Small Business Marketing Guide - DIY (do-it-yourself) BRAND MARKETING STRATEGIES to HELP YOU GROW YOUR BUSINESS

You might think that when you move your business brand online, you’ll lose much of the personal interaction enjoyed at a physical store or office. With a vibrant online community, however, not only will you interact with your customers and client base, but you’ll do so in a manner that’s far more efficient than any face-to-face conversation or phone call. These tips below will help you build and promote your online brand.

1. Lay the foundation. Think of the online arm of your business as the digital version of a physical store. You’d want to keep your storefront neat, clean and organized. That’s exactly the purpose your online brand should serve. Your website should be as fast as possible, with content that is appropriate and easily-accessible. Your business’ involvement in any social network or other online portal should reflect the image and verbiage of your brand, whether it’s polished and professional or loose and informal.

2. Establish relevancy. Even if all you’re selling are your ideas, it’s essential to foster a community that will read what you have to say and promote your brand for you. A company blog is a great place to start, as it gives you and your readers a vehicle through which to interact. Establish your expertise by posting regularly on pertinent issues within your industry. If you can angle these posts such that their content can benefit others, do so. Encourage feedback through a comments section. Reply to every comment you receive, in a personalized, thoughtful and timely fashion, without fail. Network with other bloggers in your industry, read their work and comment on the posts that move you most.

3. Inspire viral word-of-mouth marketing. The ripple effect from social networks and the blogosphere can propel a fledgling brand into superstardom. Sites like Twitter have been used by entrepreneurs like Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki, 77,800+ followers) and politicians like President Obama (@barackobama, 374,000+ followers) to great success. With Twitter, you can promote your company’s blog posts while simultaneously interacting with other Twitter users on an informal basis. Your group of followers then becomes your sounding board for ideas, questions and feedback, and they’re the individuals that will promote the best of your content through the almighty retweet (RT).

At Trend Hunter (@trendhunter), we regularly share the feedback from our Twitter followers with the whole team and implement or alter features on the site accordingly. On a number of occasions, we’ve communicated with a member of our community via e-mail, followed up with Twitter and received their Twitter reply in lieu of an e-mail response. It’s a simple, free tool with an impressive reach that cannot be underestimated.

Fostering an online community isn’t easy. It takes time, and a decent amount of effort at the start. However, with the right blend of shared expertise, social networking, interaction with key industry players, and killer content, you’ll have mixed a killer concoction that will propel your online brand skyward.