Online marketing strategy for small business

According to the research data of PWC, there are total 24,352 numbers of small businesses in Sydney that covers 31% of the economic outcome of Sydney. And many of them implements online marketing strategy in their business. Don’t you believe me?

In this article, I’ve listed some basic and popular online marketing strategies that any small business can adapt. Let’s see what they are.

Suppose, you have a good business firm. And you have a website that represents your business. Are you confident that you can entice the number of customers?

Well, the answer will be yes if you have ever exposed yourself to the marketing and promotion. Because the marketing spread brand awareness of your product or services to the mass of the people.

Since the world is diverted towards digital, so it is better to adopt some changes in your marketing strategy. And, the online marketing will be the best.

Now, I guess these few questions are spinning in your head.

Why should I apply the online marketing if my traditional marketing is doing well?

Can I afford the cost of online marketing from my tight budget?

Which online marketing strategy will be the best for my business? …

Your thought is right. Let me explain this.

Traditional marketing has limited reach to the customer while the online marketing can connect you with the global customer. With the online marketing, your customer can have a choice to read a blog, watch videos or have a demo of your service which is like impossible through the traditional one. You can measure and analyse the audience craze towards your business through the real-time data. Also, advertising your service on radio and billboards may cost, higher than the online advertising. And at the top, the small business can compete with the large business organisations.

But, I don’t mean to say that you have to oversight the traditional marketing. You can employ both if you can.

Phew, let’s take a breath and move on to discuss our online marketing strategy for the small business.

Research the market

Initially, research will provide you with the value of your business in your niche market. You will find where are your customers and what did they think about your service? You can collect reviews of your happy customers and add them on your site. Your research may open different ways to reach your targeted audience.

Deep research may help you to analyse the behaviour of your competitors. You can visit their website. And get to know what your competitors are doing. This approach will lead you to the right path and guide you to implement the correct strategy for your business.

Learn SEM

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) supports the promotion of your business through online. So, it’s better to learn some basics of SEM. SEM includes both paid search results, PPC (Pay Per Click) and organic search results, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). A keyword analysis is a key to success in SEM as the use of proper keyword ensures the visibility of your site in the search result (SERPs).

SEM includes the search of contents like image, video, academic information. You have to optimise your content to get more traffic. And the elements like unique URLs, page title, excerpt, page speed, design layout, code structure, ALT tag of the image, incoming links and backlinks determines the position of your site in the search result. You’ll get the best results of SEM if you can monitor it regularly.

Set up a responsive website

It may not be new if I say most of the search is done through mobile. Yes, I am talking about the responsive design of the website. As the number of mobile users increases, the chance of reaching the global customer is getting high. So, your website must be ready to compete with the global companies. The website which provides the world class user experience in any device will surely get the high traffic.

Today, running your website in the mobile browser with good user experience is not sufficient to attract more traffic. You’d get better traffic if you can develop mobile apps. But, you need to hire developers for this. So, I’d suggest you to have a mobile-friendly website at first, then you can think about developing an app in the later phase.

Start with Content on your website

If you have a restaurant and your website provides all your services and menus of food, it is good but can’t be enough. What else can you do?

You can include your experience story and journey to influence more customer. You can add your recipe as the content to engage them on your site. You can also make your website more interesting by adding useful videos. Your fame and popularity will attract more customer to your restaurant. I mean to say, adding some quality content will not only help your ranking in the search result but also help you to invite more customers to serve.

In the old days, writing a long content will put you at the top of the search result. But, now the trend has changed and you’ll be ranked for the quality and fresh content. So, start writing and keep sharing your ideas.

Create Social Media account

Social Media Marketing is another most challenging and competitive field in the online marketing. So, if you don’t have social media account, create it right now. Your happy customers will surely follow you on the different social media.

You can show your loyalty to the customers. You can create different events and offer festive discounts to increase traffic engagement. But, remember that different social media suits different contents. Such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest contains images/photos whereas, LinkedIn, Twitter contains articles -based content and YouTube, Vimeo contains videos as a content. If you’re ready to pay for online campaigns, display advertising is popular in different social media. Display Advertising includes Facebook advertising, banner Ads, Google Ads, etc. According to eMarketer, leading social media, Facebook and Twitter share 33% of display ad by 2017.

Build Email list

One of the oldest and highly popular online advertising technique is email marketing. Sending the email to your subscribers will not limit your duty. You have to prepare a full report on the purchase behaviour of your customer, analyse what type of campaigns affects your business. Then create an email list based on their purchase and offer them useful information to stay in touch with them.

Marketing strategies vary as the size of your business. But, these are some basic ideas that every firm can practice to start. Online marketing is the most economical means of marketing, and you can manage it with just a few clicks on your laptop if you use marketing automation tool.

Do you think something is missing? Don’t hesitate to share your suggestion. So, go for it in the comment section.