The only way a business survives is for it to implement a growth strategy that maintains a steady stream of clients to increase cash-flow and profit. This was one of the biggest challenges I faced in my business and it’s one that many business owners – large and small struggle with.
It’s much easier to start a business now than it was 15 years ago. The internet has created so many opportunities for new entrepreneurs to be up and running online in less than 24 hours!
On the flip side, it’s also created a mass digital media onslaught that as consumers, we can sometimes quite easily glaze over!
So, what do you do about the added competition vying for the attention of what could also be your potential new clients?
You need to have a solid strategy in place that improves your visibility gets your business in front of your target audience. You then need to follow through with a lead generation process that allows them to feel empowered enough to make an informed choice about why they are going to use your services.
What are the best ways of using digital marketing to increase your brand visibility?
Social Media Marketing – as one of the most powerful online visibility and marketing tools, your strategy here should focus on developing your brand consistency and enhancing your core values, personality and positioning within your industry and with your clients. When used effectively, it will improve engagement with your target audience as well as establishing your business as an authority.
Ideally, alongside a regular social media posting schedule, you should have targeted content marketing and advertising campaigns, using a mix of written, visual and video content that will raise awareness of your brand and your services and drive leads to your website or a lead funnel page to take them through the sales process.
Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising – this type of digital marketing provides the potential to drive targeted traffic to your website or lead funnel landing pages using Google AdWords and other platforms, using keywords and phrases to match the common search terms used by consumers searching for a product or service.
Your campaigns should be designed to target the most relevant set of keywords related to your business, so that your content appears when those keywords are searched for on Google or other search engines. As the name suggests, you pay each time someone clicks on your adverts and the actual price paid depends on ‘value / popularity’ of the keywords.
In essence, this should be a great way of making sales as any leads you receive in this way would be classed as warm because they are actively searching for your service and therefore, will be primed to make a purchase.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – again, as with Pay Per Click, search engine optimisation is reliant on keywords, but is focused more on the digital content or communications that you produce for your business. For example, on your website pages and blog articles. This enables the search engines to rank your content according to those keywords.
The key to success with SEO is that it is regularly maintained and updated. Demand and popularity of search terms change along with the ‘rules’ for how the likes of Google, Bing and Yahoo decide to analyse and rank online content.
Every business ideally wants to appear (organically) on the first page of a search engine. A solid and consistent SEO programme is how you do it!
Once you get visitors to your website or landing page – how do you get them to buy?
The next step in having a successful growth strategy is your client creation process. Whilst each of the visibility tactics described above work to help potential clients find you, what actually creates the lead from then on is the content that you create.
Your promotions have to trigger enough of a pull to make someone click on the link and visit your page. The headlines you use, the images and the underlying text all play a part in making that happen.
Your message at this stage must be impactful enough to target an interest, challenge, need or goal in order to generate a potential lead to visit your website or landing page funnel.
A client creation process may look something like this for example:
Google Advert > Lead Funnel Page > Email Free Gift or Voucher > Main Sales Page > Added Value Content > Upsell/Downsell/Cross Sell Content
Having complete clarity about who your target audience is and what their challenges and goals are, will help you to generate content that speaks directly to them:
> What is the issue or challenge you are solving?
> What are they going to learn or what are you going to provide to help them resolve this issue?
> What results can they expect by working with you or using your services?
> How is it going to potentially change their lives or help them achieve their goals?
> What social proof do you have (testimonials / case studies etc)?
> How long will it take?
> What will it cost?
There are many different client creation processes you can use to generate leads and revenue, and it may take a little bit of time to work out which formula is right for you and your business.
My biggest tip here is to empathise, share your story, inspire, motivate and empower them to take the next step. Take the lead from others who are doing it successfully, but also ensure that is it’s a process that you can put your full energy into and take ownership of as well.
When you understand and implement a robust strategy for increasing your visibility and helping your potential leads see the value in what you can do for them, this will inevitably lead to increased sales and growth for your business.