Every website online today has an audience. Most website audiences are small, but some are big…really, REALLY big. But they didn’t grow to be that size overnight.
The marketers behind these websites had to work at it, usually over a long period, very diligently. The websites with the largest audiences didn’t get to be where they are now without using some key tools.
With the influx of so much useful technology into the digital marketing space, sometimes it’s hard to decide which tools are right for your kit. My guess is you probably feel like the guy in this photo to the right here. Too many tools, not enough results. The good news for you small business owners and marketers out there is I’ve already done your homework for you. You can thank me later. ;)
Check out these four tools that you should start using to build your online audience immediately:
1. Squarespace – Build Your Website
Like I said, every website that is online today has an audience, so obviously, if you don’t have a website, you don’t have an online audience.
There are A LOT of tools out there nowadays that can help you build your website, but you shouldn’t just go with the first one you find in with a Google search. You need to be concerned with things like your domain name, hosting, reliability, backups, number of pages, support, ease of use, search engine optimization, and general functionality available.
When deciding which content management system to use to build your website, I recommend Squarespace. They fulfill all of my aforementioned requirements.
Squarespace provides you with everything you need to build and manage a professional, sexy, attractive website. You can easily post content and videos, which is the first step towards building your online audience.
Pro tip: When building your site, make sure you add commenting to your blog posts, social sharing capabilities, and easy access to lead generation forms.
2. BoostSuite – Market Your Website
As the saying goes, building and paying for a website without using BoostSuite is like paying for an expensive billboard in the middle of the woods. Well, that’s what we say, because it’s a well-known fact. :)
Once you have a beautiful website online, you have to start marketing it with relevant blog content both on and off your site. Face it, your five-page website isn’t going to rank on page one of the search results, even for the most long-tail of queries.
Traditionally, marketing your website is easier said than done.
The good news is that you can immediately leverage BoostSuite’s user base of over 20,000+ users to find relevant co-marketing partners that will publish your shared content in exchange for links back to your site (which you need a lot of to build your audience), and vice versa. These partners will promote your business for you. Think of them as your ‘external’ marketing team.
Now you don’t have to work on marketing your website by yourself since you have partners waiting to assist you! If you need help finding things to write about, check out these ideas.
Pro tip: Add as many relevant keywords to your BoostSuite account as you can to create as many new co-marketing opportunities as possible. The more keywords in your account, the more content you’ll receive from your partners and the more opportunities you’ll have to share content with them.
3. HootSuite or MarketMeSuite – Promote Your Content and Engage Your Audience
Now you’re cooking with gas! By adding some killer content to your blog and generating some relevant backlinks, you’re well on your way to scaling your audience up in a big way.
Now it’s extremely important that you promote your content and engage with your customers via social media. Keep your finger on the pulse of your audience using a social media marketing tool like HootSuite or MarketMeSuite. If you’re not in tune with your existing audience’s wants and needs, then it will be difficult for you to influence them with your content.
Fill out all of your social media channel profiles as completely as possible and link them all up into your account. You get up to five social profiles in the free version of HootSuite. Schedule your upcoming posts in advance so you don’t have to spend any time during the workday (unless something new, interesting, and relevant comes up). Use your most relevant and popular hashtags in your posts to make sure your audience sees them. Don’t forget to add images when you can as well as they catch people’s attention. **OOO SHINY**
Pro Tip: Considering social signals boost your search rankings, you need to make sure that you take social media marketing seriously as it can build your online audience very quickly if you’re saying the right things.
4. Constant Contact or MailChimp – Keep In Touch
Ok, the final ingredient to your audience-building marketing tool mix is a smidgen of email.
Your most loyal audience members will want to hear from you ever so often so they know what you’re doing, what you’re talking about, and how you’re going to continue to help them. Once they know this info, they can help spread the word and bring even more new audience members on board by being your brand evangelists – or people who love you so much that they recommend and promote your business to everyone they know.
To stay in touch with, and continually build your audience, make sure you sign up for an email marketing service like Constant Contact or MailChimp. Add a newsletter subscription form to your website. Then send out a pretty monthly newsletter containing some quick blurbs and links back to your most popular blog posts (as determined by the most views and social activity).
Pro tip: For maximum effectiveness with your email campaigns, segment your subscribers to send custom messages that are highly targeted and relevant. Make sure you ask your subscribers to share your newsletter with others too!
Wrap it up and get started!
Like Batman’s tool belt, each of these tools has their own specific use and function. When all four are used together, they form a content marketing mix that will build even the most meager of online audiences into a behemoth. (Think Power Rangers or Captain Planet.)
Do you have any other recommendations for awesome audience-building content marketing tools that should be added to this list? If so, let me know which ones and why in the comments below.
Build Your Online Audience With These 4 Content Marketing Tools
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