Member Article

How to ‘actually’ grow your business with digital marketing

In association with ‘Thrive Yorkshire’ Business Growth Conference, taking place on Thursday 25th September at The Craiglands Hotel, Ilkley. Haroon Rashid from ‘Khemeia Consulting’, who is speaking at the event on ‘How I Generated £150K of Leads with Social Media – For FREE!’ brings you his ‘Top Tips’ on how to ‘actually’ grow your business using his vast experience in Digital Marketing.

1. Get Your *Ahem* “Stuff” Together Being great starts with a decision. I sit with so many companies who claim they want to grow and be the best, but the truth is that they’re not willing to do what it takes. If you’re serious about growing (and I mean really serious) then you need to make a decision. If you can’t make that decision and stick to it, then don’t bother starting. There’s no room at the top for inconsistency. In the words of Harvey Spectre, “Get your [stuff] together.”

2. Find Your ‘Brad Pitt’ Ever seen Ocean’s Eleven? You should it’s a great movie! George Clooney is the leader of the group. He’s the ‘ideas man’. But he has Brad Pitt as his right hand man. Brad Pitt is the person who ‘gets it done.’ We’re not short of people with ideas. But people who can execute? Now there’s a rare commodity! Find your ‘Brad Pitt’. Find a leader who can get it done! (Oh and don’t overlook the ladies for this role!)

3. Empower Your Marketing Leader When you find your ‘Brad Pitt’ don’t stifle them! Being truly great will require you to try new things, to dare to be different. You can’t do that if you constantly restrict your Marketing Manager. Give them freedom but also set pre-agreed boundaries. (This is all dependent on you picking someone trustworthy).

4. Know your Customer So Well That You Could Shop For Their Underwear OK, maybe not that close. But if you’re trying to reach your customers online then you need to know who they are. And I don’t mean the usual, vague, “My customer is a male aged 18-25 and they live in Bradford.” kind of thing. I’m talking about creating ‘buyer personas’. If you know what motivates someone to buy then it’s much easier to reach them. Create detailed profiles of them - what are their problems, needs, fears, struggles, desires etc.

5. Create Content Create content that solves your customer’s problems and needs. Create content that solves your customer’s problems and needs. Create content that solves your customer’s problems and needs. Create content that solves your customer’s problems and needs….

6. Don’t Build A Well. Build A System. The biggest mistake companies make is that they think too small when it comes to content marketing. They will go for the ‘well approach.’ It satisfies a small need. But what happens when you get more people wanting more water? You can’t scale up and you get real tired, real quick. Build systems and processes that will allow you to create content consistently, at a high quality and that you can ramp up.

7. Get Your ‘6 Pack’ I’ve never seen anyone get a six pack after doing one set of ab crunches. Similarly I’ve never seen them get a six pack by going to the gym every now and again. Things of value take time, hard work and consistency. This will require you to do your marketing when you feel like it, and when you don’t feel like it. Be consistent.

www.thriveyorkshire.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Haroon Rashid .