So you’ve decided to start a business. Congratulations! Your next step after creating a business plan is figuring out how to let everyone know that you have a business. You can of course talk with friends and family, put info out on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and other social platforms, but for most new businesses, this process begins by grinding out a following by any means necessary.

There are many different methods for gaining an audience. Some will take longer than others, and what you need will be dependent on your business plan and how long you’ve given yourself to build that audience. Generally, it’s an all hands on deck approach to building the audience as quickly as possible so that your business has the most opportunities to attract new clients in it’s early stages.

Today, we will look at important KPI’s  (Key Performance Indicators) for your business to pay attention to in the early stages of growth, as well as look at some excellent tools for small businesses to use when they are just starting out.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)

Key Performance Indicators, or KPI’s, are the measurements a business uses to gauge their effectiveness over a certain period of time. These are often viewed over a week or month period depending on how detailed you’re getting. In the beginning, the goal is simply visibility. Get in front of as many people as you can. For tracking these statistics, you’ll want to track reach, impressions, and engagement.

Let’s look at each of these individually before we get into some ideas for marketing your business:

1 // Reach

Reach is the number of people who might see your content. Reach is an important metric. You need to know how many people will see your content. This is most important when looking at doing ads for your business. Now, notice I said might when talking about the number of people who can see your content. Just because they might see it, doesn’t mean they will. Not every follower will see everything you post thanks to the algorithms involved. This is why it’s important to post good quality content that your followers engage in. Reach is your first major number to track, but it’s not as important as the next two, impressions and engagement.

2 // Impressions

Impressions are about who actually sees your content and has the opportunity to interact with it. Think of it like a booth at a festival. Hundreds of people walk by and as you talk and present your product, people have the opportunity to see and react. Being at the festival is like reach, and people listening to your presentation is like impressions. This is your opportunity to get them information about who you are and what you do. 

Since we know not every follower sees every post, it’s important that every single piece of content you produce helps to convey your message and brand. Make it engaging and fun. Most importantly, track what’s happening with your posts. If a post is getting a lot of impressions, it means your audience is listening. Once you know you have their attention, it’s time to focus on engagement.

3 // Engagement

Engagement is where the magic happens and you can start seeing the fruit of your efforts. Using the analogy I started about being at a festival, if impressions are the number of people listening, engagement is about who comes up to ask for more information or asks questions during your presentation. Engagement means they’re interested enough to ask questions and get more information to satisfy their curiosity.

People who engage with your content can then become a group you target towards becoming customers. If you’re seeing consistent engagement on certain types of content, start creating more content like it that pulls them further down the marketing funnel to inquire about hiring your business.

As part of the engagement area, look at who is liking and sharing your content. These are people who value your content enough to share it with others. Always remember that people choose how to spend their time, and if they’re choosing to spend their valuable time looking at your content, make sure you’re taking the time to also engage with them and respond to comments, thank people for sharing, and stay at it.

These are your basic indicators to understand how to track what’s working and what’s not in your marketing efforts. Learning how to use these numbers will help you better understand your audience and you can use it to continue to engage them and find new followers. 

Now that you understand how to use these metrics, let’s take a look at some ideas for growing your follower base and marketing your business on social media. Here are 5 ideas for social posts that can help you build your audience.

1. Build a Referral Program

2. Use Paid Advertising

3. Create buzz through giveaways, and promote it

4. Get people to sign up for your newsletter

5. Add a personal touch

1 // Build a Referral program

The best clients come from people who are already your clients. They know you. They appreciate you. Let them benefit from telling others about your business. Offer them an incentive to share your business with people they know. If they send someone to you and they become a customer, reward them with a small gift, gift card, or cash incentive. In case you need more convincing, on average, word of mouth referrals are 60% more likely to close business than cold leads. Work your network and let them help you!

2 // Use Paid Advertising

As you begin your journey of creating an audience, the biggest tool in your arsenal is paid ads. They are the single fastest way to create and grow your following. If you’ve read our previous blog on the different phases of the marketing funnel (which you can read by clicking here) you know that getting people into the top of the funnel is the most important thing you need to do. Paid advertising is your tool to get people into the top of your funnel quickly and efficiently. Once they are there, your messaging and content help bring them down the funnel. Paid advertising is your friend. 

3 // Create Buzz Through Giveaways, and Promote It

Give your audience a reason to interact with you and get something for it. Giveaways are a great way to generate traffic because people always like getting something for free. Whether it’s asking for an email address for entry or something else, make the entry simple and the prize worth the entry. If you do it consistently, you’ll be able to generate a lot more buzz around it every month. Oh, and did I mention don’t skip step 2 on this. 

4 // Get People to Sign Up for Your Newsletter

Having more than one way to reach your audience helps to increase your chances of influencing them to buy from you. The more ways you have to connect with your audience, the more often they see your content and build the relationship. This amounts to more opportunities to show them how you can solve their problem. Promote this to your audience as well and spend the money to build that email list. 

5 // Add a Personal Touch

People buy from people they trust. If your audience doesn’t trust you, they will never buy from you. Make personal posts on social media. Allow your audience to see you are human and have a life outside of social media and work. It helps bond your audience to you when they feel like they can share in your life. It build a relationship to you and your brand. These type of posts don’t have to be promoted, but if you see it’s being shared, make sure to thank the people who shared it. The personal touch is a little thing but has huge upside.

As a final thought that applies to every category, never stop fine-tuning your message. What you say and how you say it will always be something that is a work in progress. Be obsessed with your message and connecting with your audience, and you will always have an audience and customers. 

If you need help getting your message out there and building your audience, GoldBear Media is here to help. We have solutions for new and growing businesses to help you build your audience and establish you as a brand they can trust. If you’re curious how we can help, send us an email at hello@goldbear.media. We’ve helped dozens of businesses build a following, and we can do the same for you.