With the pandemic’s negative impact on employment, many have considered online selling an alternative livelihood. From homemade meals to succulent plants, the digital world has slowly turned into a vibrant cyber market of various awesome products sold by mostly people we personally know.
While online business is certainly a silver lining in this difficult situation, our budding entrepreneurs may soon realize that it’s not that easy to sustain an online enterprise. What happens next after offering your products and services to your friends on social media?
Attracting new customers and establishing loyalty can be a challenge for new business owners, especially when transactions are limited to online transactions. As a small owner facing tough competition, you need to rise to the tide or risk losing the game. Fortunately, you live in a world where technology offers you an affordable, reliable and fast way to promote your business by simply staying at home. You just have to invest time, effort and resources on content marketing.
Here are some tips for your budding business’ content marketing:
Give your business a good brand
Whether you’re into this online enterprise just for survival or for long-term, treat it as a real business. Who knows where life will take you and your little shop, right? So if you’re gonna dive into it, do it right. Start with branding.
While your product is frozen fishballs, your brand is a set of features that distinguish your fishball business from other fishball businesses. Your brand is comprised of your business name, a tagline, a logo, a consistent look, a consistent voice, and a whole lot more. It’s your brand that will make your customers remember you the next time they crave for mouthwatering fishballs.
It’s time to get your creative juices flowing. Here is a starter checklist.
Think of a good name that will best represent your product or service.
Design an eye-catching logo.
If you are not Photoshop-savvy and you don’t have enough funds yet to hire a brilliant graphic designer, you can use the ever reliable (and free) online graphic design platform Canva to design your logo and other marketing materials.
Your logo should be in all your marketing materials, email signature, website, social media pages, as well as product packaging.
Think of a tagline that speaks of the good experience that your customer will get from your product or service.
While you may think this is unnecessary, tagline is a good way to make your customers remember you. As much as people love short and witty punchlines, they tend to recall products and services with a tagline.
Give your marketing materials a consistent and eye-catching overall design.
Your social media posts, business cards, posters and packaging should have a consistent look. From color schemes to font styles, the uniformity and consistency in your marketing design will not only show that you’re a legit enterprise but also help customers easily recall your business.
Craft an informative and attractive content
Don’t just post a photo of that cinnamon roll on tissue paper with a heartless “PM is the key” caption.
If you want to take your online selling seriously, let your potential customers know that you mean business. Spend time crafting your content before posting. Your customers deserve the best…even when it comes to the marketing materials that they look at.
As much as possible, a single post should contain all the relevant information your target customers need to know —- price, product description, flavor/scent, size, price, quantity, inclusions, payment options, and delivery options.
Make sure to take good quality photo. You don’t need to be a professional photographer to take nice pictures nowadays. You just have to know the right angle, lighting, product placement. Check this article for a quick Product Photography 101.
Create contents based on the benefits of your product and services
What’s in it for me? Admit it. That’s how people likely judge every singe post in their news feed nowadays. Truth is your social media followers will soon get tired of seeing hard sell posts about products…but maybe not if they will find your every post beneficial.
It’s not just enough to tell them you’re selling a vitamin supplement, an insurance, a cake. Customers will not appreciate promotional posts every day. So you need to create other contents that isn’t directly selling something but is offering an information on how to make their life, or at least their day, better.
So instead of always talking about your products, talk about benefits.
Benefits are results that customer may experience by using your product or service. This should be the theme of all your marketing messages. For instance, if you’re selling vitamin supplements, talk about tips on having a strong immune system or how to remain healthy while working from home. If you’re selling insurance, create contents that focus about security, financial preparedness and financial literacy.
Choose the right social media channels
Almost everyone is using social media platforms nowadays. That’s why reaching your target customers is now convenient. Social media is a great tool for interacting with your customers real time. You just need to pick the most appropriate platform and use it effectively for your needs.
Some of the social media channels you can use are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn. Choosing the channel depends on your target market and your product.
For instance, Facebook is ideal for lead generation. What’s good about it is it offers advertising solutions that allow you to target specific audiences. You can also make use of Facebook Marketplace. If you have a lot of good product photos, you can also create an Instagram account for your business. For B2B services, you should make a LinkedIn page.
Create different content types
Sooner or later, people will get tired of seeing the same picture of your burger patty. So reach your target market through a variety of contents.
Here are some of the contents you may consider for promoting your product or service:
Photographs
Infographics
Videos
Blog posts
Podcasts
Webinars and livestreams
Testimonials from Customers
User-generated content
Ebooks
Whitepapers
Decide on which content type will appeal most to your target audience. You can either do your content on your own or avail content writing service in the Philippines. The more frequent you create different engaging content types, the higher the chance for your customers to remember your brand.
Tell stories
According to Social Sinergy Creative Director Adam Dukes, “facts tell, stories sell.” By integrating the business to real-life events or concerns, your product or service will reach not just the mind but the heart of your customers. While it may sound too cheesy, it is an effective way to reach customers.
Tell stories that your customers can relate to. Talk about the struggle to cook during quarantine. Talk about Netflix. Talk about working from home. Talk about family time. Talk about real-life concerns, but make sure it is related to your product.
Listen or interact with customers
To know the right stories that will attract your audience, it is important to listen to your customers’ stories and read their comments. Find out about their questions and concerns. By listening to them, you can adjust your content according to your customers’ needs and interests.
Take your online business up a notch by spending time and effort for your content marketing. Finding the right words and using the right channels can help your potential customer discover your awesome products and services. To save you time, you can outsource your social media content writing to experienced freelance content writers in the Philippines. At NGS, we have a team of writers who are competent and committed to deliver the content writing requirements of your business. Contact us now.
Comments