Small business marketing is always a challenge. As a small business owner, you wear many hats and seemingly have to do it all. You may run into the challenge that successful marketing, like legal or tax service, is a full-time job.
Marketing for small businesses can be very successful, and your cost to acquire a new customer or client can be reasonable if you use the right tools and processes. The components of your marketing program must work together and be cohesive for you to win the marketing game.
A strong marketing plan for a small business should include:
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A website that represents your business well is well written, and solves problems for people searching for your services is step one. DIY websites rarely do the job. Granted, they are cheap and easy to create, but they lack the professional content and uniqueness that will represent your small business well.
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Getting that site found well on Google and the major search engines is the way to capture very inexpensive new business. Think about the last thing you searched for on Google. How far did you go down the page before clicking on a site? Most people select one of the first three sites in the organic listings, and that’s why you should be there for many terms.
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A talented search engine optimization professional will get each page of your site found for the subject matter of that page. Example: if you’re a dentist and you practice family dentistry, pediatric dentistry, veneers, and perhaps implants, you don’t want someone searching for veneers to go to your home page and have to hunt for veneers. They very often will hit the back button and find someone else. You want that person to land on the veneers page so that they find exactly what they are looking for, as this will improve your conversion rate!
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Professionally written content that is well researched educates, and converts visitors to new business is extremely important. Great content creates a fantastic user experience, and that helps with your rankings on Google and gets you more business. A tip – never have content that is all about you and your business. People search the Internet to solve a problem, so solve the problem! A great example is a person with a roof leak may search roof repair. So, your content should show how you will fix that leak properly, quickly, and at a competitive price.
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Online ads are very helpful, but over time, you may find them expensive. Site conversions from ads are lower than from the organic rankings. This does not mean that ads are not a good idea; you just need to know that your costs to acquire new business with ads will be higher. Ads enable you to get marketing started very quickly and are great for testing new terms that you may want to add to your website.
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A marketing funnel is a great addition to any website or online ad program. A funnel utilizes text messaging, email, and even ringless voice messaging to get your messages to potential new customers or clients. When a person opts for an offer on your website, whether they found you searching the Internet or from an ad, the funnel will kick in and do its job. Many people need to be “touched” 9 times before they become new business for you. Most small business owners can’t take the time to text, email, call, and track down new leads 9 times, but the funnel’s automation can!
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Social media can be good. It depends on your product, service, and your target market. It’s not a substitute for a great website, search engine optimization, or ads. It’s one component of a good overall marketing strategy. Ads on Facebook are very reasonably priced and can work well. Typically, we add the responses to your funnel to help weed out the lower-end leads. There are many bot responses from Facebook ads, so we qualify them further before putting them on your plate.
