In 2015, customers spent $107 billion dollars on online courses according to Global Industry Analysts. The number of Internet users increased from 738 million in 2000 to 3.2 billion in 2015, according to the International Telecommunication Union. In 2017, 2.46 billion people used social media every day according to Statista.
There is no denying the opportunity the Internet and social media have created. Never has there been a time in which organizations can market their products and services to a captive global audience as they can today.
While the opportunity is great, there are too many entrepreneurs and companies that aren’t capitalizing on all this potential.
In 2016, the stats showed that 46% of U.S. small businesses still didn’t have a website according to research firm Clutch. Millions of potential leads are being lost by not investing to create online platforms.
There are marketing teams and companies reading this that aren’t making the kind of revenue they’d like or could generate online with a few major adjustments to their marketing strategy.
With all of this opportunity, there is no reason you can’t use the power of the Internet to grow your audience presence and sales online. Your business may not be growing because you’re not doing these five things.
1. Branding and messaging with clarity.
In digital marketing, you’ve heard about the need to niche. In the desire to be different, companies brand their organizations in a way that does just the opposite. If a potential customer doesn’t understand what you do and more importantly how it will help them, they won’t invest their time and money.
While new age branding sounds good, it confuses potential customers and confused buyers don’t spend money. Your branding and messaging have to be clear.
When someone visits your online platform, they need to understand exactly what you do and how what you do helps their lives in some way. They need to see the value in plain language that speaks to them.
They need to see your story, see you understand their pain points, and that you have practical solutions.
2. Building an audience beyond social media.
Social media marketing has been the go-to strategy for entrepreneurs for years and for good reason. You have the opportunity to reach billions but it doesn’t work that way.
All the major social media platforms are now publicly traded companies. They now have to answer to their shareholders when profit isn’t there. The way these platforms make their profit is by limiting your organic reach and offering their ads platforms to reach the audience you’ve built.
You are paying more to reach your own people.
There is no denying that social media advertising is powerful but your marketing strategy has to be diverse to grow. Social media marketing should just be one part of a diverse stagey. There are other ways to market your business that help you multiple a marketing plan that’s not dependent on your paying for reach:
- Get interviewed on podcasts that are relevant to your business. Podcasts have millions of listeners who spend money.
- Create content for large business and personal development publications. The large media publications you consume every day get millions of targeted readers. Give them good content and they’ll want to know more about your business.
- Do webinars and online training to build an email list.
- Build an email list as your primary strategy.
3. Creating undeniable value first.
You can’t ask for a sale if you haven’t added value first to your community. The good news is that we live in a time in which there are many ways online to add value.
You can publish free blog posts, do podcast interviews, publish articles on large publications, host free Facebook Live Q&A’s, host free webinars, make YouTube videos, and your free value posts on social media.
When you release valuable content that helps your potential customer before they ever spent a dime with you, not only will they buy, but they’ll become raving fans. Raving fans tend to bring other customers.
4. Using software to present your business more professionally.
The Internet age has spawned a new wave of software and innovation. Using software such as Clickfunnels, you can set up an automated sequence that leads to sales 24/7.
There are options that help you develop systems and make the overall look of your business online. What’s nice is that a lot of this software is plug and play. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars hiring a team to set it up.
Use the software and different platforms that are available today to build systems and automation into your business.
5. Having a strategic promotion’s plan.
If you don’t have a plan for what you’ll sell in your business online and when you’ll sell it you won’t experience growth in a way that you could be.
You can’t promote your business and premium offerings infrequently. You need a real strategic plan that’s mapped out. You should know what you’re going to promote, when you’ll promote it, what tools you’ll use, and the steps you need to take each promotion cycle.
If you aren’t growing your business online and build a larger following, go through each of these points and see where there’s an opportunity for improvement. There’s a wealth of growth opportunity through digital marketing.
