Starting to market a new business or trying to revamp an existing business to get it moving in the right direction can be overwhelming for most of us. A common mistake most entrepreneurs make is that they get too eager to run traffic when they haven't even set up the foundation for their brand yet. If you’re one of those people or you’re scared to wind up just like that, you’re gonna love this episode!
In this episode of the Social Media Marketing Happy Hour, Dawn & Traci share with you the minimum viable setup to start marketing your company. By listening to this podcast episode, you’ll know what is needed to get your digital marketing presence going, whether you’re starting out or you planning on overhauling your business.
A Firm Foundation
First things first, you need to learn the basics and have a solid foundation. It is crucial to learn the basics of marketing, even for non-marketers for one simple reason: whether you like it or not, if you don't market your business, it will die! Even if you hire a Virtual Assistant, you still need to tell them what to do, so you have to know enough yourself.
Here are the basic things you need to include in your setup to ensure progress and results.
Your Minimum Viable Setup
You will need to:
- Have your own website. This is actually the ideal thing to do. We recommend you invest in a domain name. For a very minimal amount, you’ll be able to attain more credibility. You can also opt to have some other home base web property like a LeadPages mini site.
- Have a branded email address. If you will brand yourself an expert, be an expert and show everyone by getting a personally branded email. Don’t use your hotmail account, aol account, or other personal, non-business email address. We like to use Google for business where you can get your own branded email at a very affordable price.
- Have blogging capability. It would be difficult to show your expertise if you don't have the blogging component. Take for example, if someone sells services and sells it using a free blogger blog, chances are you won't buy it. Having a blogging element brings credibility a will show thought leadership for your business.
- Set up on social media platforms. The social media platform you'll use will actually depend on your avatar. It is essential to get your Facebook properties up, like your paid traffic. Also, people will look for Facebook fanpage. Twitter, depending on your industry, can be a very useful way to market and share content. If you are highly visual, you’ll like Instagram and Youtube, to name a few. There’s so much more social media platforms you can utilize. Your main goal is to get all the properties set up and branded on your name and get some stuff on there!
- Do list building. One of the most important aspects in your business no matter what you're selling, is list building. There are 3 types: actual email list building, invisible list building, and audience list building (this will be discussed further on the next episode).
The fact is, there are so many different options out there that can easily sway you, you might even end up trying everything out. But we all know that when you say yes to something, you say no to something else. You just simply can’t have and do everything! So before anything else, you need to figure out what you want, how you want to market it, and how you want people to react and feel about your brand. When you finally realize this, it will be easier to piece everything together.
If you feel stuck, or want another set of professional eyes on your process, apply for a free business diagnostic session at https://happyhourhangouts.com/coaching.
If you have comments about this episode or if you want us to cover a certain topic, feel free to tweet us @SMMHappyHour.
