How to begin attracting, seducing and selling to potential customers with useful, informative, educational, problem-solving website content.
The business wanting a competitive edge must develop a strategy to establish a meaningful dialogue with the audience, so put on your thinking cap, dig deep into your own knowledge and experience of your industry and market, and aim to speak to the needs of those who will eventually buy from you.
Your website is a marketing tool.
It is the nucleus of your business, the center of your universe. It’s a spring board that can be loaded with valuable information for people to consume and share and absolutely must have a committed strategy behind it. If you don’t do it, a savvy competitor will, and you’ll be outclassed.
If you run a website, you’re also in the media business.
Valuable content β whether it is blogs, podcasts, videos, reports, research etc β serves as a simple trust-building exercise prompting people to make purchase decisions and (if you’re any good at what you do) go on to write reviews and recommend to others, possibly by sharing something they saw on your website that first appealed to them.
A Website is Not a Newspaper Ad
Newspaper ads broadcast at people, which is advertising, whereas aΒ website is all about marketing; to people.
Granted, the line between advertising and marketing has become increasingly ambiguous.
Good written, visual or video content is meant to connect with customers in a meaningful way. Switch on the TV or radio and you’ll see it is crammed full of advertisers who are shouting at you and begging you to buy.
Avoid becoming part of the same noise. Don’t let your website be a low quality cry for attention. Don’t be another annoying advert.
Understand that your website is a way to adopt a slower-paced courtship process in which the sale is made off the back of building trust and hitting different parts of the “funnel” (research > awareness > consideration > sale).
Creating great information and useful content saves you from having to repeat yourself on the phone or in person because it’s like a brilliant 24 hour salesperson you don’t have to pay bonuses to.
Content Marketing is Low Cost, Low Risk
A small business can be flexible, experimental and innovative. There are no shareholders, directors or executives who need to be convinced before allowing you to try some new marketing angle.
You do not need to have a meeting every few days to discuss something that could have been implemented and tested within hours.Β
If You’re Going to Spend Money on Advertising, Think Carefully
There is no huge financial liability in doing so, but if you’re ever planning to spend money on ads, and you don’t have your website ship shape prior to welcoming an influx of visitors to what might be a terrible website, it could be a dead end for those who did take a chance on you.
Converting sales “suspects” to “prospects” and prospects to qualified leads, and leads to a sale is an art as well as science.
Connect with People
Small or local businesses can take advantage of social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Business Profile and Pinterest to connect with people in a way that builds visibility, familiarity and reputation.
YouTube is particularly recommended because it is owned by Google, and is actually the second largest search engine in the world. YouTube videos, when optimised well, can rank highly in search engines if you’ve tapped into keywords that are relevant to what you sell.Β
Typically, local businesses are quite lazy when it comes to marketing. It’s rare to see anyone really doing it well and that is why the opportunity exists. Even if you only get it half right, that could be more valuable to you then the rivals who are not bothering at all.
Don’t Obsess Over Search Engines
Do not let what doesn’t matter as much be at the mercy of what matters most. People matter most.
Think of search engine traffic as bonus traffic. Google moves the goal posts so often that it is not worth pursuing short term traffic using manipulative tactics. Lazy marketers will always try to take shortcuts by exploiting loop holes that Google will close as soon as it catches up. As great as it is to optimise webpages to get search traffic, it’s just a short term solution to a long term marketing problem.
Email Marketing: the Most Underestimated, Under-Used Yet Most Effective Channel
If you want to play a game of cops and robbers with Google, that is up to you, but the real progress is made when you invest time doing your best to instead please people. Get them to opt in to an email marketing list, so that you can have regular contact with people who have either bought something or are considering doing so.
Segmenting your email audience list is a powerful means of either winning new business or leveraging those who already gave you money to possibly do so again or recommend you to others.
“The Best Marketing is Education”
– Steve Jobs of Apple, 1991
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It’s not rocket science β it’s marketing. Educate your customers. Show people who you are. Prove you are good at what you do.
Dangle a carrot. Let them have a free sample. Offer a complimentary bite or taste of your business.
Give customers a teaser, but always leave them hungry.
