Marketing Your Business in the Digital Age

When it comes to marketing your company, you’ve probably done a lot of research and found a couple of phrases that have continuously popped up: Content Marketing and Social Media Marketing

If you’re not fully up-to-date with marketing trends, here’s a quick explanation as to what each is:

Content Marketing: A type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand, but it intended to stimulate interest in its products or services

Social Media Marketing: A process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites. Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks.

Essentially, you will use social media marketing to promote content—the content on your website and perhaps content that’s related to your business, but not necessarily your own.

The top social media sites used for social marketing include (in no particular order):

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Pinterest
YouTube
LinkedIn
Snapchat

But social media marketing isn’t just about posting status updates or coupons. Entrepreneur points out 10 great rules of social media marketing, those of which include:

The Law of Quality – it’s not about how many times you post throughout the day, but what you post and when you post. Also, it’s not really about having the most likes on your page, you want to have an active page following—followers who click on links for offers, share your tips with friends, etc. That active engagement means an active following and customer base.

The Law of Value – You can’t only post your special equipment offers or push for services on social media because people don’t like to be sold to constantly. If you focus less on conversions and more on creating great content that can be used to develop a following, such as DIY projects, helpful tips homeowners can do at home, etc., you’ll look more like an expert than a salesman.

The Law of Patience – Those new to social media marketing might think once your page is built the following will come and so will your new customers. That’s not entirely true. It takes time to build content, to build a following and build your reputation online. Stick with it.

The Law of Acknowledgement – Finally, one of the more important points shows that you must not just talk to your followers, but talk with them. If someone comments on a post, or leaves a post on your Facebook wall, acknowledge them, answer their questions or address their concerns. Join in the conversation and show you are a human being, not just a business.

Why Content Marketing?

If you are fully committed to content marketing (meaning you are consistent about creating and promoting your content), you could increase your website traffic by 800 percent.

Yes, we said 800%.

You’ll also rank higher on search engines. When potential customers are looking for a new company for services, you want your website to be at the top of that list because generally that’s who new customers will call.

Content marketing also helps you establish leadership in your industry. Having articles on your site explaining products, providing tips or just educating consumers shows that you have knowledge and you are an authority in your industry and in your area. Knowledge is power.

Both content and social media marketing takes time, but it’s an investment that is well worth its weight in gold when it comes to growing your business.