It’s no surprise that compared to large corporations, small businesses endure specific challenges when trying to successfully market themselves. For this reason, it’s crucial for small business owners to prioritize effective digital marketing because not only does digital marketing play a vital role in promoting products and services, but it also optimizes online assets.
Small Business, Big Problems
If you have a small business, then you’re likely familiar with the following: lack of funding, balancing quality with growth, building brand awareness, and gaining qualified leads. These are all hardships that small businesses face, especially when competing with industry giants who are targeting the same set of people.
Solutions That Let You Scale
However, there are ways that small businesses can improve their marketing efforts. For example:
- Find your audience
Many small businesses think that they can automatically appeal to a wide market because they see large companies doing just that. But large companies have more leverage, they have more resources and more notoriety. If you’re a small business, especially if you’re just starting out, knowing your niche is going to give you a leg up when targeting your audience.
- Control your online presence
No matter how big or small your operation is, whether you’re a team of 10 or 100, having a professional website is one of the most important assets you can have for your business. A good-looking website that prioritizes a simple user experience will make your company seem professional and capable, regardless of your company’s size. Remember, your company website is a channel that you will always own, so it makes sense for you to invest in it.
- Consider blogging
Blogging is a great way to increase organic traffic and persuade prospects, especially those who have not reached a purchasing decision yet. In addition, depending on what you choose to write about, it can establish your credibility within your niche. Even if you only publish a blog once a month, it can still improve your company’s online visibility, and help educate your leads about the products and services that you offer.
- Capture prospect information
If you’re struggling with lead generation, then you may want to implement a pop-up window that asks visitors to subscribe to your mailing list, or you can even add a conversational tool like a chat box that appears on the screen after your visitors have been browsing your site for several minutes. It’s also important to make sure that you have a clear and definitive “Contact Us” page. Also keep in mind that each page of your website should have multiple call-to-action buttons to accommodate user scrolling.
- Use email marketing to nurture your leads
Statista reports that in 2021, an estimated 319 emails were sent out on a daily basis. So, even with the rise of text messaging and social media advertising, email is most certainly not dead. Email campaigns help your company relay a series of messages to your leads that address their pain points and highlight how your products or services can help alleviate their pain points.
In fact, HubSpot found that in the past 12 months, 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement. And it makes sense. Emails are a great way to segment your leads by age, location, occupation, or industry. So, you can use them to reach people who are the most aligned with your target demographic.
- Manage your relationships with a CRM
The success of your email marketing campaigns can be assessed with a customer relationship management system or CRM for short. Your CRM can store information about your leads and current customers so that you can keep track of all your interactions and identify unique sales opportunities.
Helpful Tips
Here are three additional tips that will allow you to enhance your small business’ reputation.
1. Have cohesive branding all throughout
When you look at large corporations like Coca Cola or Apple, they have a logo that is simple, definitive, and identifiable. Even if your business is a small operation, the more consistent you are with your logo and color palette across all your assets, the more professional you come across. If you haven’t done so already, consider your color scheme, consider your logo, consider how all your downloadable assets look on your website––– do they all have a branded cover page?
2. Consult a marketing agency or freelancer for help
If you don’t have a large team, then it can prolong the time it takes you to complete certain projects, ultimately putting you behind the curve. So, if you’re interested in creating a beautiful website, or a compelling logo, or assets that are all cohesively branded, you may want to consider reaching out to a marketing agency or a freelancer for help.
3. Boost your Google ranking with SEO
The length of your content, the quality of your content, how frequently you post content, and how fast your page loads all determine whether you receive a prime spot-on Google’s search engine results page. Every page on your website should be interlaced with appropriate high-ranking keywords, and your blog posts should also utilize SEO keywords within the copy.
Conclusion
Obviously, growing a small business doesn’t happen overnight, but any digital marketing advancements you make will have a noticeable impact on your growth, leads, and overall appearance. Sometimes it can seem overwhelming, but you have to start somewhere!