Online marketing is perhaps the greatest weapon in a small business entrepreneur’s arsenal. It makes up a major chunk of marketing and whether you believe it or not, most large corporations that are basking in their success right at this moment have utilized online marketing in the past and are still using it to get where they are today.
Thus, it’s only logical that small businesses also tap the online marketing landscape and exploit the many benefits it has to offer.
How Small Businesses Can Benefit From Online Marketing
To have your business succeed and flourish, having an exceptional online marketing strategy is fundamental. As mentioned above, small businesses don’t have access to the wealth and riches needed to fund their marketing strategies. However what you can’t make up in extensive and endless funds to finance your marketing strategies, you can more than make up through tools that help you build up your online presence and enhance your online marketing approach.
Here are some ways how small businesses today can build a strong online presence through online marketing.
Social Media
A catch-all term used for websites like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn etc, social media is a magnificent tool in order to reach and connect with a seemingly unlimited audience and clientele. Here’s how you can use social media sites to its fullest.
- Create a profile across a couple of sites and ensure that the contact information and product collection is updated regularly.
- Make sure that you post consistently. One Facebook post or a couple of tweets on Twitter a day is ideal.
- Also, once you post something, remember to follow-up on that post and reply to customers. This will boost customer engagement.
- Don’t just focus on self-promotion. Instead, share content that your audience and potential customers may find useful so that they share it with their friend, making your business more visible.
- All of these social media sites including YouTube and Twitter offer businesses a chance to promote their products and services through paid advertising. As a new and small business, you should take up on these offers as they are extremely cost effective.
Email Marketing
Like most of the people, are you also under the severe misconception that email marketing is a thing of the past? Here, let us clear this misunderstanding. According to a report by Pew Research Center, 92% of the adults still use email and it remains the primary mode of communication.
Here’s how small businesses can utilize email marketing to spread word about their business.
- Ensure that you have included an email-opt-in on your website and blog so that people who wish to be informed about new products and features can sign-up.
- Also, make sure that potential customers don’t find it a hassle to sign-up. There should be fewer steps and minimal hoops so that signing-up takes mere seconds and doesn’t frustrate people.
- You should offer special offers or incentives to the subscribers. This strategy will increase your following and fanbase.
- Further, when addressing customers through email, make certain that your salutation is informal as customers find that appealing.
- Make the content of your email attractive. Attaching photos, videos and infographics and keeping text short are some ways to catch the reader’s attention.
Run A Business Blog
Running business blogs is the new marketing trend today. They offer an alternative yet an innovative way to share content with your audience. While, initially companies would use social media to share content with their followers, blogs have now taken up most of the content marketing. Many studies have reported that businesses who run and manage their blogs are more likely to create leads than the ones which don’t.
It’s true that establishing a successful blog takes some time, but the results are well worth the time and energy. Keep in mind, quality content and commitment to your blog is imperative for it to be successful. Thus, you should make blogging a high priority. We offer content development services and can take care of your blogs as well.
Maintain Your Website
Websites are the go-to medium for customers whenever they wish to know about your company. Here’s how you can ensure that you derive the maximum benefits from your website.
- Keep it updated. Contact information, company address and product features and prices should all be updated regularly.
- Ensure that the web design and graphics are attractive and captivating. The menu and features like call-to-action should be clearly visible.
- Your website should be extremely user-friendly. After all, what’s the point if customers are unable to navigate through it easily .
- Also, your website needs to be mobile-friendly. A large chunk of the internet users access websites through their phones which means that your company’s website should have a mobile version so that all the web traffic generated through mobile is redirected. Better yet, you should invest in responsive websites which scales and fits according to the screen size automatically.
Our services also include website development, so check it out today.
Google AdWords
Google’s paid advertising campaign, Google AdWords is very effectual to promote your business to a wider audience and to get your website and any related content appear on the SERP. Even though, you may find it a bit expensive, by setting up a monthly budget, you can ensure its effectiveness.
Press Release – Publish it Regularly
Sending out press release to editors and journalists is another way to maintain online presence. Local media, newspapers, online publication forums and magazines are always on the lookout for good press releases to publish.
Online Local Directories – Make Sure That You Are Listed There
As internet has taken over, no longer do people turn to yellow pages to find about trusted businesses. If you wish your business to be found out, it is important that you register on a number of online directories like Google Plus Local, Bing Local, Yahoo Local etc. A simple and concise description of your business and a link to your website in these directories will ensure that you appear online when someone searches your business.
Location Based Services and Apps – Are you listed there?
Similar to online local directories, you should search for location based services like Yelp and Foursquare and register your business there to attract customers.
Marketing Ideas and Tips For Small Businesses
Offer Special Discounts and Deals
Though this is not something new, it is still a very effective way to market your business. Special discounts in the spirit of holidays or to just celebrate your business success is a perfect way to captivate your customer’s attention. Adding a personalized note to your shoppers purchases, thanking them for playing a part in your success will make them extremely happy.
Be Consistent and Committed When Advertising
In order to ensure that you remain in your customer’s minds and thoughts, you need to constantly reinforce your message. Otherwise, it will be only a matter of time when your customers forget that you exist and move on to your competitors. However, this is not to say that you push the limits and overdo it.
Promote the Trending Topics and Current Events
Integrate your products and advertising strategies to the ongoing events like Super Bowl, Olympics, TGIT (Thank God It’s Thursday) etc. You can use hashtags on Twitter and Instagram in order to spread your message to a wider audience.
Create a Friendly and Humble Persona of Your Brand
As a small business you have the edge over the established and well-known brands when it comes to connecting with your customers. Sharing pictures and videos of your employees working or just letting the steam out after a long day at work shows how close-knit and tight a community you are. Thus, giving your business a humane and approachable outlook in the eyes of the customers.
Welcome Any Potential Complaints and Feedbacks Gracefully
Make your customers comfortable enough that they don’t hesitate to approach you whenever they aren’t happy about the product they bought from you. A short message via an email asking customers to rate their experience or even setting up an account on social media to solely deal with customer complaints is a great way to gain their trust and respect. This creates a positive image of your business.
Exceed the Customer Expectations
Even though customers aren’t directly involved in the marketing process, they are still the most critical component. After all, your marketing strategy aims to please and entice them. Thus, it’s only fair that you think of strategies that are beyond your customer’s expectations. Tracking their requests and coming up with offers to fulfill those requests is one way to wow your customers. Giving out relatively inexpensive gifts like bumper stickers, T shirts, coffee mugs with the company logo serves two purposes, it will be appreciated by the customers and also act as a reminder of your company.
Bigger Is Not Always Better
As a small business you do not have access to extensive funds and inexhaustible resources. You need to be clever when developing your marketing strategy. Thus, rather than exhausting your sparse marketing budget to buy larger spaces for your ads to ensure online visibility, you should go for more affordable smaller ad spaces. You would gain from adopting the latter strategy as small ads are cheaper which means that you can run them more frequently rather than spending all of the advertising budget in creating a large ad which could only be used once or twice.
Having an impressive marketing strategy is critical for all businesses and even more so if you are a small business or just starting up. All of the resources and strategies mentioned above are immensely successful and cost-effective.
You can also ask for professional marketing services to manage your online marketing and social presence. If you are worrying about the cost, let us assure you that it is a complete non-issue. We offer professional marketing services that you will find within your budget.
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