New to business, need clients right away? You can get a good start with referrals from friends, family members and previous associates. Eventually you will need to expand your reach. You can do so quite effectively with an Online Marketing Strategy.
So how do you win the trust and favor of your market so they do business with you? I'm glad you asked. Thanks to social media and a variety of tools and resources on the internet, that's entirely possible.
Here are 5 Proven Ways to Get Started:
1.Lay the foundation: Set up your Website, Create business profiles or pages on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and YouTube. This is how you set-up-shop in the online world. Your business almost does not exist online without these main things.
2.Dress the door: Invest in your branding for your Website and Social Media profiles, showcase your services, invite inquiries through a contact page, describe your experience and background as it relates to your business on an 'About' page. Uniformity is key when putting information out there about your business. Your Website should have the same look as your Facebook Fan Page and vice versa. As for your Website, you want it to be able to tell leads or Website visitors your story. 'What is your company about?', 'What kind of services do you have to offer?', 'How can I move to the next step towards using your services?'. These are the basic things your Website should be able to do 24/7 on autopilot. Spend some time setting up these systems, then leave it and work on other aspects of your marketing.
3.Provide Social proof: Showcase your appearances at speaking engagements, in various online and offline media, showcase testimonials from past clients. This ties in with the point above. The idea is that when subscribers visit your Website to do their 'due diligence', you want them to see that you have some credibility.
4.Spend time on Content Marketing: Write blog posts regularly, write guest articles for well-known online publications, create videos, create images with tips and best-practices for your niche and brand it with your company name or website.
5.Get social: Build and engage a community on Facebook. You can do this with a Facebook business page or a Facebook group. Share business and personal updates, pictures, 'behind-the-scenes' videos, clients' success stories, your success stories. This positions you as an authority and makes you relateable. Funny how this works actually. But give it a good faith try and you're bound to see results.
These are all straight-forward, simple and I dare say fun ways to start building trust online and getting clients for your business. I would love to hear from you. Are you using any of these strategies? What kind of results are you experiencing? Let's start the conversation.