Marketing your business outside of social media
Are you doing all your business through social media on your Facebook or Instagram accounts? Are you making sales just through your comments and direct messages? If you answered yes to one or both of these then I want to ask you what would you do if Facebook or Instagram went down?
As has happened at least twice in 2022 we know that social media can crash and if this is the only way you can reach and communicate with your customers maybe 2023 is the year you should think about taking your business to the next level.
But where should you start to up-level your business?
Well, below I have listed my 5 top tech recommendations that will not only make your business look more professional but also protect it from any future Facebook and Instagram crashes.
1. Professional email address
One of the simplest and quickest ways to move your business to the next level is to create a business email address which means your emails will come from @yourbusinessname instead of coming from @gmail or @outlook.
To set up a professional email address you first need a domain name. I have bought my domain name through Go Daddy where you can usually buy your first year at a reduced rate and then it will cost you about £12 a year thereafter. Your domain name is another word for your business name, what do you want your business to be called? Only 1 person in the world can own each unique domain name so it’s important you check if the domain you want is available. You can check this within Go Daddy itself or on something like namecheckr where you can check not only if a domain name is available but social media handles as well.
I would always recommend google workspace for your professional emails. It costs about £4.60 a month to use your domain name instead of @gmail.com but you still log in as if it’s a Gmail email address. The advantage of this is if you are used to Gmail it will function exactly the same so you don’t need to learn a new email system. It also comes with all the other google products such as drive, sheets and docs which I use in my business every day.
2. Interactive email signature
Once you have a professional email address you can take your emails to the next level by creating an interactive email signature.
An email signature can be set to automatically go onto the bottom of every email you send. It can include a photo of you or your business logo so it’s visually clear who the email is from straight away. It’s then a great idea to include all of your contact details including links to your website if have one and your social media accounts.
3. Email marketing
Have you heard the saying the sales are in the mails? Well whether you have or not email marketing is proven to have a higher sales conversion rate than social media. (Conversion rate refers to the number of people that see your services or products vs the number of people that actually buy them.) The sad reality is only about 3-5% of your followers actually see your social media posts however up to 40% of your email list will read your email!
We all have emails regularly appearing in our inbox from things we have signed up for or after purchasing something. And even if you ignore 90% of them I can guarantee there will have been 1 email you looked at because you knew there was something from that business you wanted or needed and that’s all it takes for you to make regular sales.
I use Mailerlite which is free to use for your first 1000 subscribers so is perfect for when you are starting out with email marketing.
4. Lead magnet
A lead magnet is something you can use to get people onto your mailing list. People are unlikely to just sign up for your newsletter so the idea is you give away something for free or a special offer which they can only get by signing up. For legal reasons you just have to make it clear to people that they will be added to your email list when they sign up for your lead magnet and they must have the option to unsubscribe at any time.
A lead magnet can be as big or as small as you want and can be anything from a percentage of money off a product, a free guide or even a free workshop. The most important thing about your lead magnet is that it’s something your target audience really wants so they can’t help but sign up.
If you are using Mailerlite you can then set up an automation to deliver your lead magnet. An automation is a series of emails or actions that happen in the background that is activated by someone filling out your sign-up form and ends with the lead magnet being delivered to their inbox without you having to do anything.
5. Landing page
The final thing that will help is a landing page. A landing page is a single website page that people land on after clicking on a link that could be on your website, as part of a social media post or on a pin. You can make your landing page really simple so it just has a brief description of your lead magnet and a signup form so people can submit their name and email address. But it would be a great idea to include social proof, which are quotes or reviews on why your lead magnet is something people need to download.
If you already have a website then you would create a landing page as a separate page on your website, usually without a menu or any other navigation links so people can’t leave your page.
If you don’t have a website yet a landing page could be a great place to start, it would mean you could set up your website address and start getting traffic to it without having to create a full website. I would always recommend WordPress for your website as it gives you complete ownership and control of your website. But if all of this seems too much you can set up a landing page within Mailerlite.
Where to start with improving the marketing of your small business
So that is my list of 5 things should be doing to take your business to the next level in 2023. But before you get too overwhelmed please don’t try to do all of these at once. The order of the recommendations featured in this blog is a great way to work through them and then set up each one before moving on to the next.
However, if this all sounds too much to set up by yourself and the thought of getting your head around the tech fills you with dread don’t worry I can help you set up all of the above for your business. Click on the button below and bok a FREE 15-minute discovery call and say yes to moving forward with your business in 2023.
Have a great day
Nicola – New Wisdom Design and Digital
