Your best customer is going to be your greatest referral. Why? They already trust you and are loyal, making them an excellent way for potential new customers (or boots on the ground) to find what they need from start to finish!
The internet is a powerful tool that can be used to find information about anything. And with today’s digital age, people are researching your business before they commit and invest in it – so you want an online presence!
If you want to be found by search engines, then SEO is an important factor. The more keywords associated with your site and content (the better), the higher ranking it will have in comparison to sites that don’t use this strategy–and thusly increase traffic from Google’s mighty almighty algorithm!
Start by Getting the Basics Right!
When you first start your business, it can be difficult to know where best place the focus of its marketing efforts. One option is building an online presence with free tools and methods that are simple but may not always produce results right away – this doesn’t mean they aren’t effective at all!
In fact, there’s plenty one could do without paying anyone else anything other than time spent developing content or designing web pages–whatever works out better for each individual person/company depending on what kind ‘a beast we’re talking about here: big auto manufacturers vs small blogs
The three pieces of information that you want to make sure are the same across all touchpoints is your name, address, and phone number. It may seem silly or a little nit-picky but it’s important for consistency when typing these in on different devices like computers tablets phones etcetera, so they match up properly!
There are some popular places where you will want to start inputting your business information.
Google My Business
Google will let you input your company information into their AI mapping (Google Maps) and local search system. This includes if you have a home-based embroidery business, or you’re more of a commercial embroidery business and have a storefront.
You can get started by going to: https://business.google.com/create/new. Then you simply start inputting your business information and copying it directly from what you wrote above.
You’ll also have a section for your business description. Take a little time to consider, and fine-tune what you write here. Your description will determine what keywords will help people find your business. Start big and write everything that your business does.
Do you specialize in embroidered t-shirts for corporate businesses or sports teams? Do you also do direct-to-garment printing? What area do you service – city, neighborhood? Think of all the words a potential client could use to search for your services – custom t-shirt, embroidery, dtg, sports jerseys, etc. and then rank them in order of importance so you can make sure you include at least 10 keywords in your description.
Facebook can seem like a social media giant and hard to navigate. But the reality is that a large portion of the population will use Facebook to search for companies and engage with them (more on that in a later post).
So, while you will need a personal Facebook account to create your business Facebook page, you don’t need to be an active Facebook user to benefit from your business Facebook page. We’ll talk more in a later post about how to use Facebook and social media to expand your brand, but for now even just creating a business Facebook page will create another result that will show up when potential clients search for your business.
Facebook still has all the places for your information and your business description. But also has additional fields for your website if you have one, and of course a few photos to showcase your products.
Reviews
Reviews are just like referrals. They can have a huge impact on your business. Ask your current clients to leave reviews on your Facebook page, on Google, or Yelp. Let them know that you’d really appreciate it and it’d help your business.
YouTube
If you decide to jump into YouTube, you’ll want to be prepared to regularly post something. Even if it’s just a video of you making a client’s order, or a quick tour of your workshop. YouTube is one of the top places people will go to search for things so having a YouTube page will increase your search rankings. Just make sure you have reasonable quality content. Having YouTube videos will also allow you to have content that can be shared by yourself or your clients on Facebook, Twitter, and so on. If you want a little inspiration, check out the ColDesi YouTube Site.
Whether you’re a commercial embroidery business or a small home-based business doing t-shirt transfers, having an online presence is crucial. It provides potential clients with information about your business, and helps build credibility. Start small with the first three things we mentioned and then start growing out from there. By creating an online presence and increasing your SEO you can get ahead of the competition and start growing your business.
