According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses make up 99.7 percent of all employers.
Joe Frustaglio, Vice President at Nationwide, cited that “Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and keep our communities moving forward.”
With small businesses being such an integral piece of the U.S. economy, how do we ensure their success and growth?
Online marketing.
Online marketing for small businesses is becoming more important than ever as internet traffic continues to rise.
According to Cisco, Global Internet traffic in 2020 will be equivalent to 95 times the volume of the entire global Internet in 2005.
While being online is 100% necessary, your strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. Use this guide to build an effective marketing strategy for your business.
Establish an Objective
Small business internet marketing starts with knowing your marketing objective.
What is it that you would like to achieve?
Are you looking to build awareness about your brand or products, convert someone from brand awareness to buyer or take them from buyer to brand evangelist?
Your approach to online marketing will be derived from your objective. Your content should be focused on achieving this goal.
Search Engine Optimization
SEO is the process of getting websites ranked higher in search engines such as Google and Bing.
The easiest way for small businesses to achieve this is with content.
- Ensure that your website is optimized for speed and includes strategic keywords, content, and meta data.
- Leverage a blog or guest blogging to generate traffic and move up the ranks.
- Optimize your Google My Business listing
SEO can become intricate and time consuming, but there are SEO agency tactics that work.
Email Marketing
Despite the hype that says email marketing is dead, it’s still a VERY effective marketing tool.
According to Media Post, email’s ROI is 122%. It’s four times higher than social media, paid search, and direct mail.
Because the people on your list have signed up to hear specifically from you and about your business, an email list is usually a highly valuable engaged audience.
You can build this list in a variety of ways:
- Website Popup Forms
- Social Media Ads
- Lead Magnets
After you capture the email address, be sure to send relevant and engaging content with a killer subject line. The global email marketing software market size stood at USD 1,025.7 million in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 2,275.5 million by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 10.5% during the forecast period.
Social Media
More than 4 out of 5 Americans have a social media account.
This means that your prospective clients ARE on social media.
To create a successful social media marketing strategy, find out which platform your target demographic spends its time on and provide relevant and engaging content.
Connecting with potential customers is easier when you deliver tailored content that they can actually use. In fact, 61% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that delivers highly relevant content.
With the ever-changing algorithms and a focus on customized user experiences, organic reach on social is limited. As a result, paid social ads are the most effective way to get in front of audiences on these platforms.
Start Your ‘Online Marketing for Small Businesses Strategy’ Today
According to Go Daddy, 6 in every 10 small businesses have yet to establish an online presence and get a website.
With internet and social media utilization continuing to grow every year, you don’t want to be left behind.
Visit our blog to learn even more about online marketing strategies.
