According to one study, 80% of local searches on mobile convert. Any small businesses that aren’t working on getting to the top of local search results for relevant terms are missing out on major profits.
Even though many business owners know it is important to get their business online and their marketing underway, many don’t do it. The reason most business owners don’t start their small business internet marketing strategies is that they don’t know where to start.
We are here to help you. Continue reading to learn how to market your business online.
1. Assess Your Current SEO Strategies
SEO is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to get the word out about your small business. Before you start throwing more time or money at SEO, make sure you know where you’re already doing well and where you need to improve.
Check to make sure the basics are covered, like having your target keyword in your title tag, meta description, in a header in your content, and within the body of the content.
Also, look to see how many people are linking to each of the pages you’re trying to rank for. If you don’t have many backlinks pointing to your pages, you want to spend some time building links to these through guest posting and other free backlink building methods.
2. Use Interviews to Build a Video Content Library
We all know how powerful video marketing is, but sometimes it can be a lot to try to build enough content to make a dent. If you are stressing out on video content and how to create it, one of the easiest ways to do that is through doing interviews.
You can interview your employees, have someone interview you, interview your customers, or any other combination that you think your audience would be interested in.
You don’t have to be in person with anyone. You can do zoom interviews and easily record them to create content people will happily consume.
3. Pay Per Click
Pay per click advertising is a good way to start getting people to look at what you have to offer now. While SEO can take months to get results, pay per click helps you get results now, and you only pay when someone clicks on your ads.
If you aren’t sure how to optimize and get the best results with pay per click, you should consider working with companies like the one here: https://falcondigitalmarketing.com/ to make sure you don’t spend more money than you’re making.
4. Start Blogging
If your business doesn’t have a blog, you’re missing out on a major SEO opportunity. You’re also missing out on the ability to get attention from potential customers, so you can build trust with them through quality content.
Being consistent with blog content gives people the time to get to know you, what you do, and why you do it. Blogging is free other than the time it takes you to create the content, so it’s a great way for businesses on a budget to get the word out about what they’re doing.
5. Join or Create a Group on Facebook
Facebook groups aren’t just for chatting about your favorite hobbies. Facebook groups can also be used to network with likeminded people. If you have your services listed on your profile, people will be able to find your business through your profile without you even saying anything about it.
There are some groups that allow you to promote products and services. While this might be the most direct way to approach people, it isn’t always necessary. Being helpful in the group can make people interested in what you do, so they will ask, and then you can offer to help them if they need it.
If there aren’t any groups that will be useful to those in your community that you’re trying to target, you can always create your own group.
6. Comment on Relevant Websites
There are many blogs that are similar to your blog. Many of these blogs allow people to post comments on them. As long as you aren’t spamming the blog and you’re writing insightful comments, people usually don’t mind leaving your backlink intact.
The more relevant the site is that you post on, the better it is for your SEO and the right person is more likely to click on it.
7. Build & Market to Your Email List
Building an email list isn’t very helpful unless you’re marketing to it. Before you start building your email list, start putting a plan together on how you’re going to market to them.
You can build an email list by offering free advice, a free consultation, free ebook, or just to be part of your community.
Once you have an email list that is building, you can send out updates, helpful information, and other tips to that email list.
8. Use Webinars to Engage With Potential Clients
Webinars are a great way to get in front of potential clients and provide a lot of value. No matter what your business is, you can create webinar content that will draw people’s interest.
Teach them something relevant to what you do or even teach them what you do. If you own a lawn care service and you hold a webinar on how to make your lawn look greener, don’t worry about losing customers. Many people are not interested in doing DIY work but want to have an idea about the process before hiring someone.
9. Work on Your Review Strategy
Reviews are an important part of your online presence. If you aren’t focused on growing your positive reviews, decreasing your negative reviews, and building goodwill with your customers new and old through reviews — you’re missing out.
Look at the most popular review sites where customers have left reviews. Have you replied to most of them?
We’re not talking about a comment that says, “Thank you” or “I apologize.” We are talking about thoughtful replies that let the customer know you care enough to take the time.
10. Embrace Online Buying
People love making purchases online. Gone are the days when people were too afraid to buy things on the internet. If your company doesn’t allow people the option to pay online, you’re going to miss out on money.
Even if you don’t ship your products and you only have services, people like taking care of their bills and purchases online. Offering in-store pick up works great for most companies, or you can allow people to pay for their services online.
11. Keep Your Google My Business Listing Updated
Your Google My Business listing is an important part of your strategy on Google. You can optimize and customize your Google My Business to show updated store hours for holidays, share social updates, change out photos, and more.
When people search for your business name, your GMB listing will show up and showcase your business in an attractive manner.
If you have an offer you want to let everyone know about, putting it on your GMB listing is a great way to do it.
12. Become a Top Contributor In LinkedIn Groups
Is there an industry group where you can share a lot of expertise? If you can be helpful and become a top contributor in a LinkedIn group, you can get a lot of attention.
Doing inbound marketing in this way can help you keep busy with a stream of steady customers with no cold calling.
13. Use Instagram Influencers
People trust Instagram influencers more than they trust ads most of the time. Ads don’t have any personality most of the time and aren’t entertaining. On the other hand, Instagram influencers know how to engage their audience and know things they audience will show interest in.
You don’t have to work with people that have millions of followers. Working with micro-influencers that only have a few hundred or a few thousand people following them might be a better fit for a small business budget.
Sometimes you can even find influencers that are willing to work with you for a portion of the profits for whatever their audience buys.
Small Business Internet Marketing for the Win
Now that you know more about small business internet marketing, and you can start implementing some of these strategies. Even using a few of these tactics can help you bring more visitors to your shop or more sales to your online store.
Do you want to learn more about digital marketing and other important topics? Check out our blog to stay up to date on all our content!
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