Entrepreneurs function on a daily basis with tight resources and limited manpower. To make the best out of every situation, entrepreneurs must be resourceful, creative and on the cutting edge of technology solutions to stay on pace with competitors while spending less on each task.
As marketing is a major component of business success, it is important that messaging and branding reach a wide audience effectively. The more clients and business partners introduced to a brand early and provided with valuable information promptly, the easier it is to establish and nurture long-term relationships with the most appropriate leads. When marketing strategies only reach a limited pool of potential clients, future growth strategies are restricted and expansions may be delayed or derided.
Rather than holding back growth potential now or in the future due to a lack of capital, experiment with free, cost-effective online marketing tactics – LinkedIn, Mailchimp, SlideShare, or Survey Monkey – that open new doors to business opportunities without breaking budgets.
How can you explore an online marketing strategy that will create new opportunities to engage prospects and existing clients?
Build Up Content
It is extremely important to create a consistent, reputable online presence when operating on multiple channels. A business must have a branding strategy that connects the company’s offerings to its presentation to its clients. Online, this branding strategy must be consistent across social media channels, websites and other online interactions. The online presence must provide clients with insight into the company’s operations and value, as well as other information on the associated industry. The more informative a company appears to be, the more likely a client will trust their input and return for more in-depth reference or purchasing guidance.
Therefore, it is equally important for a company’s superficial presentation online to be appealing to client’s as well as the content offered to educate potential leads.
Content can be created and shared online through a variety of channels. Some companies opt to launch a blog or news feed on their websites that generates regularly updated information for viewers and partners to read and share with others electronically. The content can include industry press releases, aggregated news topics pertaining to the industry or specific offerings, blog posts that offer opinion and insight or a reposting of news content from reputable sources elsewhere online. The information collected and then shared should offer value to the reader as well as tie back to the company and its operations.
This requires content marketing expertise to oversee the accuracy of the information while weighing its worth to the target audience. Understanding what interests a potential viewer, or the concerns they may be looking to address, enables marketers to create content in response to these trends for increased visibility and website traffic. If the content offers pertinent information, viewers may share it with friends, family or business associates via social media channels or email. This will further spread the content to a wider pool of viewers at no expense to the company. As a result, more viewers may return to the website for information or to inquire about a purchase. The enterprise will come across as an expert resource in the industry, making it a more trusted provider for future purchases.
Furthermore, content marketing tactics can strengthen the performance of a company’s website by increasing views and improving search engine optimization (SEO) rankings. When search engines review websites and determine how they should be ranked on results pages based on keywords typed in, the algorithms review the prevalence of certain words as well as the value of the content included in the web pages. Therefore, it will not benefit a company to simply add the terms “financial advisory firm” as much as possible throughout a website to ensure a high ranking on Google or Bing. Rather, continually updating the website with new, unique content – such as guest blog posts and news feeds that contain certain keywords in appropriate contexts – will boost SEO rankings by demonstrating the value of the information being provided to viewers.
In addition, all content placed on company websites should include references to reliable sources and links that send viewers to other parts of the website for more information or to external sites with in-depth insight. When a company provides not only valuable content but also reliable and trusted links to external sites, SEO rankings improve and viewers get more out of each post or article. Linking to recognized sites is factored in when algorithms determine SEO rankings, and often other sites that have been linked to by the company will return the favor. This will generate more viewers from external sites being directed to the company’s website without entrepreneurs or marketing teams having to add additional functions to campaigns.
The content produced and shared on company websites can be viewed via SEO searches as well as on social media channels. After the content has been published online, share the link via Twitter, LinkedIn and others to garner interest and drive website traffic.
