What should you be doing to grow your business?

It depends (the worst answer of them all, right?).

There is no ‘best’ strategy; the best strategy is the one that accommodates your resources (time and money) and business strategy. There is also no ‘free’ strategy. Just because one strategy doesn’t directly cost you money, it’s going to cost you time. So, there are simply no free strategies. 

With all of that out of the way, let’s look at a few of the common marketing strategies businesses are utilizing day and try to determine which one(s) work best for you and your business.

Let’s dive into a few common marketing strategies businesses are utilizing today.

• Social Media
• Paid Ads
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Strategy Number 1. Social Media

This is a great option if you have time to create content, build online relationships, and want to grow your business over time. You must be consistent, and you should not expect overtime success. 

An intangible benefit of regularly posting on social media is creating a strong personal brand. A strong personal brand is much more than having a certain number of followers or getting a certain number of likes or comments on your posts; it’s really being known for who you truly are and what you stand for. People buy from people. When people see you for you, whether that is on or offline, they are going to be able to connect with you and your offering more. To not get in too deep with building a personal brand, just know that having a strong, reputable personal brand is something that can serve you and your business for years to come. 

For tips on how to build a personal brand, be sure to check out this video here.

For tips on increasing social media engagement, be sure to check out this video here.

The biggest pro to social media marketing: Building a personal brand 

The biggest con to social media marketing: Time requirement 

Strategy Number 2: Paid Ads

Let’s clear the air for any skeptics here; ads do work if whoever set them up knows what they’re doing. Paid ads are a great option for those who have the money to invest, want clients right away, and have the systems in place to quickly onboard new clients. Running ads and not being prepared to onboard new clients quickly and efficiently is a sure way to flush your money down the toilet.

On the topic of money, unless you’re familiar with setting up ads, I highly recommend hiring a professional. There are a lot of ins and outs when it comes to ads, and hiring a professional to ensure you’re everything is set up properly is well worth the investment. Messing up one pixel or having a leak in your funnel could be a costly mistake.

Biggest Pro: Ability to quickly generate new leads

Biggest Con: You’re paying for the traffic 

Strategy Number 3: Technical and Ongoing SEO

Search engine optimization is simply the process of making your website design and content more attractive to search engine algorithms so that you are more likely to have your site show up on the first page of the search engine results page for keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business, product, or service offering.

After technical search engine optimization and optimizing for keywords on your main web pages, you want to consider ongoing SEO. This can include further keyword monitoring and reporting, blogging services, link-building campaigns, and other on-page optimization tactics. While your blog posted tomorrow might not bring in a ton of clients, over time, as you continue to publish quality content and improve your authority with search engines like Google, you’re going to be bringing new leads in on autopilot (without paying money every time someone lands on your page). 

A common question I get is if there is a benefit to posting blogs in addition to creating posts for social media. The answer is this – when you write a blog post that is optimized for SEO, that can generate web traffic weeks, months, and maybe even years down the road. When you post to social media, it is shown on the news feed for a finite period of time and then it is buried by new posts flooding in from other users. Blog posts optimized for SEO are somewhat timeless, whereas social media posts are typically only seen for a finite amount of time. For someone to see your old social media posts, they typically have to scroll through a chronological list of all your posts.

Biggest Pro: Ability to become an evergreen sales funnel for you overtime.

Biggest Con: Time required to start seeing results

As you can see, there is no best strategy. My personal favorite is a combination of all of the above, but depending upon your resources, that might not be possible for your business at the moment. Try them all, and see what works best for you! Or book a call with me and let’s get you started with marketing that works.

If you’re looking for assistance with developing a marketing strategy custom for your business and business goals, grab a time on my calendar here.