There are 3 main ways I use to grow my and my clients’ new businesses. I have implemented this strategy in more than 100 new businesses over the years, and I have achieved exponentially great success in them.
Did you know that more than 80% of new businesses fail within the first year? One of the main reasons for this is the need for more effective promotion. Without promotion, your potential customers won’t know about your products or services, your competitors will have the edge over you, and your sales will suffer.
For those who have experience with promoting new business, they understand how challenging it can be, especially if you have a limited budget, time, and resources.
But don’t worry; there are some simple ways to promote your new business that won’t break the bank or take up too much of your time. In this blog post, you will learn how to use email marketing, social media, and SEO so you can boost your brand popularity and, i turn, will generate leads and increase sales.
These three simple ways to promote your new business are effective, affordable, and easy to implement. They will greatl assist you to get to the audience you have targeted, also build you trust and customer loyalty, exponetially grow your business.
1. Use Email Marketing to Promote Your New Business
Email marketing has remain one of the best method of growing your new business. Why? The simple reason is that email marketing has high return on investment (ROI). DMA did a study where they found out that Each $1 you spend doing email marketing, you should expect to have a return of $42. That’s a huge profit margin!
Also, email marketing will helps build trust and loyalty with your customers. By sending valuable and relevant emails to your subscribers, you can keep them engaged, informed, and satisfied. You can also personalize and segment your emails based on your customers’ preferences, behavior, and needs, making them more appealing and effective.
Another benefit of email marketing is that it is measurable and analyzable. Tracking and monitoring the performance of your emails campaign can be done with ease using various metrics, such as open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, bounce rate, and unsubscribe rate.
You have wide options to utiliz tools such as the Google Analytics to measure the impact of your email marketing on your website traffic, sales, and revenue. This method will help optimize your email marketing approach and improve your results.
So, how can you create and run a successful email marketing campaign for your new business? Here are some tips and best practices:
Collect email addresses
The initial stage of implementing email marketing involves constructing an email list, which can be achieved by presenting enticing incentives such as complimentary offerings, discounts, or newsletters, to your website visitors, social media followers, or existing customers.
In addition, utilizing features such as pop-ups and landing pages also known as opt-in forms designed to capture email addresses. Make sure to ask for permission and adhere to data protection regulations, such as the GDPR or CAN-SPAM.
Choose an email marketing platform
Afterwards, the subsequent action is to choose an email marketing platform that aligns with your specific requirements and financial resources. Many options are available, such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, AWeber, or ConvertKit. These platforms will help you create, send, and manage your email campaigns.
They will also provide you with templates, features, and analytics to make your email marketing more accessible and effective.
Design and write engaging emails
The third step is to design and write exciting emails that will catch your subscribers’ attention and persuade them to take action.
Utilizing either the pre-made templates furnished by your email marketing platform or forging your own designs are both viable options.
Make sure to use a catchy subject line, a clear and concise message, a solid call to action, and an attractive layout. You can also use images, videos, or emojis to make your emails more appealing and fun.
Segment and target your audience
The fourth step is to segment and target your audience which involves identifying their unique characteristics, behaviors, and requirements.
You can use the data collected by your email marketing platform or your research to create different segments, such as demographics, location, interests, purchase history, or email activity. With this, you can pushout personalized and relevant emails to each segment, which will increase your open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate.
Test and optimize your emails
The fiftt phase is to test and maximize the efficiencyof your emails to ensure that they are working well and delivering the best results. Diferent tools are in your disposal to utilize, such as A/B testing tools, split testing, or multivariate testing to evaluate various versions of your emails and determine which one performs the best.
You should experimenting with different components of your emails, such as the subject line, message, call to action, layout, or timing. Then use the best performing version to send it to your entire list or optimize it further.
Measure and analyze your results
The last step is to measure and analyze your results using the metrics and analytics provided by your email marketing platform or Google Analytics.
You should keep tabs and oversee the level of performance of your email campaigns and see how they affect your website traffic, sales, and revenue.
You will also recognize the areas of excel and struggles of your email marketing strategy and make adjustments accordingly.
Below, you will see some examples or case studies of new businesses that have used email marketing to promote their business and achieve their goals:
- Zappos. Zappos is a new online store that sells shoes, clothing, and accessories. Zappos used email marketing to increase its sales by 50% by sending personalized product recommendations to its subscribers based on their browsing and purchase history. Zappos also used email marketing to build trust and loyalty with its customers by offering free shipping, free returns, and a 365-day return policy.
- Groupon. Groupon is a new online platform that provides special offers and reduced prices for an assortment of merchandise and amenities. Groupon used email marketing to attract more customers by offering coupons and discounts to its email list. Groupon also used email marketing to segment and target its audience based on their location, interests, and preferences. Groupon sent daily emails with relevant and timely offers that matched the needs and wants of its subscribers.
These are some of the benefits, tips, and examples of email marketing for new businesses. Utilizing email marketing is a straightforward method to advertise your new business that can help you reach your target audience, build trust and loyalty, and grow your sales.
2. Social Media to Promote Your New Business
Social media is one of the most influential and popular ways to promote a new business in the digital age. Social media pertains to internet-based platforms and software that gives users the ability to generate and distribute content, as well as interact and communicate with each other.
Some of the most popular social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and TikTok.
There are many benefits of using social media to promote your new business, such as:
1. Wide reach: Just with social media, you have the ability to reach a vast number of potential customers worldwide, and specifically target various segments based on their demographics and interests, behaviors, and preferences.
2. Low cost: Social media is relatively inexpensive when evaluated against other marketing methods of marketing, as you can make and distribute content at no cost or for a low fee, depending on the platform and the features you use.
3. Interactivity and engagement: Social media can help you forge connections and cultivate faith among your audience, then motivate them to highly interact with your brand and foster engagement, such as by liking, commenting, sharing, or following your posts.
4. Viral potential: Social media can help you spread the word about your new business faster and farther. Your content can go viral if it is appealing, relevant, and timely and if influential users or celebrities share it.
5. Customer feedback and insights: Social media will help you obtain essential feedback and insights from your customers and foster engagement, such as their opinions, preferences, needs, problems, and suggestions, which can help you improve your products, services, and customer satisfaction.
To achieve and maintain a thriving social media presence for your new business, To ensure success, it is important that you adheres to the below guidelines and optimal methods:
1. Choose the right social media platforms: You need to select the platforms that suit your business goals, your target audience, and your type of content. For example, if you want to showcase your products visually, you might choose Instagram or Pinterest. In contrast, if you want to share professional or educational content, you might select LinkedIn or YouTube.
2. Create and optimize your profiles: You should create and optimize your profiles on each platform using a clear and consistent name, logo, bio, and URL, as well as relevant keywords, hashtags, and links to your website or other platforms.
3. Create and share valuable and relevant content: It is very important that you generate and distribute captivating contents that is valuable and relevant to your audience, such as informative, entertaining, inspiring, or informational contents that advertises your products, services, or behind-the-scenes stories. You also need to use high-quality images, videos, or graphics, as well as catchy captions, headlines, and descriptions.
4. Interact and communicate with your followers: You need to interact and communicate ith your followers by engaging in dialogue through responding to their comments, messages, and reviews, asking them questions, polls, or surveys, or inviting them to participate in contests, giveaways, or live events.
5. Use hashtags and keywords: You need to use hashtags and keywords that are relevant to your business, your industry, and your content, as well as to the trends and topics that your audience is interested in.
By utilizing this approach, you can elevate your presence, expand your audience, and enhance interaction on social media platforms, as well as attract new followers and customers.
6. Monitor and improve your performance: You need to monitor and improve your performance on social media by using analytics tools and metrics, such as impressions, reach, engagement, clicks, conversions, and sales, as well as feedback and insights from your audience.
This can help you measure your results, discern your strengths and weaknesses and maximize your chances of success and tactics.
There are many examples or case studies of new businesses that have used social media to promote their business and achieve their goals, such as:
1. A new bakery that gained thousands of followers and orders by posting mouth-watering photos and videos of its products, as well as offering discounts, coupons, and free samples to its followers, and partnering with influencers and bloggers in the community to enhance brand promotion.
2. A new fitness studio that increased its bookings by creating a community and a challenge around its services, such as by inviting its followers to join a 30-day fitness challenge and sharing their progress, results, and testimonials on social media, as well as rewarding them with prizes and recognition.
3. A new software company that generated leads and sales by producing and distributing meaningful and applicable content, like blog posts, webinars and podcasts including ebooks, that addressed the pain points and needs of its target audience, as well as offering free trials, demos, and consultations to its followers, and collecting their email addresses and feedback.
3. SEO to Promote Your New Business
SEO is the proccess of enhancing the ranking and visibility of your website on variouse search engines like the popular Google or Bing.
SEO is one of the best ways to promote your new business because it can help you drive more organic and long-term traffic to your site, which implies a higher likelihood of acquiring additional clientele who are interested in your products or services.
SEO also has a high conversion rate, which means that the visitors who arrive at your website through search engines have a higher likelihood to take action, such as signing up, contacting you, or buying from you. This is because SEO aligns with the user intent and behavior, which means that you are providing the right content and solutions to the users who are searching for them.
Another benefit of SEO is that it can help you build credibility and authority for your new business. Achieving a high rank on search engines can show your customers that you are a trusted source of information and value.
You can also use SEO to create and distribute high-quality and authoritative content that attracts and retains your visitors and showcases your expertise and knowledge.
So, how can you implement and optimize a successful SEO strategy for your new business? Here are some tips and best practices:
Conduct keyword research
The first step to SEO is to conduct keyword research, which is just the proccess of discovering and evaluating the vocabulary and terminology employed by your intended customer base in their pursuit of your merchandise or offerings.
Make sure you leverage tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer, or SEMrush to find relevant and popular keywords that match your niche, your goals, and your customers’ needs.
Also utilize tools like Google Trends, Answer the Public, or Quora to find trending topics, questions, and ideas related to your keywords.
Create and optimize your website
The second step to SEO is to create and optimize your website, which is the online representation of your new business.
Use softwares like WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace to create and design your website or employ the services of a skilled web developer to handle the task on your behalf.
Make sure to optimize your website’s content, structure, and speed and to use keywords and phrases that match your customers’ search intent.
Use tools like Yoast SEO, Google Search Console, or GTmetrix to check and improve your website’s SEO performance.
Create and optimize your content
The third step to SEO is to create and optimize your content, which is the information and value that you provide to your visitors and customers.
Use diferent contents types, such as blog posts, articles, videos, podcasts, infographics, ebooks, or webinars, to educate, entertain, or inspire your audience. Make sure to create and optimize your content based on your keywords, your goals, and your customers’ needs.
There are various tools available such as Grammarly, Hemingway, or Copyscape which can be utilized for the purpose of checking and improving your content’s quality, readability, and originality.
Build and earn links
The fourth step to SEO is to build and make links, which are the connections between your website and other websites.
Links are essential for SEO because they can help you increase your website’s authority, popularity, and relevance.
You can build and earn links by creating and distributing high-quality and authoritative content, reaching out to other websites and influencers in your niche, sharing content through guest blogging or contributing to other related website, stayng active and communicating in communities and active forums, or using tools like Moz Link Explorer, Ahrefs, or BuzzSumo to find and analyze link opportunities.
Use technical SEO
The fifth step to SEO is to use technical SEO, which is the process of ensuring that your website is accessible to crawl, index, and understand by search engines and users.
Technical SEO involves various aspects, such as site architecture, URL structure, navigation, sitemap, robots.txt, schema markup, canonical tags, redirects, HTTPS, mobile-friendliness, and more. Use tools like Screaming Frog, Google Analytics, or Google PageSpeed Insights to assess and enhance the technical aspects of your website’s SEO.
Track and analyze your results
The last step to SEO is to track and analyze your results, which is the process of measuring and evaluating your website’s SEO performance and impact. Leverage the capabilities of digital tools such as Google analytics, search console, or Google big querry also know as the Data Studio to monitor and evaluate diverse metrics, including organic traffic, ranking, conversion, bounce rate, dwell time, and more.
Use tools like Google Optimize, Google Tag Manager, or Hotjar to test and optimize your website and content based on your data and insights.
Below are some examples or case studies of new businesses that have used SEO to promote their business and achieve their goals:
- Slack. Slack is a new software company that offers a cloud-based collaboration platform for teams and businesses. Slack used SEO to rank on the first page of Google for its target keywords, such as “team communication,” “collaboration software,” or “work chat.” By doing so, Slack increased its organic traffic, leads, and sales by 300% in one year and became one of the fastest-growing software companies in the world.
- TripAdvisor is a new travel agency that offers reviews, ratings, and bookings for hotels, flights, restaurants, and attractions. TripAdvisor used SEO to boost its organic traffic and bookings by creating and optimizing a blog with valuable and relevant content for travelers. TripAdvisor also leveraged user-generated content, such as reviews, photos, and videos, to increase its credibility and authority. By doing so, TripAdvisor became one of the most popular and trusted travel websites in the world.
These are some of the benefits, tips, and examples of SEO for new businesses. SEO is a simple way to promote your new business that can help you improve your website’s ranking and visibility, drive more organic and long-term traffic, and grow your sales.
Conclusion
Promoting a new business can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Am happy that you learned three simple ways to promote a new business that can greatly assist you in getting to the audeince you intend to target and at the same time build trust and loyalty, and grow your sales.
All you need now is to praticallise everything you have been shown here into any business that you want to venture into. I promise you that doing it the right way will greatly grow your new business.
