How to Get Your Initial Traction in Online Marketing
Any small business that is just getting started will be faced with a significant challenge during their early days. No matter how innovative or necessary your service or product might be, customers aren’t going to buy what you’re offering unless they get that extra push. For new businesses, who often have limited resources, screaming your product name from rooftops may seem like the only affordable way to reach the consumer market. Most successful companies will struggle with the concept of gaining traction in their early days. From designing a page that gets the best ranking in search engines to networking everywhere, all brands have to work hard to get the recognition they need.
- Pay Attention to Feedback
This is a tip that remains relevant, regardless of how long you’ve been in business. However, your very first customers are the guiding stars for your company – what they appreciate, want and expect should form the foundations of your future models for revenue. Whether you are offering a service or building a new product, you need feedback to learn as much as possible about your customers. If you can get the information you need to prove that your business solution works for a certain category of people, then you have what it takes to develop a viable business opportunity.
- Optimize
Today, your chances of getting anywhere with a small business online fall close to zero unless you know something about search engine optimization and ranking. These factors are the things you need to make sure that your website, brand, and name are at the top of everyone’s list when they’re looking for the solution that you offer. You can have the most amazing website in the world, offering the very best products at the very best prices, and you won’t get anywhere without SEO. If no-one can find your business, then no-one can champion it, your traffic cannot grow, and you can’t move forward.
- Think about Value
Your very first set of customers are more valuable than you can possibly imagine. Whether you’re a multi-million organization or a one-man-operation, the first set of customers which purchase your services or contact you can mean everything to your business. These are the people that verify your company, showing you that your business model works and that you’re offering something that other people want. These customers are also important because they give you your first opportunity to study your target market. Even if one customer only gives you one dollar or revenue, they’re still proving that something about your business worked. Figure out who your customers are and why they are choosing to buy your products. Learn why they believe your solutions are better for them than your competitors.
- Find Out What People are Willing to Pay
Your first ten paying customers are incredibly useful, as they give you an insight into how much prompting is required to make people buy your product, how much they’re willing to pay, and why they chose your service. What’s more, by actually accessing paying customers, you can show that your product is something valuable. For many people, it’s impossible to put too much significance on communicating with and supporting your initial customers.
