How many times do you sit and look at your phone, or stare at a blank screen and say to yourself, “I need to get some more clients” or “I need to expand my network”? Or perhaps you could benefit from a kick-in-the-pants to jumpstart your marketing efforts?
Yet you get stuck at the HOW – how you’re going to do these things, right now.
I know there are plenty of entrepreneurs out there who get so BUSY being BUSY that they don’t stop to consider what they should be doing daily to grow their business. Are you one of them?
If you’re stuck on what you can do today to market your business, don’t save this post for a rainy day. Use these tips today to light a fire under your marketing efforts and get people talking to you about your business now.
5 Ways To Market Your Business Today
Step 1: Call warm prospects to follow-up on previous conversations.
The most important factor in networking is the follow-up! Call everyone on your list until you actually connect to at least 5 people.
What is a connection? A connection means you actually spoke with a human. It doesn’t mean you left a voice mail, or left a message with that person’s assistant. It doesn’t mean you sent them a LinkedIn request to connect. We’re focused on sales and marketing here! A connection means you actually spoke to a human.
Be sure to track your connections and follow-up action steps. Track
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- who you talked to
- when you talked to them, and
- what your next steps may be.
Your next steps might be to send an email, to call them next week, or meet them at an upcoming event. Be sure to define a next step (and do it) to keep the warm prospect in your funnel.
Step 2: Reach out to 5 former clients for additional services.
Do your former clients need updates, upgrades, or refills? Check on their progress with your products and services. Would more information be helpful?
You want to check on their progress with whatever it is they have purchased from you. Find out if their business has expanded, or if they are in a decision-making phase for upgrades. You need to find out who needs a refill!
It’s much easier to keep clients than it is to secure brand new clients.
Step 3: Set up an automated research system with Google Alerts.
Use Google Alerts to check mentions of
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- your company name
- your personal name, and
- a minimum of three industry keywords or phrases.
You want to know if people are searching for your company name or your personal name when they are hitting their search bar. You’ll also want to set up your alerts on at least three industry keywords or phrases as an easy way to stay up to date on hot topics in your industry.
This tip is also a great way to find out what people are talking about and the current topics you may want to blog about. If you write articles or white papers, monitoring google alerts for keywords and phrases will be helpful as you develop content for your audience.
Step 4: Add a few new industry blogs to your RSS feed.
Using an RSS reader will allow you to keep up with trending topics by following the leading sites, experts, authorities in your industry. You’ll have a new source of creative fuel and sharable content at your fingertips.
Did I mention it’s also an excellent time saver? It provides one neat place track of updated content from your favorite sites. I can’t tell you how much time I save by using my RSS reader to read blogs instead of hopping from one website to another.
Add 5 industry blogs to your RSS reader so you’ll have new fuel in sharing your content at your fingertips.
While you’re at it, schedule 5 tweets and 5 LinkedIn updates to post within the next 24 hours for these new articles. If you are finding new content then why not spread the knowledge and boost your social media sharing?
Step 5: Use social media to network and build relationships.
You have to nurture your relationships with social media friends in the same way you have to nurture your offline relationships. Make a conscious effort to keep in touch with your network every day via social media.
You can foster your social media relationships by sharing posts and reaching out with simple “what are you up to?” and “how are you doing?” posts to specific people.
Send these “hello, keeping in touch messages” to five business connections on the social media platforms you use regularly.
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- When using Twitter use a public tweet, not a direct message. People typically respond faster and honestly, a lot of people don’t check their direct messages.
- Send a message or post on a friend’s Facebook timeline or fan page.
- If you’re using LinkedIn, send an email specifically used in LinkedIn.
That’s a total of 15 messages you are sending out: 5 on Twitter, 5 on Facebook, 5 on LinkedIn. If you want to go ahead and throw in Google Plus, that would be 20. The great thing here is that you are not sales pitching. You are simply reaching out and saying hello to continue to nurture those relationships you want to build and grow.
However, in order to be able to communicate with your clients in this way in the first place, they have to have found their way to your social media pages. For example, you may choose to feature links to your social media pages on your website, giving clients and potential clients the chance to see the more ‘personal’ side of your band. However, one of the most effective ways in which you can increase your social media traffic (and therefore start chatting with more customers) is by using social media advertisements.
For example, if your target demographic use Facebook more than any other platform, then you may want to reach out to a Facebook ads agency. They can use specialist software to ensure that your posts are seen by the people who need to see them – helping you market your business more effectively. As a result, you can also expect an increase in both engagement and sales – which is a win-win for a business of any size. Even if you are just getting started out, Facebook ads are a great way to help your brand gain the traction it deserves while also helping you to connect with your customers.
There you have it. Five specific action steps you can take today to fuel your marketing efforts.
How awesome is that?! It doesn’t take you much time as long as you commit to a process and actually make the effort.
But wait…
Imagine what your business will look like if you take action and repeat these steps every day, or even once a week.
Therefore, bonus action tip # 6 is to rinse and repeat.
These 5 action steps will never get old. If you rinse and repeat, you are consistently adding people to your sales funnel. You are constantly reaching out to prospects while staying in touch with your existent clients. You are building relationships with people in your social networks, expanding your audience, and securing your chances for growth!
Ciao,
Miss Kemya
Do you have a favorite marketing tactic to use daily? Share your tactic in the comments!
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[…] via Twitter. Retweet, comment and otherwise show your clients some Twitter love as part of the relationship building process. Tweeting with your previous clients is also an easy way to stay in front of them without […]
Great tips! I need to do more of these things on a daily basis.
Thanks Shelley! These tips are great for building relationships and growing your business. Take action daily!