You have your Startup, and you’ve determined your target market. What now?
Now you need to reach them. The following tips will help you do just that:
Tip #1: Promote user engagement and interaction on social media
Think about any professional meeting you have attended: the blazer, the agenda, the coffee…professional; even potentially uncomfortable. A little something like this:
While the way you talk on social media will depend largely on your brand or industry, for the most part, you can be informal on social media and showcase your brand personality to your customers and leads.
Social media creates an open environment that allows your customers to share their experience about your brand and products, which has the following benefits:
Build your brand: Good branding is not just about your logo or your service; it’s the feeling customers associate with your business, and social can help you build that.
Foster brand loyalty: It is necessary for your customers to feel comfortable with your company. When customers realize you care about them, they will be more likely to return; this establishes brand loyalty.
Manage your online reputation: Besides an established level of comfort, closely-monitored social media accounts allow you to provide instant customer service. For example, if a customer publishes a poor review of your product or service on Facebook, you have the ability to immediately transform their experience.
Drive traffic to your website: Social media makes ‘sharing’ easy, which is important because the more social shares your post receives, the more traffic your site will get.
BuzzFeed is a great example of how social can drive immense traffic to your website. Below is a post on Facebook that received over 2,000 likes and over 400 shares. Correspondingly, this particular article generated over 300,000 visits, most of which can probably be attributed to the Facebook post.
Tip #2: Have a user-friendly website
User experience on your website is everything. If a user does not find value from your website, they will not revisit it, and if the site does not function as it should, you may lose sales. Below are elements your site needs that ensure an excellent customer experience:
Mobile-friendly web design: The consumer market has gone mobile, and it’s time that you do the same. Mobile-friendly websites have increasingly become an important factor in improved mobile search rankings, as evidenced by Google’s latest update, which has made mobile-friendliness a significant ranking signal.
Your customers are on-the-go and using their mobile devices to find businesses, so you want to make sure that you are not only visible on mobile searches but also providing the best possible mobile experience for them. One way to do this is to have a responsive design, which basically means that no matter the screen size, your website will display properly.
Navigable layout: Your website must be easy to navigate. According to studies, no person wants to work more than they have to. In fact –
55% of viewers spend fewer than 15 seconds actively on a page. @hudsonhorizons http://hubs.ly/y0S6LR0 Tweet this
Therefore, if you fail to grasp their attention in that short time span, you’ve lost them – possibly to your competitors. How do you get their attention? With an easily navigable site that is appealing to the eye. Simple navigation will hold the viewer’s attraction much better than a busy, confusing site.
Clear content: Users visit your site for a reason: they are searching for something. Therefore, it is your job to have clear and concise content that is appealing, grabs their attention, and answers their questions.
Tip #3: Create a cohesive online brand presence
Customer trust and retention are not just based on your competence but also on your brand. Therefore, your brand should be consistent on every platform.
The following should be consistent across all online channels:
Brand voice: No matter where people find you online, your brand voice should remain the same. For example, if content on your website is quirky, your social media pages should reflect the same voice.
Logo: This might seem obvious but your logo should be the same across all channels. Don’t use different versions on your website and social pages, because people associate businesses with brand logos. If you use different logos, they might think it’s a different business altogether.
Color schemes: Color is another major aspect of your brand that people remember easily.
Take our company for example.
Our website…
Facebook page…
Twitter profile…
And our Instagram profile.
No matter what online platform you visit, our brand remains the same, allowing our customers to recognize (and remember) our brand easily.
Always consider things from your customer’s perspective. The more consistent your brand is, the easier it is to understand you as a company, and as a customer, it is much easier to like a company that you understand. The more a customer likes you, the more sales, leads, or conversions you will produce.
These three tips are definitely sure-fire. In order to succeed, you must promote user engagement and interaction on social media, have a user-friendly website, and create a cohesive online brand presence. Your digital marketing should effectively reach your goals and communicate your services to your costumers.
If you don’t know where to start, don’t fret. Let us help you jumpstart your startup today with a free consultation.