As a hard-working entrepreneur trying diligently to get your startup off the ground, you have a lot of things to think about. They include choosing the best office space, deciding how many people to hire when it’s time to expand the size of your team, advertising strategies, and much more.
When considering promotional techniques have you thought about how your website could serve as an excellent platform for reaching current and future customers? A website is often the way people initially find out about new businesses, and there are things you can do to boost the chances they’ll linger to look at the content and find out more about your venture. By instead overlooking the marketing opportunities provided by your website, you could be failing to connect with customers.
Update the Site Regularly
There is no universal rule for how often to update your website because answering that question depends on the kind of content you publish. For example, if you’re part of a fashion startup and have a section that reveals the latest news in the industry, be aware that styles change rapidly, so you may need to add new material several times a week. However, if the content you publish is not as time-sensitive, making only a couple updates weekly is probably okay.
Regardless of the schedule you choose, stick to it. Then, people will begin to set expectations about when they’ll likely see new content. If you can get them excited enough about seeing fresh stuff published, it’ll be easy to naturally drive site readership.
Start a Website Forum
Perhaps your startup sells a specific type of products, such as all-natural body care items, and you have a great deal of confidence your target market likes them, especially after conducting several research studies that confirm your suspicions. In that case, it may be a good time to add a forum to your website where people can openly discuss things such as how they use the things you sell, their favorite varieties, and benefits they’ve noticed while trying your products.
Assuming the forum has ongoing engagements from active users, it becomes a built-in marketing tool by facilitating trust about the items you sell, allowing users to get together and excitedly chat about the products they love most, and even giving you a highly trafficked place to spread the word about upcoming merchandise launches. It may be necessary to hire at least one moderator or spend time overseeing the forum activities yourself, especially if you’re concerned about spammers or people who are intentionally trying to tarnish your brand because competitors hired them to do it.
Ensure the Website Functions As Intended
The previous efforts could be largely or completely ineffective if your website looks ugly or has several broken sections. Think about hiring a company that specializes in affordable small business websites and consider the expert assistance as a good investment. You could waste a significant amount of precious time building the website if you don’t possess the necessary skills already. Furthermore, realize that no matter what, you’ll still need to carefully go through each part of the site as users would and test it to verify everything looks and works as it should.
People are so used to visiting websites that work properly and they may not have much patience if yours doesn’t. That’s why it’s best to hire website development professionals to build the site initially, and then make sure not to sacrifice a thorough testing process before debuting your online presence or adding new content.
Hopefully, you now have a clearer understanding of how to use your website as a marketing vehicle, plus why doing so is essential. A solid website helps your business now, as well as in the future.
