18 Jun Easy ways to grow your company for beginners
Chances are, there are hundreds of people looking for a company with your skill set to meet their needs right now. But at the moment, you can’t afford to put ads up everywhere. How can you, as a new business owner, get more clients? Inbound marketing is the method of putting your information out in places (typically for free, or greatly reduced price) where people are already searching. Here are 10 ways you can grow your business online in a very sustainable way.
Blogging/Social Media
This is probably the first step that should be taken when trying to use inbound marketing. Even if you have limited time, resources, or just don’t really know how to present yourself, a simple website, Facebook page or blog, that answers simple questions related to your field will put you on the radar when potential clients are looking for service in Dublin.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
This can be related to having social media pages. Using search engine optimisation is simply making sure that you use key words that will make your site more likely to be pulled up higher when someone does a search for you in Google or Bing. You can also improve this by developing links to your site from local listing sites. This will show Google the locality you are in as well as bring people who are looking at these sites. This also makes your site seem more credible to the search engine, and also more likely to appear earlier in a search.
Personalization
With so many sites on the internet, it’s vital to have a personality that stands out from among the competition. So many businesses have boring content on their site. make it personal to you. Not only should your site be attractive, they need to be user-friendly, and information should be very easy to find. Two main reasons why people don’t end up using a company they find online is because it was too difficult to use, or the site seemed very unprofessional. People do business with people so be a person
People do business with people so be a person
Forms/Chats
Once you have people looking at what you can do, you need to be able to contact them. It’s important to not just have their information but really communicate. Learn who people are, and what they are expecting when they are interested in your service. A simple, easy to understand form (3 fields max) will get you contact information to start you on this trend. If you have the ability to add a private chat widget I recommend you do. This then connects a potential client to a member of your team at the moment they are looking at your product. It’ll be faster for both you and the other person to know if your service is a right fit for them. Even if you can’t help them, a good experience in talking to you is going to make an impression. Chances are, they’ll recommend you to someone else.
Provide lasting value
When you work in a physical office, typically, you have fliers or information sheets you can hand out in a consultation meeting. However, you can’t really give papers to a person you’re communicating with via the internet. Teleportation hasn’t been invented yet…I checked. Until science catches up a bit, you should give the option for someone to download something in exchange for some information. Booklets in digital form that can be accessed by the individual will give them all the information that you’d typically go over in a face to face meeting. Or, for potentials who don’t enjoy reading, have short webinar videos for each topic.
Use the force wisely
Once you’ve begun communicating with individuals, send friendly, value-laden and automated emails to them, just so you are brought back to their attention. If a client has emailed with direct questions or 
concerns, respond to them in a timely manner. Sometimes, potential clients will wait for a good discount on services before they’ll commit to anything. Emails are a great way to let them know about special pricing on your services.
Having a good reputation with clients is almost more important than anything else. Periodically, you should go over any complaints, and check for trends. Go over sales, and see what marketing efforts are being the most effective, and which need to be either eliminated or reevaluated. It used to be that you would try to blast a client with a much information as you possibly could, and try to get them to make a quick decision. In this day and age, that doesn’t work anymore. Focus on cultivating good communication with each individual.
Remember, You Are Not Selling Anything
It seems like a bit of a contradiction, but the biggest aspect that you as a business person need to understand is that you are informing people. People rarely want to stay on a page that is all about pushing them to spend money. With inbound marketing, you are informing people about who you are and the sector you work in. If you do a good job of this, an annoying sales pitch won’t be necessary.
These are just a few ways you can start to grow your business online. If you would like to hear more, why not contact me and we can discuss it perhaps over coffee.
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