Build a Strong Foundation – Block by Block – to Attract Buyers to Your Website
If you're a small business owner, you know just how challenging the current economy is. But, it's also a very good time to be a small business. More and more buyers are looking online for the services or goods you provide and, today, it's much easier for small businesses to compete for those buyers.
How? With your website, of course. That is, if you make it more than a static brochure for your company.
To use your website to attract and engage prospects, foster trusted relationships, and demonstrate your product or service–you need to create a foundation of compelling content.
Here are two points of good news for small business owners who pursue this approach:
1. Buying behavior for purchasers of goods and services is changing. More buyers are doing their initial product and service research on the Internet, prior to making a purchase decision–and many ultimately decide whether to buy based on a company's website. In fact, in a survey of 200 buyers of professional services, RainToday.com found that 74% of buyers were greatly or somewhat influenced by a company's website when it came to making a decision to buy. Only 3% reported that a company's website held no influence with them when it came to buying.
2. Many small businesses still limit their website to static information about products, location, hours, and contact information. More surprisingly, 46% of small business owners surveyed did not have an active website, according to the 2010 Small Business Marketing Forecast published by Ad-ology Research. Talk about an opportunity! If your competitors aren't using websites effectively–or at all–that allows you a huge head start.
Create Your Inbound Marketing Platform
This approach to marketing is referred to as "inbound marketing." It focuses on allowing customers to easily find you–using compelling content as a magnet to attract the attention and interest of qualified prospects for the service or product you're selling. ("Outbound marketing" refers to more traditional methods such as advertising and cold calling where a company is focused on going out and finding customers).
There's more good news here for small business owners: using inbound marketing to attract qualified prospects and buyers does not have to be difficult and you can use it whether you're a solopreneur or have many employees.
Creating the content that serves as the foundation of your inbound marketing, however, can be time consuming and resource intensive. So, your best bet is to approach this thoughtfully and strategically.
How to get started:
- Know what you want to achieve. Set your objectives first, then identify the content that will help you meet those objectives. For example, maybe you'll publish a blog (to attract prospects), an enewsletter (to retain customers), and perhaps a Facebook fan page (to foster community, share special promos, etc.). You can expand into secondary content (i.e., videos, audio interviews, etc.) to feed your primary content–but don't lose your focus.
- Match the content your ideal prospect wants/needs with your strengths. Is there something you do that your prospects want to learn? Consider adding a blog to your website, like the charming Craigie on Main. The blog for this bistro features recipes shared by the chef and is a popular draw. (As is the online reservation system.) Do you have access to information of particular interest to your prospects? Joy Tarbell Realty publishes a main blog, niche blogs, related articles, and tools–all valuable content for prospective homebuyers, sellers, and renters.
- Consider content beyond text. Additional content options include creating a photo blog, video blog, or a podcast. Cosmetic dentist Helaine Smith includes simple video demonstrations and customer testimonials on her website. These can be very effective at helping prospects overcome fear and objections. Sometimes a picture is worth a 1,000 words.
- Make the most of what you've got. You don't have to start from scratch–build on content you may already have. Professional services firm Rally Point Webinars is expanding its content foundation by posting articles (repurposed from their enewsletter), alongside webinars that demonstrate their expertise, and case studies that showcase customer success.
- Keep it simple. Don't try to do it all–in addition to your marketing, you've got a business to run! As Joe Pulizzi, founder of Junta42, recommended when we spoke recently, most firms should focus on no more than three types of content, using secondary "feeder" content as appropriate.
- Integrate with social media. Use your website (with it's compelling content) as your hub. Share links on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to direct traffic to your website. And, make it easy for visitors to your website to share your content with others (for example, by including retweet and share buttons). Sharing quality content is an effective way to attract potential buyers to your website and generate inbound links to support your SEO.
Creating content does require consistency and ongoing attention. However, that's also the beauty of it. Unlike a brick and mortar foundation, you don't build it all at once. Your content library will continue to grow and attract prospects over time as you build it. Block by block.
Resources
If you're interested in pursuing an inbound marketing approach and publishing content, these two books offer all the information you need to get started:
Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs (The New Rules of Social Media) by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah
Get Customers Get Content: Turn Prospects into Buyers with Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett
About Mary Flaherty
Mary Flaherty is manager of research and content development for RainToday.com. You can also find her blogging about services marketing, social networking, B2B research, and related issues at the RainMakerBlog. Follow Mary on Twitter
Leave a Reply
Get the SEP Newsletter
Excellet tips, Mary. Inbound marketing seems overwhelming at first. I like the way you break it up into steps.
I like this post. It is organized. First, you taught us how to study and understand the market that you're dealing with and then you enumerated effective and efficient steps in successful marketing. Thank you for this wonderful and informational post.
Great post, Mary. I like the term "platform" when describing the foundation of your inbound marketing. The good thing is that this is an ongoing process and there's no time like the future to get things started.
Meant to type "present", not "future"
I need more coffee….
I love how you followed up this post with real-life examples! Just goes to show you that building a strong foundation isn't just frou-frou marketing theory, but practical applications — and the results that it has for those companies you mentioned speak for themselves!
@Kathleen and @Andrew – Thanks.
I find that "chunking" things into manageable bits helps me take on seemingly complex projects. No doubt about it, content marketing can be overwhelming — but the fact that you can do it "bit by bit" makes it very do-able.
@John – Glad you came back with that clarification about the "present"… I was thinking I needed another cup of coffee!
Re: platforms – My son often builds his Lego creations on a flat Lego mat that anchors the foundation. He doesn't have to start over every time he sits down with the blocks — he simply adds onto and extends the existing structure. The structure evolves over time, but builds on itself. And, he doesn't have to create a cathedral all in one sitting.
@Sherice – Thanks! I'm partial to "totally practical marketing." Using examples and case studies is one of my favorite ways to learn and understand what works and what doesn't when it comes to marketing.
I encourage my clients to build what i call expert or author platform through inbound marketing. It can be overwhelming but i prefer it to cold calling. The internet and new ways marketingof saved my career in marketing and pr.
I think some of the old ways are still valid but thats why i've chosen to mainly market online. Im comfortable there.
[...] you own a brick and mortar store / garage / office then it’s important you inform those that use your services about your move [...]