How to get your product/service in front of your target audience
Ever been told a good product or service is really all you need? That’s partly true, as people usually tend to choose the better product or higher quality service. The problem is finding the people looking to make that choice, as marketing is a complete enigma to a lot of small business owners.
Outreach is an important part of getting those customers to head your way. If you follow these steps, you can bring the right people to your product and sales can start properly flowing!
Local SEO
If you’re looking for the local market, the first thing you should do is create a GoogleMyBusiness. As a business that doesn’t ship a product, or one that locals would be more interested in than others, this will be the one organic change that brings in the most customers over time.
What is GoogleMyBusiness (GMB)?
GMB is a free tool that gives you more customisability in the Google search results, and allows you to better manage how you look to people searching for something in their area. That includes adding your business’s name, opening hours, location, customer reviews, photos and more. Below is an example of a GMB listing in action:
GMB listings come up first whenever a user searches “(product/service) near me”, so they’re very useful, especially when you consider the fact people searching for things like this are close to buying as is. Moz have even reported that one in two people who search for a store near them visit that store the same day.
Build up some reputation
Google and customers both love trustworthy sites. To gain that trust, an effective way is to make strides in becoming an educational resource. You can build up a blog with material people would want to read, and people searching for your service will come to you. As a clothing shop, writing posts about new trends and things changing in the industry is the perfect way to get people that love fashion to head your way. If you regularly link to relevant sites in those articles, there’s also an opportunity to get links back- meaning even more relevant people will find you! As long as you stay within the field you operate in, Google will start to slowly reward you for being a trustworthy site that teaches people. On top of this, people just looking to learn about the field you’re in will stop at your site to read about it, and may become customers.
Use it to get links
We’ve touched on this before, but it’s definitely worth its own paragraph. Gaining links is a great way to really boost those site numbers, as it means even people in the same industry are mentioning and recommending you. Having a healthy discussion with other brands in the area, sharing posts from others and asking for shares in return are all extremely effective ways to build relationships with others in the same space, all before the eyes of all the relevant target audiences. If you’re sending people to different sites, they’ll want to return the favour, and if you’ve got a great blog, it makes it so much easier for them!
If you’d like to see a full glossary of all of the backlink buzzwords marketers throw out, and learn more about the power of backlinks for any business, check out this great resource by YourCharisma!
If ever your company is mentioned online, but without a link, it’s quite easy to get one. As part of the services we offer, we detect whenever your company is mentioned, and ask for the credit. This will make your traffic jump massively over time.
Get in touch with some influencers!
Depending on your size and audience, collaborating with the bigger names in your space is hugely beneficial. Bloggers that specialise in what you do, and large social media users who are involved in the same thing are both safe bets- but it will cost money.
That amount obviously depends from person to person, but we’ll just say that big bloggers are who you’ll want to go for if money is no object.
Talk to your audience
This ranges from having a great customer service attitude to making official press releases. Putting your company out there more is generally a better way to get the customers you want. This is because you’re in control of your brand’s tone of voice, meaning you can talk in a way your target audience would like. Targeting teenagers? Taking a more modern and informal approach will engage that group more than the highly professional tone that alienates them. With press releases, you can talk about your company freely and hand it straight to the blogs!
Guest blogging/ Journo requests
Like we’ve mentioned, it pays to be close to the other companies in your space. This opens up an opportunity to talk directly on other peoples’ blogs! When you write on somebody else’s site, you can show off your knowledge, and more importantly, guide people back to your page if they like what you’ve said. The most important part of this is just to try and build relationships with anyone and everyone relevant.
Another good idea is to go on Twitter once and a while and search “#journorequest (your product/service). That hashtag is full of people looking to give your opinion on things. If you have a well thought out opinion, be sure to share it! Readers who are interested will read your blog, or better yet, visit your store. This also builds links, which Google rewards your site for hugely.
Or, we could just do it.
Here at TribeMiner, we can get you started on this wonderful journey. All you need is a product or service, and we can get you on social media, GMB, write for you and reach out! You can contact us on the homepage or in the chat box in the bottom right to learn more!