budget. To begin with, you might consider learning PPC and trying your hand on a few small strategies.
There’s a huge amount of ways you can market your business. The digital age has not only opened up a whole range of channels, but it’s given businesses the opportunity to grow to huge sizes. Rapidly. Do your research, understand your customers and market smartly, and you will see great results!
Julie Melville
Julie Melville is a content manager for Cluey Learning. She's passionate about education and helping children and high school students excel in their studies. While she's not providing high quality advice to student’s parents and teachers, Julie loves learning about the universe and playing with her puppies