You know the power of online marketing, but if you don’t have a plan in place then it can be difficult to know how to start and how to get your message out amidst the constant flow of information online.
The below 4 steps will help to get you started with an easy to implement an online marketing plan in just a few hours each month.
1. SEND AN EMAIL TO YOUR LIST
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to market your business. I recently heard the owner of Edible Blooms speak and she’s nurturing a database of 160,000! That brings them 1,000 purchases a day on their eCommerce website!! WOW! 1,000 purchases a day. I’d love a nibble of that kinda profit.
If you send an email update to your list on a consistent schedule and always include something valuable for your audience they’ll respond with positive actions. Don’t just go for the hard sell.
Our top recommendations:
- Send the email on a consistent schedule. If you’re just starting out, we recommend monthly emails to give you time to build your content.
- Don’t include all the content in the email, give them a snippet and link the email to your website to read the rest of the content, such as a blog post.
- Personalize the email by including the recipient’s name. All of the major email providers allow you to do this (Mailchimp, Aweber, Drip, Get Response)
- Experiment with different subject lines to improve your open rate
2. WRITE A BLOG POST
Content is king and your website’s blog is the best place to produce this content.
A collection of useful articles on your blog is an asset to your business as it grows your website’s visibility in search engines, gives you a catalog of articles you can point your customers to when they are looking for more information about a topic, and the content positions you as an expert within your niche.
Our top recommendations:
- Publish a new blog post at least monthly
- Use great images and photos in your blog to create engaging content
- Focus on creating ‘evergreen content’ that will always be useful to your audience
3. ENGAGE WITHIN SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media isn’t just about posting updates on what you’re eating or where you’re traveling, it’s about engagement.
Connect with your audience and grow a following by posting content that is useful to them. Show you care by asking questions, making connections and contributing to conversations.
Our top recommendations:
- Post new updates at least a few times per week
- Images perform much better than text so always include a photo with your post to increase engagement and reach
- Use hashtags to improve your reach and target a specific audience
- Use a social media management tool to schedule in your posts, such as the built-in Facebook post scheduler, CoSchedule, Hootsuite and Buffer.
4. ALWAYS PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR AUDIENCE
When you are sharing content with your audience, always think of what they would want to read and what would provide them value.
Sure it’s great to talk about yourself and what’s going on in your business, but the best results come from useful, engaging and visual content that your audience is genuinely interested in.
When you’re not sure what to share, I suggest looking at others in your industry to see what is working for them. Check out your competitor’s posts on social networks – what are they posting? What posts are getting high levels of engagement?
This can be a great start to kick off your inspiration.
Your online marketing will get consistent growth from simply being consistent and spending a few hours each month on producing valuable content.
The above steps can help to get you on the right path to a simple online marketing plan that works.
What are you doing consistently to improve your online marketing? Is it working? Are you having trouble with getting started? Let me know in the comments!
