Marketing: the one thing that might be the most confusing in your business, but also the most crucial.
If you expect or hope your business to survive and thrive, you will need to know how to market in ways that are the most beneficial to your brand.
It doesn’t matter if you have a brick and mortar store, if you’re a local service provider, or if your business serves international clients, you will absolutely need to know how to promote your business online at some point.
Let’s run through the most basic and effective ways to promote and market your business online so you can start rocking and rollin’ with your marketing efforts!
Disclaimer: Affiliate links are used in this post, so that means if you purchase anything through these links, we will get a small commission which helps keep this blog running. We only promote and share products we trust and love.
Social media
Like it or not, social media is just a way of life if you are a business owner.
Not only should you be running active and engaging accounts, you should know how to effectively promote your product or service in a way that resonates with your audience without being to “sales-y”.
And since not all social media platforms are the same, here’s a few suggestions for our favorite platforms:
A great place to connect with your following, get new clients, and share what’s new with your business. The best thing about Facebook is that you can share & grow your business in a multitude of ways.
- Giveaways – spread your reach and allow new clients/customers find you by hosting a giveaway. This could be a simple as a small product that you offer, a free consultation, or a large prize package depending on your goals for the giveaway. You can also collaborate with other businesses who compliment your business to offer a larger prize package. Example: If you’re a florist, you could team up with wedding vendors in your area to create an ultimate wedding day package. This would be a grand prize, so it would be essential to have your collaborators all on the same page and be as detailed as possible.
- Contests – This could be a photo contest, a sharing contest, or something completely unique and relevant to your industry. What’s great about contests is that the ones who truly work for it and show a lot of interest are the people who really love your product/service. This is a good indicator of your audience & can be helpful to your future marketing efforts.
- Groups – Reach on your page and posts can be slim if you don’t have an engaging audience, so starting a Facebook group (or participating in others) can be an added bonus to your business efforts. By putting yourself out there and showing that you are an expert in your field, you can gain trust, grow relationships, and connect with people in your area (or around the world) that could eventually lead to more business. This is a long-term effort, so don’t expect to get new clients every time you participate in your groups; it’s a nurturing effort that requires consistency and time.
Another great place to connect with your audience and show them your brand’s distinct personality. Just like with Facebook, there are several ways to promote your brand on this platform in an innovative and modern way.
- Use a branded hashtag – To get your followers involved in your product or service, you should create a hashtag that promotes your brand. This is a great tool for your customers and clients to share your business with their followers and friends, and a way for others to see other posts about your business.
- Giveaways – The great thing about Instagram is that it’s so very useful for giveaways. Having your following either tag friends in your post or creating a graphic that they must re-post, you’re certain to get fresh eyes and new followers when you host a good giveaway. And, if you can, collaborating with another business or brand can help you build a bigger following by piggy-backing off of their following.
- Ads – If you have a business account, you’ll be able to run targeted ads through Instagram and Facebook to reach more people. The one thing that I LOVE about Instagram ads is that they flow into the normal feed and don’t seem over-pushy or sales-y, which is a big bonus when you are trying to attract potential customers!
Instagram can be tough at first, especially if you have a small following, so be sure to check out this post on how to get your first 100 followers (and beyond) for tips to increase your engagement and drive up your numbers!
While Pinterest isn’t so much social, it’s an AMAZING place to get new traffic to your website and for others to discover your business. Pinterest wants to show it’s audience the best content and the most pinned pins, so creating lots of graphics for your business is all the better!
This was of promoting your business is pretty cut and dry: you need to be pinning high-quality pins that others are saving to their boards.
You also need to be pinning often. Try spreading out at least 5 pins a day that promote your products, blog posts, and send traffic to your site. And if you find that you’re spending too much time on Pinterest each day pinning, then you will love tailwind – it’s what I use for both of my Pinterest accounts to schedule my pins and gain new followers each week.
I’ve doubled my Pinterest following just by scheduling my pins in advance with tailwind (which means more re-pins and eyes on my site), so why not add this to your social media regime?
Try out tailwind and get your first month for FREE!
Email marketing
Unlike social media and earning likes and followers on a rented space, email lists are GOLD in the marketing world.
How’s that?
Because your email list is yours and not one platform can take that away. So, once someone has opted-in for your email list, you can control what you send them, find out who is opening your emails, and figure out what your audience loves to read.
And while email marketing might be harder to implement these days with so many business using this method, there are still many opportunities to utilize this into your brand.
If you can provide value, resources, and useful information to your readers, you’ll have a much higher chance of good open rates and conversions in the end.
If you aren’t using email marketing in your business yet, then there’s not a moment to lose! Mailchimp can help you get started and is FREE for your first 2,000 subscribers, which makes it the best for beginners!
Blogging
This is hands-down the best thing you can do to market your business online. By having a blog and creating helpful content to your desired audience, you’ll be able to position yourself as a leader in your niche and be seen as a dedicated business.
Not only can a blog be good for giving your followers fresh ideas and inspiration for your service or product, but it can be used as a way to drive new & organic traffic to your site.
Even if you think you don’t have anyone who’d read your blog, do it anyways! By sharing graphics on Pinterest and all over your social media accounts, you can promote your blog posts as much or as little as you’d like.
And if you’re a photographer (as a lot of our audience is) you can snag this FREE blog topic guide that will keep your blog up and going for many months to come.
Download yours here.
While marketing your business online can seem daunting, I hope that these simple tips can help you break the ice an help you get started in the digital world.
With the kind amount of effort and dedication, you will be well on your way to promoting your brand in more ways than before!
How will you use these methods to level up your brand to get seen by a bigger audience? Start the discussion * let us know in the comments below!
i agree with all the above mentioned aspects and found your article interesting.