Marketing your business in today’s online world requires us to be educators first and sales people second.
We need to be strategic in our marketing process while communicating what makes us different from our competition. Here are 5 cost effective ways to market your business for small business owners that will help you stand out over your competitors and establish firm credibility in your market.
It’s been reported that consumers are 57% of the way through the buying process every before they contact someone to buy, so being found and getting the ideal clients to know about you is key.
1. Claim your Google My Business Page
All businesses want to be found when someone does a Google search, but it takes effort to make that happen. The most inexpensive and effective tactic you can implement to aid in getting found is to get a free business listing from Google. This service is appropriately called “Google My Business” and is available to local businesses or service area businesses. You need a business in a location to claim a profile for that location, but when you do,it does unlock opportunities such posting updates to showcase what’s new, gain and respond to reviews to build loyalty and add photos to highlight what makes your business special.
You will gain a competitive advantage over those businesses that do not have a listing and don’t maintain their listing. If you office from home like many consultants, coaches and like business owners do, I recommend you claim your business listing because you have the option to hide your address.
Set-up is free, start here to get started: https://www.google.com/business/
2. Put effort into gaining reviews
Reviews are an important factor in whether someone does business with you like it or not. If you have ever made a purchase on Amazon, I bet you read the reviews before you decided which item to buy.
Investing in getting positive reviews will make a difference in how your business is perceived and the consumers decision in choosing you.
When customers leave reviews on Google the result is a powerful boost in your ability to be found in a search result also known as a SERP (Search Engine Result Page) which is served up to users when they search for something online.
Because so many searches are now done via a mobile device many people use voice searching. Google voice search makes it faster for people to get information and the bottom line here is Google serves up businesses that have reviews among other criteria.
I find that often to get reviews requires some education on your part with your customers. You can also put a button on your website linked to your Google listing that says” Review us on Google.”
Other review sites that you should consider that will drive leads and sales;
• Facebook Business Page
• Yelp – for any business
• Amazon – for ecommerce
• Trip Advisor – related to food, restaurant, travel
• Better Business Bureau – for any business
• Yellow Pages Online – for any business
• Houzz – building, home interiors industry
• Angie’s List – service related business
In most cases there is no cost to setting up an account on review sites, the investment is in time and making it easy for customers to want to write you a review.
3. Become a Content Generator
Every business large or small needs to think like a media company. Producing content that educates and answers the questions of your potential customers will earn trust and drive leads. Generating the right content will take prospects through the sales process such as a request for proposal, consultation or directly making a purchase from you.
The best two forms of content right now for generating good content is through your websites blog and via video.
Becoming an effective content generator requires you to answer the top recurring questions your ideal customers have about your business. The simplest way to do this is to do a brain storm on the questions you are asked every day.
Gather your employees or team if you have them and if you are a solopreneur gather the questions by going back to your notes when each client first hired you and note what their challenges were. You could also brainstorm these questions with colleagues in your industry or you could and should call your past customers as ask them to remind you what their challenges were when they hired you and what they might be now.
By the way, if you can’t come up with the questions chances are you have lost touch with your ideal customer and clients and if this is the case, it’s more important than ever to start making phone calls and surveying past and current clients.
You will start to see a pattern in what customers want from someone like you. Then create a content themes calendar with the topics you will cover of the next year.
Developing content does not need to be overwhelming if you create a process.
Recapping the steps:
• Start to think like a media company
• Make a list of the top recurring questions/challenges your prospects ask
• Create themes of topics you will now answer through your content.
• Ideally, I would generate 1 articles/videos per week. At a minimum one per month until you can scale up and answer every common question.
• Content builds trust – be sure yours is unbiased
There are additional ways to take your content to the next level by repurposing your blogs into a nicely produced eBook that you can send out to prospects. This builds both trust and authority. I use this as a sales tool to send a prospect to inform them prior to any call or meeting we might have together.
4. Referral Marketing
Referral marketing, or word-of-mouth advertising, is by far one of the most effective and low-cost ways to market your business online or offline. When someone makes a referral it automatically becomes a warm lead making it simpler for you because you’ve already established credibility.
Not enough people in business are asking for referrals and I think that’s because most don’t know how or have a clear process on how to ask for a referral. Here are the key points you want to be clear on before asking for referrals;
1. Define how you and your business are unique, something that differentiates you from your competitors. Example, if you are a business coach or a plumber you need to be able to describe how you are different than the other business coaches and plumbers.
2. Create a short marketing message that defines who you are and who you help and incorporate your unique perspective or differentiator.
3. Write out a description of exactly what your ideal customer looks like, because if you can’t do this neither can someone who would be a referral partner.
Using testimonials and reviews can be used in conjunction with the referrals to further demonstrate the results people get working with you.
One final comment on referrals, according to John Jantsch, author of the book Referral Engine, “referrals occur most often when two people are talking, and one shares a problem or pain and the other person might say they know someone who could help fix that problem or pain.
The problem, we don’t spend enough time teaching our customers and sources the kinds of complaints, frustrations, challenges and situations that qualify someone as a great referral. Instead we tell people about solutions we offer without defining the problems that a referral partner could be looking for.”
5. Email Marketing
Email marketing is far from dead. Why should you be building an email list? Because you own it and have the right to market to that list anytime you choose versus social media marketing where you are using rented land where the rules can and have changed.
Email marketing puts you in control and if done correctly allows you to segment your lists marketing more specifically to each segment of your prospects and customers with what they came to you for in the first place.
The challenge with email marketing is getting your emails opened. We are competing more than ever before for attention in someone’s in box. That means you must have a great subject line to get the email opened and the first couple of sentences must be compelling to get people to spend time reading more.
One tactic I have implemented is video emails. I want to differentiate myself and this has been fairly effective, and it has taken some trial and error to get to some that works, but I recommend giving it a try especially if you want to get someone’s attention. Here are a few tips based on what I learned.
• Personalize the video by using the persons name
• Get to the point of the email right away, stay away from the opening niceties
• Keep it short – just like email if you ramble on too long people will click away. My videos are typically under a minute.
• End with a call to action
My favorite video email tool currently is One Mob. It is affordable, easy to use on your computer with the Chrome browser or via iphone or Android. Some of the most recent features are for iphone only.
JoAnne,
Thank you so much for this. I didn’t know anything about the google listing and I went and did it. Wow was this article helpful. Thanks Michele
Thanks for your comment Michele, yes Google reviews really improve your getting found in search results. The great thing about this set-up is you can post articles, photos and video to your Google listing making it a real place of value to your visitors. – JoAnne