As an entrepreneur, business owner, coach or consultant, one of the main things you have to do in order for your business to succeed is GROW, and growing your business will depend on building key parts of your business.
In this post I share three things you must BUILD in order to GROW your business:
[Tweet “Three things you must BUILD in order to GROW your business. #Marketing #Business”]
-
BUILD Your Audience
If you plan to sell your products or services online, then you need to build an audience online. This can be difficult in a noisy age with so many businesses with an online presence, but the key to building your audience online is:
- Be Authentic– The best way to stand out in a crowd is to stand in your authenticity, embrace what makes you uniquely you, which includes your background, your experiences, your education all these things combined differentiate you from the competition and allow you to stand out in any crowded industry, but the key is for you to embrace your differences and show up as your authentic self online.
- Know Your Audience– Knowing the needs of your audience will be key in building an audience online. What are they struggling with, what are their challenges. Understanding the needs of your audience will help you to create valuable content that will resonate with your audience and will allow you to grow your audience because of the valuable content you provide.
- Provide Valuable Content– information is a dime a dozen online. However, in-dept, valuable, useful content that addresses a specific need and resonates to a specific audience is not as easy to come by, so creating this type of content will allow you to build an audience online.
-
BUILD Your Content
Having content available online is key to building your business and showcasing your expertise and authority online. Content can be in many forms, so I broke it down into three main categories of content:
- Written Content– An example of written content would be a blog. A blog is a great way to showcase your expertise and because it is in written format it is easier for the search engines to find your information based on topics, tags, keywords and other things in your blog posts, but most of all a blog helps you to consistently provide valuable information to your ideal audience.
- Audio Content– This could be in the form of a podcast. Podcasts are popular because it doesn’t restrict listeners to their computers, you can listen to a Podcast in your car, on a jog, at the gym, etc. and many people choose to consume podcast as they are multi-tasking, so podcasts have become super popular and is a great way to showcase your authority and expertise and build your content.
- Visual Content– Video is by far the most popular visual content that you can create. The fact that YouTube is the #2 Search Engine behind Google proves that people like videos. Video is engaging and is one of the best ways for your audience to get to know, like and trust you when you consistently put out video content.
Whether you choose to create written content, audio content, or visual content, the great thing about content is that the reach of your content can compound over time, so you can build your audience from content your wrote, recorded or filmed years ago, but is still found and engaged with online. For more information about how content can increase your reach over time, be sure to check out the post The Power of Compound Content: How to Use Content Marketing to Grow Your Business
-
BUILD Your Network
The connections that you make can make a big difference for your business. You can make important connections and build your network both online and offline.
- Offline– The connections that you meet in-person can be some of the strongest connections for your business. That’s why it’s important to attend networking events offline to build your business. However, it’s important to seek out the right networking groups that will help you make the right connections. This includes seeking out groups where you will be able to connect with potential prospects and partners. If you’re trying to connect with prospects, be sure to make sure you are attending events that attract your prospects (i.e. if you want to attract women business owner, attending events like NAWBO, eWN, etc. would be ideal to meet your ideal client). If you want to create partnerships and collaborations with colleagues, then attending industry specific events would also make sense, the key is to seek out the right groups and attend consistently so that you can build relationships!
- Online– Similar to offline it is important to actively seek new connections online. A great way to connect with people online is through groups, groups are like online networking events, so joining groups on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn can be helpful to building your network online. The key to groups is to be actively involved in the groups and connect one-on-one with individuals in the group that you resonate with by making sure that you connect with them as a “friend” or a “connections” this allows you to build your network with more connections on that particular social platform.
Whether you’re building your network online or offline, it is important to make the right connections and nurture the relationship with the people in your network. Having in-person one-on-one meetings, or having virtual meetings via conference calls or Skype meetings are all ways that you can nurture your network and make deeper connections with the people in your network.
As you BUILD your audience, your content, and your network, and you build it in a way that is authentic, engaging and strategic, you will inevitably GROW your business.
If you would like to get clear on how you can build your business using these three strategies, be sure to schedule a Discovery Session by booking a 30 minute conversation on my calendar-