Started a business?
Got a website?
Okay, now you need to look at building your brand and getting traffic and engagement on your website and social media accounts.
Website Checklist
- Trust signals – include membership badges, university logos prominently
- Humanize the site – include images and videos of people who work for the business
- Social Proof – include reviews and testimonials. TrustPilot and video testimonials work well
- Site Speed – make sure the site is quick and works perfectly on mobile devices
- EAT – Expertise Authority & Trust – show your credentials on the about us page
- Contact Form – Make it as easy as possible to be contacted
- Trust & Transparency – Include full contact info if possible – address, tel number, email
- Have you got Google Analytics & Search Console installed?
You will also need to think about the colour scheme and imagery.
Think about what mood you want to portray
https://www.bedtracks.com/blog/2017/6/15/how-to-coordinate-music-with-the-colour-in-your-video
- Strong Call To Action
You will probably want a “Call to Action” or “CTA” button, such as “Buy Now”, “Learn More” or “Contact Us”
This CTA button is generally placed “above the fold” on most pages, so that people don’t have to scroll down or look for a way to get in touch or buy from you.
“Join Free for a Month” – is the CTA on Netflix’s homepage (at the time of writing)
For more expensive, high end or though-out purchases such as – buying a car or contacting a therapist, sometimes it’s better to have the CTA below the fold. The best thing to do is test it, with Google Optimize.
For more information about “Conversion Rate Opimization” (CRO), see this article:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/conversion-rate-optimization-guide
Google My Business
Register your website and your office with Google My Business
You can go through the steps here:
https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/business/
Google will send out a postcard to your office (or home) address
The postcard has a code – so you can confirm you are at that address
Local Directories
Register your business with high quality, local directories such as
- Bing Places
- Yelp
- Yell
- Free Index
- Open Di
Try and get on any local government directories too.
Social Media & Captioned Videos
If relevant, register your business on:
- TikTok
Arguably the best way to get noticed on social media at the moment, is to create videos with captions – so they can be watched on mute.
Linkedin is said to have the greatest organic reach at the moment too – meaning you can get your video, image or text-post in front of more people, without paying for ads.
Social media sites like people posting videos too – because they drive a high rate of engagement and keep people on the site for longer.
- Do NOT post to YouTube and then post a link on social media
Instead – upload your video direct to the platform.
Social media sites will tend to kill your reach if you post a link – they don’t want people to click and leave their website
YouTube is also showing on more and more Search Results Pages on Google.
Consider creating a YouTube channel with lots of informative, helpful and entertaining content. You can then edit the videos and post to specific social media platforms.
Jab, Jab, Jab – Right Hook
General principle of content and social media marketing by Gary V.
Identify your target market
Identify their issues and pain points
Post helpful content related to their pain points and problems
Do NOT constantly promote your business – slip in the odd “Right Hook”, every 3 or 4 posts
People do not want to be sold to constantly, they want helpful, insightful and funny content.
For example.
If you target market is small business owners, take a look on Quora and Reddit and see what people are talking about. If a common theme is Facebook advertising for example, make some helpful videos and blog posts about Facebook marketing.
SEO, PPC and More
The above is just a foundation.
If you have the time and resources, you will ideally produce lots of insightful blog content, earn lots of inbound links and work your way to the top of Google.
You will also want to consider “PPC” – Pay Per Click ads on Google, Facebook and Linkedin.
One beginner mistake to avoid with ads – is sending people to your homepage.
Have a specific “landing page” for each advertising campaign.
oh – make sure you have a good looking logo too. You can use Canva or hire someone on PeoplePerHour.com
Build a Brand
Here’s a good article that some hero wrote about building your brand as a small business
Branding strategy for small businesses
- Nail down your USP
- Identify other propositions “why use me/us and not the competitor?”
- Write down your brand story
- Use high quality photography & videography (avoid stock pictures)
Consider making customer support a key element of your brand – this can help with online reviews too. Pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase consumer stages are all opportunities to impress and help.
