marketing

Why Should your business be online?

Following 2020 and the global pandemic, even the most resistant business’s have been forced to move to the virtual world, like it or not. It has been said that around 97% of people will research a business online before they consider engaging with you. This is my digital marketing has never been as important as it is right now.

Here are a few marketing tools that every business can easily implement.

Websites

A professional website is without a doubt one of the most important and valuable assets any business can have when it comes to marketing. This is where your potential new clients/customers can get a feel for what your about, what you can offer, where you are and most importantly how to get in touch with you.

Blog/Vlogs

A blog/vlog will improve your websites visibility online and help to build trust in your company. Its best to post regularly however something is better than nothing. These can be written by yourself or it is something we at Slice can help with. Make sure you add a call to action in anything you produce to encourage engagement, maybe get people to subscribe you your blog/vlog as this is a great way to collect the data of who is paying attention.

Email

It is proven that 73% of millennials prefer communication from businesses via email. Email is not only free but universally accessible. Use email to send out your newsletters and promotions to both existing and potential customers.

Social Media

Social media is a powerful tool for any business, it can increase traffic, improve search engine rankings, and even make it easier for you to directly engage with potential customers. Pick the platforms that work best for your business and it will prove invaluable. Make sure you are posting regular content and engaging with your customers or people who comment as this will make you look responsive and creditable.

As always the VA team at Slice can help you with all of the above so, please feel free to reach out for an initial chat.

Getting the best from your social media

Is your business on social media? If not, why not?

If you are not on social media and your competitors, are you are putting yourself at a massive disadvantage right from the outset. Effective and consistent use of social media can have all sorts of positive impacts. It can improve your business’ reach, build your brand, increase conversions, establish a strong network and even, in some cases, improve customer service.

Social media requires commitment, but if you can commit you can have some great success. Here are our tips for getting the best out of your social media.

Commit to the cause:

If you intend to dip in and out of various platforms you are probably wasting your time. To build a following you need to commit to it. You should research and plan what it is your going to say. You can of course react live almost to what is going on in your business or industry day to day but that should be on top of a firm plan. The best way to do this is to pencil in some time in your diary on a weekly, monthly or even quarterly basis to get some content together that will form the basis of what it is you are trying to say.

Get some training:

There are plenty of short courses being run now that can help you build a social media strategy and help you how to make the most out of social media within your business.

Use a Content Calendar:

The key with social media is to be organised. A strategy will help you identify who your audience is, what type of content will get them to engage, and the best times, dates and frequency in which to post. Once you have this information you can use your calendar to make sure you do not miss any important dates and to help you form a plan. It will also allow you to get a visual on what is going out in the weeks/months to come so you can see immediately the kind of mix of content you are putting out.

Get what you can for free:

This is something you wont normally hear us say however once you have decided what platforms are the most effective for your business there are plenty of free resources and in some cases even tutorials available from the platforms themselves. These can be full of useful hints and tips to help you get more from your social media.

If you need some help identifying which platforms are for you, or creating engaging posts please get in contact today and we can offer some advice on where to start.

What are your competitors up to?

Wouldn’t it help to know what your competitors are up to?

Well, you can by carrying out a competitive research analysis. Analysis like this can help you remain current in the marketplace as well as sanity check that your offering and pricing structure remains competitive. We would suggest you do this when setting up a business, bringing a new product or service to the market or as a matter of course at various point throughout the year.

How to approach this

The basic information you need to start with when carrying out this exercise is:

Who are your competitors?
Who is their target market?
What makes them unique?
What are they charging?

You can then take this further by finding out some of the following information:

What website features do they have?
What social media channels do they use?
What are they promoting most recently?
Do they have any customer reviews?

I know this will seem like a time-consuming task but the information you will gain from it with be invaluable and may just spark something off in your own mind about what you need to do in your own business.

Why do it?

Quite simply this could be key to understanding your market and growing your business. The benefits of taking the time to do this could include the following:

A better understanding of your market
An understanding of your strengths and weakness.
Identify opportunities within your market.
Keeps your business competitively priced.
Identify new and emerging trends in the market.
Inspire new ideas.
Potentially save time and money on ideas that wont work
Keeps you 1 step ahead of the competition.

If your business does not have the time or resources to carry out this task, panic not. We can help you with this. Contact us today for a chat about how to get started.