With so many choices for both consumers and businesses these days, you really need to stand out from the crowd. Here are five ways to get you started.
Take a look at your competitor’s content.
What got left out? Many times people will write just enough to show you they are an authority but they fail to tell you the details.
For instance, they may share an idea but not talk about how to execute an idea. I knew someone who shared great emails to use but didn’t share the subject line – and that is one critical piece.
Think about how you can add to that to fill in any questions the reader has in their mind after reading that article.
Check your mailbox
Are your competitors still using old-school marketing?
As you sift through the offers, make a list of the competition and visit their websites. You may want to do a similar offer but promote it online in such a way that your potential customers or students will find it when they “need” services.
Check the junk mail that comes via snail mail. Watch your competitors’ TV commercials. Make note of flyers or other offers you see at local establishments
I don’t just rely on the first company I see with an offer, I like to check out reviews and the competition. In fact, I have some print offers in my desk drawer right now to remind me to go look at other companies.
You get the point here right? I recommend promoting your offer on your website and also via a Facebook ad. You can get the same exposure for a fraction of the cost and be in front of your potential customers more than once.
Only invest in content marketing if you want more leads
According to Hubspot, Businesses with websites of 401-1000 pages get 6x more leads than those with 51-100 pages. (HubSpot Lead Generation Lessons from 4,000 Businesses, 2011)*
Let’s look at this from another angle. If you went to a conference with a lot of breakout sessions from various competing vendors that wanted your business and one vendor spoke for 5 minutes telling you about their latest product and another vendor spent an hour explaining all the benefits and features and really showed they understood your needs, who would you want to do business with?
It’s the same online. If you just speak to someone once with a static website but don’t offer any other value to the potential customer, and your competition does…You can see where I’m going with this right? Don’t just speak about how great your product or service is. Provide value to your audience.
Be everywhere
If you really want to position yourself above the competition, you need to be sure your content is seen everywhere.
And the type of content you produce must appeal to your audience. You want “consumable” content. Images and videos are consumed more than just articles these days.
Produce content that shows your audience you are taking notice of how they like to digest information. Don’t just use text blog posts (and always be certain to add images on your blogs).
Create compelling infographics, videos, and even audio if your audience responds to that. Then be certain you distribute your content in all the appropriate places.
There is more than one video-sharing site and lots of graphic-sharing sites as well.
Think of the companies that do a lot of branding. You may see them on TV, hear them on the radio, see them in print publications and online.
Now as far as TV, radio, and print go, I’m not saying that is right for everyone. Not everyone pays attention to most of that advertising these days.
With Netflix, Pandora, and online news sites, some people are not even exposed to traditional media as much anymore.
What they do see are video ads, graphics on social media and blogs they follow, invitations to webinars, and more.
Basically, we are surrounded by online content. We want to discover who the thought leaders are for products and services we buy as well as new things we want to try down the road.
Customers may find a person or company interesting and start to follow them for quite a while before they buy their product or service. They want to be sure their hard-earned dollars are spent in the right place.
Don’t leave this to chance. Be everywhere you can.
Make the right connections
You may or may not have ever belonged to some sort of networking group.
I like to think the Internet is one big networking group. It just takes more work to find the right connections that can be mutually beneficial.
Invest some time in finding the right connections online.
Start making a list of what industries share your demographic. What products and services complement yours.
You know the old hot dog and ketchup/mustard idea. Now start searching for businesses online and really check them out.
See who has good reviews, who has a decent social media following, and who is sticking out to you as an expert.
Then approach them with the idea of complimenting each other’s efforts. Each of you can recommend that your social media followers follow the other.
Comment on each other’s content. Put together a guest blog or co-host a webinar.
There are a lot of possibilities here. Don’t stop with just one. Try to get a group of five or ten together.
It will take some time but you may find that this new tribe of power partners will really benefit one another – a lot.
You can also use each other as sounding boards before trying out new ideas. Find out what worked for them and what didn’t.
If you are new and don’t have a following, you’ll need to balance this out. Either grow your own following first or offer your new connections something of value.
You can search to see what is popular within that industry that your new connection doesn’t have and help them out. It has to be balanced.
Hopefully, these ideas will get you thinking and off to a good start.
If you share the same demographic with Six Degrees Digital Media, we invite you to connect with us to see how we can assist each other.
