Small business owners often don’t know where to start from when it comes to promoting their company, and many marketing-related problems stem from the fact that their budget is usually very limited. However, there are high-converting methods that don’t require costly tactics and huge investments, and that can increase their visibility and help them reach their target audience. Building an online presence is essential for generating qualified leads and growing a customer base.
Start a blog
This simple strategy has numerous benefits and it’s vital for driving traffic to your website. However, if you want this to work, you need to offer high-quality content that will engage your visitors and make them stick around. Research your target audience, find out what their interests and pain points are, and create the content that addresses all these topics in a relevant and helpful way. Basically, your visitors want to learn how to solve some of their problems, read the latest news from the industry, and last but not least, be entertained. A good marketing strategy that will provide your target audience with original, fresh content on a regular basis can be a game-changer for your business. Your blog posts need to be interesting, well-researched, and frequent. The importance of frequency can be corroborated by the latest statistics according to which companies that publish 16 and more blog posts per month get almost 3.5 times more traffic than those that publish between 0-4 blog posts monthly. Guest blogging is another good idea that can increase your visibility and traffic, so make sure to join forces with other fellow bloggers from your niche.
Email marketing
This old-school marketing channel still rocks. Its ROI varies between 3800% and 4400%, which means that for every $1 you invest in your email marketing strategy you’ll earn between $38 and $44, which makes it one of the most profitable digital marketing channels. Besides, the average order value of an email is 17% higher than that of social media. This is evidently one of the most effective and cost-effective channels for digital marketing, which makes it perfect for small business with shoestring budgets, but a word of caution is necessary. As you most probably know, CASL three-year transition period ended on July 1, 2017. This means that businesses operating in Canada will have to obtain express consent for sending all types of commercial electronic messages, including emails, to people living in Canada. The latest and final provisions of this legislation certainly make things more complex for companies, but this by no means marks the end of email marketing in this country. There are steps that have to be taken before trying to contact your target audience by means of an email or text, and all you have to do is make sure that your marketing efforts are compliant with CASL.
Social media
“Pics, or it didn’t happen” is a catchphrase that perfectly illustrates how dependent on social media we have become. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn can actually make it or break it for any business big or small. The impact of social networks is tremendous, and the first thing that your potential customers do when they learn about your company is check it up on social media channels and see how many followers you have, what your existing customers say about you, and whether you publish engaging content. That’s why you need to understand how to harness the power of this incredibly influential digital marketing strategy. Besides regular posting and keeping in touch with your audience, it’s also crucial to understand how to leverage Facebook Ads, and drive more online sales.
Improve your SEO
Search engine optimization is still a mystery to some business owners, which is a great shame since this strategy can help them reach their target audience by boosting their website ranking. It can be costly, but the results make it worthwhile. Bear in mind that SEO won’t work if you observe it as a one-time attempt to boost your rankings. In order for this strategy to be successful, it needs to be persistently and regularly implemented over a period of time. High-quality content and linkbuilding are the most important things that Google takes into consideration when it comes to ranking a website. Studies have also suggested that longer content scores a better ranking, and a point that illustrates this is the stat revealing that the average first-page result on Google has 1,890 words. The first page of Google’s search results gets 92% of all traffic, while the first spot claims a whopping 33% of overall traffic.
Each of these channels will make a big difference for your business, but if you combine them you can expect really amazing results.
Nate Vickery is a marketing consultant and author mostly engaged in researching the latest marketing technology trends and practices applicable to startups and SMBs. He is also the editor at Bizzmark Blog and an author on The Next Web.
The social media universe can seem thrilling for most entrepreneurs. A captive audience, just waiting to hear what your small business is all about!