There’s no need to stress how important it is to create an online presence for your business. With the rise of social media it’s no longer optional, so you’re shooting yourself in the foot if you haven’t got, or are not working on your online presence and digital marketing techniques.
Every business needs customers, and customers are either secured by recommendations (you did a good job and your customers spread the word), outbound techniques (a sales pitch type approach) or inbound techniques — which is what content marketing is all about.
Today we’re going to look at how you can use content marketing, social media networking and email marketing to help you grow your business and generate organic leads through these methods.
The Content Creation Cycle
Content creation has become a focal point of current marketing, in fact you’re probably here because of all the noise you’ve heard around it. But what is it all about? The purpose of good content is to draw in your desired customers by providing them with interesting, useful and relevant information that they are seeking.
As described in this post, the content creation process should be a never ending journey which involves research and analysis and feeds back into itself in order to keep publishing consistent and valuable content that keeps your readers around.
Always optimize content using your SEO knowledge.
Social Media Networking
Social media is vital for a number of reasons, the first being that everyone is on it. Depending on your business, pick one or two platforms to focus on and work on building networks there.
Always link your networks and your website so that everyone knows they are part of the same entity and use these networks to promote your own content.
By strengthening your online network, you’re not just growing your customer base, you may also find you come across good business opportunities and chances to collaborate with like-minded people.
Your social networks become your stage for engaging with your customers, most importantly, letting their voices be heard.
The Opt-in Newsletter & Email Marketing
However popular social media channels may be, email is still the number one converter which is why it’s so important to launch an email marketing campaign.
People receive hundreds of emails a week, so to avoid ending up in the junk, you need to do a little research and make sure you are targeting the right people, in the right way.
The steps for launching an email campaign consist of first, determining your goals, do you want to increase sales or spread brand awareness, etc; creating a mailing list using an existing database or collecting data through subscribe options, perhaps in return for something free; and finally, crafting your campaign, it could be a welcome note, a newsletter, a marketing offer or an announcement, then launch it.
Make sure each campaign is relevant to the people who receive it, which might mean categorizing your mailing list as it grows to ensure the right people see it and decrease chances of it not being read at all or appearing spammy.
Mastering these techniques is a sure way to increase your reach and help you maintain stronger customer relationships.