Gordon Diffey – The Internet Marketeer
For small businesses marketing is their sales lifeline, but they cannot afford huge marketing budgets like large companies. Also, the world is moving online so you need to be able to use your online profiles effectively. This article gives you some ideas how to market your small business online whilst not spending huge amounts of cash.
Small business owners have to fulfil many different and important roles in their business. One of them at always exercises their minds is how can they market their business when they are already working hard running the business. The dilemma is how to find time to do that all-important marketing. If you do not have the budget to hire professional markets, then it is down to you and this article gives ideas that can be used to market your business.
The Online Market-space has changed!
The first thing to realise is that the online marketing space has changed. You do not have the option of throwing up a website, Facebook page and randomly use Twitter these days. This just does not cut the mustard. People are now used to being marketed AT and have developed string filters to direct online advertising. They are looking for social proof that a business is reputable, has what they want and will get their business. People expect engagement, they expect use their mobiles for much of their communication, shopping and research. The buzz word these days is “content marketing” and that means having useful content on your online portals that links up with your marketing process.
So your website has to be:
- Mobile friendly or responsive. If it is not easy to use on a tablet, IPad, IPhone or smart-phone then they will find your web presence hard to use and go elsewhere.
- It has to be informative and well designed. If it looks like a free or old site, then POOF they are gone.
- It has to interact with them and use social media. But if you use social media to aggressively sell then, again POOF they are gone.
- It is no good having a web page unless it solves a problem for the site visitor. If there only reaction is “O what a lovely design” then you have failed. If they react by having their problem answered and that means that they take action by contacting you, or buying your product then you have succeeded. Design for the visitor and not yourself; PUT YOUR EGO INTO THE BACK POCKET.
Use Social Media Correctly
Social media is easy to use and easy to abuse. I smiled at the moderator of a local Facebook Business Networking Group fixing the following post to the top of their page – “we don’t mind you sharing what you do with the group but please keep your ads to no more than once a week.” It has been said that the way many businesses use social media is like asking for sex on a first date, blunt and not about building relationships. The aim of social media is to build trust, reputation and give information. People will then start doing business with you.
So where does that leaves us:
- Join group and contribute. The places to join these groups is on Facebook, LinkedIn and industry forums. By offering advice and support you will become a valued member of these groups. So why, well the aim is to become an established expert in your field. Once people think you know what you are talking about your reputation will grow and they will do business with you.
- Create your own group. Create Facebook and LinkedIn are great places to create groups to find information. It is not about you, it is about your authority and expertise. These groups will allow both customers and potential customers to get support and information.
- Facebook and Twitter are about images. People share images and videos on Twitter and Facebook, if you can get images that catch peoples’ interest, then you can us image based offers. “Sell to me and I resist” – “Engage me and I buy”. So the aim is not to sell to people but to encourage them to buy – they then have control of the process.
- Social monitoring. Listen out to what is being said on social media. Use Google Alerts, Social Mention, Mention, TalkWalker, Hootsuite, PinAlert and similar platforms to monitor if your business is being mentioned online. This will allow you to monitor and manage your reputation as well as respond to any online comments
- Back to the issue that people thirst for information and absorb it well if it is graphical. Tools like Canva, Piktochart, infogr.am, Venngage, and many other sites allow you to create infographics.
- Use GoogleMyBusiness. The original Google Maps has come a long way and has evolved. By setting up a business listing on Google My Business page you will achieve several objectives My comment to any small business owner who does not have a listing is that “you are an incompetent business owner” because it is free and it underpins local search. As well as getting a local search listing, you get a Maps listing, can use Google+ and your customers can post reviews about your business. Since Google uses “off-site” reviews and testimonials to aid local search ranking why would you not do this?
- Get Directory Listings. Here you have to be careful because Google does not like paid listings, but it does accept that businesses will advertise on local and industry directories, so it does tend to contradict itself a little. A free Yelp listing can be beneficial, but be warned they will call you to try to sell you a paid listing, a lot like yell.com.
Now Blogging, definitely a “Marmite” subject.
Blogging done well can be very effective for search ranking, traffic generation, feeding special media and generally getting your business marketed. Blogging does not have to be a challenge or a chore. I have covered this is a couple of articles: “Writing A Blog Need Not Be Difficult – 5 ideas to help!” and “Blog Marketing Online: What You Should Know”.
- Guest blogging. This can work well for you. It helps another website grow their content and gets a back link for you. Moreover, it gets you noticed with another group of online viewers and gives them the opportunity to visit your website.
- Make it easy to share your content socially. By having share buttons on your website, you make it easy for site visitors to promote your content for you. If it is interesting to them and their friends, they will do so. If you use WordPress there are several free plugins that will do this for you.
- Forum and Blog comments. This will often give you the opportunity to make comments that will permit you to post a link to your website or blog. However, only post a relevant and constructive comment. Spammy or “non-comments” are not going to get people to come back to your website. Comments like “Yes that is fab” or “I totally agree” add no value and are likely to get the site owner to moderate out your comment as worthless. Here are 4 comments from one of my client’s sites that I have just pulled off that are of no value and were deleted:
- Kyanna Essays like this are so important to broaden people’s horizons.
- Parmelia That’s an inventive answer to an interesting question
- Roxanna That’s a smart way of looking at the world.
- Jaylene Thinking like that is really amazing
Conclusion
Yes, it is always argued that the Internet has given a lot of opportunities to small businesses, by levelling the marketing playing field. But this is only true if you use the Internet properly and consistently.
If you want to know more about digital marketing and how to Market Your Small Business Online, then call The Internet Marketeer on 01572 495007 or email us.
One of the great ways to grow content on your website and help on-site SEO is to Blog, but the very idea of doing it fills many people with horror. What am I going to write about, I will not know what to say, I have nothing anyone will want to hear arrrrgh, panic, too difficult, can’t do it!!
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