So, you’ve got a great idea for a startup, and you’re really excited! You’ve now reached the part of your project where you need to establish an online presence. You know that you need to build an SEO optimized website and get on social media… but what on earth are you going to say once you get there?
Build an audience
What you say on your website and social media pages initially should be based on what your audience wants to hear, what will add value to their lives, and get them to engage with you. In the early stages selling should take a back seat; building a relationship is more important. Two of the most important ways to do this are showing humanity and engaging with your audience.
As a species, we humans respond well to a story, and we respond well to other humans. It’s how we’re wired. Rather than only talking at length about what your business does, talk about who you are, and what drove you to start your business in the first place. This will help your audience to bond with you on a human level, which helps to build trust in your brand. People are much more likely to buy from or listen to another human being than you are a faceless business. An excellent place to do this is in the ‘about us’ section of your website, and through introductory posts on social media.
Speaking of social media, a compelling way to utilize it as a tool is to engage in discussion with your audience. If someone comments on your post, reply. Maybe go to their page and comment on one of their posts, start a dialogue with them. This is a simple and effective way of building relationships with your audience and much more effective than generating content alone.
Website content
The content on your website should be well written and researched and be of genuine interest to your readership. It is also essential to write extensively on your chosen niche area and not to diverge too much from that.
The reason for this is because of two elements of SEO, domain authority, and keywords. When a search engine is deciding which web pages to rank higher in the returned results, it first looks at the domain authority of a website, that is, the quality of the site overall and how relevant it is to its chosen subject area. It needs to be obvious to the algorithm what your business does based on the content of your website. Next, the algorithm will look at the actual search term that has been keyed in and see how well this matches your website content. Exact matches will rank your page more highly.
For this reason, predicting the search terms that your audience is likely to use is key. Keyword research and writing engaging content is a time-consuming process that many businesses choose to work on with a digital marketing agency like www.clickintelligence.co. Using an agency means that your content is being created by marketing experts so that it is much more likely to achieve the results that you are hoping for. It also frees up your time to work on the things that you really care about.
Measure your results and iterate
A crucial part of an effective digital marketing strategy is measuring your results. Take note of the comments that are being left by your audience, are they resonating with what you are saying or is it falling flat? Social media platforms have analytics features that you can use to measure which posts are getting a lot of engagement and which posts people are ignoring. Ascertain what types of content your audience enjoys and what times of day are most active. Analyze which hashtags are getting your content to the right people and use this information to iterate and plan your strategy going forward. An excellent digital marketing strategy is always evolving to meet the needs of your audience.