The ultimate goal of promoting online is to have more folks find and buy your products and services. If they like what you do, they'll tell their friends, and that grows your business. Here are a few tips on how you can give something of value to your clients that will help you create and grow a following of loyal customers.
Everybody loves to be in-the-know and they are even happier to get a public reputation for it. So, give them something to share with their friends. Blogging allows you to put fresh content on your site on a consistent basis.
And, using RSS feeds lets you auto-deliver that information to your reader's email and to social media sites like your business Facebook page and Twitter. That means every time you want to let folks know about a new product, service, event, or sale, you have an easy way to deliver that info in the exact places your clients are already looking for it.
Most of us don't truly appreciate the value of what we know. But, in reality, you are a walking, talking encyclopedia of your business genre. You know why folks need your products and offerings and why what you offer is the best around. Well, use all of that valuable knowledge and get busy educating your audience.
Here's a great way to get double mileage out of the same content. Write a full article about a topic (500-700 words) and post it on your site as its own page. Then, post a short teaser on your blog that you have a new article. If you do it right, you can create multiple teaser posts that focus on different sections of the article.
In 2010, Facebook became the number one online influencer of purchase sharing info, surpassing even Google. Besides delivering your blog posts to your Facebook business page, you can also post about your daily activity or what's happening in your store.
Making these short updates on your social media sites humanizes your online presence. No one can get a warm-fuzzy from a business, but they can begin to feel right at home with the owner.
Social media also helps you create an open dialogue environment where you can carry a brief two-way conversation with your target audience, answer questions, and generate a friends-helping-friends community feeling. This approach also carries over to your site in the form of comments to your blog posts.
Blog posts and social media are a great way to tell folks about any discounts or specials you are offering, and it's a great way for them to tell their friends about it too. And, you don't have to buy ads to make it work.
Your readers can easily click a link to share any posts you make on Twitter and Facebook with all of their online buddies.
Of course, you can also buy ads to publish on these sites, like Google Adwords and GroupOn, but just telling folks about them is a great way to get started and costs nothing but a few minutes of your time.
Providing your readers with fresh, informative content is like giving them a gift with every post. And, it's the one present you'll be very happy to see them re-gift to their friends too.