Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Interesting & Creative Ways to Publicize your CO Startup

So you are working on your Colorado startup and you are about ready to launch. Now what? Now it is time to put together your marketing plan and go public. Of course you have done your research and you know the standard answers for publicizing your business: social media, coupons, networking, etc. But what are some more interesting and creative ways you can publicize your Colorado startup: 

Guest Post and Blog

You started a business, what does that mean? It means you could probably be considered an expert in your field, or try to be seen as an expert in your field.  There are other companies, websites, blogs, etc. that are just dying to get your opinion on things. Do them all a favor and write some guest posts with links to your own website in the byline. They get expert advice and you get some free marketing. Another way to market your business effectively is to create a blog for your own website and keep it up-to-date with relevant and informative content.

Social Media Contest

Putting together your social media is easy – but getting a following on your social media sites is much harder. Get some traffic flowing by holding a social media contest within your business. How? Ask your employees to share, like, and follow your businesses’ social media posts. Entrepreneurs can't be scared to ask for help, you need it.  Ask them.  Award the person who has added the most traffic at the end of the week with a prize. Or, you could make a game out of social media. According to this site you can hold a competition that is similar to the game Yahtzee. “This competition will span 13 weeks, based on the 13 lines of game play in Yahtzee… Each week employees who are participating must complete one social media task.” Some social media tasks you could use in your game could include:
  • Sharing a Facebook post
  • Tweeting something about the company
  • Write a post for the company blog
  • Re-pinning a company Pinterest Pin
At the end of the week you play Yahtzee and prizes are given to those who have accomplished the goals in the different sections. See more specific rules for play at this site.

SEO

SEO or Search Engine Optimization has become an extremely popular way to market a business. What is it? The basic idea is that you write the content on your website so that your website will rank higher on search engines like Google. How do you do this? You could hire someone who knows exactly what they are doing or you could try it yourself. Here is a basic rundown of how to do SEO yourself:
  • Think of a few words that people might use when searching for your business online.
  • Type these words into Google Keyword Tool.  Think local first.
  • Take a look at the similar words that are being searched for and try to use those words and phrases in the text of your website.
QR Codes

Lastly, a pretty inexpensive way to advertise your business is to start using QR codes. A QR (Quick Response) code is similar to a bar code that a smartphone can scan and provide easy access to information like a video, a website, etc. Put QR codes on flyers, on packaging, on products, whatever you like. Just make sure the links work and that they go to useful, entertaining, and or interesting information.

Or, ditch all of that and shake hands with the world's 1% and get them to share your content.  Learn how to get meetings with them in the Handshakin Pre-accelerator or watching our free videos.

No comments:

Post a Comment