The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) reports that more than 50% of Americans either own or work for a small business. That number is rising steadily and the challenges that come with owning and operating a new business are growing too. One such challenge is being “found”. How do you beat your competition and get your business in front of the right people at the right time in the mammoth online space? Today we share three tips to best use online resources to help your company grow and flourish fast.
#1 Content Marketing
Per dollar spent, content marketing generates approximately 3 times as many leads as traditional marketing. This makes it the perfect choice for new businesses for two reasons: keeps your advertising costs lower and increases the amount of information about your company online. The larger your online presence the greater trust is achieved (see more about this in Tip #3 below). What is Content Marketing? It’s the producing and sharing of content related you and your industry that may be deemed interesting or a resource for people and can include blog articles (like this one!), text and video. Obviously we have a bias towards using Video in your Content Marketing strategy (we are a video production company after all!) but there are some compelling stats and undeniable research that supports our enthusiasm. For example; audiences are about 10 times more likely to engage, embed, share, and comment on video content than blogs or related social posts.
#2 Review and Retarget
Most businesses are engaging in some form of content marketing online. Most are regularly sharing videos and blogs, but very few are using these results of these outreach efforts and this is a big mistake to make. When you make reviewing the results of your campaigns a regular part of your overall marketing plan you can make tweaks in response to what is working and what’s not, get some terrific insight into where your ideal customers are “living” online, and perhaps most importantly you can stay on their radar. You may have heard of the Marketing term: Rule of Seven. The idea is that it takes seven touches for a customer to hit the purchase button. Seven times information about your company needs to cross their paths before they take action. This is not a hard and fast rule, sometimes 3 or 4 will be the magic number, but you should aim to retarget your audience and put new info about your business in front of them at regular intervals. Facebook, Instagram and even LinkedIn Advertising platforms make this easy by allowing you to target audiences based on their past interactions with your brand. You’ve made an initial impression, don’t let them forget you!
#3 Building Trust Through Social Proof
Why is developing trust in your brand so important? We (as consumers) don’t make our purchasing decisions solely upon the cold hard facts presented to us. Recent neurology research has found that the area of our brains responsible for making decisions (including what we buy) is also responsible for emotion. How we “feel” about a brand is most important to us, we rely heavily (consciously or unconsciously) on our gut instincts. So how we develop a positive emotional response to the representation of our company online? We should aim to make the potential customer feel safe and trustful. 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Yup, what people are saying about your company online holds as much weight as guidance from a friend or family member. Enter “Social Proof”, this is the currency of trust built upon positive reviews online. It’s incredibly important to integrate content that will encourage people to comment, Like and review you – and then those reactions should be shared with your online community.
We sincerely hope that this piece of Content Marketing has helped spark inspiration for ways in which you can use online tools to grow your new business. At Front Runner films we are passionate about creating bold, imaginative online video that works. We like to think that if genius filmmaker Steven Spielberg and marketing guru Seth Godin had a baby, we’d be it! If you’d like us to partner with you in producing Online Content that converts as well as tells your brand’s unique story, then send us an email (info@frontrunnerfilmsll.com) to start a conversation, or find out more about us here: www.frontrunnerfilmsllc.com.
