A long-time ago a subscriber asked how to get a new store started, business-wise. They had the Shopify setup handled but were trying to get their first orders. Here's my advice I gave them:
1. Personally I think social media marketing is a waste of time. It's so simple that everyone can, and does do it, but except in a few cases it doesn't work that well.
It can work for some industries and at a larger scale, but for most small and new businesses it ends up being a distraction.
It's not surprising to see email and content marketing converting 20x better than social media, yet most people spend more time (investment) on social media than email or content...
2. Email and content marketing have proven to work time and time again for decades now. They can take a LONG time to get going though.
Writing those blogs is a good start. You'll want to keep it up though, consistently is the name of the game.
(and if you consistently do content marketing, 60% of your SEO will happen automatically... you just might need to tweak a few things here and there)
3. I'd recommend starting with trying to sell to 10 people.
Get 10 orders using whatever marketing and sales you can (ethically, without giving 100% discounts, etc).
You don't need to "scale" your marketing to sell to 10 people. Talk to people in your network, the actual network not the "social network".
Because if you can sell to 10, then...
- ... you can sell to 25. You'll just do more of the things you already did (2.5x more).
And then sell to 100 people.
This will require you to take a critical eye at what's worked, what didn't work, and get rid of the things that didn't. Selling to 100 people will force you to get a process down and refined.
- Get into other networks and communities where your customers are (e.g. forums, podcasts, webinars) and share your knowledge and value. Don't just pitch your products but become a member and be useful to other people.
A well-run Facebook group can act more like this type of network, but it's hard to find well-run groups.
Eric Davis
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