Don’t quit your job if you think an online business is less work.
There’s a basic strategy that grows every business. If you have been in business for any amount of time, you know that you need lead generation, a customer base, and a way to consistently get in front of your potential audience. Businesses fail when there is no marketing plan. You can have the best product or service in the world, but you won’t generate revenue if no one is there to see it. You have even seen terrible products and services sell like wildfire because of good marketing.
Fortunately, we don’t lack for information on creating good marketing plans that help entrepreneurs build their audience. There’s a wealth of articles, podcast episodes, and videos on growing your audience and generating leads. There are also some tactics that are passed around as if they’re law. You see them posted everywhere and it’s not uncommon for you to be treated a certain way if you don’t adopt them. While these over-hyped tactics sound like they’re the only way — beware. Don’t rely solely on these audience-building strategies or you’ll end up disappointed.
1. Hoping for organic reach on social media.
The social media platforms we know and spend time on have billions of daily users. The rise and growth of social media has created an opportunity but that opportunity is different today. You can still reach your audience organically but that reach is very small and only getting smaller. These days, the way you really reach people on social media is to pay for ads. Paid ads are effective but not a strategy every entrepreneur can afford.
What we see too often is entrepreneurs trying to “market” through social media. This entails posting about a product or service and then tagging a…
