Is it even possible to build a business without SEO? The short answer is yes!
The web has been evolving so quickly over the years, which means SEO no longer has to be your only means of generating traffic or conversions.
In this guide, we’re going to walk through some examples of how to build a business without a shred of SEO.
What We’ll Cover:
- Building a business through Shopify
- Social media platforms for marketing without SEO
- Using email marketing to acquire a customer base
- Public relations outreach does not require SEO
- Why you should advertise, if nothing else
What If SEO Didn’t Exist?
There’s no denying that search engine optimization (SEO) is indispensable for any business looking to attract new customers.
Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo serve millions of users per day who are seeking answers to their questions or solutions to their problems.
And if you have a website, blog, or ecommerce store, SEO can result in more targeted free traffic from those search engines. It can even improve the quality of your site by making it faster and easier to navigate.
I can go on and on about what an invaluable asset SEO is to marketing. But, imagine that you couldn’t rely on it to grow your business?
Better yet…what if SEO didn’t exist at all?
There’s a wealth of different tools available out there. You just need to know how to harness the power of these tools to optimize your marketing efforts.
No SEO? No Problem: Shopify
Think about being a new ecommerce brand entering the market. The competition’s fierce and it can be tough knowing where to start. Enter Shopify.
More than a million businesses currently use Shopify to streamline their sales processes wherever they choose to sell. They define their point-of-sale (POS) system as “the most unifying POS for unifying in-store and online sales.”
When we take a closer look at their integration, we see that they offer all the tools needed to manage your business effectively, market to your targeted customer base, and sell everywhere all from one place. That in itself is pretty awesome, right?
But, it gets even better because Shopify also integrates with Pinterest, Facebook Shop, Instagram, Google Shopping and WhatsApp—apps that your customers are already using.
That’s five different places outside of SEO where you could be building your business, advertising regularly, and setting up a good cost per acquisition. In addition to that, you can also sell your products on Amazon, Target, Walmart, Alibaba, eBay, and Craigslist.
This also saves you a lot of time since you can promote your products to multiple networks in seconds with a single click.
Build a Business On Social Media Platforms
An effective social media marketing campaign not only brings more traffic to your ecommerce site, it also raises brand awareness and improves the way you communicate with your target market.
With as many as 7 in 10 Americans using social media to connect with one another, is it any surprise that you can actually build a business 100% off of social platforms?
Here are some of the main channels you should keep top of mind when laying out your business strategy:
TikTok
On the surface, TikTok seems like your run-of-the-mill lip-syncing video app. But, with more than 800 million active users worldwide, it’s showing no signs of slowing down. And since ads are so inexpensive right now, TikTok offers a great way to gain a lot of distribution whether it’s through advertising or simply sharing creative content.
Facebook is the most popular social network on the planet—one that features plenty of tools hidden in plain sight. You can keep your audience engaged by going live, posting stories, creating groups, and keeping your Facebook profile up-to-date.
YouTube
If you have yet to tap into the power of video marketing, now is the time to do it! In addition to giving you the opportunity to share and create stories and videos, YouTube offers six different ad types: TrueView ads, Non-skippable instream ads, Bumper instream ads, Sponsored card ads, Overlay ads, and Display ads.
Unlike other social media channels, users to the tune of 80% follow at least one business profile on Instagram. Following the launch of its stories feature, the platform unveiled IGTV in the summer of 2018. IGTV is designed with mobile engagement in mind and supports long-form videos that span up to an hour in length.
Recently, LinkedIn added a slew of enhanced ad targeting tools to help you connect more easily to your core audience. From Bing search insights to audience templates, you definitely want to utilize the tools LinkedIn has available.
Keep in mind, through each of these platforms, there’s also the option to direct message (DM) people or go through the outbound.
Leverage Email Marketing Tactics
It’s practically impossible for people to go longer than a few hours without checking their inbox these days. This is precisely why email marketing continues to be a valuable means to drive traffic to a website.
Whether it’s a push list or a chat list through Facebook Messenger, you can build an entire email list exclusively through one of these channels.
In fact, I know someone who built an $8 million business just off of renting email lists.
What does this mean? Typically, the marketer will approach someone who has an email list of 100,000 subscribers, for example. From there, they will spend $1,000 to advertise on a blast or do a dedicated blast with their product.
Acquire an Audience Without SEO
Did you know you also have the option to buy Facebook Groups, email lists, websites, businesses, and podcasts?
Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups offer space to connect and communicate with like-minded people. There are Facebook groups with hundreds of thousands of members and we’re excited to announce that they’re for sale! You can buy a group for tens of thousands of dollars, advertise directly to the community, and use the connections you make to build your business.
Email List
Why create a brand new email list from scratch if there’s one already available? You’ll immediately gain access to your target market and it’s a quick way to increase sales.
Websites
If you have a website in your space that receives hundreds of visitors per month, they likely have the traffic, the social communities, and the email lists you want. Acquiring it can be much less expensive in some cases than building up all the traffic yourself.
Podcasts
Podcasts have been skyrocketing in popularity over the last few years as it can be easily listened to while driving, exercising, or doing virtually any kind of leisurely activity. Plus, it breeds plenty of competition.
For example, Spotify recently bought the Joe Rogan podcast for $100 million. Why? When they bring that kind of exclusive content to their platform, it makes it so that people want to use it, thereby amassing a huge audience.
A similar case can be made for Sirius satellite radio with the Howard Stern Show.
I’ve come across a podcaster who makes over $2,500 per day solely on their podcast. Put simply, they charge people to be featured on and to advertise on their show. They’ve also built masterminds and groups off of the podcast, which means it turns out to be more like a $10 or $20 million business.
That’s why it’s important that these sites acquire assets.
But before taking the podcast route, consider how to get the audience on your side. How do you capture their attention so you can advertise to them on a consistent basis?
Build Your Business with Public Relations (PR)
There have been businesses that have been built 100% off of PR Strategies.
By locating all the major news, podcasts, and publications out there, you want to draw a map of every single place your customer is, come up with a pitch, gather their contact information, and pitch to every single one of them.
You also want to make sure you are consistently getting picked up on these publications. That way, you can build excellent referring site traffic, plenty of buzz, and ultimately, yield more sales.
Start Advertising ASAP!
If you don’t have the ability to do any of the above, find all the places where your customers are spending their time and then figure out a way to put your website in the middle. Then develop a cost-per-acquisition strategy around every single one—Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc.
I happen to know an entrepreneur who has built a $2 million dollar business with a net income around the 80% range just by doing dynamic search ads.
Essentially, when someone performs a search, they put the keyword in the search bar that relates to that search inside of Google Ads and they advertise various different web pages on their site.
This is an incredibly inexpensive option that allows them to generate more and more traffic to the website.
The Bottom Line
As you can see, there are a ton of ways to make money online right now.
Whether you want to acquire business by buying a Facebook Group, advertising on TikTok, or spending $5,000-$20,000 per month on PR, the above-mentioned list of options only represents about 80% of what you can do to acquire customers.
Don’t get us wrong—SEO is still one of the most important tools available to marketers. But nowadays, we’ve got an entire toolbox to choose from!
