Five essential small business marketing activities that will drive customers to your small business
Having the most amazing products or services alone won’t help if you are unable to get customers in the door. Unfortunately, most small businesses operate with limited marketing budgets while they compete with larger and more established companies in the market. So, they must focus on marketing activities that have a high ROI. Here is a list of some of the most effective small business marketing activities:
Local SEO, an excellent small business marketing strategy
Research suggests that 88% of the people who do a local search on their smart phones call or visit a store within a day. 46% of all Google searches are seeking local information. 28% of searches for something nearby result in a purchase. So, there is no reason why small businesses should not focus on local SEO. For the uninitiated, local SEO is the attempt to rank highly on search engines like Google and Bing for a local audience. It can help generate more traffic for the website and ultimately, more leads and sales for the business. In short, local SEO is a treasure trove of untapped business potential. The first step can be creating a Google My Business profile. Then, businesses can move on to Google Posts, Local Listings, and On-Page Optimization.
Email marketing is overlooked by many small businesses
A recent study has shown that for every dollar spent on email marketing businesses can generate an average return of $32. Still, many small business marketing plans just focus on social media marketing and other forms of marketing. Email marketing is often not given its due. It is a great tool to communicate with your current and potential clients to sell, inform, educate or build loyalty. Some of the key benefits of email marketing include high ROI, improved customer retention through consistent engagement, ability to drive sales through loyalty programs, brand building, effectively promoting new products or services and more.
Social media marketing is huge if done well
Nearly three quarters of American adults use social media. That makes it a critical part of any small business marketing strategy. Social media marketing is valuable for businesses of all sizes and industries. It can directly impact sales and bottom line. With social media you can reach out to people who haven’t heard of your brand and engage those who already love it. It helps increase brand awareness, website clicks and community engagement. However, it is important to understand that social media is a double edged sword and needs to be handled very carefully. It is important to plan the social media marketing campaign well.
When making SMM a part of your small business marketing plan, a good place to start is Facebook. Facebook has 1 billion daily users! If your target audience is on any social media platform, it is likely Facebook. It is a conversational platform and makes it easy to build the target base. Twitter has more than 320 million monthly active users (who engage with the app in some way). With over 500 million tweets sent daily, it is possibly the most conversational of all social media platforms. Another platform that small businesses should not ignore is Instagram. It is the most visual of all social media platforms, and has a billion users (of them 500 million are active users!). Instagram is a great place to share photos, short videos, posts or stories. YouTube and LinkedIn are two other platforms that small businesses can leverage to boost engagement.
Pay Per Click works for small businesses with a budget
With the help of PPC advertising small businesses can target their ads to users searching for specific search terms related to their products/services. With PPC, the ad is visible to hundreds of people for free, but unless they click on it, nothing is to be paid. In other words, the businesses have to pay for only those users who are interested enough to click on their ads. PPC advertising starts bringing in leads almost instantly. Also, PPC visitors are 50% more likely to make a purchase compared to organic visitors. Having said that, one must keep in mind that PPC can prove expensive if not done right. So, it is essential to seek professional help for your PPC campaign.
Content marketing brings lasting results and customers
Unlike traditional advertising, content marketing does not interrupt the audience to ask them to make a purchase. Content marketing is about creating content that resonates with and helps the target audience using social media, blogs, and vehicles to disseminate the message. A small business owner with a website and social media presence is already doing content marketing. Businesses must strive to take it a notch higher by delivering valuable and relevant content consistently through conversations, videos, e-books, infographics and other means.
If you need help in tailoring a comprehensive digital marketing plan for your business, please contact our team. We offer specific and affordable marketing services for small businesses. We’re here to help you.