How to Improve Your Small Business Marketing
You know that technology plays an incredibly important role in the success of your small business.
But even if you’ve studied up on things like SEO and content marketing, you could still end up using old and ineffective small business marketing strategies.
Perhaps you’ve already tried to update your branding, but haven’t seen the increase in business you expected. Or maybe you’re just starting your business, and have no idea what you need to do to stand out from the competition.
If you want to make waves in your industry, increase your brand’s authority, and grow your customer base, then you need to read this article.
In it, we’re sharing some of the most effective marketing tips that small businesses can’t afford to ignore.
1. Revamp Your Logo
Your logo is the foundation of your entire branding and small business marketing strategy. It helps your target market to easily identify what you have to offer, builds brand recognition, and promotes consistency across your online and in-person marketing platforms.
But if it’s been a while since you’ve redesigned your logo — or if you don’t yet have one at all — it’s time to give it some serious thought.
Once you’ve come up with several potential ideas, involve both your target market and your employees in the final selection process. Upload the images of your top three choices to your social media accounts, and let your followers vote for their favorite options.
This will help to engage your market and build your relationship with your clients — and it will also ensure they know exactly how to recognize your brand.
When you’ve chosen your design, you need to make sure you’ve updated not only your social media platforms with its image, but your store’s signage as well. Companies like 2signs can help you to select the right materials, size, and even location to ensure maximum efficiency.
2. Don’t Neglect The Local Market
Have your sales numbers been plummeting recently?
Likely, a significant reason for this is because you’ve been ignoring the importance of local SEO. While you’ve been busy chasing an international market and trying to go after big fish that you likely won’t catch, you’ve completely abandoned your best potential customers.
In fact, about half of all local mobile searches result in a consumer visiting your brick-and-mortar location that same day.
So, what can you do to connect with the locals?
First of all, immediately claim your Google My Business page, as well as your listings on other online review sites like Yelp. Fill it with colorful photographs of your business, your store hours and contact information, and most importantly, customer reviews and testimonials.
Once you’ve done that, it’s time to incorporate local keywords into your content. For example, if you own an iPhone repair shop in North Carolina, use location-based phrases like “Best iPhone shop Charlotte” or “repair cracked phone screen Charlotte NC.”
This will help people in your area who need exactly what you have to offer to find you faster than ever before.
3. Get Blogging
Think blogging won’t make a difference when it comes to your brand’s small business marketing?
Think again.
In fact, brands that blog generate nearly 70% more leads than those that don’t. In addition to creating leads, blogging will also help your site to rise in the search engine rankings.
How?
First of all, the more you blog, the more Google indexes your site as being “frequently updated.” The more often you update your site, the higher you rise in the rankings.
Additionally, filling your blog with dynamic and unique content will help to increase the amount of time that visitors spend on your site. This is known as your site’s “dwell time.” As you’ve likely guessed already, the higher your dwell time, the more likely your site is to end up on the all-important first page of Google.
Finally, blogging can also work as an excellent source of extra income for your brand. Those lengthy how-to guides and exclusive interviews or product reviews?
Why not put them up behind a paywall? To ensure you keep gaining more subscribers for your premium content, frequently offer deals — and always keep your free content engaging.
4. Hop On The Video Marketing Bandwagon
It’s no secret that, within the past year especially, video content has become one of the most influential forms of digital content marketing.
It’s not difficult to see why.
Video content is highly shareable, takes a shorter time to engage with than written articles, and can help you to better illustrate the features and benefits of your products and services.
But when creating video content as a part of your revamped small business marketing plan, you need to think outside of traditional ads.
Facebook Live has become especially popular recently. This allows you to communicate a sense of transparency to your followers and fans on social media. You can give office tours to give followers a sense of “what life is like” at your company. You can do a live question and answer session to prove that you’re not afraid of being in the hot seat.
The possibilities of video advertising are endless. However, for best results, it’s recommended to limit the length of your videos to between 20-30 seconds. You can always offer longer video content down the line, or continue a story arc over multiple videos to keep viewers coming back.
How Else Can You Improve Your Small Business Marketing?
While these tips provide a wonderful foundation for how you can boost your brand’s small business marketing, they’re only the first few steps you need to take.
You still need to think about employee productivity, creating mobile apps, and much more if you want to stay ahead of the competition.
To identify the gaps in your current marketing strategy, and to pick up the latest branding and SEO trends, spend some time on our website and blog. We discuss the importance of easily navigable website design, help you to create a better work-life balance, and much more.
Make this the year that you grow your follower count, boost employee morale, and rise in the rankings of the top search engines.
