What is Alignable and what can it do for your business?

Alignable.com

 There are so many platforms around and new ones emerging every day that it can be downright daunting for a business owner to determine which ones will work best for their business.

Choosing the right ones requires a bit of research, and a little time and effort. Plus, you want to have an appropriate marketing strategy for that particular platform to ensure getting the greatest results.

If you haven’t heard of it already, then I’d like to introduce you to Alignable.

This is a terrific platform for a local business that wants to employ a simple marketing strategy. There are many tactics that can be employed using Alignable that will generate several leads a day.

For a business that is interested in their local community getting to know, like and trust them. Alignable will be a perfect fit in their marketing strategy.  It may not be the only platform that you use but it can be a wonderful complimentary platform.

Let’s start with The PROS:

It is free

You can direct message other users of the platform.

You can connect with other social media platforms like Linkedin

You can advertise an event or promo.

There is a great question and answer section to engage with the Alignable community. You can respond to a question as well as post one.

You can recommend local businesses that you like and they can return the favor.

You can choose the audience that is right outside your door and put a great offline marketing plan together; coffee meeting, drop off a gift or company info, and any strategy that compliments your business to get a meet face to face.

Here are The CONS:

You have to message individually, you can’t blast a message to several people at once yet so it requires a bit of time to reach a certain number of people.

The platform is relatively new and still growing thus less people on it then Facebook or other platforms.

As you can see, there are more Pros then Cons and frankly no matter what platform you use, you need to have a clear marketing plan in place to be successful anyway.

 One that you can remain consistent doing. This is very important because it takes time to see progress on any platform when you are doing social media, especially organically (free).

If you are thinking about giving Alignable a try, here’s a simple plan that you can use.

As quoted by Eric Groves of Alignable,

“The ultimate goal is to build relationships with fellow business owners with whom you're able to refer each other information, resources, and opportunities to grow.”

Here are three simple steps to get started in the right direction:

1. Create a professional profile. Provide a complete story; a picture, your business website, the products or services you offer, any upcoming events or promotions, etc. They provide you with a few helpful tips as you go through this process.
2. You can invite people to join you from other social networking platforms, people who have liked your business page on Facebook, Your LinkedIn contacts, and you can upload your current membership list. By doing this you a building a strong network and when you encourage your customer base and fan base to join you, then you are able to make direct connections with others they will bring onto this platform.

 3. Set aside time to go through some of the profiles of other nearby businesses  and connect with them. Look at their information and share it if you feel inclined to do so. This creates great rapport and they usually will return the favor.

4. For the local businesses that you are already familiar with that you see on Alignable simply recommend them.

Once you have created your profile and invited your contacts to join you, let’s devise a simple strategy to grow this platform and get your desired results.

  You can start with a 30 day plan.

• Set aside 20 minutes a week to go through other local businesses nearby and reach out to 20. Roughly 1 a minute, just say “Hello” and invite them to connect with you.
• Take another 10 minutes to ask a relevant community question or respond to someone else’s.
• Host 45 minute meet and greet of Alignable connections within a 5 mile radius, once a month to at your local Startbucks, your office, or Denny’s with breakfast. Provide an incentive –a discount of your services, etc. for attending. Think outside the box and get creative with this one. 

To your marketing success!

P.S. Connect with me and let me know what you think!

https://www.alignable.com/Los-Angeles-CA/Renee-Starms