If you build it they will come worked for a very brief period of time in the digital landscape – but it does not work anymore.
Consumer behavior demands more value from service providers, and rightfully so. The following are five strategies that entrepreneurs need to be implementing for the rest of 2020.
Check out this in our recent podcast or on your YouTube channel.
1. Social Media Growth
It goes without saying that we need to be where our consumers are – and that is naturally on social media. But how to successfully grow the right following has been mystifying entrepreneurs as platforms continue to shift their algorithms like a moving target.
To build the right audience starts with the right content. Users want content that Entertains, Educates or Inspires. So pick your lane and own it. Your primary goal is to get your audience to save (via the bookmark button) or better yet share your content to their stories thus advertising you and your page to their followers.
In addition, you should be testing new hashtags with very single podcast and avoid using the same ones all the time to avoid the infamous “shadow ban.” Avoid hashtags with millions of uses as it is harder to stand out but mix together hashtags with large, medium and even smaller uses that users would actually search for (the last component being the most important). What would your target audience actually search for?
Taking it a step further, consider partnerships with other accounts that have the following you want to target. You can do IG takeovers, co-lives or even contribute content to their channels in exchange for shoutouts.
2. Audience Engagement
It is not enough for people to know who you are and what you do – they have to know why you matter in the context of their lives. Posting and ghosting sends a strong signal that you care more about your personal gain versus being willing to help others.
Engage your audience, interact, respond to comments, start conversations and show up.
Your mission is to create enough trust with your audience that they will feel compelling to take the next step in the journey to do business with you.
3. Content Marketing
There is no better system to build a strong foundation of trust with your audience than through an effective content marketing strategy.
Lean into your strengths with this. If you love speaking, start a podcast. If you are a writer, create a blog. If you are skilled at being on camera, start a video series.
Refer back to your mission, to create content that entertains, educates or inspires.
Providing information that solves your consumers problems or alleviates their pain points builds confidence with your consumers and also sets a prospect for reciprocity.
4. SEO & Long-Tail Content
An added benefit to a strong content marketing strategy is the SEO and long-tail benefits. From a search engine perspective, the more often you update your website the higher Google may rank your pages. Thus a weekly blog, podcast or video post can truly benefit your website in search engine results. Following that logic, you want to title your entries with the exact same works and queries that your target audience would search for.
“The best way to…”
“How to do…”
“Which is better…”
“What you didn’t know about…”
Note that every single new blog or entry you make on your website serves as a stand alone page which is indexed individually and can be found in a search result. Meaning the more blogs you create, the more new doors you make for your website.
This creates what is known as a long tail of content. For example, we still get hits on our website from blog articles written 10 years ago.
5. Opt-in List Building
Now is a fantastic time to build your e-mail list. As great as social media can be for a handshake, it is not the best landscape for direct sales as the algorithm will always be working against you.
The bottom line is that social media is an audience you do not own. But you do own your e-mail list and can market that list at anytime.
Also there is no algorithm to determine whether or not people open up your e-mails. You send out good e-mails, more people will open them.
Create an attractive offer that can be given to your target demographic in exchange for them signing up for your list. A free guide, ebook, workshop, webinar, ecourse, etc. It has to hit on the pain points your clients have to get enough interested in signing up for it.
Moving Forward
2020 is the year of nurturing your audience. Building great relationships. Giving immense value. Then guiding them to offers that solve their problems. This 5 strategies will help you in achieving your business development goals.
James Patrick
IG @jpatrickphoto
JamesPatrick.com
