Most businesses, whether they are business to business or business to consumer have some sort of online presence. A new small business may have an Etsy shop or Facebook page. Larger businesses have websites, pages on relevant social media outlets as well as business listings. You don’t have to spend money to market your business online, you just need a plan.
Know Where Your Customers Are
Depending on your product or service, your customers may be on one or many social outlets. For example, a roofing company generally targets a slightly older demographic than a bar or club would. However, some businesses, like a coffee shop, target all ages and needs to be everywhere. Here are some outlets where you can share about your business and reach various demographics:
- TikTok – Skews younger with the average age of users being under 35.
- YouTube – If you’re targeting anyone under age 70, you should have a presence on YouTube.
- Twitter – Twitter reaches all ages nearly equally but it’s user base has drastically declined in the past year.
- Snapchat – This primarily reaches the under 30 set.
- Facebook – Nearly 70% of those survey in the 18 – 64 age brackets reports having and using Facebook. It’s a great medium for all types of businesses targeting all ages.
- Instagram – The 18 – 29 age group uses IG the most (71%). From there users fall off sharply to fewer than 50% of 30 – 49 year-olds having an account and less than 30% for the 50 and up crowd.
- Linkedin – This is another platform where use has dropped significantly in the past five years. Although, if you’re marketing to businesses, it can be a powerful tool. You’re most likely to reach those from about 30 to 64 on Linkedin.
Understand Who Has the Income for Your Product
Although younger people tend to have more debt, understanding who has the income also should play into where you market your business online. For example, if you’re looking for college educated people with income greater than $50,000, you should be on Linkedin, Facebook and YouTube. Instagram and Twitter follow not too far behind. Lower income and less educated people tend to be on Snapchat, TikTok.
Devise a Plan
You can use a spreadsheet or a calendar. Set up a schedule of what, when and where you’re going to share about your product or service. Remember, the algorithms don’t show every one of your posts to every follower. Not everyone logs into every one of their accounts daily. No matter how tempting it is, don’t make every post about your business and don’t be pushy, you’ll lose followers. Remember the basis of selling. Humanize your business. People buy from people and by sharing personal things like a favorite author, coffee drink or a cute picture of your pet once or twice a month. Also share before and after images if you’re a service provider or just images of new products you have in your shop.
Another good thing to do is educate people. Post answers to frequently asked questions you hear that relate to your services. Write blog posts and share them on your website and social channels. Do a video and post to stories and YouTube. Repost reviews you have on different platforms, it’s ok to brag about yourself when other people do it. Share an inspiring quote. The options for good content are limitless.
Follow Through
It’s hard to post to multiple places every day. Depending on your business, it may benefit you to invest in one of the many options for social sharing where you only enter the information one time and it distributes it to your social channels. Or, if you struggle creating content and distributing it, you may want to hire someone who specializes in social creation.
Toucan Technology Group Can Help
Our marketing specialist can help you with everything from a new website to directory listings and social creation and distribution as well as blogs or other online content. If you’re ready to boost your online presence in 2023, call us today at (317) 376-4874 or fill out our contact form.
