Marketing makes the world go ‘round. (Kidding. Kind of.)
But seriously, marketing is important on so many levels. It…
- Drives brand awareness
- Develops trust with your audience
- Acts as a funnel for sales
And that’s just the beginning. Although there are multiple marketing outlets to consider for your business, I tend to put the most emphasis on these four:
- Website + Blog
- Social Media
- Email Marketing
- PR
Let’s dive into how to build your 4-part marketing ecosystem–and why you need it.
Website + Blog
Your website shares who you are, what you do, and how you help. I often say that driving people to your website should be your ultimate goal because your website (if it’s fully functional and optimized) is what will convert people from being visitors to clients or customers. Many people think that you don’t need a website right after you launch, but truthfully, I have to disagree. Your website doesn’t need to have all of the bells and whistles when you’re just starting out, but you need to have something that shares more about you and your business. You can’t rely on just social media because you don’t own those accounts, unlike the way you own your website.
Going along with a website is a blog. You may not think that blogging is important, but it’s crucial for every industry to create this type of content. Blog posts are known to…
- Drive users to your website
- Position you as an expert or thought leader within your industry
- Improve your SEO
And more. Ultimately, you want to be able to write blog posts that solve some type of issue for your audience so that they view that piece of content as valuable and want to bookmark it to save for later or share with friends who may benefit from reading it, too. Example: I’m writing this post about building your 4-part marketing ecosystem right now because people often ask about how to create a marketing strategy. Use your blog to provide a solution to a common problem your audience faces.
Social Media
You may be tempted to join every single social media platform that exists because you think you’ll be able to reach more people, but you really want to focus on using the platforms where your audience exists. That involves doing some research to understand where your ideal clients and customers hang out and what you can do to engage them. Sprout Social shares an excellent report on the demographics of various platforms so that you know where to focus your time and energy.
Use social media to create value-driven content. Similar to what I mentioned above for blogging, you’ll want to publish social media posts that benefit your audience in some way. Examples include:
- Testimonials: Describing positive experiences that clients or customers have had with you pushes potential clients or customers further down the buying decision process.
- Tips: Listing quick pieces of advice that your followers can easily take and implement positions you as an expert.
- Personal Content: Giving insight into who you are as a person builds that know / like / trust factor with your audience. And people do business with people that they know / like / trust.
Social media is a fantastic way to build relationships with your target market and increase brand awareness so that when they’re ready to invest in whatever product or service you sell, you are going to be the one who’s top of mind for them.
FREE DOWNLOAD: Social Media Content Calendar
Email Marketing
Email marketing is great in so many ways, but there are two huge reasons why you should use it:
- Creating lead magnets that grow your email list
- Sending newsletters that nurture your subscribers
Similar to the control you have over your website, you own your email list. Building a list of past, present, and future clients or customers is huge for consistently providing value and finding ways to retain and attract business.
You’ll first want to start out with finding a way to grow your email list, which can easily be accomplished through a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a free resource you provide in exchange for someone’s email address. This resource can be a video, checklist, PDF, or any other form of content. When someone signs up to receive the freebie, they get added to their email list, and then BOOM–you can continuously market to that subscriber through newsletters.
And that leads us into the second part of email marketing. It doesn’t matter how often you send newsletters–it could be weekly, biweekly, or monthly–as long as you are consistent with it. It’s easy to let things slip before you realize you’ve now gone months without sending an email to your list, so make sure you designate time to send valuable information to your audience.
Your newsletter can contain new pieces of content you’ve created (blog posts, podcast episodes, webinars, etc.), recent updates, tips, and more. The main goal is to benefit your audience in some way.
PR
Who doesn’t want to see their name in bright lights? That’s kind of what it feels like when you get featured in a cool publication! You’ll want to incorporate PR into your marketing ecosystem for three reasons:
- These features usually backlink to your website in some way, which improves your SEO.
- You can cross-promote yourself in front of a larger yet targeted audience, which is great for getting additional exposure.
- Getting featured by a publication positions you as an expert and thought leader while instantly boosting your credibility, which makes more people want to invest in your products or services.
When looking to get featured, you’ll want to ask yourself the following questions:
- What value can I provide to this audience?
- How do I stand apart from the competition? What makes me unique?
- What are my goals for this potential feature?
Once you know the answers to those, you’ll be able to research the best publications to collaborate with. The most important thing to remember is that you want to be able to provide value–which is true for any form of marketing, really–to the audience in which you’re looking to partner with. From there, you can pitch yourself and get working on recording a podcast episode, writing a guest blog, or hosting a webinar.
FREE DOWNLOAD: Increase Your Visibility Through PR
Focusing on all four parts of this marketing ecosystem at once is overwhelming if you’re handling it all on your own, so focus on one point at a time. Once you feel like you have one of these methods down pat, you can move onto the next one.
Have any questions about marketing your business? Let us know.
