So now you have everything looking the part and you have a brand that people want to follow, you need to keep providing them with excellent content and you need to give them ways to go from visitor to follower.
We’ve already discussed a little about social media but here we’re going to go into that in more depth by focusing on each platform.
At the same time, we’ll be focusing on some other channels you can use to get word out…
I’m going to start with one of the most powerful ways to build an audience that is overlooked by countless businesses.
Remember how we said that a video could be highly engaging while also demonstrating the best your business has to offer? Then imagine how successful you could be if you were to focus lots of effort on marketing through video specifically. That’s what you’ll be doing if you create a YouTube channel as a way to build your audience.
Now, when someone encounters one of your videos, they are going to be blown away not only by high production values but also by the passion and energy that you show on screen. People follow things that they are emotionally invested in – and video makes it much more possible to convey and build emotion.
There are countless examples of massive brands that got their start thanks to YouTube: Jonathan Morrisson, Bored At Work, Elliot Hulse, The Hodge Twins, Pewdiepie and many more.
But there are very few examples of blogs or businesses that use YouTube properly.
To use YouTube correctly, the best strategy is to create a channel that offer high value content relevant to your niche – just as you would with a blog. You’ll present this in a way that is engaging, entertaining and informative and you’ll invest in a good camera, good lighting and good editing software. Scared by any of that? Then hire someone that can do it for you.
If you don’t want to go on camera, you don’t have to. Channels like ASAP Science or Mr. Sunday Movies show that slideshows and animations can be just as successful with a little added narration.
What’s important is that you do your SEO right. We’ll touch on SEO briefly in this book but note that SEO is much easier and more effective on YouTube. Create videos that use popular search terms in their tags, write long descriptions and think about other videos that are popular and topics that get a lot of traffic.
This way you can encourage your videos to come up as suggested next videos, or you can get them to the top of popular search terms.
YouTube involves more investment. It is harder. And it will be a lot of work with relatively little payoff to start with. But this is what turns so many smaller businesses away from it and that is actually a good thing for you. It’s good because it means that your site is going to be able to stand out simply on the merit of having a YouTube channel. Put in the time and effort and for motivation, check out a channel like Charisma On Command that tried for a long time to gain traction on its blog and then only took off once it invested in YouTube.
Note: On YouTube and on all these platforms, consistency is key. Post regularly and do not go long stretches without an update.
A lot of sites and brands will tell you that email marketing is their single most important tool for growing and engaging their audience. Is this true? Yes and no.
The great thing about email marketing is that it gives you a very direct route to contact your audience and you won’t be relying on any intermediate organization like Facebook to decide whether or not your posts get seen. People check their emails daily and they are even notified when they receive new one.
What’s more, is that email feels very personal. This means that for some people, signing up to a mailing list will make them feel instantly more committed to your brand and almost like VIPs.
This is a great way to build engagement, to get people to actually respond to your messages and to get them excited for your upcoming announcements and projects.
But email is also something that a LOT of people overlook. People are naturally reluctant to give out their email addresses and many people will quickly get resentful when you keep messaging them. It’s also a less flexible, multimedia and dynamic form of communication.
Email marketing tends to work better for specific types of brand. In particular, it works very well for services providers and especially if you have been in email contact with your clients.
Building up a client list will allow you to send out email bursts to everyone you’ve worked with advertising discounts or mentioning that you are available for more work. Because they’re used to corresponding with your email, they’ll be much more likely to pick up.
Likewise, email marketing can be successful for very personal brands. If you have a brand like Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income, then people will feel as though they know you and thus they will be more interested to receive an email from you in their inbox.
To build your mailing list, sign up for an autoresponder. Then make sure to place it in your sidebar but also at the bottom of the posts. Most importantly, describe in your content itself what your mailing list is all about and why people should be interested in it. In other words, don’t just leave it there and hope they’ll notice it – actively promote it right within the content they came to see!
Finally, keep posting on social media. That means Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at least and probably Google+, Pinterest and Tumblr. Google+ is particularly worthwhile if only for the potential SEO boost it offers.
The aim on social media is to post frequently and again to make sure that you are offering useful content. This will vary slightly from channel to channel.
Instagram of course is highly visual. This is all about selling a particularly lifestyle or dream, as many Instagram celebrities nicely exemplify. Upload pictures that will allow people to imagine that they are fitter, sexier or more successful. Or if your brand goes deeper, show them exciting uses for interesting technology, show them beautiful travel destinations or show them people in their creative element.
In short, Instagram is where you communicate the emotion that drives your business and that will motivate your target persona. Keep in mind that it is emotion that motivates action – and action includes signing up for a mailing list!
Twitter is a place where you can share interesting asides and useful tips. This channel works particularly well for personal brands as it lets you invite your audience into your daily life a little. Share your workflow, what you do in a day, where you are… If you travel on business then you can Tweet about the amusing food you’re eating or you can Tweet about the destination. This helps to build more closeness and therefore trust with your audience.
Finally, Facebook is a useful place to share information of both kinds but also to communicate with your audience. Remember, communication is a two-way street and this is a very powerful way to answer questions, to get people interested in your brand and to encourage your page to spread through real-world social networks. Facebook is a great place to crowdsource ideas, to run campaigns and competitions and to generally get the audience to participate. This is also really good for sharing content on your site and especially if you can come up with some grabbing headlines and titles.
Note that only a small percentage of Facebook posts will be shown to all your followers. Don’t worry about posting too frequently then!
An important tip for encouraging success on your social media is to make sure that your website and your social media are linked. Social media will build your viewers because each time that someone likes your page, their friends will see it. That in turn means some of those new viewers might become followers and that might expose it to their friends.
So simply adding social media buttons to your homepage and social sharing buttons on your articles will encourage a virtuous cycle where each new visitor means new followers and each new follower means more visitors!