Estimated reading time: 3 mins
When you first start a business, there’s a problem that you will face that is common to just about everyone who has ever been in your shoes. That problem is that because your business is so new, no one knows who you are. You might have the most innovative and fantastic product on the market, but it’s not going to make the slightest bit of difference because you’re getting completely lost among all of the other businesses vying for the attention of a pretty limited number of customers.
This has become even more significant over the last few years because of the rise of the internet. Customers are now faced with more choices than they have ever had before. Because of this, you need to find new ways to connect with them as effectively as possible. Here are a few, surprisingly simple things that you can do to get the word out about your new business to as many customers as possible.
Improve your SEO
There was a time when, if a customer wanted to find a business or product, they’d look in the phone book. Now, the phone book has been almost entirely replaced by search engines like Google. Because of this, you have to make sure that your business is the first one that a customer sees when they type in their search terms. The only way to do that is through Search Engine Optimisation or SEO. SEO is a fairly simple concept but can be incredibly complex when you get down to it. Check out these small business SEO tips to get a great idea of the kinds of things that you need to be doing. The mistake that a lot of business make is that they treat SEO as an afterthought when it should be a central part of your business from the very beginning.
Get in touch with influencers
A lot of research has shown that younger generations no longer respond to advertising in the same way that their parents and grandparents did. This is likely because of the sheer amount of media that young people consume in their day to day life making them more cynical and suspicious of anyone who seems to be selling them something. However, many businesses are finding new ways to connect with younger people and influencers are a fantastic way to do that. By providing influencers on sites like Youtube and Instagram with samples of your product for them to show to their audience, you can use the preinstalled goodwill that they have with that audience in order to sell the product. Of course, it’s a good idea to choose influencers who are in line with the kind of brand that you’re trying to create for your business.
Go straight to the source
One thing that has often been incredibly difficult unless you’re able to speak to them face to face, is interacting direction with your customers. However, thanks to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, you can go straight to potential customers to offer them your product. This could be through targeted adverts based on their browsing history, or by tweeting at them because they said something related to the service that you can offer to them. That way you cut out the middleman and get straight to the source.
