According to Digital.com, 46% of small businesses lack a proper website despite technology-focused younger generations taking over the consumer market. In order to succeed in growing an audience and improving sales, small businesses must arm themselves with the latest marketing trends and embrace an Internet-centered world.
With this knowledge in mind, seek small business marketing companies that understand the plight of small businesses and are experienced in creating effective marketing strategies for them. Below are 5 important aspects of small business marketing to grasp and implement right now.
1. Don’t Ignore Proper Web Design
Small businesses often outsource web design services due to a lack of resources in-house to build an effective website. Outsourcing this service prevents small businesses from breaking the budget to hire a full-time web designer. Hiring a marketing agency for this service ensures that the website is not only beautiful but functional and optimized for your small business marketing strategy.
When it comes to proper web design, small businesses need to understand that you’ll need to engage viewers on all fronts. For instance, not only does the website need to have user-friendly navigation and an intuitive interface, but it also must have excellent content and powerful calls to action that build leads and drive sales.
Without a doubt, the website is an extremely powerful tool for small business branding and sales, but done incorrectly; it can scare potential customers away. Remember, visitors will be impatient with slow-loading websites that aren’t optimized for mobile use. As a result, it’s essential to ensure the marketing agency is knowledgeable about all these concepts.
If there’s a limited budget, spend money on the perfect website. All other marketing strategies invested in later will rely on this website as a landing page and host for all your content and sales. Utilize this website cost calculator to help decide what’s affordable for your business.
2. SEO Isn’t Stuffing Keywords
Of course, SEO strategy largely consists of keywords. Properly researching and utilizing keywords in your industry and niche will help the right audience find your content and convert them into customers. At the same time, keyword stuffing can hurt your search engine rankings and alert visitors that your business isn’t sincere.
Organic SEO, which is a full strategy of website and content optimization, helps your website pop up as a top result on search engines beneath paid ads. Conversely, organic SEO is not the only way to reach your audience.
Local SEO helps your small business show up on results for potential customers in your area. Using a local SEO strategy is targeted and effective for businesses that receive the majority of their traffic and sales from their storefront. Part of local SEO is setting up your business for success on Google, such as with Google My Business.
Overall, hiring a marketing agency for SEO services will prevent investing days of your time each month into research on SEO strategy and building keyword lists.
3. It’s Easy to Misuse PPC
Many businesses lack the time to properly market themselves with organic strategies such as social media posting and SEO website copy. Instead, they rely on paid advertising to receive views and improve sales. Any decent marketing agency will inform a business that a mix of both organic and paid strategies is ideal, but paid advertising (PPC) is easy to misuse.
PPC campaigns are accessible to small businesses as they can be easily used by anyone with access to Google or social media platforms. With just a few clicks, you can set up a simple ad campaign and let it run. Unfortunately, that strategy isn’t enough to validate your investment.
Some of the biggest mistakes to avoid include:
- Not performing adequate keyword research
- Bidding on highly competitive and general keywords
- Ignoring location-specific keywords
In other words, if you’re looking to implement paid advertising, be smart about your campaign.
For all marketing efforts, especially paid marketing efforts, the Small Business Administration reveals a majority of businesses spend around or under 7% of their gross income. B2C businesses spend higher amounts on average than B2B companies, but businesses overall should have a larger budget upfront to jumpstart audience-building efforts.
In order to avoid lost money on inadequately paid advertising, hire an experienced marketing agency versed in how to advertise small businesses.
4. Social Media Marketing is for Building Audience
One of the biggest fallacies of modern marketing is that small businesses can rely on social media as their only channel for finding customers. Social media marketing is powerful, but only when combined with a solid marketing and sales funnel and backed by other materials such as an excellent website.
Do not utilize social media marketing as your only marketing strategy. Utilize social media outreach to build your audience, then funnel interested customers from that audience to your website to build an email list and nurture them into buying customers.
Moreover, once you’ve acquired a list of leads from your audience, begin an email marketing campaign. Successful email marketing can be simple and effective as long as it involves powerful subject lines and copywriting. Along with building a stunning website, email marketing should be your top priority.
Social media, emails, and web content are all a part of a larger content marketing strategy. An experienced marketing agency can guide your business in this content strategy for effective campaigns.
5. Google Review Strategy
Finally, small businesses must prioritize and take charge of their online reviews. Business reviewing resources, such as Yelp and Google, are extremely important factors for potential customers looking for the right business.
According to Oberlo, nearly 9 out of 10 consumers check reviews before they purchase a product or service. These star reviews pop up immediately next to your business’s name on searches. You’ll experience an increase in sales along with your improved ratings.
As part of your small business marketing strategy, combine the efforts of asking for reviews and getting negative or spam reviews removed from online platforms. Do this on your own for free, or hire a marketing agency that will ensure your strategies are sound-proof and effortless.
Hire Small Business Marketing Companies
Now that you know what your marketing priorities should be as a small business, begin refining the tasks into which you’re investing your money and time. Small business marketing companies know the struggles and needs of your business best, and they’ll work with you to optimize your budget.
VujaDay helps Philadelphia small businesses improve their marketing strategies with simple yet effective campaigns. Regardless of your budget, contact us today to partner with us.
