The importance of a digital marketing strategy to small businesses
Digital marketing is currently experiencing tremendous growth as a marketing career path, with no signs of slowing down—but even if you don't want to change careers and become a marketing expert, this skill set is a must-have for small business owners and others. Important for working people here’s how you can start your digital marketing learning journey
Digital marketing offers many advantages over existing advertising methods, such as print ads and direct mail, billboards, TV and radio. It allows brands to do more with their resources while empowering consumers to do business with that brand on their terms.
Why is digital marketing important for business?
Digital marketing also helps your brands reach their target audience and promote their product or service. While digital marketing is the target of traditional marketing campaigns, digital marketing allows brands to target a more specific or niche audience.
Digitally connecting with marketing customers helps build a wider audience that trusts your brand. Digital marketing is especially useful for businesses, which can easily leverage digital marketing tactics without the help of a marketing department or agency.
What are the benefits of digital marketing?
Digital marketing offers us many advantages over traditional advertising methods, such as print ads and direct mail, billboards, TV and radio. Digital marketing allows brands to do more with their resources while digital marketing allows consumers to do business with that brand on their terms.
Digital marketing allows customers to find the information they need even after you close up shop for the night. Those hours; Digital marketing puts your interactions on their schedule and not the other way around. Gives them the option to email questions at any time instead of forcing them to call during business hours
Digital marketing is the ultimate way to build authority and brand awareness in the biggest market on the planet: the Internet. Brands can connect directly with their target audience through social media to learn what consumers are looking for and create authentic relationships that build trust and brand loyalty.
In short, the importance of digital marketing goes beyond sales; Digital marketing is a long-term investment in the health and growth of your business. Below are some of the benefits of adding a digital strategy to your marketing plan
Benefits of adding a digital strategy to a marketing plan
1. Achieving More Targeted Customers
The main objective of any consumer business is to meet marketing goals and objectives and reach the target audience. Digital marketing makes it easy to reach your potential customer through online mode.
2. Higher ROI at Lower Cost
For a small business, your main objective is to market your product or service with minimal cost and generate more revenue. Large organizations can afford high marketing costs, while startups and small businesses try to work hard to keep costs low and maximize profits.
Hiring a digital marketing agency can be expensive initially. So to kick-start, you can do digital marketing from home. Learning digital marketing skills is easy when you go to the right mentors and trainers who are practicing these skills in real life like in IIDE.
Digital marketing helps organizations reduce costs associated with product or service promotion. And the cost of traditional marketing is comparatively higher than digital marketing.
3. Digital marketing helps to enhance your CRM
Business feeds on customer satisfaction. And you develop a good relationship with your customers. Before that, due to lack of resources and means, it is difficult to deal with this element.
With advancements in digital marketing, companies of all types and sizes can seamlessly build their CRM and, even as a small business, it's vital. Digital marketing helps you build goodwill and customer loyalty in the long run.
Nowadays even small businesses can now operate their CRM as robustly as large companies do with the help of digital marketing.
Below is a list of some of the best CRM software that helps you in CRM activities. And software like this makes it easy for small businesses to manage their CRM.
- Really Simple Systems
- Less Annoying CRM
- Keap
- eWay-CRM
- Zoho CRM
- Engagebay
4. Allows For Efficient Tracking of Future Campaigns
Digital marketing is especially beneficial for small businesses because you have a tight budget and tracking will help you spend your money only on the campaigns that work for you and not blindly jump into channels that don't bring any results.
Google Analytics is one of the most effective and free tools for tracking online digital marketing campaigns.
5. Provide Highly- Personalised Customer Experience
“WhatsApp” is a common application and is present in almost everyone's mobile. And if we say that using digital marketing strategy you can reach your potential customers through WhatsApp.
This app has a special feature called "WhatsApp Business" which you can use to reach your customers and for your business. This way you reach customers directly on the messenger they use so much while still maintaining the formal decor.
Is digital marketing a good career?
If you are considering a career in the digital space, digital marketing is probably the most popular option you come across. According to the CMO Survey, marketers predict allocating 57% to 58% of total budgets to digital marketing activities and their spending is likely to increase by nearly 16% in 2023. As a beginner, he wonders, 'Is digital marketing good? Career choice' Well, if you are enticed by a fast-paced work environment that has the power to transform a business through engagement, then digital marketing is a potential career path for you.
Digital marketing allows for flexible schedules and remote work. It is also dynamic, digital marketing present’s new challenges and techniques every day. If you are disciplined, creative and looking for an exciting, ever-changing profession, digital marketing can be an exciting long-term career choice.
What are Some Popular Digital Marketing Methods?
Today's digital marketing strategy includes a combination of tools and techniques that create a successful marketing campaign. And given the vast scope of digital marketing today, there are many different ways to connect with consumers and build brand awareness. Here are some popular digital marketing methods
- Search Engine Marketing
- Affiliate Advertising
- Social Media Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- In-App Marketing
- Ecommerce Advertising
- Affiliate Advertising
- Google Analytics
Author Bio
Hey, my name is Eva Roy. I have more than seven years of experience working with large and small businesses to develop and implement customer-focused, long-term growth strategies. I help you remember how to provide better service to customers. Furthermore, I have conducted extensive research and written in-depth information Canadian-hoursguide on numerous businesses.
Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses in 2022
You want to set yourself apart from the competitors as a business owner. However, with so much information available online, you may be unsure where to begin. As a result, we've compiled a list of 9 simple small company marketing techniques for 2022.
Not every company can afford to spend a lot of money on sponsored advertising. As a result, we decided to prepare a list of small business marketing ideas for 2022 that any company may use, regardless of how much money they have set aside for marketing.
1. Correct Your Listings
On desktop, searches for "near me" are increasing at an exponential rate year after year. They'll become much more crucial when voice search becomes more popular. It's estimated that 22% of voice searches are dependent on location.
Make sure to claim your Google My Business profile if you haven't already. This is your most visible listing, since it will appear whenever someone searches for your company.
Do you want to start repairing your listings right away?
2. Submit Requests for Review
Customers rely on customer reviews. It's preferable if you have a lot of reviews. That's why it's crucial to ask your consumers for feedback. This is the type of social evidence that your clients will believe.
Make sure you're sending review requests via text and email to obtain the greatest results. The consumer will appreciate how simple the procedure is. They don't need to waste time hunting for your company. They only need to click the link and leave a review.
3. React to Customer Feedback
Many company owners do not reply to negative evaluations. That's a huge blunder. According to Harvard Business School research, responding to customer evaluations results in a higher overall star rating.
Responding to reviews, on the other hand, provides a number of advantages. First and foremost, it aids in the development of consumer loyalty. A simple "Thanks a lot, we hope to see you soon!" will assist your clients form a great picture of your business and urge them to return for more.
In addition, replying to reviews might help your company rank better in search results. Responding to reviews improves your SEO, according to Google. It's also a good idea to get a business phone number.
4. Make Webchat a Part of Your Website
Businesses can benefit from webchat. Webchat is successful because it is far more convenient than traditional modes of communication, such as phone and email. Many individuals nowadays strive to avoid making phone calls whenever feasible, and emails are frequently disregarded. Webchat combines the best of both worlds: consumer convenience and a high likelihood of receiving an answer to their query.
You might be wondering if adding webchat to a small business's website is feasible. You probably don't have the resources to have a workforce ready to respond to client interactions. You don't need a complete staff, fortunately.
When a consumer asks a question via chat, an automatic message will be sent to them. When you get a moment, you'll be able to react from your smartphone. It's a simple technique to increase the number of website visitors who become clients.
5. Customers Should Be Texted
While customers are more than ever dismissing advertising content in their inboxes, they still like messaging. The open rate for text messages is 98 percent.
Whether you're looking to promote a deal, get feedback, or send an appointment reminder, text messaging may assist. Just be sure to include a compelling CTA to encourage the consumer to do the desired action.
6. Maintain a social media presence.
Make sure you're remaining active on social media, even if you already have a Facebook profile page. Customers nowadays expect businesses to be active on social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter.
Though organic postings on Facebook have a poor reach, people now expect businesses to post on social media on a frequent basis. Positive evaluations have shown to be a low-effort strategy to contact customers. After all, no one can sell your company like your customers can.
7. Improve the effectiveness of your PPC campaigns
Another place where social proof might benefit you is in your sponsored Google advertisements. Consider Google seller ratings if you're already running these advertisements. You may use these seller ratings to show your total star rating in your adverts.
Adding seller ratings to your advertising, according to Google, raises clickthrough rate by a whopping 17 percent.
Of course, there are some conditions that must be met in order to use Google seller ratings. Here's what you'll require:
- At least 100 reviews in the previous 12 months in the country where your adverts are appearing.
- At least a 3.5-star rating overall
8. Enhance the Customer Experience
Last but not least, take some measures to enhance your customer service. Remember that a satisfied consumer is more likely to tell their friends and family about your company. Going through client feedback and identifying possible areas for improvement is the key to producing more satisfied consumers.
Examining the evaluations of your rivals might also help you identify areas for improvement. Perhaps your competition provides excellent customer service, as seen by client reviews. Paying attention to these reviews might help you figure out how to better your own company.
How Can Automation Help Your Business?
While doing all of these small business marketing ideas for 2022 by hand is conceivable, it will take time away from other elements of your company.
Manage all of your listings and reviews in one place.
Flipping between multiple sites to edit your listings and check your feedback is a lot of effort. On the Internet, there are hundreds of review sites.
5 Best Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
Starting a small business can be daunting, especially against larger chain stores. However, there are several strategies that you can use to help put your business ahead of the competition.
1. Start with a Well-Designed Website
A website is often the first thing potential customers will see when searching for your products or services online. That’s why it’s essential to ensure your website is designed in a way that makes a good impression and is easy to navigate. A professional web designer can help you create a website that is visually appealing and easy to use. They can also ensure that your website is optimized for search engines so potential customers can easily find your products or services. Investing in a professional web designer is worth considering your website's importance to your business.
2. Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process of making your website more visible on search engine results pages (SERPs). When potential customers search for keywords related to your business, you want your website to appear as high up on the SERP. This can be achieved by optimizing your website content for the search engines. This can be a complex and time-consuming process, but it is worth it in the long run as it can help you attract more website visitors. To optimize your website for the search engines, you will need to conduct keyword research and create high-quality content relevant to your target audience. You will also need to ensure that your website is easy to navigate and that search engines index all your pages. Following these simple steps can improve your website's SEO and increase its visibility in the SERPs.
3. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
PPC, or pay-per-click, is a form of online advertising where you pay a fee each time someone clicks on your ad. It's a great way to get your website noticed by potential customers who are already interested in your offer. To be successful with PPC, you need to have a clearly defined target audience and relevant keywords. You also need to track your results to adjust your campaign as needed. Investigating what is customer data platform can be valuable for managing your PPC campaigns and monitoring your results. With a CDP, you can collect and organize customer data from multiple sources, including web analytics, clickstream data, and CRM data. This data can then be used to create detailed customer profiles. These profiles can segment your target audience and create more targeted PPC campaigns. By utilizing a CDP, you can maximize the ROI of your PPC campaigns and ensure that your ads reach the right people.
4. Social Media Marketing
Social media is a powerful tool that can be used to connect with potential and current customers. Promoting your website on social media and sharing interesting and relevant content can reach a wider audience and build relationships with potential and existing customers. Social media can be a valuable tool for promoting your business and building brand awareness.
5. Email Marketing
Email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with current customers and reach out to potential new ones. Use email to send out newsletters, special offers, and other information to keep your customers coming back for more. Email marketing is affordable and easy to reach a large audience with minimal effort. You can easily target specific groups of people and track the results of your campaigns to see what works and what doesn't. Best of all, email marketing is a great way to build relationships with your customers, fostering loyalty and repeat business. So, if you're looking for an effective way to market your business, be sure to try email marketing.
By using these marketing strategies, you can ensure that your small business gets the visibility it deserves.
Top 3 Local Marketing Strategies for Small Business in Charleston
Creating market presence and promoting offerings in the locations you serve, such as Charleston in your case, is the crux of local marketing. Local marketing, when done right, may help your brick-and-mortar business in Charleston get valuable foot traffic in large numbers.
Local marketing is about thinking small and establishing a solid foothold in the city you run a business. It targets the regional people and urges them to visit your small business. Businesses restricted to geographic limits benefit the most from local marketing.
Examples of such establishments include salons, grocery stores, restaurants, retail shops, pest control service providers, etc. If you have a business in Charleston, here are some online local marketing ideas at your disposal. Use them to lure Charleston residents to your establishment.
3 Primary Local Marketing Tips
Did you know that over 90% of consumers use the internet to discover local businesses? Furthermore, 88% of the searches end in business interactions. Suppose you are not utilizing online marketing to advertise your business locally. There is a reasonable probability that your target market in Charleston is unaware of your presence, allowing your competitors to capitalize. Therefore, you must follow the below strategic practices to boost brand recognition, sales, and income.
Perform Local SEO
More than 90% of consumers search the internet with local intent, and more than 50% of those searches result in foot visits. As a result, it is critical to execute and excel in local SEO. Local SEO is essentially the optimization of your website for the local market. It will help if you target the locally relevant keywords to rank your site higher for keywords with local search intent. Leverage the Google trends to identify popular and niche-specific keywords.
Suppose you provide HVAC repair services to the residents of Belgrade Avenue in Charleston. Instead of using HVAC repair services, you should use key phrases such as HVAC repair service in Belgrade Avenue, Charleston. Use the locally relevant keyword in the title, meta title, meta description, headers, URL, and blog content. Yes, to establish and maintain a robust local authority in your industry, you must create and publish quality content on your website.
When people search for local businesses, the first thing that resurfaces is the Google My Business Page. To rank higher in local SEO, develop and maintain your business's GMBP with up-to-date location, contact details, website, pictures, opening hours, and, most importantly, reviews. Select the appropriate niche-specific category and relevant features. Features such as an amnesties list if you own a hotel or a menu if you own a restaurant.
Trust me when I say that the more location-specific your website is, the better you will rank in local SEO. If you don't know how to implement this technique correctly, seek the assistance of the top Charleston SEO agencies. They will map out a strategy tailored to your needs, execute it successfully, and provide you with the most outstanding results.
Make Your Website Mobile Friendly
Imagine you run a diner near King Street, Charleston's prime business area. Shoppers are tired and hungry, but they don't know where to dine in the neighborhood. They will search the internet for the best diner near King Street, and if your site opens instantly with all of the information. You will be lucky as they'll walk right inside your eatery.
On the other hand, if your website does not load and is not mobile-friendly, exhausted shoppers will close the site and consider other options. As a result, you will drive off your potential buyer. Hence, you will end up driving off your potential customer.
The above scenario demonstrates the significance of having a mobile-friendly and fast-loading website. Since most people look for services and items on the go, someone is likely searching for your assistance right now. So, to localize your landing page and make the site user-friendly.
Leverage Social Media to Connect with Locals
The easiest way to connect with people in your neighborhood is through social media platforms. Make your company's social media pages localized for best results. Put a location on your profile, use location-specific hashtags, tag Charleston or any of its neighborhoods where your company is located in your posts, and interact and engage with people and local businesses. It's also good to include your business location in your bio.
Social media networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to join groups to share your knowledge or market your products and services. Such groups are ideal for local B2B companies. For example, if you own a successful Charleston SEO company, you may join groups and interact with businesses in your area that may use your services. So, go to Facebook and search for Mount Pleasant Apparel Store (or any other location in Charleston where your business is located) to connect with potential consumers. You will enjoy much visibility, foot traffic, as well as profits.
Conclusion
Implement these three primary local marketing practices, make people aware of your business, experience higher traffic on the website, experience the rush hours, and make profits. Many more strategies, such as paid media, will also help you reach your goal. Seek the help of an expert Charleston SEO company and let them help you for better and quicker results.
8 Ways to Attract New Customers to Your Small Online Biz
You need to be enlightened about e-commerce marketing to attract new customers to your small online business. Choosing a marketing plan that provides you with the best online reputation and protects your brand as you attract new customers would be best. Find ways to make your online business accessible using different search engines as you also exploit social media platforms. The following are the main ways you can get the customers you need for your small online business:
1. Make Sure that People Can Find Your Business Online
In most instances, people create first impressions about you based on how you present yourself online. That is why you should make sure that your business is findable online. Ensure that people who search your business online find trustworthy and accurate concerning you and your venture.
2. Provide Your Customers with Reliable Services and Delivery Plans
Your online business can benefit from offering consistent services and delivery to your customers. Your current customers will keep coming for more, improve your relations with your customers, attract more clients, become ahead of your competitors, and provides you with more revenue.
When you provide your clients with reliable services and trusted last-mile delivery solutions, your business will have a better reputation among its existing clients. You will end up acquiring more customers because of the excellent company image.
3. Top-notch Online Presence Is Critical
First, evaluate your online presence and find out if you need to make any amendments. If you find that people can't find your business whenever they search for such others on the web, work on improving your online presence for them to see you in the future. If you have a significant online presence but people get irrelevant information after opening your page, create and manage an online profile or website to change that.
If your business has an excellent online presence with great results, find ways to improve your audience's relationship through interactions and participation. The aim of having a good online presence should never be to make sales. When you use your social media sites to sell products or services, you might lose your target audience.
4. Use a Single Business Name
Using a single domain name to identify yourself on social media platforms is excellent. However, you may find a workable strategy if someone else has already used your preferred name or if it is too long. If you find it impossible to use one name on all social media pages, choose not more than two names that you can use.
One should be your original business name and the other a name that you can use when your other name is unavailable or inappropriate. Choose one of the names as your domain name on all your social media pages. Create a strategy to link your names.
5. Ensure Your Social Media Pages Remain Active
If possible, open accounts on all social media platforms. You can check from different online sites to avoid using a name that others have already used. Focus on using networks common to your customers and start from there.
6. Concentrate on Sharing Content
Most successful online businesses focus on sharing relevant and valuable information instead of concentrating on sales. If you want to remain visible online, focus on consistent post scheduling and sharing content. You may also share some blog posts or posts from other social media platforms.
7. Be Keen about Your Online Reputation
Always stay online to appreciate any kind words people share on your platforms. Also, respond to comments and concerns. You can easily monitor your social media networks by requesting alerts whenever someone mentions your name.
8. Stay Active Online as Much as Possible
Always post what people will be interested to see. Whenever you find some information you'd want your social media audience to see, please post it on your platforms. You may increase interactions by posting questionnaires and polls for your audience to participate. Additionally, interact.
Follow other people, subscribe to their pages, comment on their posts, join other groups and ask questions to improve your expertise on online interactions. That will increase your popularity among other business people and contribute to your business success.
Bottom Line
The above are the eight main ways to help you attract new customers to your small online business. Utilizing them will help your business scale higher heights.
7 Tips for a Better Small Business Website
As a small business, your website needs to tell potential customers why you are worth shopping with. You don’t have a large, well-known brand to fall back on, after all. So, whether you are in the early stages of setting up a business website or you’re looking to improve the one you already have, use these seven tips.
1: Make it User-Friendly
Users will not stay on your site for long if it isn’t user-friendly. You need to ensure the navigation is as smooth as possible, allowing users to get from one page to the next without any issues. Users need to be able to find the information they are looking for quickly and without interruption. If it takes too much time to find your contact page or to browse products, they will likely leave the site.
2: Incorporate SEO
Optimizing your website for SEO is crucial. These days, most businesses use at least some form of SEO, so not doing would put you at a disadvantage. To rank higher in search engines, you should do keyword research, produce long written content, speed up the page loading times, and use backlinks. It’s important to understand the best SEO techniques so that your efforts don’t go to waste, so follow this link to learn more about this SEO practice: https://linkflow.ai/white-hat-link-building/.
3: Invite Customers to an Email List
Building an email list is useful, especially for small businesses, so use your website to invite people to join your email list. Provide incentives for people to join, such as a shopping discount or free trial when they sign up. Just make sure the pop-up is easy to click off for those who aren’t interested.
4: Use Images and Videos
On a good business website, words are important, but they aren’t enough. For an engaging, attractive site, you need to incorporate high-quality images and videos that represent your brand. You could film a video for your ‘about us’ page, telling customers your business development story. Or, you could include a video of testimonials from previous clients and customers.
5: Include Call to Actions
Calls to action are important for getting potential customers to take action and shop with you. Some examples include ‘see more’, ‘click here,’ and ‘find out.’ Use these consistently throughout your copy to ensure more users turn into customers.
6: Make it Mobile-Friendly
In terms of ranking, Google prioritizes mobile-friendly websites over ones that aren’t. Not only that, but not having a site that runs well on mobile will send otherwise interested customers away, as most people search and shop on their phones these days. For a mobile-friendly website, be sure to keep text concise, ditch pop-ups, and limit image sizes.
7: Declutter
A good website isn’t one packed to the brim with endless information. For a site that keeps users engaged, declutter each page to ensure it’s easy to read and navigate. You want an orderly layout that presents all the necessary information to users without too much clutter.
With these seven tips, your small business’s website will rank higher on search engines, look more attractive, and have better navigation.
Small Business Marketing Strategies That Work
Your small business may just be in its infancy, or you may have been on the scene for a while now, but either way, a solid marketing strategy is crucial for your company’s growth and success. It isn’t enough to set up your shop and implement a casual marketing strategy, regardless of how excellent your goods and services are. Thanks to low barriers to entry for small business owners, each market is relatively saturated and sincere efforts must be made to get your company’s offerings in front of the right clients. This guide will help you to develop and carry out a strong marketing plan to bring in new customers, grow your business and ensure your company’s success.
Social Media
Perhaps one of the most powerful small business marketing strategies is one of the easiest to launch. Small businesses can expand their reach and attract more consumers through a clean, well-branded and regularly-updated social media presence. Social media allows small businesses to solidify their brand identity, promote products, share user-generated content, announce promotions and sales and even address customer concerns and feedback. Social media is a great way to reach customers where they already spend a great deal of their own free time. A large number of consumers will experience your company first through social media, so it’s important that you update your presence regularly on whatever platform you choose.
Partnerships and Collaborations
Many small businesses have the same or a similar target customer base, yet their products don’t directly compete for their business. Through partnerships and collaborations, you can team up with another company to expand your influence while using fewer resources to do so–and promote another member of the small business community at the same time. Such partnerships may involve bundling a product or service from each company at a discounted rate, collaborating on a new product together, sponsoring one another or teaming up for a cause you both believe in.
Email Marketing
Small businesses can use email marketing strategies to reach existing customers, bring in new ones and maintain loyalty with those who know and love your business. An email list is typically populated with customers who have already expressed an interest in your business and what you have to offer, which can increase the likelihood that your email marketing efforts will result in conversions. You can use emails to send out newsletters, advertise limited-time offers, remind customers about an abandoned cart or release promotions that will drive sales and invite customers to visit your shop with an exclusive offer.
Paid Ads
It takes time to develop a loyal customer base who will visit your company naturally and encounter your content organically. In the meantime, it’s important that you push your content so that it reaches the largest number of people possible. Paid ads offer a short-term way to push your content toward buyers most likely to visit your shop. Google ads are great to reach your target customer through specific search terms and queries that might result in a sale much sooner, while social media ads can increase your impressions and expand your audience while encouraging buyers to visit your shop or profile.
Specialized Promotions
While evergreen content is valuable and necessary for your small business, short-term or specialized promotions and products can encourage buyers to take quick action as you capitalize on a fleeting circumstance to drive traffic toward your business. Take time to identify your audience and their demographics and try to create advertisements and promotions that appeal to their evolving needs and interests. You may want to release holiday-based or seasonal sales, or you may find it helpful to generate content that centers around a trending current event or occurrence to ride the wave of social momentum at the time. Think, as well, about the types of buyers you need to appeal to. You may want to begin a blog that subtly features your products, create gift guides that pull in a variety of products from other shops as well as yours, form relationships with influencers or affiliates or start a side-venture such as a podcast, video series, eBook or course enrollment to expand the space you occupy within your own niche.
Referral Programs
One of the best ways to bring in new customers is to mobilize existing, happy customers to do so. Invite customers to share your products or services and incentivize their efforts by offering a discount for their next purchase, a gift card, store credit or access to an exclusive product or service reserved just for referrals. Referral marketing works best when both the existing customer and the new customer receive some sort of compensation or incentive for their patronage, which can encourage both parties at once to make a purchase.
Loyalty Systems
Though your high-quality goods and services are rewarding enough for customers, it helps to boost the benefits for repeat customers and compensate clients who visit again and again every further. Loyalty programs can include a punch card that offers a free product or item after a certain number of purchases, a points system that will provide a discount or product after the customer reaches a certain tier, cashback or rebate programs or exclusive discounts reserved for those who have already shopped with you to encourage them to return for more.
Third-Party Press
Consumers are less likely to shop with a company in which they know little about, so it’s important to invest in the acquisition of social proof for your small business. The grand majority of consumers look to reviews and recommendations before they make a purchase. Make sure that your customers can leave a review for your stellar products, and try to feature as much praise on your website and social media accounts as you can. Try to reach out to publications, bloggers, influencers or even other companies to share your small business and its products and services to earn a little positive media and develop more consumer trust. The more clout your small business has, the more established and reputable your company will seem, both to existing and new customers alike.
How to Grow Your Local Business In Competitive Markets
With digitization, it has become difficult for local businesses to thrive. The days of offline marketing are over and local businesses need to think outside the box to scale up their venture.
Local business owners should optimize for practices like Local SEO. Business owners need to think of their business as a startup to survive in this competitive ecosystem.
If you are also new to digital practices and looking for tips to grow your business, then we've got you covered. In this post, we will have a look at some result-driven tips that you can try and optimize your business for to gain the traction that you require.
Do Competitive Research
Competitive research is all about how you can be different and better than your competitors. You need to work on your core values and bring them out in the open so that you stand out from the crowd.
Know more about what your competitors are up to as this will help you break down your strategy into smaller chunks, which can then be implemented easily. Through competitive intelligence, you'll know where they're investing their time and money. Learn who their top customers are, the quality of their support staff, whether they've got any upcoming events or promotions, etc. With competitive analysis, you can understand more about market trends to make well-informed decisions for your growth.
Focus On Building Relationships
Research shows that word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective form to drive traffic to local businesses. If someone is already aware of a brand or service group, then he or she has a higher chance of doing business with them than some unheard, or unreliable brand.
Make an effort to build relationships with your customers the right way, the first time around. You can do this by sharing valuable content with your potential clients or on social media channels that will help them in their decision-making process. By doing so, you are strengthening the brand loyalty and trustworthiness of your business operations. In this way, people will engage more with your brand and talk more about it. This results in increased brand popularity and more sales. Therefore, building positive relations with your customers is one of the most effective ways to grow your local business.
Be Present Where Your Customers Are
It takes years for a good local business idea to take shape of a profitable startup company but it can fail quickly due to a lack of market presence. We all have limited resources and time at our disposal, which means we cannot be everywhere at once if we want our small businesses to grow online.
Social media channels have become a powerful way to reach out to potential customers and offer them the best service possible. If you're not taking advantage of this new megatrend, then chances are that your business is missing huge opportunities daily. Reach out to as many people as you can with a personalized message or offers on social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook. A social media marketing company can help you optimize your social media campaigns or you can have an in-house team. Either way, it works.
Be Responsive
The one thing that separates successful companies from mediocre ones is how they treat their customers. You need to be there for your customers 24/7 and assist them through all stages of interaction and transaction, no matter how small it may seem. It's best to resolve customer issues before they complain or share negative experiences online. Therefore, always remember to go the extra mile when it comes to offering fast solutions for issues related to delayed deliveries, poor service quality, etc.
In addition, you can use your website as a social media platform by creating "customer testimonials" that will allow clients the opportunity to share their experiences with your products or services. This is a great way for you to attract new customers from outside of your local area.
Increase Security To Protect Customer Transactions
The most successful businesses in today's times have already realized how crucial it is to provide a 100% security guarantee during online transactions involving money transfers. Security breaches are common these days because of the lack of stringent policies against hackers. If you don't want your customers' data to get compromised, then you must use SSL certificates to encrypt all sensitive information of your web visitors. This will not only protect your business against security breaches but also increase trustworthiness among potential clients.
Use SEO Strategies To Drive Traffic Organically
Most people usually ask their friends & family for advice before deciding to buy new products or services in the market. However, individuals, nowadays also use search engines to search for businesses that can provide them with the services required. As a business, it's best to use search engine optimization (SEO) tools that can rank your website pretty high on the first page of Google. This way you can attract quality, maximum customers. It can be challenging with thousands of other small businesses trying hard to get there but not impossible if done correctly. For this, you can hire a professional SEO company, who can get you the results, or set up your professional in-house team.
Wrapping Up!
Follow these result-driven tactics to grow your local business in the competitive ecosystem. The earlier you start, the more traction and customers you will build with these online strategies. Grow your local business like a professional today and don't stop until you get to the top.
The Top Reasons Your Small Business Needs Digital Marketing
Digital technology has helped to change the way modern businesses operate significantly. However, it’s not just big businesses that benefit from online marketing. Small businesses can also benefit significantly by investing in digital marketing. If you haven’t invested in this for your business yet, now is the time to do so.
Keep reading to learn some of the top benefits of digital marketing for your small business.
Provides Equal Opportunities for All Businesses
You’ll notice when you invest in automotive SEO or other digital marketing tactics that your small business starts to grow. That’s because the right digital marketing tactics help to even the playing field and help you compete with other businesses in your industry.
As a small business owner, you can leverage your offers against big-name companies, all thanks to digital marketing.
It’s a Cost-Effective Marketing Effort
Digital marketing doesn’t require you to make a huge investment. As a small business owner, you can find several digital channels that work well for you and that don’t require much investment. Because of this, digital marketing is now considered a great source of more and new business and clientele for small businesses.
Improves Conversion Rates
Conversions are better understood and tracked when you know what traffic turns into leads, subscribers, and buyers. There’s more good news. The conversions earned through digital marketing are higher compared to other marketing efforts. Because of this, your small business can increase the effort put into digital marketing to help increase conversions.
Increase Revenue
Successful digital marketing strategies help increase conversions. Revenue will also increase because of higher conversion rates.
The businesses that are currently using social media, on average, generate up to 78% more business compared to businesses that are not using social media marketing.
The response generated by email marketing is also high. Combining content marketing and other marketing strategies helps to increase response rate and, because of this, helps increase revenue.
Target the Right Audience
One of the biggest reasons digital marketing is “winning” compared to more traditional forms of marketing is that it helps your business target specific audiences and segments. The interactions that occur take place with your target audience, which means they are more results-oriented.
For example, investing in email marketing allows you to target a single person or group of people with similar needs and interests. Because of this, digital marketing is considered highly personal, which also makes it highly effective.
Improve Mobile Marketing
Part of digital marketing is mobile marketing. There’s no question that people use their mobile devices more than ever before. Because of this, you need to ensure that part of your digital marketing strategy is to ensure your site can be viewed easily on all types and sizes of mobile devices. Taking time to optimize your site for mobile search will help you capture this audience, increasing clicks, traffic, and conversions.
Improves Brand Reputation
The goal of any business is to attract more customers. The same goal is held by digital marketing.
You can begin by getting as many clicks as possible from your website and other marketing platforms. Eventually, more people will begin to recognize your brand, especially if you give them exactly what they want. Because of this, your brand’s reputation grows significantly. This is also something that can help you gain more trust from your customers.
Digital Marketing for Your Small Business
As you can see from the information here, there are more than a few reasons to invest in digital marketing for your small business. Take some time to consider the benefits it offers, and then begin implementing your own strategy.
If you want to grow your small business and reach potential customers where they are, then digital marketing is a must. Keep this in mind to help ensure your small business, regardless of industry, remains competitive and that it continues earning profits and revenue. Once you create a strategy, maintaining it will be simple.
SME Digital Marketing Strategies for 2022
With the unprecedented changes in social and working practices we have witnessed during these last 18-months, the signs are that both physical and digital businesses are going to have to up their marketing strategies to stay competitive in 2022.
Whether improving client/consumer relations or ensuring all your tools and apps are synchronised across all platforms, the following are some of the more important aspects to consider when planning your marketing strategies for the coming new year.
Essential areas in which to improve your marketing strategies
Breaking your business down into these five areas and choosing the best digital tools for your business model, should allow easier optimisation, regardless of products or services.
1. Search engine optimisation is still the big player for search engine rankings and should include new high-quality, relevant content on a regular basis, with good long or short-tail keywords.
2. Consider the use of Google AdWords as part of your advertising strategy.
3. Social media can be used to advertise both products and your latest blog post, with links back to the relevant content. Use it to its fullest.
4. There are hundreds of apps out there that can help you analyse how well your business strategy is working and where possible changes or improvements can be made. Choose those you feel will provide the most benefit to your particular niche. A little automation can save a lot of time.
5. Consider automating your email marketing using such systems as MailChimp, Act On or Constant Contact.
Improve customer and client interaction
A few years ago, the big buzzword for online businesses was inbound marketing, and it is as relevant today as it was 10-years ago. Over the years however, a mix of traditional outbound marketing and inbound marketing has been proved to yield the best ROI.
Outbound marketing includes the use of cold-email shots advertising new products or services, direct mailing and product advertising via social media or website. In the physical world things such as newspaper and TV ads, billboards, tradeshows and sponsorships.
Inbound marketing is the art of drawing your customers to you, with content that they want to read. That could be, why your newest product is the latest must-have. How to set it up in 5 easy steps, how to get the maximum benefit from it, or a Q&A page for problem-solving. This method helps cement better business/client relationships, reduces the need for time-consuming phone calls, and cuts out some of those cold-email shots. Most of which invariably end up in the bin.
Are all your details on Google My Business?
Even if you’re already registered on My Business, the new year is a good time to ensure all your company details are up to date. If you’ve not yet registered, now is a good time to do it.
Your business profile should include your full company name and full address, including town and postcode. Phone numbers, office and mobile. A short description of goods and services and operating hours.
Optimise your content for voice-activated searches
The use of voice-activated searches has been steadily increasing since the likes of Alexa, Siri and Cortana have become more reliable. The biggest changes will be in content and keywords. People rarely text as they speak. Where a voice search may be ‘chemist near me still open,’ a text search may be ‘opening times of local chemists?’ Make your content more conversational using plenty of hyphenated words, and alter your chosen keywords to blend with a chattier content tone. Apps such as Google Keyword can help with your keyword selection.
Positive customer reviews can increase your client database
Good customer reviews can go a long way to help prospective customers choose your business or product over that of a competitor. With the increasing publicity regarding scam websites and products, it has been estimated over 90% of consumers nowadays, will look for positive reviews before purchasing products or equipment from a business they’ve not previously dealt with.
When sending out ‘thank-you for using our product or services’ emails, include a review request with a link to your review page, making it quick and easy for a customer to complete.
Social media is also an excellent platform to garner positive reviews that all can see. A short status detailing how your expertise helped out one customer will often attract a positive unsolicited comment from another regular customer, thanking you for similar help.
Whether good or not so good, always reply to all reviews, so your customers know their feelings or concerns have been noted and taken onboard.
The use of video and visual assistance continues to grow
Necessity is the mother of invention, and when offices had to close and staff worked from home, visual assistance began to play a larger part in navigating through this new way of conducting business. Hybrid meetings became the new norm, with conferences, seminars and workshops going hybrid, part live and part virtual.
Visual assistance has also played an increasingly large part in day to day business activities, maintaining a virtual closeness amongst work-from-home employees, while ensuring close contact with field engineers and operatives.
The use of video can also play a large part in an upcoming advertising campaign. According to Statista, in 2018 YouTube was the most used social media platform in the UK, 2% ahead of Facebook. Consider such things as informational about-us videos, product or service demonstrations, new products, and information on company branding and boardroom changes and additions.
Consider the use of webchat
If you’ve got an increasing customer base (or are building one), consider the use of webchat. Those little AI chatbots popping up in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen when visiting a website, are becoming increasingly popular.
The majority of consumers visit websites for information, services or product browsing. Chatbots offer a quick and simple way to collect the information they want or browse the products they’re interested in, while the impulse is still bright. Having to browse the site looking for contact details, email addresses or telephone numbers often allows that impulse to wain and a possible sale or new client to be lost.
Webchat isn’t just for the big players. There are webchat bots available to suit many smaller businesses that can be synchronised to your smartphone, allowing you to deal with the query wherever you are.
Digital marketing will continue to increase
Like it or loathe it, we live in a digital world that is set to expand as artificial intelligence continues to get more intelligent. The good news is, even that small corner shop that has survived the ups and downs of the previous 30-years, can benefit from the many apps available in the digital marketing industry.
With so many businesses not having made it through the current pandemic, now is a good time to take a long hard look at how you can increase your share of the market using the latest digital technology, and formulate a positive digital marketing strategy for the coming year.
-
This article was written by Patrick Barry of VRT.ie – The go-to experts in the Car importation field. Be it importing a motor from the UK to Ireland or needing the assistance of a Customs Clearance Agent, VRT is here to help.