A digital marketing strategy is essential for any small business. How often do you look up a business before deciding to visit or buy from them? Keep in mind that your customers are doing the same thing when looking for products and services like yours. Without a website and strong citation references (your Google & Bing business listings, for example) consumers may overlook your business and go straight to your competition. Here are some basic steps that can help immensely.
1. Review Your Online Reputation
Even the smallest of businesses need to ensure their reputations are secure. You should establish a Google alert so you know any time an article comes out mentioning your company. Because a lot of consumers look up a company’s reviews before visiting, make sure you check your reviews on Google and other review sites. You need to remain cognizant of any bad reviews and respond appropriately.
2. Optimize Your Website for People and Search Engines
The demand for instant gratification is real, and nowhere is it more noticeable than when you’re waiting on a website to load or when browsing the web. Make sure your website loads quickly, and all pertinent information should be readily available. The homepage should include a clear call to action, so consumers know what they should do next. Visitors are precious, and you don’t want to leave them guessing what to do next. This can also help with your search engine results. When people Google something related to your business and industry, you want your webpage to be on the first page. If this sounds like a bit too much for you, you can also look to Sitely to help you get better rankings online.
3. Use Keywords
Keywords are essential to any small business marketing strategy. There are plenty of tools, such as Keywordtool.io, Google Trends, and Google AdWords Keyword Planner, to help you locate words to target. You need to write those keywords into the content of your website. However, you want to make sure the content still comes across as natural. And don’t forget your Meta tags, Page titles, and Page descriptions!
4. Get Customers Email Addresses
When customers come up to the register, your employees should always ask for their email addresses. With these, you can set up an email marketing plan where you let customers know about new products and special promotions. You can even use those emails to ask for more reviews. Email blasts are a great way to remind customers that your business exists and give them reasons to return soon.
To sum it up, there are a TON of different digital marketing tactics you can implement, but we all know that you have to start somewhere, and these simple ideas are a great place to start. These days, people spend a great deal of time on their phones and in front of screens, so your business needs to be there, too. Once you have these things in place, you can alway add more to the mix!
