So, your beautiful new website is live. You’ve worked hard, and now you can just sit back while the visitors start rolling in! Right?

Wrong. This is just the start. Now all the (hard) work begins.

Your website going live is just the first step. Compare it to opening a shop or office space in the real world.  You wouldn’t just rent it, fit it out all beautifully, open the door and then sit back and do nothing, but still expect the customers (and their $$$) to come rolling in the door.

It’s the same online. Your website launch is just opening the door to your new shop. Now it’s time to get to know the neighbours!

Growing brand awareness and engaging with potential customers is now your number one priority. Getting people to come to this beautiful home online you’ve created, so that you can actually start doing what you were put here to do.

Ok, deep breath! That’s fine, but how do you actually do this? Here’s 4 places to put your efforts now:

Your EMAIL LIST:

Growing, nurturing and building a relationship with the people on your list is a smart way to stay front of mind with your tribe.

Your FREE CONTENT:

This is the valuable information you consistently put out into the world around your product or service. It attracts people to you because it helps them solve a problem; use your products better; think of you as their expert; and boosts your search engine rankings with Google. So that when they need your products or services you are the first person they think of, or find organically through search.

Your SOCIAL MEDIA accounts:

Give you the chance to connect and engage with people on a different level than you would on your website, or even in your email list. So go ahead and put your best foot forward here, let people get to know the real you, while always giving them the chance to sign-up to your email list and/or easily buy from you. (Just remember that you don’t own the audience you’re building up on these accounts, like you do your email list, so put your main effort into that.)

FACE TO FACE:

This can be done in real life, or online as well. If you have a brick and mortar shop or office, make the most out of your face to face encounters with people by building relationship as you normally would, but don’t be shy to get them to opt-in to your email list too. Just like online, there’s nothing to say that just because they visit you once they will again.

Also, face to face impact is easier than ever to make online! Video is so hot right now,  for very good reason. The more people see your face, and get to know the real person behind the brand, the more they will be invested in your business and so inclined to do business with you!

See, it’s simple, but it will require you to be consistent, to take time to get to know you your audience, and to solve real problems and talk to them in a way that resonates and is useful.

Which should I do first?

Great question! The order above is not a coincidence.

Your email list is the main asset you should be concentrating on as you get started.

• It’s the thing you own (That list of people’s names is yours. No one can take it from you.)
• It’s the thing you control (You are not at the mercy of someone else’s algorithm, you choose when and how you interact with people.)
• It’s the place where you get to set the tone and build the atmosphere (You attract people for a reason, and you keep them for a reason. YOU!).

Unlike your social media posts, you know that when you send an email to someone it gets to them. They have more opportunity of seeing it, than your social posts, which they may or may not see as they whizz by in their feed (even if they want to see them).

First focus on building a strong, engaged email list. Then deliver valuable, actionable content on a regular basis, and you’re well on the way to building that engaged community of raving fans and loyal customers you’ve been hoping for!

What next?

Not sure how to start an email list? I like using Mailchimp for starting out. It’s free (for the first 2000 subscribers) and has all the stuff you’ll need straight away, plus extra features you’ll soon want, including automation and simple landing pages.

Check out my Start a List course for more >

Already have a list, but haven’t put much time and effort into it? I’ve got you covered as well. I’ve got a 5 day email challenge that will walk you through setting up a good system to help you manage and grow your list.

Check it out here (it starts as soon as you sign-up) >

But the key what next is simply take action. Do something everyday, and you’ll start to see the growth in both visits and engagement with your site and the natural flow on then of more business.