6 W A Y S T O B U I L D Y O U R BUSINESS ONLINE

E V E N I F Y O U D O N ' T H A V E A W E B S I T E O R A N A D B U D G E T

W elcome

TO YOUR POWER.

It's nice to e-meet you. I’d like to welcome you to this complimentary resource - 6 Ways to Build Your Business Online, etc, etc. This document will serve as a guide if you are just starting a business, or if you're an experienced business owner. If you've been running a business in off-line mode and are ready to embrace digital, this straightforward list of 6 things you can do today will help get your business recognized online and act as a magnet for gaining new followers to your business.

Please, enjoy the guide and happy building!

Shelley Bellefontaine Atlantic Online Marketing

AtlanticOnline.ca 6 W A Y S T O B U I L D Y O U R B U S I N E S S O N L I N E E V E N I F Y O U D O N ' T H A V E A W E B S I T E O R A B U D G E T

1 Create Content

2 Get Great Pics

3 Build

4 Get

5 Build LinkedIn

6 Get Buffer

www.atlanticonline.ca | +1 902 . 717 . 8496 1 . C R E A T E C O N T E N T

Content creation is the ultimate inbound Can I use Canva for free? marketing practice. When you Canva uses a freemium business model. create content, you're providing free and You can use it for free, but you need to useful information to your audience, upgrade to the premium version to unlock attracting potential customers to your more features. You will also be able to website, and retaining existing customers create many folders to organize your through quality engagement. designs. But, to be honest, our clients have had great success using the free version of RECOMMENDATION: CANVA.COM Canva, and we recommend the same for Canva is a simple to use graphic-design you. tool website. It allows you to make images and designs for the web or for print. Since HOW TO GET IT: being founded in 2012, it has nearly 1 Simply visit www.Canva.com and sign up million users. It uses a drag-and-drop for the free account. format and provides access to over a million photographs, graphics, and fonts. It HOW DO I USE IT: is used by non-designers as well as And what’s more, Canva has a free design professionals. The tools can be used for school where you can have free access to both web and print media design several creativity courses!! Check it out at and graphics. https://designschool.canva.com/

www.atlanticonline.ca | +1 902 . 717 . 8496 2 . G E T G R E A T P I C S

Why should you use great pictures for An image can also communicate instantly, your online business? as our brain can interpret them much A large part of the brain is focused on quicker than text. visual processing, allowing humans to process images at an incredible speed. The What can be ever more impactful is using human brain can recognize a familiar thought provoking quotes or "words-to- object in only 100 milliseconds, ponder" as a layer on top of great images. making images the perfect way to As you work through using Canva.com, communicate in today's short-attention you’ll notice the use of great imagery world. combined with overlays of text.

Our love of images lies with our cognition WE RECOMMEND and ability to pay attention. Images are We love pexels.com and pixabay.com. In able to grab our attention easily - we are fact, a great deal of our visual content is immediately drawn to them. Bright colors sourced directly from these royalty-free capture our attention because our brains online resources. are wired to react to them. HOW DO I USE IT: The somewhat overused phrase “a picture Both sites allow you to find your perfect paints a thousand words” is often used in free image or video to download and use marketing to illustrate the need for for anything. It is completely free for good images to sell a product. commercial use and no attribution required.

www.atlanticonline.ca | +1 902 . 717 . 8496 3 . B U I L D F A C E B O O K

In addition to having followers instead of HOW TO GET IT: friends, Facebook pages also let you From your Facebook profile page, click the provide information such as products and Pages header in the left-side navigation. services, hours, location, and reviews. Next, click the Create a Page button, and Having a page rather than an account select the type of page--Local Business or makes your business more official, more Place, for example, or Brand or Product. professional, and more in-tune with today's You'll see a number of fields to fill out, such social media marketing strategies. as your business category, name, and address. Here are six reasons to create a Facebook page for your small business HOW DO I USE IT: today: Step 1: Nail your cover photo. The focal point for every business on Facebook is its Learn About Your Target Audience cover photo. Humanize Your Company Step 2: Customize your tabs. Facebook’s Build a Community new design puts photos, likes and apps just Facebook Is Good for Search Engine below your cover photo. Optimization (SEO) Step 3: Pin your core service to the top of Your Competition Already Has One the feed. Put Your Business in Front of Your Step 4: Track your activity with Page Clients and Customers Every Day Insights. Step 5: Interact with messages.

www.atlanticonline.ca | +1 902 . 717 . 8496 4 . G E T I N S T A G R A M

Instagram is a free photo and video sharing HOW TO GET IT: app available on Apple iOS and Android. To create an Instagram account simply People can upload photos or videos to our download from the App Store (iPhone) service and share them with their followers or Google Play Store (Android) and answer or with a select group of friends. They can the simple signup questions. also view, comment and like posts shared by their friends on Instagram. HOW DO I USE IT: Add professional-looking photos KEY POINTS Use Instagram Stories Instagram is a social networking app Stream live videos made for sharing photos and videos Interact with other Instagram users from a smartphone. Use hashtags Advertise on Instagram Other users who follow you will see your posts in their own feed. TIP: Links don't work in Instagram captions. The only place you can share a Just like other social networks, you can working link that takes users to a website is interact with other users in your profile. So, if you're trying to direct on Instagram by following them, being people to a specific webpage, you can followed by them. change the default link in your bio to that page and note in the caption that the link is in your profile.

www.atlanticonline.ca | +1 902 . 717 . 8496 5 . B U I L D L I N K E D I N

LinkedIn is a social networking site HOW TO GET IT: designed specifically for the business 1. Navigate to the LinkedIn sign up page community. The goal of the site is to allow at www..com registered members to establish and 2. Type your first and last name, email document networks of people they know address, and a password you'll use. and trust professionally. 3. Click Join now. 4. Complete any additional steps as Basic membership for LinkedIn is free. prompted. Network members are called “connections.” HOW DO I USE IT: Creating a LinkedIn page for your business Understand your audience. allows people to find and follow your Add a header. brand. By doing so they will receive any Put a face to the name. updates you post on your company page. Write a professional headline. Be contactable. One of the most fundamental reasons to Summarize your story. build LinkedIn into your online marketing Showcase your experiences. strategy is that leads from this social network have a great conversion rate.

www.atlanticonline.ca | +1 902 . 717 . 8496 6 . G E T B U F F E R

Buffer (buffer.com) is a software HOW TO GET IT: application for the web and mobile, 1. Navigate to the sign up page at designed to manage accounts in social www.buffer.com and choose 'get started networks, by providing the means for a now'. Be sure to scroll past the paid user to schedule posts to , options, and choose the Basic Free Plan Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, as well 2. Type your first and last name, email as analyze their results and engage with address, and a password you'll use. their community. 3. Connect your social accounts.

Is it Free? HOW DO I USE IT: Buffer allows you to have a free account to Just add updates to your Buffer queue and manage one Twitter, Facebook (page or it will be posted for you, well spaced out profile), and LinkedIn account with up to 10 over the day – according to updates in your buffer, aka scheduler. Or a posting schedule that you determine. you can pay $10 monthly to manage 12 social profiles, have unlimited posts in your Step 1: Creating your post. buffer, and even add two team members Step 2: Select which social accounts to to help manage it all. share the post to. Step 3: Add your post to the Buffer queue.

www.atlanticonline.ca | +1 902 . 717 . 8496 Voila! You now have a solid list of 6 strategic ways to begin building your business online.

MY PARTING ADVICE:

Make time to build a schedule to implement these ideas. Build content that talks about your services or products. Be consistent and use buffer.com to promote on a regular basis.

And, when you're ready, contact Shelley at Atlantic Online to build the website your business deserves and the marketing campaigns to drive traffic to your site.

www.AtlanticOnline.ca [email protected] +1 902 717-8496