How To Grow Your Business Through Online Marketing
By Black Bear Design on 11/6/2016
Blogging, social media, email campaigns, search engine optimization….the list seemingly goes on and on. These are all important aspects of online marketing, and yes, your business needs it. 
Gone are the days of making a serious splash with a local newspaper ad for your corner mom-and-pop store, but you know that already. So if you’re not doing that, and you’re not online, what are you doing to market your business? Is it workin
g? The bottom line is, if you’re not branded online, you don’t exist.
The internet is at your fingertips, allowing you to reach your target audience with the click of a button or a swipe of the finger. This generation of consumers wants things on demand, so your marketing needs to be ready when they are: all the time.
Figuring out how to establish your brand can be difficult, but with social media constantly putting your name out there, you can begin to identify your target audience and tailor your content just for them. Giving your target market a steady stream of content allows consumers to get acquainted with your brand, easily understand the value in your product/service, and ultimately make the decision to buy into what you’re selling.
Here’s your arsenal of tools and tips to push your brand through the noise:
- Understand Your Target Audience– Who are they and where are they? Before you start online marketing, this is crucial to first understand. Ensure that you’re putting your money, time, and energy in the right places.
- Social Media Platforms– Arguably, your core 3 platforms are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Of course there are others, and dependent on your audience, there may be better ways to reach them. Regardless, get your start with these, and then the real fun begins.
- Creating Content– Visual content (images, videos, GIFs, infographics) give you the most bang for your buck when it comes to engagement. Sharing articles that provide value, asking questions, and sharing happy/positive news are also great ways to provide value to the consumer.
- Following your Target Audience– Your audience won’t always come to you; you have to seek them out too, especially in the beginning. Follow other local businesses, follow related industries, search hashtags related to your locale, and literally anything else that has to do with your product or service. Once you find where the conversations are, jump in and start networking!
- Expanding your Reach- So far, you’ve done all your groundwork, laying the foundation for your online marketing takeover. What’s next? Here’s the stuff you might just want to have a professional help with: creating a website, search engine optimization, blogging. If you don’t have a logo, you’re going to need one of those. We can help with that too!
- What to Expect– So you have yourself a fancy-pants website and hired people to help with you pay-per-clicks and SEO, but what does that all even mean? It means you’re going to rank online, especially where it counts. It means people are searching for things related to your business and they’re finding you on your website, on social media, on your blog, and on review sites. And they’re going to click on YOU.
If there’s a takeaway from this, it’s to be consistent. Let us reiterate. BE CONSISTENT. Building relationships take time, especially when they’re online. Discover your brand niche and stick to it. You want your audience to scroll through their feed and stop on your content, because they immediately recognize it’s yours. And put your content out there on the reg so they don’t forget you. Slowly but surely, you’ll see the payoff and wonder why you haven’t been doing this all along. We promise.
