Congratulations, you have a new business. You’ve invested money in setting up the product or service, and you have created a great brand and website.
Now what?
That’s a question we get a lot from people who seek our help. And it’s not always an easy one to answer.
Usually, the next step, once you have a business ready, is to seek out customers. In most cases, this is done through sales and marketing.
Sales is a little more straightforward: you make contact, you ask if they’re interested, you get a yes or no.
Marketing is more complicated. And confusing. It doesn’t have a clear path and it can cost a lot of time and money when done the wrong way.
In our experience, there are three distinct ways that an entrepreneur can begin to market their business.
Each of these three options for promotion has its pros and cons. And each can also work together to multiply the results you get.
Let’s review them and see which might work best for you.
1) Community Connections
In the modern world of online marketing, this might seem like a strange place to start. But at the end of the day, the more people who know you and know what you can do to help them, the more likely they are to work with you.
Building a strong community around you is a great way to grow your business.
Of course, this doesn’t mean going to networking events and handing out business cards or hard selling people (nobody likes that guy!). But it does mean building professional connections.
Get involved somehow in your local community, and ideally business or professional development events. Research your industry association in your area and become part of it.
Yes, it can feel a little awkward at first, but if you’re a genuine person, and don’t try to force people to listen to a sales pitch, then you will slowly build community connections.
Doing this once or twice a month can pay big dividends over time. The more people that you know and who know you, the more you can expect your business to grow.
2) Search & Social Ads
If you have a budget of $500-$1000 a month to spare, then online ads can be a great way to grow traffic and attention to your website.
Depending upon the types of products or services you have to offer, different ad platforms might suit you.
Here is a quick breakdown for the types of ads that you can run:
Search based ads – Google, Bing, Yahoo. These are best for people who offer solutions to problems. The more immediate, the better. The upside of search ads is that you only pay for clicks. The downside is other businesses can bid more for the top spot.
Social based ads – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn. These types of ads are better for people who want to attract interest to a product or service. The upside of social ads is that you can target by demographics very accurately. The downside is that you can lose a lot of money on impressions with no clicks.
Display ads – Youtube, Websites. Something of a hybrid between search and social ads, a display ad is placed on a website or on youtube to try to entice interested people into clicking on it. The upside is the lower cost of ads, while the downside is the lower amount of engagement.
With all kinds of advertising, remember that people see it mostly as an interruption. That doesn’t mean they won’t engage, but it does mean you have to grab their attention.
This is where an agency can help: by targeting the right people, testing the audience reactions, and refining the copy for better success.
3) Content Marketing
Now before you roll your eyes and think this is the part where I do a pitch for our services, let me be clear: content marketing is not for everyone.
The downside of content marketing is that it takes time and effort to get going. It’s not as simple as meeting people at events or spending money on ads.
But content marketing has some significant upsides, especially over the long term.
So, what exactly is content marketing?
Here’s my simple definition that took me a long time to get right:
Content marketing is when you give something away, that makes a person want more of what you have.
That ‘something’ can be in the form of written content, video, audio, samples of your work, or some sort of trial.
Your content marketing is basically a smaller version of what you offer if someone buys from you.
The key to making content marketing work for you is simple: make it valuable. Whatever you share with people, make them think ‘that was worth my time.’
Of course, that’s not easy to do, and that’s why companies like ours exist.
The Promo Combo
Another big question we get is, ‘where do I start with promoting my business?’
If you are short on money, then start by investing time in your community and some content. Once you have some money, you can begin to run ads, and ramp up your content if you like.
The best part about promoting your new business is that you can use each of these methods together, and their effect is multiplied.
Spending time on your community connections can be amplified by staying connected on social media. And social media can be a great place to retarget interested people who click on your search ads.
Every piece of promotion ads up slowly. You shouldn’t expect immediate results with any one type (beware of any agency that promises this). But you can begin to see results if you take the time and make an investment.