There are currently over 1.68 billion people who use YouTube. That is a massive people group for you to reach online with your business or creative endeavor. Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has revolutionized the way video is released to the public.

Gone are the days of MTV and VH1 for all the hottest music videos. Gone are the days of only seeing trailers for new movies at the actual theater. Now you can find all of this stuff immediately on YouTube, and many times it's used as the primary outlet for these things.

What does that mean for you and your channel? It means there is a huge untapped market out there just waiting for you to take over. The problem is that you're not sure how to get more views on YouTube!

Fear not! We've got you covered. Keep reading for a complete guide on how to get more views on your YouTube channel!

How to Get More Views on YouTube: A Survival Guide

When used effectively, YouTube can be one of the greatest sources in the world to get your content out to the masses. But how can you go from 10 views to 1,000 views to 100,000? Here is everything you need to know to increase the views on your videos!

1. Make a Plan

Before you even start filming anything, figure out exactly what you want to happen in your video. Start with an outline and then shift into storyboarding everything you want in your video. This includes the order of events, any sound bites you want to include, any video clips you want to add, etc.

Know what you want to accomplish with your videos. Going in without a plan makes for an unorganized video, but more importantly and unprofessional one.

One of the most crucial components in your plan needs to be some sort of call-to-action. Give people something to do when they are done watching your video. Whether that's going to your website or connecting with you on social media, give your audience something to do immediately after they are done.

2. Write a Script

This may sound tedious, but you would be surprised at how much more polished your video will be if you follow a script. Even a loose script can help guide you into exactly what you want to say throughout your video.

Write your script for the specific audience you intend to reach. If your video is aimed at kids or teenagers, don't use terms or phrases they won't understand. If your video is aimed at book readers, make sure you are catering your speech to the literary crowd.

Make sure your script and your storyboard sync up well. If your script is way longer than your storyboard, that will make for very stale, slow-moving visuals. If your script is too short, then you may not be able to fit in all of the actual video content you want.

Take your storyboard step by step and work on the script for each section. You want to make sure your video flows well and isn't choppy or confusing.

3. Entertain or Educate

Nobody wants to watch a YouTube video of some random person talking about everyday life. Make your content interesting and engaging. Two huge ways of doing that are by either entertaining or educating your audience.

If your goal is to entertain, make sure you are approaching the topic of your video as if you were a viewer. What would keep your attention? What would make you laugh? What would keep you on the edge of your seat?

If your goal is to educate, make sure the content you are conveying to your audience is actually helpful. Do your research and set yourself apart. If your video isn't helping your intended audience, then it's pretty pointless.

One of the best things you can do is combine both of these. If you are able to entertain while simultaneously educating people, you will keep them coming back for more. Even video games are starting to incorporate an entertain and educate mentality.

4. Find a Trend and Use It

One of the best things you can do to increase your potential for views is to incorporate current viral trends into your videos. Viral trends already have a built-in market searching for content.

A perfect example of this would be the recent release of Avengers: Endgame. On its way to becoming one of the highest grossing movies of all time, it has opened the door for dozens and hundreds of YouTubers to capitalize off of the millions of people searching for more Avengers content.

Sometimes you can't always find a way to put a viral trend into your video. If you make videos about auto parts, it might be kind of hard to relate that to Avengers. But if you can find a clever way to capitalize on a current trend, it can definitely help boost viewership.

5. Optimize Prime

Optimizing your video for search engines is a crucial part of getting people to see your video. If you don't have any relevant information connected to your video, how are people going to find it?

There are 4 main ways to optimize your video.

The first way is with your title. It seems simple, but your title is crucial in people finding it with a quick search. Make sure that you are using relevant and important keywords within the title of your video.

The second way is through tags. Adding the proper tags to a video can make or break its chances of being discovered. If your video is about auto maintenance, you want to include tags for anything maintenance related.

Third on the list would be coming up with a proper description for your video. There is a very fine line you want to walk with this. You want to make sure you have all the information you need, but you also don't want it to be too lengthy or convoluted.

Last, but certainly not least, is the thumbnail for your video. Having a video thumbnail that is eye-grabbing from the beginning is so important in obtaining that almighty click. You can even create custom thumbnails as part of your channel branding.

6. Make a Playlist

We live in a generation of Netflix and Hulu where when you finish an episode of a show, you don't even have to do anything anymore. The next episode will instantly start playing about 15 seconds into the end credits. Use this to your advantage.

Creating a playlist on your YouTube channel creates less work for your audience, and allows them to dive into your rabbit hole of videos. If you have your videos in a queue, waiting to play, the chances of somebody watching more than one of your videos is going to greatly increase.

Don't feel like you have to have all of your videos in one playlist either. Creating specific, but smaller playlists will allow people to find exactly what they are looking for. It also decreases the chances of your viewers getting bored by a video that is unrelated to the one they started with.

7. Be Your Top Promoter

Do not underestimate the power of sharing your content on every platform you can think of. That means taking advantage of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and other forums you find online. If you don't share your own content, who else is going to?

Sharing your own content also shows that you have confidence in its quality and are proud of what you've created. Don't be afraid to share videos more than once either. Sometimes your posts can get lost in people's newsfeeds, so posting regularly can help keep your content in front of their eyes.

Another thing you can do is utilize hashtags on certain platforms. Instagram and Twitter are places where hashtags can have a huge impact on helping your posts get in front of the right people.

8. Be a Part of Your Own Community

People have a hard time trusting those who speak, but don't act. Make sure you are joining in on the community around your area of interest. Join online groups and forums and have actual discussions with other people who love what you love.

Not only does this help you to stay up on all the latest information dealing with your topics, but it also opens the door for you to tell those people about what you do. Networking is a huge part of growing your audience.

Viewers also love interacting with the people they see online. Giving your audience a great experience on a personal level can help create a positive reputation for yourself. This can then lead to people being likely to share your videos with their friends and family.

Time to Go Viral!

Now that you know how to get more views on YouTube, it's time for you to get to work. Take the tips you've learned and incorporate them into your process and watch your audience grow and grow.

If you want to learn even more about the secrets of marketing, check out our Free Course. I'll see you on the other side of trending!

Looking for ways to help your business grow?

Most businesses face the same problem too. In fact, struggling to gain the attention of potential customers is the number one reason why most businesses shut down as soon as they start up. To prevent this from happening, some businesses resort to many things, but the most effective and popular way of getting the word out is to make a promotional video that will go viral.

Promotional videos, along with customer videos, are both great ways to market business. For it to become viral though is another question on its own. Most viral videos are viral because they were lucky enough that someone found them and had a lot of people to share it to.

When it comes to business though, luck isn’t something to count on. Read on to learn how to make a great video without relying on getting lucky.

1. Spend Time on Making a Killer Introduction

One of the keys to making a viral video is to make a killer intro. Doing so ensures your target audience stays hooked long enough to pique interest within them. This is important as capturing their attention within the first 3 seconds of the video is essential to have a successful video marketing campaign.

The average attention span of the average viewer lasts 3 seconds. Engaging them within that time means you win at captivating your audience. This also means they’ll more likely watch it to fruition if they find it interesting.

Creating an eye-catching intro is important for social media platforms. Here, people tend to keep scrolling past most content until something engages them. With the help of the video autoplay feature on Facebook and Twitter, this is possible for you.

Make sure you make a good impression and create a good rapport with your viewers in the beginning. It may be what compels people to stay a while longer and watch your promotional video.

2. Work on What to Name Your Video

Like the intro, the title of your video needs to capture the attention of people as well. This is important if your planning to post your video to websites without an auto-play feature for their videos. The title is what makes a video stand out in those websites for the most part.

It also becomes a way for people to find your videos on the internet. Businesses can take full advantage of this by naming their videos in such a way that it appears first in the search results. This allows people to find out about their business and also increases the possibility of their video going viral through view count.

Which works best if you’re planning on marketing your video through YouTube and the like. These platforms prioritize the name of the video before the relevance of the topic. Researching keywords to put in your titles ensures you have a high search rate.

3. Prepare a Script Beforehand

If you want to make a successful promotional video, you need to prepare a script beforehand. Doing so makes you appear confident and professional for your promotional video. This is important because people tend to judge others online based on their confidence.

By making a script, you’re doing a mental workout before the filming of your video. This ensures you cover all the things you need to cover in it, too. Practicing your script beforehand also makes the video more engaging.

This is because people speak in a more natural tone if you’re familiar with what you’ll say. This also helps you enunciate better during the video. Being clear with your words helps attract more viewers as the video progresses.

4. Create a Video with a Cause

One way to make your promotional video go viral is to support a cause along with it. This is becoming a popular trend on the internet nowadays. One reason for this is because people love it when videos raise awareness for something.

How to create video content with a cause, you ask? One way is to start in your local community first. Tackle issues that the community is facing and bring some awareness to it.

During your video, make sure to mention it along while proposing a solution. A promotional video without a solution makes it look like you’re exploiting the problem. Prevent this by offering solutions like a charity for the existing problem.

Viral videos and charities go well together nowadays. This is a good way to gain recognition and help the community at the same time.

5. Keep It Short and Concise

Nothing kills a good promotional video like dragging it out with unnecessary details. Most people will find it troublesome to watch a video that’s 1 minute long. If it goes over a minute and 30 seconds, that’s when people tend to scroll past it without finishing it.

To make sure people won’t skip yours, you should consider keeping it short and to the point. Include all the necessary details and information you can and try to fit it in a minute. It may not seem like much, but as long as you know what you’re doing, 1 minute is longer than you’d need.

This also saves you and your business time and resources. Filming and producing a shorter video means you’ll do it faster and with a smaller workforce.

6. Don’t Forget About Production Quality

While you’re making your video, it is important to focus on your message and how to deliver it on the internet. That said, it’s also important to make sure your video is as beautiful as you can make it be.

Production value is something most businesses forget to put a focus on. This is why you see a lot of promotional videos go to waste due to bad lighting or sound. Focusing on those aspects will help avoid falling into a similar pit with them.

A way you can increase production value when you create company videos is by adjusting the sound. It won’t matter if you made your video well if there are bugs in your audio files. Buying professional equipment and compressing the sound will make it sound clearer.

Also, you shouldn’t skimp on the lighting of your video. A well-lit video attracts intrigues viewers for a few seconds. This may help in engaging them, as mentioned above.

Music also goes well with promotional videos. Add some atmospheric music that fits the tone of our video. This also helps engage your viewers to a degree.

Doing all these not only makes your video prettier, but it also makes you look more professional. This increases the trust viewers will have in your brand.

7. Tease Your Upcoming Video Overtime

Generating some hype for your video is another great way to make it go viral. Anticipation for an upcoming product/event draws attention to it until its release. Your subscribers will be on their toes while waiting for your video to come out.

A bad thing with hype is people tend to oversell the product/event in their head. This then leads to some disappointment when it comes out. You should make sure to deliver on your promises and satisfy them with a great video.

8. Post It Where Ever You Can

Once you finish making your video, you’re going to want people to know about it as soon as possible. You can do this by posting it where ever you can as fast as you can. While doing this, all you need to keep in mind is the guidelines of the platform you’re posting it on.

If you’re sharing on social media, there’s nothing you need to worry about. You can post your videos again and again without worrying about penalties. You only need to make sure the video doesn’t offend others and you’ll do great.

On websites owned by other people, you need to ask for permission first. They have the authority to remove your video if they feel like it’s a breach of their authority. Be respectful and know your boundaries when doing this.

9. Include a Call to Action at the End

A promotional video won’t be successful without a great call to action at the end. Including a CTA makes it more likely people will interact with your video after they’re done watching it. It can be a question, a reminder to avail of your services, or anything you can think of as long as it encourages people to take action in line with your promotional video.

10. Make a Promotional Video More Than Once

Making a good video to promote your business doesn’t happen in an instant. It happens once you’ve done many others and learned what you can do better from them. Perseverance, after all, is one of the 2 important steps in going viral.

Don’t get discouraged if your first promotional video doesn’t do well. Look into it and think of ways you could have made it better. In time, you’ll make one that will boost your business through the roof.

Start Making Your Promotional Video Today

You don’t have to struggle with making your video go viral anymore. With the help of our guide, everyone will know about your promotional videos in no time. Make a promotional video now and watch your business gain traction!

Looking to learn more about the internet’s business world? Sign up for our Free Course and we’ll guide you through everything you need to know and learn!

There’s something about hard selling that turns customers all the way off. There’s nothing they find more off-putting than getting constantly bombarded with television ads and cold calls. This method of sales is not as effective as it once was.

Today, video content is what drives internet marketing. Businesses are using videos to create a strong connection with their audiences in order to build a long term relationship with them.

This article explores video marketing tips guaranteed to boost your ROI and take your business to the next level. Read on.

1. Video Marketing Tips 101: Convert Your Blog Posts into Videos

Coming up with fresh new ideas for video content on a daily basis can be overwhelming, to say the least. Converting your popular blog posts is a great way of recycling content that you already know is doing well.

It’s also the perfect way to reach users who prefer content in video format especially if they’d previously passed on your blogs. There are lots of helpful tools you can find online to help you convert your articles into videos.

They work by analyzing your post, summarizing your content and matching the segments with relevant media. Make sure you include your branding in your videos so that your audience know about your business right off the bat.

2. Include a Video on Your Site’s Landing Page

Did you know that putting a small business video on your landing page increases conversions by as much as 80%? That’s how effective videos are. This technique kills two birds with one stone.

First, it increases the time visitors spend on your site once they land there. Second, they absorb the message you’re trying to pass a lot faster than if the same content was in written format.

Ensure that your video for small business is in HD format and embedded in a stand-alone video player. You can’t go wrong with Vimeo and YouTube. Remember to choose an eye-catching thumbnail that is relevant to the video.

The video itself should explain to visitors what you’re selling while entertaining them at the same time. It’ll not only leave a bigger impression on them, but they’re more likely to make a purchase.

3. Audiences Love Live Videos

Audiences are more impressionable when they feel like they’re a part of something great. Moreso, if they can interact directly with representatives of their favorite brands. There’s literally no better way to do this than through live streaming.

With the rise of live video, engaging with your customers has never been easier. Going live on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook receive truckloads of engagement.

You present yourself as an expert in your space. It also adds a measure of transparency since you get to answer your audience’s questions in real time. This fosters the trust in your product and that is what will ultimately grow your business.

4. Give Your Audience a Teaser

Do you feel like your audience isn’t responding to your content like you’d want them to? Chances are they’re getting a little bored. There’s no better way to jolt them back to life than to use video for your business to create a little intrigue and excitement around your brand.

Shoot a short teaser video about a mysterious new product that you’re about to launch or an exciting upcoming event. Short here means that it shouldn’t be any longer than a few seconds at least.

Get your creative juices flowing and shoot a video that will keep users on the edges of their seats. Before you know it, they’ll be tuning into your site every day to see if there are any new developments.

Be careful though. Don’t keep it running for too long or your audience might end up losing interest altogether.

5. Record On-Screen Tutorials

If your company is based online, you can enhance your customers’ experience by recording on-screen tutorials. This is especially important if your customers rely on written tutorials to learn how to use the software you may be selling or how to access different sections of your website.

This not only boosts your audience engagement, but they are likely to retain more information if they receive a practical step-by-step guide on how to work around the tough bits. There are lots of free screen capture software tools available that you can use to record your demos.

6. Use Native Videos Instead of Links

Posting a native video means you’re uploading a video in a format that’s specific to a particular social platform. This maximizes audience engagement as opposed to posting a link to a different site that hosts your video.

This method is better for two reasons. First, as your audience scrolls down their feed, native videos begin to play automatically. On the other hand, when you post a link, it means that your target audience has to manually click on the link in order to watch the video.

Second, when you post a video in its native environment, say Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, users don’t have to leave the platform to watch it. This plays a huge role in enhancing your audience’s social experience.

7. Minimize Time and Maximize Value

You might think packing a lot of information into a long video in order to get your message across is how you get customers hooked on your brand. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

As it turns out, research shows that the first 3 to 10 seconds of your video strongly influences your customers’ purchase intent. It’s important to keep your videos short given that consumers’ attention span is shorter now than it’s ever been.

The idea here is to create short videos that are value-oriented. Here’s the general rule of thumb:

• Instagram marketing videos shouldn’t run longer than 26 seconds
• Twitter videos should last an average of 45 seconds
• Facebook videos can go up to 1 minute long
• YouTube videos should run for an average of 2 minutes for maximum impact

The main reasons why customers like short, bite-sized videos are that they don't take up too much time and they deliver on their promise straight away. There’s no beating about the bush.

8. Tell a Compelling Story

Today, storytelling is the most powerful sales pitch. It gets you real results. Telling a compelling narrative takes your audience on a journey.

To engage your audience using storytelling, your content needs to be filling a need. You must engage their emotions in order to get them to take action. Here’s how to do it in three easy steps:

• Introduce characters that will create some type of bond with your audience. They need to be relatable. Your audience should identify with these characters.
• Next, you need to grab your audience’s attention by adding a twist they would never have seen coming. This is what will keep them glued to your video.
• Finally, you must incorporate an actionable resolution. It needs to be clear to the audience what message you were trying to convey with your story.

Striking your audience’s emotional chords is the key to giving your brand the personality it needs to connect with your target audience. Your message needs to be delivered with clarity.

The last thing you want is to leave them confused about what the whole point of your video was. When that happens, the chances of them watching your videos in the future are slim to none.

9. Include a Powerful Call-To-Action

You’ve taken the time and effort to create a great, value-oriented video. Your audiences are eating it up and sharing it on social media. But, without a strong and clear CTA, it's all a zero-sum game.

If you’re not encouraging your audience to act, what’s the use? Your ultimate objective is to gather leads and convert them in the end.

So, make sure the end of your video leads your audience to get your business’ contact information and their contact information as well. If you want to direct viewers to your site, you can use the “Watch More” CTA link.

10. Start with What You Have

Creating a marketing video may look like a daunting task but you’ll be surprised to learn how much you already have to go on if you look in all the right places. For instance, your FAQ page can be a great source of ideas for video content since it touches on your customers’ burning questions.

So, you can begin by choosing topics that your audience are already searching for and creating content geared towards addressing those questions.

Some Final Thoughts

If you’re not already integrating video marketing into your strategy, your business is lagging behind. Suffice it to say that if you don’t start now, you’ll spend the rest of your time playing catch-up with your competition. Use the video marketing tips outlined in this article to take your business to new heights.

Are you having a hard time generating traffic and leads for your business? Check out these 7 types of internet marketing you can use to help you along.

With a whopping 90% of Americans spending regular time online, you can be sure your online marketing strategies are worth improving.

But what is the best way to market to your online audience? Two words: video marketing.

Some businesses might be slightly skeptical of this “newer” method, or they may simply be unsure of how to use video marketing to create valuable content for their target audience. Don't worry!

Here are 15 benefits of video marketing and how you can use video marketing to reach, relate to, and ultimately retain your potential customers.

15 Benefits of Video Marketing

If the old adage “a picture tells a thousand words” is true, then think how much more effective video is at getting your business's message or story across…

With the advent of YouTube, DIY videos, and those ever-appealing cooking videos played in 2x speed, the appeal of video marketing is growing at an ever-increasing rate.

After all, why read something if you can watch it, right?

1. Google Loves Video

Need we say more? If you're a business owner trying to market to an online audience and don't already comprehend the all-important influence of Google, you're in major trouble.

One of your best tools for getting your company website noticed by Google-bots is to create and publish videos that are relevant to your product and audience. Just be sure that you tag those videos appropriately using relevant and highly searched keywords.

Since Google now owns YouTube (and half the universe), embedding a YouTube video on your website will go a long way in boosting your site's ranking when potential customers are searching.

There are endless ways to use YouTube to improve your online marketing power.

2. Increase Your Company Sales

It's true, the more comfortable potential customers are with how to use a product, it's ins and outs, the more likely they are to purchase or invest.

Unfortunately, we don't always have the luxury of sending our best sales associate into every user's home to explain the benefits of our products and services. But we do have video…

The more you can anticipate the questions your customers might have about a product or service, the more helpful you can make your videos.

The more informative, clear, and entertaining your videos, the more products you're sure to sell. This one is a no-brainer.

Lest we doubt, reflect on the old “Will It Blend?” campaign.

3. Video Enhances Trust

We touched on this idea already, but when you create engaging videos for your audience, it builds their trust. That trust grows not only in your product but in your company.

Video gives your audience a feel of transparency.

It opens a door to your business and products and creates a more informed customer base. Knowledge and familiarity with your story, product, and company lessen any fear or apprehension.

Customers are less apt to think they will be swindled or short-changed if they've seen a video about how to use or care for a product or service.

The result? More sales.

4. Explain Complex Issues

Do you have a particularly complex product or service? Is it hard to write an explanation out on your website? And even if you do, how do you get people to take the time to read through it?

You don't. That's where you lose people.

But with video marketing, it's a whole new world of explaining opportunity!

Say you're launching a new product and need to clarify things to your clients or customers, how can you do it clearly? Answer: publish a video.

But remember, talking heads were never interesting viewing to begin with.

Animated videos, however, are often less expensive and a more engaging alternative for explaining concepts. Using video, you can do a lot of educating without boring your customers to tears.

5. Reach Phone Users

So much of online browsing and shopping is done from an individual's smart devices now. One of the best aspects of creating online marketing videos is that they are easily viewed on phones, tablets, laptops, you name it.

YouTube is especially good at helping you publish videos in different formats so your content will be clearly visible regardless of the size of the device it's viewed on.

6. Video Boosts Sharing

Besides cat videos, what are you most likely to share on social media? Cool videos.

Especially short, informative, humorous, or entertaining videos are much more likely to be shared by online users than some boring infographic or ad.

Do yourself a favor and make your content more shareable. Make it video.

7. Improve Your Email Marketing Strategy

If you're already creating great video content, why not increase the views by including every new video in your email campaigns?

Emails that include a video at the top of the body are more probably much more likely to get click-throughs. Kill two birds with one stone and use video in your emails to customers.

8. Introduce Your Brand

It can be hard to tell your brand story when you're not face-to-face with someone. What better way to get the conversation started than via video?

You can beautifully tell the story of your company, employees, vision, and purpose all in 2 minutes or less. No need to worry about potential customers misunderstanding your purpose.

Video is the best story-teller.

9. Convert Lazy Buyers

Let's face it, internet users are becoming more and more lazy. Very few people like to spend more than a few seconds or minutes, trying to figure something out or decide whether it's worth purchasing.

Video helps you appeal to those lazy buyers. It removes the barriers that long segments of text can create for those who are looking to understand quickly.

10. Stand Out

Despite the many obvious benefits of video marketing, many companies are still slow to jump on it. Thus, getting your toes in the water now and beginning your own video marketing strategy is a great way to get a leg-up on the competition.

Don't let myths about high cost or the challenges of creating quality content prevent you from getting ahead.

11. Widely Appealing

It's becoming more common for social media platforms to be divided among certain demographics. Individuals over 30 years old have been found to use Facebook more often.

On the other hand, marketing on Instagram, SnapChat, and other similar platforms is wise if you are trying to reach teenagers and young adults.

So how do you get your company's content to reach across these demographic borders created by differing social platforms? Video.

Video is one form of marketing media that works great across social media channels. Not only can you share it on almost any platform, but video content is also one of the most likely forms of social media content to produce high engagement numbers.

12. Create Curiosity

If you're feeling really motivated to create outstanding video marketing content, why not try a series?

It's very easy to spark interest and curiosity in a product or service if you leave your viewers with a cliff-hanger at the end of each episode. Show them how to use your product or service in a new, creative way.

Then, give them a hint or clue about what to expect in your next video to get them thirsting for more.

Video also allows customers a chance to leave comments or ask questions about the content you publish. This is usually a positive thing as the more engaged customers feel with a company or brand, the more they trust them.

13. Provide Question and Answer Opportunities

Another great benefit of video marketing is the opportunity it provides you to answer or anticipate customer questions.

If you're listening well on your social channels and seeing what customers common concerns or questions are, create a marketing video that directly addresses or answers their questions.

The right question and answer video can do a lot of good in clarifying concerns or even just showing customers that their voices are heard and their questions matter to you.

14. Greater Information Retention

Did you know that when you learn something visually you are much more apt to remember it than if you only learn it by reading? It's true, sight is one of our most impactful senses.

If you really want your customers to remember you, remember your brand, remember your product or service, show them.

Potential customers are much more likely to remember what they learned about your business if they watched it in a video than if they read it in a blog post or long website text.

15. Great ROI

Some marketing efforts are a real shot in the dark. Luckily, with video, you are at least more likely to get a good ROI. Google will appreciate your marketing efforts in this way, as will your clients.

While video marketing doesn't need to be expensive, it's almost always worth the investment,

What Marketing Strategy Is Best for Me?

The benefits of video marketing are undeniable. Companies that are looking to stay ahead of the game should tap into this treasure trove of effective marketing methods.

For more help figuring out what type of digital marketing services are right for you, check out our recent post on the subject.

Most home businesses only care about the step-by-step tactics and how-to guides.

Not to say that those aren’t important, but if you only understand the tactics without understanding the principles, you’re most likely not going to use it successfully.

Tactics without principles are just fluff, and it’s why 99% of home businesses struggle.

They do social media and postcards just because everyone else is doing it.

They post on Instagram with hashtags because they feel like they should.

However, once you understand what these tactics are based on, you’ll be able to apply it to every marketing decision you make for your practice.

There are timeless principles based on human psychology.

Technology and trends may come and go but knowing principles will help you navigate and take advantage of new opportunities or avoid them.

If you understand the timeless principles that stood the test of time, you and your practice will be able to:

• weather any economic downturn.
• dominate your local area. (It won’t even be close.)
• create ravings fans and a community who will love to give you more business.

Regardless of the technology, environment, or your competitors…

You’ll not only be able to survive but thrive with this newfound skill set.

Below are some of the basics: Marketing 101.

Marketing 101

Here are some underrated principles that most internet marketing gurus gloss over.

This first one is highly underutilized and you can get started right away.

Start with Your Immediate Network

A business is offering products and services to other people. The only way you'll be able to grow your business is by building your relationships, one person at a time.

If you've been in the trenches and trying to build relationships with cold email, forums, or online facebook groups, you may have been neglecting one of the most powerful tools at your disposal: your current network.

Think of your family, your friends, your old classmates, your colleagues. Take them out for coffee to catch up.

Chances are they might know a friend of a friend who would be interested in your services.

Focus on having a certain number of conversations with someone new or old every single week.

A bonus is that it will also keep you from going insane if you're working from home 24/7.

Understanding Your Numbers

Most business owners don’t understand their numbers. Most don’t have a way to track how much money comes from new/repeat business.

To see marketing as an investment, you’ll have to shift your mindset on how you should look at each potential client that walks through the door.

The questions you want to ask yourself are:

• What is my most profitable type of customer?
• How often do they purchase your services over a period of a year?
• How much does it cost to get one customer through the door?

You have to know how much you get from potential customers over a lifetime of the relationship, not just from the first transaction.

This is called Customer Lifetime Value, and it’s important that you find out your number from your business because this will be the basis of all of your marketing decisions. Here’s an excellent infographic to get you started.

You can get started tracking deals in excel, but if you have a substantial amount of customers, it would be better to get dedicated software to track deal amounts.

Build Your Email List

You want to stay in the front of their minds through both broadcast and individual outreach.

This is where email marketing comes in. Send a monthly newsletter to all of your customers with tips and advice related to your expertise.

Anything that can contribute to their health and happiness is perfect for a newsletter.

For individual outreach, this will take a bit more work. You’ll want to keep tabs on your customers and tailor each email to appeal to their social status.

This might sound a bit “ulterior”, but you ultimately want to help people, right? This is just how human psychology and sociology work. Read more about this phenomenon here.

The nuances of email marketing are beyond the scope of this article, but here are some best practices to get you started.

• People like you and your business for you, so don’t be afraid to let some of your personality show in your writing.
• Remember that you want to write the email as if you were writing to that one person(both in your newsletter and, obviously, in your individual outreach emails).
• Keep things casual and use simple language. Too many people try to be verbose and technical in their writing. Don’t overthink it.
• Offer something valuable like a coupon or discount to your customers who give you referrals. Offer it through a reward program or a contest/random lottery.

You’ll most likely need an e-mail marketing software so you don’t need to send each email manually yourself, but that’s for another lesson.

Ask for Referrals

For some reason, there seems to be a stigma related to asking customers for referrals. People seem to think that it’s pushy or you’re asking people for a favor. This is a stigma that needs to be reversed.

To understand why we need to shift our thinking and look at why referrals are made.

It has to do with social status.

According to marketer Dean Jackson, there are three things that are needed for a referral to take place.

1. A conversation related to your business
2. You being in your existing customer’s mind
3. Your existing customer taking action and telling their friend

For example, I tell you about a book to you that you’ve never read before. I tell you it’s amazing. Let’s say you read it and find it amazing.

That makes me feel good because I was the one who referred it to you.

That’s the feeling I subconsciously wanted in the first place. Sure I wanted it to benefit you, but the first reason is that it boosts my ego.

You enjoying the book confirms that I have good recommendations, making it more likely that you’ll listen to any recommendations I have for you in the future.

That puts me in an authority role, similar to celebrities who recommend products(albeit on a much smaller level).

It’s all subconscious, but that motivation is inherent.

The bottom line is, referrals are made to satisfy self-interest(boosting social status). Once you understand that, it’s now a matter of how you come up in conversation.

What are some conversations you imagine your business coming up in?

Narrow Your Client Base and Tailor Your Messaging

As you continue to build a customer base and keep in touch with them, you'll want to start narrowing down who you serve. Providing services for everybody, while great for cash flow and short term gains, is not the best strategy long term.

You'll continuously be in the feast or famine cycle common to many home businesses.

When marketing your services, it’s important that you write your copy or your elevator pitch as if you’re speaking to one person.

This is called your Ideal Target Profile.

Look at a few of these questions and answer them for your specific target market(s).

• What's their demographic and psychographic information?
• What professional or industry associations are they a part of?
• What do they read? (websites, blogs, magazines)
• What are their life goals/biggest aspiration?
• What are their fears?
• What are their fears related to your business?
• Who are the other players that influence their decisions?

Messaging is absolutely crucial here. You can have more than one target persona, but all of your marketing material needs to be separate from each persona.

You wouldn’t speak the same way to professional athletes as you would to senior citizens, would you?

Pick a target market, make tailored messaging, present it to them, and optimize. Rinse and repeat.

Here it is step by step:

1. You want to get your prospects attention. This is done through the copy(specifically the headline) on your ads, e-mails, direct mail package. If it’s compelling enough, they’ll click your ad or read your letter/postcard to find out more information.
2. Keep them interested. You want to take them on a journey and tell them a story. A good formula to follow is this:
   1. Present the problem
   2. Agitate the problem
   3. Give them the solution
3. They’ll then want to evaluate and think about it..but as a marketer, you must understand that millions of dollars are lost every year to the “I’ll think about it” crowd, so you want them to act NOW. Here are some tactics to use:
   1. Limited Time Offer – Give them a hard deadline. “This offer only lasts for 2 weeks so make sure to contact us as soon as possible.”
   2. Application Only – Make it exclusive. “We’re only accepting 10 people during this pilot program so contact us now.”
4. You want to make this as easy as possible. Prepaid reply envelopes that they can just drop in the mailbox, a phone number to leave a voicemail or to text. Anything that makes it easier for them.

Many business owners don’t understand this simple process, but with these tips, you can start a simple test campaign with your existing customers.

Marketing 101 Will Serve You Well

Hopefully, this gave you an excellent Marketing 101 overview to help grow your home business.

If you practice these tried and true principles, you'll be able to grow your business and thrive.

If you're interested in learning more, read other helpful articles at our blog or check out our Free Course!