Kim Kelley ThompsonIn this second part of the two-part series on six proven steps to grow your business online we’ll walk through the last two items necessary to leverage the power of the Internet to successfully grow your business online.
There is a strategy to building a business, any business offline for online. Any successful business requires an intention, a plan to achieve that intention, marketing, sales and regular, consistent action. The beauty of the Internet is that companies can expand their reach much more efficiently than in past years. However, there are key steps to building a successful platform online, follow the steps and you’ll see results.
#5 of six proven steps to grow your business online
Marketing – Your blog posts are the marketing arms of your site, which is why we use keywords to attract our ideal audience. The objective of your blog is to get people interested in what you have to offer.
On average people will spend about 3 – 7 seconds on a page so you have a short window in which to capture their attention. You must have a site with content that works for you. One that will turn leads into followers and followers into clients.
You want your content to act like a sales force out in the field singing your praises. A blog is the tool that can do just that. It has the ability to create credibility and position you as an expert in your field.
You’ll want to be consistent with your blog posts. Add fresh content regularly and share, share, share!
The more consistent you are, the faster the search engines will view you as a serious, viable business. Why? Because the search engines love activity, which is precisely why blogging consistently helps with page ranking.
Step #6 of six proven steps to grow your business online
Traffic – Once you’ve created an article, you’ll have to tell others about it. Basically you’re marketing your marketing! This is especially important when you are just starting out and have no list as of yet. You must share information about your recent post on social media.
Remember, we’re going to add a Call to Action (CTA) to your content inviting people to sign up for some type of give away. This could be the access to the ongoing series delivered right to their inbox, a free guide on a specific topic, or perhaps you want to offer a free consultation (these tend to convert well, as they can be good relationship builders). This CTA requires an email to access your give away; this will be the beginning of your email list.
Earlier in this article I suggested you set up a Mailchimp account if you need an autoresponder. If you haven’t done so, now would be the time to set that up. www.mailchimp.com
Now that you’ve created content and a CTA you have to have a place to collect emails and send the information they’re opting in to receive. This is where Mailchimp comes in, (feel free to use any autoresponder of your liking – see the article: Best Autoresponders for Email Marketing. I just prefer Mailchimp when you’re just starting out.
Traffic can come from various areas as long as you are sharing value consistently. Social Media can be a huge help when it comes to growing your list, but you’ll need to decide which social channels are best for your business.
Generally speaking Business-to-Consumer (B2C) does well with:
Business-to-Business (B2B) does best on:
- Google +
Each time you publish a post, you’ll want to share across social media. But, do not just place the link to your new post on social media, add an introduction and ask for comments to entice engagement. Just as any email subject line or blog post title, your introduction should pique curiosity. Questions, Case Studies, Results or How to introductions tend to work best.
We make it harder than it actually is because we tend to overthink the process hit overwhelm and often shut down, and it’s no wonder, there is a learning curve simply because marketing online is an unknown territory for most people. It also requires some self promotion, and let’s face it, most people do not like to promote themselves.
Ok you’ve got the first part down!
- You have clarity, which is a huge piece of the puzzle.
- You know which website template to use.
- You know how to reach your target market.
- You know how to create valuable content for your site – even if you hate to write!
Now what about the second part? Building on your momentum:
- Installing plug-ins (they’re free and help optimize your site).
- Adding images and video to your site and social media posts.
- Optimizing images and video (this is important and most people – even SEO specialists are not doing it).
- Monetizing your site.
- Creating lead magnets, newsletters, email follow-ups.
- Setting the system in motion… the rest of the platform.
If you’d like to find out more, I put together a free training series that gives in-depth training on creating and marketing your business to reach more clients and get more sales.
The course is called Online Business Cheat Sheet, you can access the Free Video Training Series here: Access Training
Have a question you’d like answered? Send to: support@kimkelleythompson.com
