The Wonderful Online World
by James Austin, Creative Director at Babbl Ltd
As my business has grown I have been lucky enough to meet some amazing individuals whilst utilising outsourcing!
James Austin from BabblSocial is one, and here in his words is a blog about The Wonderful Online World.
James Austin
As the day job means I spend all day on social media I see a lot of people out there doing the same thing as us, it’s a heavily saturated market with everyone doing their thing and making a difference to people’s lives.
We target small to medium businesses because we know that they need a helping hand. Most businesses are all working out how to attract new customers other than the tried and tested word of mouth route which works 100% if you do a grand job and people recommend you.
One of the biggest struggles for businesses is assigning the time to start branching out and finding new customers or they lack the know-how. This, of course, is completely understandable as they focus on what they are good at and that often takes up all their time.
The challenge then is if they are working full time doing their thing when will they get the chance to have a go at designing a website or set up their social media channels. Which web host do they use, what software do they use to design it? Which social channels are right for their industry, what will get the best results? Where do they start with it?
Well thankfully the answer is outsourcing, there are big social media support companies out there who happily charge 3-4k a month but there are also companies who do not charge that kind of money but work slightly differently using the tools available and also get good results. It’s not all about throwing money at something, it is about knowing how to get your name out there in the most cost-effective way. The best thing about outsourcing is that if you sign up with a company that offers rolling monthly support then you know very quickly if it’s working for you or not and you are not tied in on lengthy contracts. It is very simple if they bring you new leads and that turns into paying customers and you cover their costs then it is win-win. If they don’t then you send them packing.
So, what do you really need?
Well, any company that wants to look professional to the outside world needs a website, it should be clean looking, professional, not too wordy with nice crisp images. It sits there as a point of reference and contains all the important information for potential customers. It is also worth knowing that a short welcome video is an advantage on your homepage as well. I have spoken to people in the past who have paid thousands of pounds for a website and in reality, for most businesses, this is complete overkill and really not necessary. Again you can throw lots of money at search engine optimisation but for this, you need to find someone who knows what they are doing as it is not something that you want to be done half-arsed.
The social channels you need are entirely based on your industry. If you run a café or a deli then Instagram is the place for you as people love images of food. For example, if you own a business as a martial arts club then Facebook is for you as you can reach thousands of people using the power of groups. Or maybe you run a logistics company then LinkedIn is for you as that is the place for business to business leads and you can very quickly add thousands of relevant connections. Potentillay you are an artist then Twitter could be the best place to showcase your work.
Saying all of that however you will never really know what gets the best results until you take the plunge!
I hope this was helpful in some way and if you would like to talk to us about how we can help find those mischievous new clients then give us a shout.
We are super friendly and do not charge the earth, after all we are a small company ourselves.
If you are looking for other services to save you time and to utilise outsourcing within your business then please have a look at the services offered by R K Virtual Assistance!
