Online Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
blog / By Jeff Harrison
You already know you need to market your business to become and remain visible to your target audience. However, like most small businesses, you face several pressing issues that demand your attention. You may lack time to do marketing, but you may also not know which marketing strategies increase visibility and generate qualified leads.
If your business is not showing on search results, you are missing leads, and it may not be easy to get to the next phase.
With the right online marketing strategies, your business will evolve into a popular brand and generate a positive ROI.
So, which are the best marketing strategies for small businesses?
In this post, we look at online marketing strategies for small businesses. Let’s dive in!
- Content Marketing
Content marketing is a strategy that involves the creation and sharing of online material such as videos, blogs, social media posts, and other forms of digital content. The content marketers focus on stimulating interest in the brand’s products and services.
A state of marketing report showed that content creation is a top priority for 80% of marketers. The report indicates that content marketing accounts for 26% of the B2B Marketing Budgets.
Another report by Oberlo showed that 96% of marketing decision-makers say content marketing has been effective for their brand.
Some of the top benefits of content marketing include:
- Better audience retention
- Lead generation and increased conversions
- Higher SERP rankings
- Increased brand awareness
- Helps to generate industry authority
- Creates loyal brand advocates
Therefore, business owners have reason to focus more on content marketing, as it is a proven marketing strategy.
- Search Engine Optimization for Online Marketing
Search Engine Optimization may seem overwhelming, but it is one of the most effective online marketing strategies for small businesses.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process of improving your website to increase brand visibility whenever people search for products or services related to your business.
According to Search Engine Land, optimizing your website for search engines is a fundamental part of digital marketing because people conduct trillions of searches every year.
Therefore, with SEO, the better visibility your brand gets on search engines, the more likely you are to garner attention and attract prospective and existing customers to your business.
Some Search Engine Optimization tips for small businesses include:
- Finding the right keywords
- Focusing on your unique offerings
- Make your web content primarily for users, not search engines
- Focus on link building to improve niche authority
- Publish high-quality content that suits your target audience
SEO requires some technical knowledge and may take time to realize the benefits, especially if you lack the experience. Hire an experienced SEO expert to assist you in implementing SEO tactics for small businesses.
- Get Social!
A solid social media strategy is essential for achieving brand awareness and reaching the target audience for a small business.
A social media strategy encapsulates everything you want to achieve on social media. Social media strategy helps small businesses to achieve:
- Increased brand awareness
- Building a larger audience
- Increased business revenue
- Driving traffic to your website
- Generating new leads
- Effective social media strategy
To win when it comes to social media strategy, start by defining your objectives before identifying the right social media platform. Follow your brand voice and focus on creating and managing your social media posts.
- Pay-Per-Click Advertising
PPC advertising helps small businesses display ads in search engines when people search for a specific keyword. The paid advertising strategy requires a marketing budget since you pay every time a searcher clicks on your ad.
PPC is a great online marketing strategy for small businesses since you can track money spent and customers acquired. Besides, the Google Ads platform allows you to use their research keywords and use audience targeting techniques to reach a wider audience.
Overall, PPC is a highly beneficial online marketing strategy for small businesses that want to establish a grip in digital space.
- Email Marketing
Email marketing is a great strategy that allows small business owners to personalize. Small businesses that use email to reach their audience have the potential to bring in a new customer base and build strong, long-lasting customer relationships.
According to HubSpot, there are 4 billion daily email users, and more than 64% of small businesses use email marketing to reach potential customers.
Some of the potential benefits of using email marketing include:
- Build a strong customer relationship
- It helps small businesses to reach the right audience
- Easy to track metrics
- Delivers consistent outreach and increased awareness
- Cost-effective marketing method
- Easy to add effective calls to action
The benefits of email marketing for small businesses may not always be obvious. You need an effective email marketing strategy to help you find new customers, retain them, and stay in touch.
- Google My Business
Whether you own a barbershop, a restaurant, a small brewery, or any other business, you need Google My Business, irrespective of the size of your business.
A Google My Business profile helps ensure that customers find your business when searching for products or services like yours in your local area. Therefore, a Google My Business profile also helps your business improve local SEO.
The free online marketing strategy helps customers find you when they search on Google Maps and Google Search. Customers can leave a review, which is an excellent tool for building trust. Therefore, if you do not have a Google My Business page, you miss out on a critical step in your local SEO strategy.
Conclusion
According to Digital Marketing Institute, small businesses should focus on online marketing to build brand awareness, increase revenue, and communicate with their customers. With endless opportunities, online marketing may seem intimidating, especially if you have never used the strategies before.
Besides, the fact that marketplaces are getting more competitive may frustrate your intention to start online marketing. However, delaying building your business online is not effective in any way. To get started, reach out to a digital marketing expert near you.
SwingPointMedia for Online Marketing
SwingPointMedia is a marketing company focused on using content marketing, such as written articles, videos and podcasts, to attract their customers’ ideal audiences. This approach has proven to attract higher-quality customers while simultaneously reducing the sales cycle by as much as 70%.
SwingPointMedia serves local businesses in Southern California and can be reached by calling 760-422-5176.
You are invited to also attend a free weekly presentation, providing you the tools and strategy to roll out your own content marketing program for your company or see exactly what SwingPointMedia does for its clients to achieve success. It can be viewed live on SwingPointMedia’s YouTube channel Wednesdays at 11 am pst.