Running a home business can be time-consuming, as you will need to be owner, writer, web developer, bookkeeper, and marketer. You, therefore, need to make the most of every working minute you have. Reading the following tips on how to effectively promote your home business can give you some helpful pointers.
Develop a Strong Brand
Do you want to ensure your customers never forget your company? You will need to develop a strong brand. The finest brands in the world offer memorable logos that ensure they remain firmly in your mind.
Avoid developing complicated branding that incorporates every aspect of your business. Instead, the logo and tone of voice must be simple and direct and will merely reflect who you are and what you do. Think of Nike’s Swish with the tagline “Just do it.” You also do not need to spend a small fortune on graphic design, either, as you can use a free online logo creator, so you can get started on building your brand as soon as today.
Build a Professional Website
You shouldn’t compromise on quality when running a home business, as it’s important you appear to be a forward-thinking, trustworthy brand to potential clients and customers. There are many great e-commerce websites available to help you design and build an online store, or you can run a self-hosted website on CMS platforms such as WordPress. You also have the option to hire a talented freelance web developer to build a professional website, which can be designed to your specification, so it can accurately reflect your brand.
Only incorporate high-quality images, content, and video on your website, which will encourage trust in your business. You must also ensure you optimize your website to ensure it offers minimal downtime, fast page loads, and easy navigation, which can reduce your bounce rate and abandoned carts.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Build it, and they will come does not necessarily apply to a website. If you want to drive traffic to your site, you will need to focus on search engine optimization. While it can be a time-consuming process, it is essential to the success of your home business. Grow your company by learning the best keywords and phrases you want to rank for in the search engines, so you can effectively reach your target market in Google, Bing and more. Keyword search tools can also provide a unique insight into what your target market is looking for online, so you can create content that naturally incorporates the keywords and phrases to rank highly in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Not only should you regularly write blog posts that incorporate the keywords, but you must also add them into your meta descriptions and alt tags, which can help the search engines to both find and rank your website. However, avoid spamming your site with multiple occurrences of the keywords, as Google values quality over quantity.
Social Media Marketing
Social media is a powerful marketing tool that should not be ignored. Not only can developing social media pages increase your reach and conversions, but it can also result in word of mouth recommendations. Also, as consumers are looking for brands they can trust, you can guarantee they will immediately visit your social media pages to identify if you are a real and reputable brand. So, if you don’t have a presence online, they will simply click away from your site and head elsewhere.
Don’t miss an opportunity to grow your business and start utilizing the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to grow your home-based business. Look to your indirect and direct competitors for content inspiration to identify how they are connecting with the customers, before developing a unique campaign that helps your brand stand out from the crowd.
For instance, you can run contests, ask your followers various questions, promote yours or other blog posts, develop entertaining videos, or offer excellent deals that will catch your target audience’s eye. Don’t forget to regularly respond to followers who engage with your brand, which can boost brand loyalty and customer referrals.
Cross Promotion
Marketing your business will be time well spent, but wouldn’t it be great to have another company do some of the hard work for you? Well, you can do just that with cross promotion. For instance, you could potentially team up with another small company to promote each other’s products or services, or they could promote your home business on their popular social media pages and website in exchange for a percentage of the sales generated.
Gain Publicity
Credibility is everything in business. It doesn’t matter if you are running a B2B or B2C company, you must strive to increase your brand’s trustworthiness. PR can be the best way to do so, as it can help you reach a wide audience in a dependable news source. All you need to do is find a newsworthy angle before submitting a company press release.
It should not be written like an advert, but it should highlight a positive news story for your business, such as reaching an important milestone, winning an award, or a collaboration with another company. Newspapers and magazines might then publish the story in their publications, which you should promote on your social media channels and website.
Email Marketing
Email marketing has the potential to be more powerful than a social media campaign, as you are reportedly six times more likely to receive a click-through from an email marketing campaign than a tweet. It’s also believed to be more effective at helping companies acquire new customers in comparison to Facebook. So, if you want to grow your customer base, connect with existing customers, and promote your products and content, you should start enticing people to your website via a professional email marketing campaign. It could help you achieve your business goals at a faster rate – and it could be all it takes to help you hire your first employees and move into a new office.