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So, you’ve set up your business and in-between balancing your various roles (‘salesperson-cum-accountant-cum-cleaner-cum-receptionist-cum-business coach’ sound like a catchy title anyone?) you have this niggling feeling that you should really be ‘doing online’.

Everyone’s doing it, aren’t they? And a Facebook page can’t hurt, right? Throw up a few pictures and drop in to tell the world about my services from time to time – before I know it I’ll be trending on Twitter and my business will be bought by fabby investors. Job done. Cue days spent eating Jammy Dodgers and drinking tea whilst counting the money. Quite.

The reality is that ‘doing online’ shouldn’t be done for the sake of being done. Just as you wouldn’t open the phone book, stick a pin in the business section and proceed to make a random sales call, neither should you approach the digital piece of your marketing strategy as haphazardly.

The days of working ‘online’ and ‘offline’ in different ways are behind us; your audience moves seamlessly between the two, so any communication you have with them should be part of a holistic strategy and not separated. In other words, you should market your business utilising various methods, of which online should play a part. I’d rarely advise a client to work purely on Google AdWords to market their business (though on some unique occasions, this may work), just as I’d rarely advise a client to only use leaflet drops as a marketing tool (again, there may be exceptions to this rule!); a personalised, blended strategy will generate better results.

If you’d like to set up a Facebook page, ask yourself this one question: Why?

Um…to get more fans?….so ask it again: Why?

Well to raise awareness of my business, stupid!: Why?

Because I want more people to buy my product! Now we’re sucking diesel! Why?

To increase my sales and earn more money. Bingo!

You want more revenue. OK, let’s take that as your metric to gauge success against (there can and should be many different metrics for different marketing activities, as well as perhaps two or three over-arching leaders, such as revenue driving, increasing brand awareness and continuing to be the number one supplier of XYZ in Europe, etc.)

You want to increase sales of your product (for example, we’ll say these widgets are targeted at Tween girls and are a repeat buy – around 5 or 6 times a month); let’s break this down within the digital space. OK, Tween girls may be online, but chances are, they’re not on Facebook. Also, they don’t have much money and generally not a credit card to use (gone are the Celtic Tiger days, my friends). So, you’re looking to increase awareness of the product amongst parents/friends and family of Tween girls to generate more sales. OK so far?

By thinking this way you can work on putting in place a strategy that actually drives results, rather than following the crowd. You achieve results successfully working with Facebook, bu the same may be true working on Twitter, SEO, PPC marketing and many other areas also. A free e-book on your product with do-it-yourself activities included may be appreciated by Tween girls and downloaded by friends and family (or even themselves), and bingo, you have a warm e-mail database. The permutations are endless but the main thing to focus on is your business goals.

I’ll say that again: your business goals. And how you can utilise online channels to achieve these. Not looking at online channels and how you can fit your business into them. Thinking this way will put you ahead of many of your competitors, so it’s one to spend some time on.

.Comm offers analysis and strategy on how to marketing your business in the online space and communicate effectively with your audience; drop us a line at info@digital-communication-solutions.com and we’ll pop the kettle on and have a chat.