Marketing is essential to the continued success of a business. Simple but effective marketing methods include old-fashioned networking. This allows you to find out more about other businesses and then tell them about yours. Networking can be overwhelming for many business owners, and it can lead to frustration and stress.
Even the business owners can find multiple ways to build relationships and establish lasting impressions with potential clients and colleagues. These strategies are easy to learn if you take the time to evaluate your results and adjust your networking strategy accordingly.
Let’s look at three of the best business networking strategies that even timid business owners can use to create new business opportunities or strengthen existing ones.
Digital networking strategies can reap the benefits
Digital networking has the first and greatest benefit. It eliminates the need to be physically close to others during events.
This doesn’t mean you should stop attending physical networking events (face-to-face communication is still vital), but digital networking can be a great way to build professional relationships.
It can be seen as a way to build rapport with people outside of the in-person setting. Digital networking can be a great way to help people who are shyer or less socially inclined and those with lower social skills.
Digital networking offers us the chance to meet people from all over the globe, not just those we meet at an event.
Three business networking strategies that shy business owners can use today
These are three powerful but often overlooked networking strategies that shy and reserved business owners should try. Networking can be overwhelming for many business owners, and it can lead to frustration and stress.
1. Use project management software to collaborate
Project management software can be used by business owners of large and small businesses to manage multiple client relationships and stay on track and within budget. Software that helps businesses manage their projects, track the hours worked by their staff, and keep in touch with clients and colleagues remotely can help them.
You can also use project management software as messaging and collaboration software to keep in touch with your most important clients or prospects. Software that offers internal messaging, which allows you to attach files or collaboration features to display relevant project deliverables to groups, makes it possible for you to have real-time discussions with your clients.
What are the key features business owners need to be aware of? The best project management software for business owners includes essential features like centralized web-based file storage, automatic cloud storage of project updates, and a bird’s eye overview of a project that shows clients’ and the collaborations of clients and collaborators.
Project management software includes features that allow business owners to quickly and seamlessly network with one another. These features include easy access to key project deliverables, as well as client collaboration.
Real-time conversations are crucial in today’s remote work world. This is especially true for business owners who have a little social anxiety.
2. Cultivate a stronger social media presence
Social media is more than a way for your company to expand its digital advertising strategies. It’s also an effective platform you can use to improve your relationships with clients.
It’s exciting to see the positive impact of a personal social media presence on client relationships. The best thing about this is? Social media is always at your fingertips and ready for you to maximize personal connections based upon client demographics.
Not only is it important to have a personalized social media presence, but it also shows your clients that you care about them and invites them to join future communication.
Think about how many Twitter friendships you have started that are just waiting to grow into face-to-face or over-the-phone conversations. Communicating with clients and publishing content that resonates with them is easier when you have a strong social media presence. This makes networking organic and self-sustaining.
3. Engage in the web page and SEO optimization
Your business’s social media profiles are like your front yard’s welcoming landscaping. Your website is your foyer, which doubles down on the best features of your lawn. Web page optimization and SEO are two components that increase your content’s visibility online. Engaging in both these elements will help you reach the potential leads and clients who are most interested in the content that your website publishes.
Let’s face the facts: it’s not worth all the effort to create a website for no one (especially potential clients) will see it in their search results. Make sure you know how to speed up your website’s loading times.
If your website is slow loading, it will be the best way to drive away potential visitors. Your website’s speed can make a big difference in traffic, conversions, revenue, and of course, your success with networking. As part of your overall network strategy, continue to monitor the loading times of your web pages.
You need to appear in search results for potential clients to improve your content’s visibility via web page optimization and keyword optimization. This is a crucial aspect of running a business, especially one with a social media presence and an eCommerce store.
To increase your website’s visibility, you must first build your credibility. This proves to Google that your content is more authoritative, useful, and generally higher-quality than what your competitors are publishing.
Get started
Although business networking can be daunting for timid business owners, it doesn’t have to be difficult when many options are available to improve your networking skills online and remotely.
If you are a business owner looking to adopt repeatable and effective business networking strategies, ensure that your efforts are focused on growing your social media presence and engaging in SEO and page optimization to attract clients.
Once your website brings in visitors and leads organically, you should continue to use collaborative project management software. This software allows clients to communicate remotely with team members and makes it easy to manage projects and reach one-hundred percent of your deliverables.
Disclaimer. The opinions and views expressed in this article are the authors Shalom Lamm.