When you are starting up business, you can do it by brute force or you can do it the smart way. Combining both business development strategies will guarantee a fast growth to become a well known name in your field and at the same time last more in the game.
Now all of this depends on what your goals are. If you plan to stay small and aim at a small select client database that will pay big, just use David’s smart tactics. On the other hand if your plan is getting big, try the Goliath approach which will work if you have the necessary resources to start with.
You can decide which one to use, and some will work better than others depending on the case. In any case, there is no need to settle up for one or the other and you can apply both, all you need is to time them up correctly.
Think like a Smart David
David used a sling and a stone to defeat Goliath. This tale illustrates the victory of reason and intelligence over pure brute force. In modern online business growth, David is analog to planning first how to hit on the market and how to act to quickly achieve results.
Create a social “sling”
A sling in online business is the marketing strategy that will give authority to your business. To reach a higher authority you need to make yourself heard by writing and submitting good quality content and products about your business market niche. If your content is greatly appreciated so will your business, giving you the chance to get leads quicker.
Sling on spot
To hit hard on the spot start to create a list of bloggers that blog about subjects related to your business. Study their blog’s number of followers and Alexa ranking to find out their level web authority level which is also proportional to who their followers are.
If you don’t know what to write about select the best posts about your niche and get inspired. The best posts are based on the number of shares, likes, or recommendations in social networks, but also those that are recommended by people with high authority in the field.
Apply the best practices. Nowadays it is recommended to write bullet-style posts, with backlinks to the most influential articles on blogs in your niche.
Choose a good headline to grab attention, and make it appealing but follow guidelines like these. You can follow the AIDA method (Attention Interest Desire Action) in order to create a funnel that may either conclude in a share, a visit to your blog, or even better a purchase of your product or your service.
Swing faster
Now that your article is ready, just share it over all the social networks you can. Roll it out like a trunk on a river and see how your first-degree contacts react to it. Take their comments seriously and see what you can improve to make it better.
Monitor their reactions in groups, pages, and groups that have a good relationship to your business and write down all the metrics you can about each individual post results. This will give you an idea of which factors are affecting your post’s popularity.
It is interesting to notice the influence of your target public. You can know if your post will get good popularity by knowing the habits of your target audience. For example, if you are posting for marketing managers you can have a good chance if you post the content according to relevant groups, and their office hours.
Its not exact science but some days are better than others. In order to be sure which days are better, do an A/B test per post to see which days are better. This can only truly be seen based on real metrics and not guesswork, so don’t forget the metrics.
Follow your instincts like Strong Goliath
Drop a Goliath blow
After some months you will see more authority on your side and you can try to tap on a VIP door and ask for gold-level recommendations. You are no longer a little sheep that wants to play with big cows, and no matter how many emails you send, you’ll be easily dismissed as a spammer and you can even see your reputation drop down too fast.
Once you’ve got enough momentum and reputation in the eyes of higher authorities on the field you can start showing off your big muscle. You can be a Goliath and try to keep up with expectations as your posts and media outreach will have a stronger and lasting effect. Your words will now be listened to and you want to please your fans!
From now on you can expect a higher open rate for your emails, and get invited to Summits, webinars, and other meetings not just as an attendee, but also as a speaker.
Summary
- Create posts relevant to your niche and target the public.
- Follow recommended guidelines by the authorities of the field.
- A/B test them on all social media.
- Stay up to date on reactions and note down any opinions.
- Modify the most relevant and important aspects.
- Continue until you get noticed by higher-ranked authorities.
- Expand your user base as you grow.
- Get VIP and become a Goliath in the field.
Story’s conclusion
So, what does this little parable teach us?
You do better by joining forces in your business and finding good allies in both your Goliath-like impetuous instincts and your clever David smartness. If you can wait a bit you will get what you crave, business success.