How can I market my business?

This is the #1 question people ask me all the time. And I know what you’re really asking is: How can I set myself up for long term success with my business?

Before I get to the answer, everyone’s business is different, and how you market yours will depend on things like:

• Your industry
• Your business model (product vs service, online vs local)
• Your budget + resources (4-person team vs solopreneur)

Having said that, there’s no line in the sand when it comes to marketing. Whether you’re just starting out or have been in business for a while, some or all of your marketing today will be done online.

And even when you’ve been at it for years, things in your business today probably look much different than yesterday (maybe it’s time to branch out into a new market or launch a new product?).

There’s just no one-size-fits-all with marketing. How you market an online business looks different than a local business, how you market a restaurant is different than how you market a construction company, and how you market a web design company is different than how you market a retail or ecommerce business. Each one requires a slightly different strategy.

Related: 100+ Ways to Market Your Business on a Small Budget

So, back to the question How do you set your business up for long-term success?

Here’s what I think: you need a two-phase plan.

Phase one: for the now
Phase two: for the long term

This two-phase idea is from Amy Porterfield and I love it because it makes things so clear. You need a strategy to get business today and you need a long term strategy for growth.

I was so inspired by the concept of the phases that I flipped open my laptop and started writing! So in this post I’m sharing what I’ve learned over the years. Phase one includes tactics to set yourself up for success in phase two, plus gives you the quick wins and cash flow you need today:

PHASE ONE

1) Lay a solid brand foundation

Marketing really starts with a strong brand position, so this is the best place to start. Identify your “One Thing”: the one person that reflects your highly profitable customer; the one problem they have; the one solution you provide; your one offer that packages up your solution.

Use that to create a buyer persona (aka customer avatar). Dive into their goals, aspirations, and challenges, and really what you’re going for is to get inside their conversations, so that you can start hitting them with the conversations they’re already having and become the go-to for their solution. This is the basis of your future marketing.

2) Local networking

Nothing beats face-to-face marketing, even though your reach will be smaller than online. Offer to speak to local businesses, organizations and professional groups relevant to your niche. It’s also a great way to get started with webinars. You can turn those successful presentations into online events pretty easily.

3) Direct outreach via email

You can get some pretty quick wins by sending emails to prospects. Create a list of about 200 people you want to target and then create a 5- to 6-part email sequence. Make sure a few of your emails share content and resources, and a few of them request a call. You can pretty easily automate this whole process once you have a workflow down.

Pro tip: Always include a question at the end of your email so people feel like they need to respond.

4) LinkedIn

I know everyone’s all about Facebook, but I have a little love for LinkedIn because I’ve gotten great business through it. When you don’t have a mailing list (or even if you do), it can really be a goldmine of contacts. It’s basically a huge database of C-level professionals who keep their profiles current, which means you don’t have to worry about the info being outdated or incorrect.

Here’s what you do. Optimize your profile, especially your headline and Summary. Then use your customer avatar to create a Prospect Profile. Start sending sending out connection requests to people who match your criteria. Since you’re reaching out to people who don’t know you, they will first glance at your profile before accepting, which is why you want to make sure your summary is compelling.

For tips on how to optimize your LinkedIn Profile, check out this post.

5) Blog & content strategy

Okay, here’s where you start laying the groundwork for phase 2. You need a strategy for content so that you don’t spin your wheels with blogging.

With your one person in mind, create an editorial calendar around those conversations and challenges they’re having. Try to work with one theme at a time, so that you can pull 3 or 4 of your posts into an ebook or slideshare later on. Writing in themes also helps brand your content because you can create a journey for your readers (almost like a free course).

A lot of people ask about blogging frequency. Don’t worry about it. It’s much better to blog regularly, even if it’s one per month, and really provide value with each post. The better and longer your content, the more opportunity you have to hit some keywords and the more shares you’ll get.

Pro tip: an easy way to get started with themes is to answer common questions that people have.

Phase two

6) Supercharge your blog

So now you’re blogging and you’ve got a few posts under your belt. Great! It’s time to keep it going and get people (and search engines) to find it.

Basically, what you want to do is write long, information-packed posts (some people call this “epic content”) that contain important terms people would use to find you on Google. If you’re not sure where to start with this, try using BuzzSumo to find content that’s really popular, then write something similar, only better.

Install Google Analytics on your site and pay attention to which posts are getting the most views. Then extend on these with future posts. You can also take the themes you started in phase one and interlink them so that each post links to the other.

End each post with a question to encourage comments, and then respond to readers’ comments to show them that you care about their opinions and to encourage them to interact. Add share buttons to the end of your post (and also to your images) so that people can easily share your post.

I know this part is a lot to digest! I go into a lot more detail on each of these steps here.

7) Grow your following

Figure out which social platforms you’re going to dig into and start building a following.

Wherever your one person is, that’s where you want to be. Focus your time and energy on developing a following on just one or two sites. Otherwise you’ll spread yourself too thin. Share other people’s content along with your original content while you’re building up your blog. Determine the best posting frequency for each site and then automate scheduling and posting. Feedly, IFTT and Buffer are great for scheduling other people’s content and Hootsuite and Meet Edgar are great for scheduling original content.

If Pinterest and Instagram are important to you, try Tailwind or BoardBooster. And if you’re on a budget or just don’t want to pay monthly fees, here’s a free way to schedule posts to Twitter and Facebook using IFTTT and Google Calendar.

Related: 14 Ways to Get Massive Traffic From Pinterest

8) Promote your content

Now that your content strategy is in place, your blog is up and running, and you’re building a following, it’s time to really promote your content.

Create a commentary that poses a question and then Pin it, share it on Google+, Facebook, Facebook Groups, LinkedIn, and on LinkedIn Groups. Then tweet it a few times throughout the day. Also share it on Reddit, Digg, Delicious, Tumblr, BizSugar, ViralWoot, Triberr, Ping the Blog, and Instagram.

Re-share it throughout the day and then schedule more shares a few weeks later. You can also create a Facebook ad to drive traffic to it. I recommend FB ads only for your optimized posts so you can capture leads, which brings me to:

9) Optimize & repurpose content

Take popular posts from your Analytics report and turn them into downloadable ebooks, workbooks or templates. Add them to your post as a “content upgrade” (this is an easy way to start building your list). Then create landing pages for them and advertise on Facebook. LinkedIn ads are certainly worth a try, but I can’t speak to them as I’ve found Facebook works well for B2B.

You can also repackage your post to reach even more people by turning it into a video and uploading it to Facebook, or maybe turn it into a podcast. This will give you more opportunities for people to share and more links pointing back to your post. Or turn it into a webinar with a call to action at the end and advertise that on Facebook.

10) Automated sales process

Automation is what’s going to help you turn leads into customers behind the scenes so you can focus on doing everything else you need to do to run your business. This is essentially the same as the email sequences I mentioned in phase one, only you’re using different tools and targeting subscribers and people who have opted in, so they’re warm leads rather than cold leads.

When someone opts-in to your ebook, or signs up for your newsletter or webinar, you create a sequence that basically deepens the relationship and extends the conversation around the topic. Generally toward the end of the sequence you’d include a call to action. You can combine this with a sales call if you added a phone number in your opt-in form. You can use standard email marketing providers to set this up. Mailchimp, Mad Mimi, Infusionsoft, Aweber are all good ones to try.

11) Use your list

Every time you publish a new post, let your subscribers know about it. Also keep them updated on new offers and specials. Create a private page on your website with a video filled with exclusive tips just for them. Engage with them and ask them questions to find out more about their needs. This way you’ll stay top of mind, plus you can use the feedback to shape future products.

12) Tweak your business model

It’s a good idea to start tweaking your business model at this point. You want to make sure that you have content, offers and packages that move people through the entire sales cycle and give them an easy way to get to know, like and trust you, and then try your product or services before purchasing.

Think about refining your business model to include low-tier, mid-range and top-tier or VIP packages.

13) Track and monitor

I’ve found the best way to monitor is to start with an end goal, but it needs to be specific.

You want to track how much time and money you spent to acquire a customer. Here’s what I mean:

• How many prospects does it take to land one customer – how many connections, how many messages, how many hours each day?
• How many posts – which topics get the most traffic, and how long did they take you to write?
• Which combination of ad spend and offers/upsells yields a breakeven? What about a profit?
• How many times do you have to hold the webinar to reach your sales goals, and then of course, what tweaks can you make to your ad/landing page/sales pitch to get that number up?
• More metrics like this, you get the idea…

There’s no question about it. Whether you’re just starting out or have been in business for a while, marketing can be intimidating.

What do you do first? How do you know what will work for your business? What steps should you take? I hear questions like these all the time, and I get it.

Marketing can seem like a moving target, especially when the way you approach it today is much different than yesterday and probably won’t look the same tomorrow. Just keeping up with the changes can seem like a full-time job.

And yet, what matters even more than HOW you get the word out about your business is your mindset when it comes to marketing.

Here’s how to think about it:

• Pick one technique and follow through with it. Don’t try to do everything at once.
• Use a tiny budget and test things out one at a time, then create a larger campaign around what works.
• Don’t try to be all things to all people. Focus on finding the one perfect customer out there you were born to serve.

Now that you have the right marketing mindset, I want to share with you some ways to market your online business. These ideas work for any business type, just keep in mind that the best techniques for a start-up may look different from those for an established business.

Use these 100+ marketing ideas as inspiration for your business. I’ve tried to group them so you can pick what makes sense based on where you’re at in your business. Some of these you may have tried, some may be new, and others may not feel right for you and that’s okay. There are plenty of ideas to choose from, so pick a few, test them out and tweak as you see fit.

1. Create a website. A simple one-page site or even a landing page will do the trick. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or take months to build. You just need a hub to drive traffic to. Tip: Use Wix or Squarespace if you don’t have the budget for a designer.

2. Create a Facebook page. Keep fans engaged and get a bump in engagement with helpful and inspiring posts around your business.

3. Create a LinkedIn profile. Treat it like your own personal website page so that people know exactly what you do and how it can benefit them. Add in keywords so that you show up during searches. Need some help? Check out this post for how to supercharge your profile.

4. Create a Twitter account. Include a link to your website right in the description and use hashtags so people can find you.

5. Create an Instagram account and start building your following. Use your amazing visuals and images to build your brand. Instagram is great if you have a graphic product or if you’re a photographer, designer or fashion stylist.

6. Create a Pinterest profile and pin videos and images of your products and your business.

7. List your business and URL on your personal Facebook and Google+ profiles.

8. Create a Google My Business page. Select appropriate categories and upload photos of your business and include keywords in both your descriptions and in your images. Add a link to your website in your description.

9. List your business on Yelp, with some photos of your business and a call to action. Send a friendly email to customers with a link and ask them to leave a review. Do this after you complete a project and your customers are thrilled!

10. List your business on Yahoo Local, Manta, and other local directories to give you a leg up on local search.

11. Communicate the same benefit-rich message everywhere…on your website, email, social media, business cards and more… so that people connect with your brand and understand the value of what you provide, online and offline. If you’re struggling with your core message, here’s a template that will help.

12. Get creative with your business card so when you give it to people at networking events, they remember you. Don’t just list your name and phone number like other people do. Add a benefit-rich message with images and graphics and a free consultation or coupon on the back.

13. Go to book stores and slip your new business cards into books that talk about your niche.

14. Get in the habit of telling everyone what you do and what you’re working on. It helps reinforce it for you, plus you never know who might bump into at Starbucks or the grocery store.

15. Call or email your family and friends and let them know about your business and ask them if there’s anyone they know who could use your services.

16. Make cold calls. Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and call people. Marketing is a numbers game and the more people you call, the faster you get to yes, plus it’s great way to get comfortable telling people what you do.

17. Send a personal email to 20 people you know, including friends and acquaintances, and tell them how excited you are about your new business and offer them a special discount or package just for the opportunity to work with them.

18. Send handwritten letters to a special list of people that you crave working with and include a flash drive or a link to a promo video where you introduce yourself and your services.

19. Send thank you cards with your personal signature to show people how much you appreciate their business and give them that personal touch so you stand out from the crowd.

20. Over-deliver on everything that you do. People will remember it and tell their friends. [clickToTweet tweet=”Idea #20: Over-deliver on everything you do for customers. They’ll remember and tell people about it.” quote=”Idea #20: Over-deliver on everything you do for customers. They’ll remember and tell people about it.”]

21. Start a business blog and remember to include keywords for SEO so that people can find you.

22. Volunteer your services or products to a cause you really care about in exchange for a testimonial, then feature it on your website, blog, Facebook and email. Ask the charity or non-profit organization to include your link on their website too for extra traffic.

23. Join groups and organizations around your interests and the hobbies you love. I personally like Women in Music and there are many others you can get involved with that reflect your interests.

24. Give away a special gift or incentive to those people who were you very first clients to thank them for their business and to let them know how much you appreciate them.

25. Ask happy customers for testimonials and then put them on your website so others can see the results they would get working with you. Social proof like that is so powerful!

26. Give special deals to customers you absolutely love working with. You’ve worked hard to get them, now keep them! Let them know about new programs you’re running and offer loyalty discounts on their next purchase.

27. Send a personal email to customers and ask them for referrals. As soon as you wrap up a project and your customer is thrilled, ask if there is someone they know who might benefit from working with you. You can even create a referral program, where you offer discounts.

28. Offer free consultation calls. This is a great way for people to try your product out at no risk. Put it in your email signature, business card and on your website.

29. Contact a shared work space near you and offer an educational workshop. Let them help boost attendance by including it in their newsletter.

30. Have a grand opening party. Or a grand-reopening party. Or a one-year anniversary party. Or a 10^th fabulous customer party! You get the idea, be creative with how you can engage your local community. You can even turn it into an online event.

31. Partner with other businesses. Referral partners can be a great way to build your business. Try to find non-competing partners who sell to the same customers you do.

32. Give a testimonial to a company you’ve worked with on their site or create a LinkedIn recommendation for an someone who has provided you value. Just make sure you can actually say something authentic, even if it’s to comment on how their great content has helped you.

33. Be active on Google+. Join Communities and answer questions. Be engaging and ask questions too. It’s a great way to get your blog posts and content in front of others.

34. Attend trade shows and conferences around your niche or interests. Walk the floor, introduce yourself and hand out your business cards. Bonus if you can find conferences that include time for open networking and socializing.

35. Exhibit at industry trade shows. These can be expensive, so you may want to share booth space with another non-competing company. Create a press release around it and reach out to media with your booth number and info about the show.

36. Organize a Meetup group and invite people in your city to join. Also reach out to other similar Meetups to let them know about your new group and ask if they’d like to join.

37. Join industry organizations and networking groups in your area. They’re a great way to practice your elevator pitch and get comfortable talking about yourself. Be ready with business cards but let it be organic. Networking is just like content marketing – give first and then make the ask. Engage people in conversation before you go on about yourself.

38. Join a local Chambers of Commerce. These can be great when you’re first starting out. Meet other professionals, participate in committees, and even offer to give presentations.

39. Sponsor local charities and events to get super visible within your own community.

40. Donate to local or national charities and get listed on their donor’s page with a link back to your website.

41. Print some flyers and mail them to people in your area or put them up in local cafes and coffee shops.

42. Go to strip malls and shopping centers and put the flyers on cars. You can even put them on cars parked in the street if you’re in a city. Tip: people will only pay attention if it really speaks to them, so play around with your message a bit.

43. Give away branded promotional items, like t-shirts, mugs, hats, pens and key chains.

44. Contact a niche publication and see if you can purchase a partial list. Filter it by region to keep your costs down. You already know they speak to your audience! Then send a personal email introducing yourself. Just make sure you nail down your message before you do this.

45. Advertise your products and services on Craigslist.

46. Create a shop page on Etsy where you sell your products and then create Pinterest pins to drive traffic to your store.

47. Create a Gravatar so that when you guest post and comment on blogs and forums, people see your picture next to your author bio instead of an anonymous pic.

48. Grow your Twitter followers. Look at what your competitors are tweeting and who their followers are, then post similar tweets and follow their followers. Many of them will follow you back once they see your tweets. For the exact steps I used to grow my following, check out this post.

49. Hold a high value, information-packed webinar where you give people a ton of value and show them how to do something. This will help you build your list and showcase your authority. Bonus: Create a Facebook ad and drive signups to a landing page for your webinar.

50. Build a mailing list. Email lists are one of the most powerful and cost-effective ways to grow your business and increase your revenue at the same time.

51. Subscribe to HARO (help a reporter out) and get alerts when media are looking for ideas in your niche, then pitch a story around what they’re looking for. This tip works well for online businesses with a national or global audience.

52. Use Twitter to find journalists and editors. Follow them, retweet their tweets, and then pitch them your story! Look for handles of big-name and local publications. Bonus: Use Followerwonk to do your research.

53. Create a freebie. It can be a checklist, cheetsheat, blueprint, ebook or video series. Just make sure it’s got loads of valuable content that people would pay for.  Let people download it in exchange for their email address.

54. Turn your Pinterest profile into a business account. Add branded watermarks to your images and use rich pins so people recognize your business and your brand.

55. Find pins to share related to your business and then use Tailwind to schedule them so you can scatter your pins throughout the day.

56. Hold your own local event or host an event with a non-competing business and then promote the event to your subscribers and on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.

57. Use your mailing list. Stay top of mind and build deeper relationships with your subscribers by reaching out to them at least twice a month.

58. Get busy on LinkedIn. Use it, especially if you’re B2B. Make connections and start conversations with people you want to work with on LinkedIn. Since people keep their profiles current, you’ve got a huge database right there! This post gives you some power tips on LinkedIn prospecting.

59. Participate in 2-3 Facebook groups every day and give away as much value for free as you can so people start to see you as the expert. Check the group policy before posting anything too promotional or salesy.

60. Join LinkedIn groups. Look for ones in your industry or topic-related that are active and have real conversations happening, not all promotional.

61. Publish your own book with loads of great value and mail it to businesses in your community. This way they’ll always have it around and will start to think of you when they need the services you provide.

62. Use Leadpages to create a landing page for your freebie and let people know what they’re going to receive by downloading, with your form right up top so they can see it right away.

63. Use Facebook ads to drive traffic to your freebie landing page and use the same bullet points for consistency. Start with a small budget until you get the conversions you want. This post will help you get started with Facebook ads.

64. Create your own Facebook group. Participating in Facebook groups is a great way to boost your visibility, and creating your own group will skyrocket both your engagement and your business over time.

65. Create your own LinkedIn group. Members automatically view group managers as experts, so groups are a great platform to share, network and promote your business.

66. Guest post on other people’s blogs. Reach out to popular bloggers in your industry who have a lot of traffic. Tip: a lot of comments usually means high traffic.

67. Hold Facebook contests. Contests are a great way to build your list. Pick a prize that your fans will go crazy for and make it really easy to join. Check out this post on how to create a Facebook contest.

68. Optimize your site for search engines. Overlook this step and you’re missing out on a big opportunity to get traffic to your site. The right tweaks to things like page titles, tags, keywords and content can magically boost your rankings and even get you on the first page of Google! I go into more detail about SEO here.

69. Create a promo video and upload it directly to Facebook for a boost in organic reach.

70. Create a promo or content video and upload it to YouTube and Facebook. Use search keywords and your branded keywords in your title, tags and description to make it easy to find and share.

71. Turn a post into an infographic on your website and add social sharing buttons to encourage sharing. Then promote it on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, and Flickr, and submit it to infographic directories like Submit Infographics.

72. Comment on popular blogs and include your website so when people read your comment they can find out more about you. Bonus tip: include a link to relevant content, like an ebook or a cheat sheet and enjoy an increase in subscribers.

73. Create a Quora profile and answer questions that pop up around topics you know. This way you can showcase your expertise without being pushy, and as you impress people with how much you know, they will naturally want to take the next step and find out more about you.

74. Create an epic piece of content. Use BuzzSumo to research the most popular content in your niche. You’ll see the number of shares for each social media site. Then create your own post on the same topic, only make yours better…longer, use more pics, more descriptive… things like that. This is a fast way to put yourself on the first page of Google!

75. Promote your blog everywhere, even on sites like Reddit, Digg, Delicious, Scoop.it, BizSugar – you’d be surprised how much of a bump you can get in traffic.

76. Use Periscope to broadcast a live video to your potential customers and let them get to know you personally, as if you were in the same room. Make sure your video is packed with content. Think of challenges and tutorials you can stream.

77. Create a Q&A post where you interview other people in your industry with a link back to their website. Then let them know about the post and encourage them to share it. Tip: Look for bloggers with a decent following if you can (and do it anyway, even if you can’t!).

78. Allow comments on your blog and then take the time to read them and respond to them. If you see common questions or themes, you can always use that as inspiration for your next blog post.

79. Create a speaker demo reel and offer to speak at conferences and associations in your niche. If you’re new to speaking, try joining a local Rotary Club and offer to speak there first before branching out to a wider audience. Bonus – bring a friend to your first talk and ask them to record you.

80. Turn your content into a Powerpoint or Keynote presentation and upload it to Slideshare, then include it in your LinkedIn profile so members can see it.

81. Hold a telesummit. Showcase your expertise, build your fan base and grow your mailing list at the same time!

82. Offer a free email course and promote it on your website and social media, then feature it in your newsletter and include share buttons so people can share it with their friends.

83. Feature your newsletter sign up where visitors can see it right away. Try putting it at the top of your site and throughout your content, or use a popup or welcome gate so that people can’t miss it.

84. Upload promo videos onto your Facebook page for a boost in organic reach, especially if it’s already active with a good fan base.

85. Join affiliate programs. If there are online tools or products you love and use every day, sign up for affiliate programs and talk about them on your website, with a link back to the product’s site. When someone clicks on the link, you get a commission.

86. Offer a content upgrade. Turn a blog post into a checklist or cheat sheet and add it as a download in the middle and at the end of your posts. This is one of the most powerful ways to grow your mailing list, especially when people love all the value you provided. Leverage it! [clickToTweet tweet=”Idea #86: Need another way to grow your list? Create a content upgrade.” quote=”Idea #86: Need another way to grow your list? Create a content upgrade.”]

87. Use your Facebook timeline cover photo to promote your new blog post, webinar or freebie and enjoy the boost in engagement and newsletter signups. You’ve got prime real estate here (it’s the first thing people see on your page), so no sense wasting it! Include a call to action so people know where to click.

88. Add live chat to your website so that visitors can ask questions and get them answered live. This makes it super convenient for them and at the same time you keep them engaged longer so they don’t leave.

89. Start a podcast. Interview experts, authors, bloggers and influencers and also feature your own content.

90. Invite others to post on your blog. Guest blogging like this can be great for you and other bloggers too. Build out your blogosphere and enjoy the boost in traffic!

91. Create a weekly Q&A video series. Use the videos to answer common themes and questions around your niche, then upload them to your website, YouTube and Facebook.

92. Add social sharing buttons on your blog or website. The more shares you have, the more people will want to share too because they will see you as an authority. Tip: Use Shareaholic or SumoMe.

93. Add share buttons to your blog images. This way when people hover over them, they can easily share to Facebook or Pinterest. This works great for infographics too.

94. Create an industry round-up. Make a note of your favorite new tools, tips or content you come across each month, then feature them in a Round Up series in your newsletter.

95. Create press releases and send to local media. Pay attention to the editorial calendar for local magazines and newspapers, then pitch your story around special segments or trending topics.

96. Give bloggers in your niche a free sample of your product and ask them to review it. The more mentions and links back to your site, the more traffic and exposure you have!

97. Use Feedly to collect other people’s content. Pull in your favorite blogs and online sources so you have them all in one place. When you find articles your audience would find interesting, share it right from here.

98. Use Buffer to schedule content. Instead of sharing your Feedly posts immediately, schedule them to go out with Buffer so you can spread your posts out.

99. Use Hootsuite to keep track of mentions and schedule original content you want to send each month.

100. Create IFTT recipes for Feedly, Buffer and Twitter so that when a new article is added to your Feedly, it immediately goes into your Buffer queue for Twitter.

101. Upload an exclusive, information-packed video to a private page on your site and then send a link to your subscribers. Make sure your video has some extra valuable tips they can’t find anywhere else on your site!

102. Create a 5-day challenge that helps people achieve something they want to do but have been putting off. Make it simple and actionable, so they really feel like they’re getting closer to their goal just by completing the challenge. Then promote your challenge in Facebook groups, on Periscope and on your site. Let your subscribers know about it.

I could keep going… but I think I’ll cut it here.

With all these ways to market your business, there’s definitely a few that will work for you, whether you’re a startup or have been in business for a while. Just pick some that seem like they may work and try them out. I recommend a minimum of 3 months to test each one. This will give you enough time to experiment, edit, tweak, revise and update so you can measure how well each technique works for your business.

After months of experimenting and preparation with social media and blogging, you’re finally starting to get some traffic to your website!

Which one makes you want to find out more about what they do?

I’ll bet it’s the second one. Because the reason to do business with you is the first thing you see, with an image that reinforces the value you’ll experience.

Contrast that to the first one, where the first thing you notice is their logo and then some bullet points about them, followed by a lot more text about them.

Now compare these examples to your own website. When someone arrives on your home page, is it immediately clear what your business is about? Will visitors know right away the value they can expect?

So many entrepreneurs overlook this step when they’re building their websites. And then even though they start getting traffic from organic search, social and email campaigns, that traffic doesn’t translate into more leads or customers.

If you find you’re getting decent traffic but no targeted leads, it’s the message (or value proposition) on your home page that may be at fault. In this article, I’m going to show you how to create a strong value proposition that will convert clients and bring you more sales.

Here’s what I’m going to cover:

• What is a value proposition?
• What goes into creating a value proposition?
• How to create a winning value proposition
• An example of a strong value proposition
• A value proposition worksheet

What’s a value proposition?

Using the earlier example, if you’re a financial advisor and someone searches Google for “financial planner” and they land on your site, you want them to stay.

So this is your chance to communicate your value in 30 seconds or less and pull them deeper into your content.

Your value proposition tells people why they should do business with you. It should clearly state what you do, who you do it for and how it helps.

Being very clear on these three things is what’s going to convince people not to hit the back button and search for another trainer.

In a nutshell, a value proposition is a clear statement that

• explains how your product solves customers’ problems or improves their situation (shows relevancy),
• delivers specific benefits (aspect of value),
• tells the ideal customer why they should buy from you and not from the competition (point of differentiation).

It should pass the word of mouth test

Your value proposition should be so simple that even a 10-year-old can tell his friends about your offer and how they would benefit.

But it shouldn’t be so simple that it forgets the value mention. A statement like “We provide financial advisory services,” doesn’t mean anything to people. There’s just not enough information here for people to remember you, let alone tell their friends.

On the other hand, a value proposition that people can’t understand enough to explain to their friends what your offer is and how they can benefit is equally damaging.

Take this example:

“Bringing together military and industry veterans in the relentless pursuit of our clients’ success. We understand that the financial industry is first and foremost a service industry and we seek to be consistently recognized for exceptional client service resulting from teamwork and living by our principles.”

Do you have any idea what they do? Ready to run and tell your friends about it? Didn’t think so.

Your value proposition isn’t the place to impress people with how smart you are. Technical jargon-propositions like this will kill your chances of converting clients. Stay away from them at all costs.

Remember to keep the focus on your customer:

• What do they want?
• Why are they here?, and
• How do you help?

Use the right language

Your value proposition needs to be in the language of your ideal customer and join the conversation that is already going on in their minds. You need to speak in the words your customers use to describe your product and how they benefit from it, not your own.

Don’t try to guess what that language is. The way you speak about your services is often very different from how your customers describe it. You need to find out by either interviewing your customers and your sales team or through social media.

What goes into a value proposition?

The value proposition is usually a block of text (a headline, sub-headline and one paragraph of text) with a visual (photo, hero shot, graphics).

While value propositions come in many forms, here’s a basic formula you can use:

• Headline
• Sub-headline or short paragraph
• List of key benefits or features
• An image

The headline is your attention grabber and the most important part of the value proposition. It’s what people will spend the most time looking at. Give them one short sentence here summarizing the end-benefit you’re offering.

You sub-headline is where you add more detail about what you do, who you do it for and why it is useful. This should be no more than 2-3 sentences.

Use bullet points to show benefits and features people can expect.

An image is worth a thousand words, so be careful which image you choose.  Show your product or some image that emphasizes your main message. An irrelevant picture will confuse people and won’t do much to emphasize your message.

Evaluate your current value proposition by checking whether it answers the questions below:

• What product or service is your company selling?
• What is the end-benefit of using it?
• Who is your target customer for this product or service?
• What makes your offering unique and different?

Use the headline-subhead-benefits-visual formula to structure the answers.

How to create a winning value proposition

The best value proposition is clear: what is it, for whom and how is it useful? If those questions are answered, you’re on the right path. Always strive for clarity first.

If your value proposition makes people squint their eyes and tilt their head, you’re doing it wrong. If they have to read a lot of text to understand your offering, you’re doing it wrong. Yes, a sufficient amount of information is crucial for conversions, but you need to draw them in first before you get in to all that.

Here are some steps to help you come up with a winning value proposition:

1) Create a Customer Avatar

You need to know what motivates your ideal customers in order to craft a message that’ll make them take notice.

The best way to get this kind of insight is to create a Customer Avatar, which is a profile of your ideal customer.

Do you have a favorite client that you love working with, one that just happens to be a highly profitable client? Use that profile for your customer avatar.

If you don’t have clients yet, think about who would value most from your products or services. Why would they want to choose you over someone else? Think about what problems they have and how you can uniquely help. Then just update your avatar later one when you know more about your ideal clients.

Here’s what you need to include in your profile:

• What do they do?
• What are their basic demographics: background, age, income, gender?
• What’s the biggest challenge they face?
• What are their aspirations?
• What would make their job/life easier?
• Are there any other people involved in the decision-making process (spouse, boss). If so, you’ll need to create an avatar for each.
• Have they used other products or tools similar to yours, and how did they like them?

You may discover some things you didn’t expect.

Don’t be afraid to focus solely on this one profile. You really want your avatar to reflect highly profitable clients only, and let the others fall off. It’s time to get laser-focused on your ideal customer (the ones that are super easy to work with, love what you do, and bring in the most revenue).

(NOTE: Want my easy 3-step process to create your customer avatar? Get my Customer Avatar Worksheet.)

2) Define what makes you truly unique

When I think about what separates me from other marketers, the first thing I think about is why clients pick me.

And then I think, “I’m good at what I do, I have a great service and I provide a great value.”

But here’s the thing. These are the same exact things that everyone else can can say. Service and value are a given today and something that customers expect. These claims will get you a seat at the table, but they’re not tipping points.

You really need to reflect on the one aspect of value that you excel at over your competitors. This is the secret to creating a strong value proposition, especially if what you sell isn’t all that unique.

In my case, I’ve learned that my tipping point is that I’m a marketing team in-a-box, kid of like a CMO on steroids. When clients work with me they don’t have to shop for a separate writer, designer, business strategist, SEO person or IT person. So my real value is that I make marketing easy for companies by saving them time and energy and holding their hand through the process.

You might discover that it’s the little things that really matter to customers, like all the things you overlook and are already doing that absolutely thrill them. For instance, as a remodeler it might be how clean and tidy you keep the project site that matters most to your customers and not your craftsmanship or attention to detail.

Knowing these little things will make all the difference in the way you market yourself. When you clearly communicate them throughout your website, you’re going to immediately attract the exact customers who want to work with you.

Here’s an example of a great value proposition

Check out Wix’s homepage:

There are tons of website builders out there, so how does Wix stand out from the pack?

They focus on how easy it is to create a beautiful website.

Which makes sense, because if you think about it many people looking to build their own website are entrepreneurs like you and me who have a million things on their to-do list.

Chances are their background isn’t in technology, so being able to easily build a website is super important to them.

Do you know what’s super important to your customers? Make sure they see that message right away.

If you’re saying too many things, or you’re saying them in ways that confuse people or don’t convey value, it means your value proposition is unclear. And if it’s unclear to you, it’s definitely going to be unclear to visitors.

Value proposition template

It can be tricky to know where to start writing your value proposition, so I’ve provided a template to help get your creative juices flowing. First write out your responses to these questions. Take your time and try to answer them as completely as possible.

• What product or service are you offering?
• Who is your ideal customer?
• What do they need or desire?
• What problems do they have?
• How do you solve their problems?

Then plug in your answers here (you don’t have to follow this template exactly, but it should have these basic components).

For_____________________(your ideal customer)

Who____________________(what does your customer seek or need)

(Your product) is a ________________________ (describe you or your product)

That____________________(your solution/key benefit)

Examples:

For non-technical marketers
Who struggle to find return on investment in social media
Our product is a web-based analytics software
That translates engagement metrics into actionable revenue metrics.

For businesses and enterprises
Who want to stay ahead of the competition
Sales Cloud is the world’s #1 sales application
That helps salespeople manage accounts, contacts, and business opportunities, and collaborate instantly from anywhere on any device.

A good way to test your value proposition is to create two home pages and run Google ads to see which one performs better. You won’t be able to test your actual ad conversions this way because there are other factors involved, but you’ll be able to tell which value proposition is stronger. Keep testing and refining your message and product/market fit until it’s solid.

(NOTE: Want my easy 3-step process to create your customer avatar? Get my Customer Avatar Worksheet.)

Implementing an effective small business marketing system is like putting a puzzle together. From blogging and SEO to social media and premium offers, the pieces are so intertwined and crucial in their own right that it can be hard to prioritize what to do and in which order. Each piece of the puzzle must link together perfectly, and no piece can be left out.

That’s why you want to avoid implementing random tactics, such as blogging before a conversion funnel is in place or posting on social media without a content strategy.

Having said that, your website should always be a priority. It’s where your traffic lands and a crucial factor in your ability to convert visitors into qualified leads and ultimately, into customers.

Given that your website is the hub of most of your marketing activity, here are six crucial features to make it highly converting and highly engaging.

1) Unique value proposition

The first thing to do if you want a high converting website is make sure visitors know why they should do business with you.

When visitors land on your website, they need to see right away what it is you do and why they should do business with you.

A great example of this is Wix.

There are many website builders in the market today, so how does Wix stand out from the pack? They focus on how easy it is to create a beautiful website.

If you think about it, many people looking to build their own website are entrepreneurs who have a million things on their to-do list. Chances are their background isn’t in marketing or technology. So being able to easily build a website is super important to them.

Do you know what’s super important to your customers? Make sure they see that message right away. Nine times out of 10, when clients come to me asking why their marketing isn’t working, a quick look at their website reveals the answer.

If you’re saying too many things, or you’re saying them in ways that confuse people, it means that you’re unclear about your unique value. And if your value proposition is unclear to you, it’s definitely going to be unclear to your readers.

2) The homepage

Most of your traffic will pass through your home page, so it’s very important it makes a good impression. In some cases, it’s the only chance you have to make a lasting impression on a potential customer. If your homepage looks great, functions well and loads quickly, there’s a good chance visitors will navigate to other pages of your site and continue to engage and move through their journey. Get any one of these things wrong, and visitors will probably leave and visit another competitor entirely.

Make sure visitors can easily find what they’re looking for on your website. If there are any interruptions at all that make it hard for people to navigate the site easily, people will be more likely to give up and go elsewhere. Give them what they want right away and don’t leave any gaps between what they want to do and a clear, easy way to do it.

3) Landing pages

When a visitor encounters an ad or offer that makes them want to click through to your site, they have a strong expectation that what they’ll see next will match that hook exactly. By creating compelling, laser-targeted landing pages, you can make sure your site won’t frustrate their expectations. A good set of landing pages will help your site seem as if it is speaking directly to your prospects no matter how they got there or what motivated them.

4) The user journey

Whether your visitor arrives on a landing page or your home page, there has to be a clear path for them to navigate. That path should lead through the fewest number of other pages and clicks possible – and it should go straight to your website conversion goal. In the early stages of designing a site, you should define the actions you want users to take and then streamline the path to those actions as much as possible. With a landing page, website conversion could take as little as a single click: Ideally, your home page adds only one new click to the equation.

Navigation should be intuitive and make sense. Anything that causes confusion will make it unclear what you do and why people should care. Your navigation should be labeled clearly and lead people to pages where the content supports what the page is about. When you can, avoid drop down navigation.

5) Content

Sooner or later, whether it’s after their first conversion or while contemplating their first buy, visitors will break away and go off the beaten path. As they explore your site, they’re on the lookout for signs that you’re an expert and an authority in your space. Those signals comes from your web content. It should be helpful, informative, and directly related to the big questions that occupy prospects’ minds. If you have strong ideas about who your ideal customers are, it will be easy to uncover the challenges they have relating to your products, and give them the solutions they need through articles, videos, podcasts and more.

6) Offers

Once a visitor leaves your website, odds are good that you won’t see them again unless they have a good reason to come back. This means you may be leaving money on the table. By offering premium content that provides real value to your target audience, you can drive engagement and develop lasting relationships with visitors long after they leave your website. Make sure your premium offers provide real value to your target audience and use compelling titles to capture their attention.

Key Takeaways

Optimizing your site for conversions is about making sure potential customers have the information they need to make decisions and take action. The path to their journey should be clear and straightforward, with minimal distractions to prevent them from taking the action you expect. Over time, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of what motivates your potential customers to purchase your products and can modify your website accordingly for even higher conversion rates.

When was the last time you spent more than 5 minutes reading a subject line? How about a navigation link? What about a form title?

In the world of marketing, short copy rules. People love it. It’s inviting and unintimidating. People read a short title and think, “Good, I won’t have to spend a lot of time on this.”

But that same short copy can be really hard to write. You have to grab people’s attention. You have to encourage them to take action. When you have less copy to play with, every word counts that much more.

Copy that can be easily overlooked is on those little buttons we use everywhere. It’s easy to treat them as an afterthought. But after spending months brainstorming your campaign, you shouldn’t settle for a simple “read more” or “submit” button, because that’s not going to have the big impact you need.

Those little call to action buttons and links actually have a big job to do. They have to convince people to click through and take the next step.

Follow along with the checklist below so you don’t miss any crucial components.

Elements of a Call to Action That Works

1) Use actionable language

One of the reasons why people may not click your CTA is that it doesn’t really push people to act. If you use static messages like “free trial” or “demo”, you’re not telling them what to do. It’s all too easy for people to glaze over buttons like these.

Effective copy boils down to action-oriented, second-person verbs (talking to “you”). Try some of these verbs for your next CTA:

• “Get more info”
• “Discover”
• “See full article”
• “Tell me more”
• “Get my (book, guide, template)”
• “See what happens next”
• “Count me in”

Buttons like these empower and excite readers to click on your button. Keeping your CTA copy short and sweet also helps make it stand out from the rest of your copy and design elements.

2) Avoid friction verbs

“Read more” is a pretty common call to action. We see it everywhere. Compared to buttons like “free trial”, you’d think it has a leg up. For starters, it’s a verb. Theoretically it should push people to act.

Not all CTAs work the same today.

Verbs like “read more” are friction verbs that cause uneasiness and apprehension with some people. They can easily turn them off by seemingly inconveniencing people who don’t have a lot of time to spare.

Friction verbs imply work that needs to be done, something lost, or time that needs to be given up in exchange for the click. The more you imply work with CTAs, the less likely you are to get a click. For people who are busy and don’t have a lot of time on their hands, friction verbs can actually discourage them from taking action.

Ultimately, you want your conversion path to be as easy and painless as possible.

3) Speak directly to your customers

The difference between average conversion rates and rockstar conversion rates is related to how well your messaging aligns with what your target audience needs.

Use your buyer personas to get a window into the motivations, behaviors, and goals of your ideal customer.

For example, if you know your customers don’t have time for heavy reading, instead of saying “read more” you can say “view more” or “discover what happens next”. These buttons highlight benefits and create intrigue, and at the same time downplay the reading that’s behind the click.

4) Make the actions clear

Too often we just put buttons on a page because we think they need to be there. If you plan your campaign ahead of time, you know what action you want people to take. What should they do once they read your copy? Is this some kind of offer, a new product, or something they can download? Maybe you just want them to click to the next page. Knowing what action you expect people to take will help frame the copy that leads up to your CTA so you can get the conversion.

5) Create copy that engages

Buttons are only going to get a click if your copy sparks action. When you’re creating button copy, you want to make it work in conjunction with your landing page or blog content to convince visitors to take the next step.

One way to do that is to avoid using any internal links in your copy so you can keep the focus on your button. Another thing that will help you create engaging copy is to understand where your target audience is in terms of purchasing. Are they new prospects just getting to know you, or are they middle of the funnel and researching trial options?

When it comes to button copy, pay attention to the small details. If your page is promoting a new guide, make sure you call it a guide in your button or link rather than an ebook or whitepaper. These details make a big difference because readers know exactly what they’re getting.

6) Create a sense of urgency

People are busy. While they’re browsing your website or blog, they’re also scheduling meetings, interacting with emails or taking calls. Anything they can put off until later has a good chance of being shelved.

The best way to keep them away from these distractions and focused on your button is to create some sense of urgency.

Help people to perceive your button as an urgent call that needs to be acted upon right now by adding words like “now” or “today”. This way you’ll remind them to do something right now, before their phone rings again.

7) Be clear with your value proposition

People need to know why they should take action at this specific moment. They could be skeptical or have questions. They may not know if they need to or if they’ve already seen something like this on another site.

Your job is to make your offer really unique and make the benefits of clicking on your button super clear. You want to assure them of the value you’re going to bring to them in exchange for the time and email.

If you’re offering a guide, give readers multiple reasons to download it. Talk about the benefits that people can expect. Will they save time? How about increase sales? Help them trust you by explaining what they will get and how they’ll be able to use it. It should be very clear what is going to happen when people click.

(NOTE: Getting clear with your value proposition is about getting clear on what your ideal customers really want around your brand. Check out my FREE Customer Avatar Worksheet to help you understand who you’re selling to.)

8) Make it stand out from the crowd

Don’t do what everyone else is doing with their buttons and links. Your readers will just glaze over generic and vague buttons like “download”, “click here”.

Give your button the best chance to convert by using personalized text that sets you apart and grabs their attention. Make them want to click that button.

You can add a personal touch by using “me”, “you” and “yours”. Instead of “download”, try “get my copy now”.

9) Use design to draw attention to the button

Another way to attract people’s attention is with the actual design of your button. The button should match your branding in terms of fonts and colors, but the way you put it together should clearly make it pop on the page.

One way to draw attention to it is by designating certain colors for buttons in your style guide, such as blue or gray. That way when your designer uses gray or blue throughout rest of the page they’ll know to use them only sparingly as accent colors.

Another thing to remember is that if you want people to click on your button, you have to make it look clickable. Use contrasting elements like borders, background, depth and dimension to make it look like an actual button you could press in real life. Really push the envelope so that visitors notice it.

10) Make sure your button is prominent

By prominent, I mean make it big, bold and easy to find. You want to make sure people notice it. Place it above the fold before people start to scroll will generally get you more clicks. But, on the other hand, placing it below the fold will give you a higher quality of leads from those clicks. So you have to test different placement to know where to place it

Wherever you decide to place it, make sure people can see it. What about putting it high up above the fold, and then repeating it further down the page? As people read on and become more and more convinced to take action, the ones who didn’t click on it the first time will be more likely to click on it if you repeat it.

The thing to remember here is that the more prominent your button is and the more times people see it, the more likely they are to click.

11) A/B Test Your Buttons

Don’t settle for the first button you create. This is your chance to get the click, so it pays to test a few out to discover the best performers. Keep trying different sizes, copy, designs, and placement until you find the magic combination that converts the best.

And don’t stop there. If even your best button performer is getting lots of low quality lead conversions, take a look at your landing page copy and make sure it’s speaking to the right customer. If both your landing page and button are high performers and getting clicks and conversions, but you still get few signups, you may need to create a stronger offer or update your overall value proposition.

(NOTE: Getting clear with your value proposition is about getting clear on what your ideal customers really want around your brand. Check out my FREE Customer Avatar Worksheet to help you understand who you’re selling to.)