5 Reasons Your Online Business Needs Social Media

Marketing online continues to evolve and grow and these days social media takes a front seat in most online marketing strategies as supports the growth of business. The reasons to use social platforms to engage and reach customers are plentiful; here are 5 of the main ones.

Reason #1: Reach

Why do the managers of these sites spend countless hours planning, posting, testing, and perfecting their platforms presence online?

• There are 3 billion active Internet users and 2.1 billion of them have social media accounts.

• YouTube has more than 1 billion users, more than a 1/3 of all web users. Each and every day web visitors view hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube that generate billions of views.

• Facebook has nearly 1.4 billion users, that's 47% of all Internet users. 4.5 billion Likes are generated daily and nearly 75% of Facebook's revenue comes from mobile advertising. 936 million Facebook users login in at least once daily and 52% of marketers found a customer on Facebook in 2013.

• Twitter has 316 million monthly active users that 500 million tweets each day

• Google+ has 363 million users that hit the +1 button on 5 billion times per day

• Pinterest has 100 million users, 85% of which are women. 47% of Pinterest users purchase a product based on pins, with the average sale being $58.95. 67% of pinned content is from a business site and 82% of Pinterest users would rather follow a brand than a celebrity.

Impressed yet?

These stats are just one reason to use it to market your business that really illustrate the reach that it can have on your business, be it online and brick and mortar. Here are 4 more reasons to make social media a part of your marketing plan.

Reason #2: Building Relationships

Using it allows you to reach people at a more personal level. Many marketing experts explain that social media is about relationships building, that as a side effect brings about conversions for calls to action. When you connect with people and they connect with you, they are more likely to follow your brand and all it has to offer.

Reason #3: Show Off Your Best Content

It allows you to show off your best content, and highlight all your brand has to offer. Whether you use text, images, video, or all of the above, you can tailor your campaign to present and impress your target audience with the very best content, products, and services that your brand has to offer. Tailoring your campaign through social media allows you to meet many objectives, including, building brand reputation, customer engagement, a better customer experience through valuable information and any other goals that meet your marketing needs.

Reason #4: Steady and Reliable Traffic

Who isn't sick of fighting for organic traffic when Google keeps wiping sites off their SERPS with one after another of their ongoing updates? Social media can bring a steady, long term, reliable and ongoing stream of traffic to your sites and blogs, without having to worry that some entity will come along and wipe you out.

Reason #5: Control

One of the greatest benefits of using it is that you have full control of what is presented about your company, brand, and website to your target audience. You can tailor your marketing plan to meet specific goals and not leave anything to chance. The multitude of tracking, and testing tools available, such as, Klout, SumAll, BuzzSumo, and TweetReach, just to name a few allow you to enhance and tweak your campaigns as needed to constantly improve your efforts to boost conversions.

Bottom Line

There is no better time than now to take advantage of all these sites have to offer. If you have an online business and do not have a social media presence then you are behind the times, it's really as simple as that.

There are many expert guides online to get you started, and educating yourself on the intricate process that is social media marketing is critical to your overall success.

There is also the option of hiring a marketing expert. Take care to choose a competent professional, it will not be cheap, but may well be worth it when they bring the results your business needs to succeed.

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How to Start a Business Online

There is a proven sequence of steps you can follow to guarantee your success when you're starting a small business online. I've seen thousands of people start and grow successful businesses by doing the following:

1. Find a need and fill it.
2. Write copy that sells.
3. Design and build an easy-to-use website.
4. Use search engines to drive traffic to your site.
5. Establish an expert reputation for yourself.
6. Follow up with your customers and subscribers with email.
7. Increase your income through back-end sales and upselling.

Anyone, from newbie to seasoned online entrepreneur, can benefit from this process in learning how to start a business online.

Step 1: Find a need and fill it.

Most people who are just starting out make the mistake of looking for a product first, and a market second.

To boost your chances of success, start with a market. The trick is to find a group of people who are searching for a solution to a problem, but not finding many results. The internet makes this kind of market research easy:

• Visit online forums to see what questions people ask and what problems they're trying to solve.
• Do keyword research to find keywords that a lot of people are searching, but for which not many sites are competing.
• Check out your potential competitors by visiting their sites and taking note of what they're doing to fill the demand. Then you can use what you've learned and create a product for a market that already exists--and do it better than the competition.

Step 2: Write copy that sells.

There's a proven sales copy formula that takes visitors through the selling process from the moment they arrive to the moment they make a purchase:

1. Arouse interest with a compelling headline.
2. Describe the problem your product solves.
3. Establish your credibility as a solver of this problem.
4. Add testimonials from people who have used your product.
5. Talk about the product and how it benefits the user.
6. Make an offer.
7. Make a strong guarantee.
8. Create urgency.
9. Ask for the sale.

Throughout your copy, you need to focus on how your product or service is uniquely able solve people's problems or make their lives better. Think like a customer and ask "What's in it for me?"

Step 3: Design and build your website.

Once you've got your market and product, and you've nailed down your selling process, now you're ready for your small-business web design. Remember to keep it simple. You have fewer than five seconds to grab someone's attention--otherwise they're gone, never to be seen again. Some important tips to keep in mind:

• Choose one or two plain fonts on a white background.
• Make your navigation clear and simple, and the same on every page.
• Only use graphics, audio or video if they enhance your message.
• Include an opt-in offer so you can collect e-mail addresses.
• Make it easy to buy--no more than two clicks between potential customer and checkout.
• Your website is your online storefront, so make it customer-friendly.

Step 4: Use search engines to drive targeted buyers to your site.

Pay-per-click advertising is the easiest way to get traffic to a brand-new site. It has two advantages over waiting for the traffic to come to you organically. First, PPC ads show up on the search pages immediately, and second, PPC ads allow you to test different keywords, as well as headlines, prices and selling approaches. Not only do you get immediate traffic, but you can also use PPC ads to discover your best, highest-converting keywords. Then you can distribute the keywords throughout your site in your copy and code, which will help your rankings in the organic search results.

Step 5: Establish an expert reputation for yourself.

People use the internet to find information. Provide that information for free to other sites, and you'll see more traffic and better search engine rankings. The secret is to always include a link to your site with each tidbit of information. 

• Give away free, expert content. Create articles, videos or any other content that people will find useful. Distribute that content through online article directories or social media sites.
• Include "send to a friend" links on valuable content on your website.
• Become an active expert in industry forums and social networking sites where your target market hangs out.

You'll reach new readers. But even better, every site that posts your content will link back to yours. Search engines love links from relevant sites and will reward you in the rankings.

Step 6: Use the power of email marketing to turn visitors into buyers.

When you build an opt-in list, you're creating one of the most valuable assets of your online business. Your customers and subscribers have given you permission to send them email. That means:

• You're giving them something they've asked for.
• You're developing lifetime relationships with them.
• The response is 100 percent measurable.
• Email marketing is cheaper and more effective than print, TV or radio because it's highly targeted.

Anyone who visits your site and opts in to your list is a very hot lead. And there's no better tool than email for following up with those leads.

Step 7: Increase your income through back-end sales and upselling.

One of the most important internet marketing strategies is to develop every customer's lifetime value. At least 36 percent of people who have purchased from you once will buy from you again if you follow up with them. Closing that first sale is by far the most difficult part--not to mention the most expensive. So use back-end selling and upselling to get them to buy again:

• Offer products that complement their original purchase.
• Send out electronic loyalty coupons they can redeem on their next visit.
• Offer related products on your "Thank You" page after they purchase.

Reward your customers for their loyalty and they'll become even more loyal.

The internet changes so fast that one year online equals about five years in the real world. But the principles of how to start and grow a successful online business haven't changed at all. If you're just starting a small business online, stick to this sequence. If you've been online awhile, do a quick review and see if there's a step you're neglecting, or never got around to doing in the first place. You can't go wrong with the basics.

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