Small Business Marketing Tips
Small business owners don’t have to worry about waiting to create a large enough budget to be able to create marketing campaigns. In fact, before small businesses spend a single cent on marketing, business owners should consider learning several marketing tips that are specifically beneficial for small businesses.
Website Optimization
One of the best, as well as easiest things for small businesses to do, is to make sure their websites are keeping up with all the basic SEO rules. There’s no need to hire an SEO expert from the very beginning that will create a website that has all the necessary basics since business owners can do a lot of the beginner tasks themselves.
For example, if the company’s website was created on WordPress, the platform has excellent and, more importantly, free SEO plugins that walk users through setting up the SEO basics for the website. One of these plugins is Yoast SEO, which automatically optimizes the website’s meta title formatting and creates a sitemap, which is beneficial to search engines.
Social Media
If a new business doesn’t have a social media presence, it’s time to create one. Every business should have its own Facebook page, at the very least. Meanwhile, the other social media platforms aren’t a big requirement, at least in the beginning. However, they are especially important if they’re utilized by the target demographic.
For example, an e-commerce apparel store isn’t going to get a lot of traction and orders through LinkedIn, but a web development company likely would. This is because of the difference in audiences that use the platform. The store would get a lot more out of having a presence on Instagram or Snapchat, for example.
Reviews
Whenever a customer makes a purchase from a small business, the business should then ask for a review. The review can either be on Yelp, Google, or on the company’s own website. Simply sending a notification can remind the consumer to leave a review, and with more reviews, the company is going to get better visibility, especially in search engine results.
Another essential that businesses should take care of, is to claim all the local SEO listings and review sites. Making sure that all the information on those listings is correct, and claiming them, makes it easier for the company to then respond to the reviews it receives.
FAQ
Small businesses that operate in a very niche market, or industry, should provide the website visitors with a “Frequently Asked Questions” page, as well as an option to contact the business directly. Taking the time to create a page like that is of great benefit to small businesses in certain niches that people can find confusing at times.
Additionally, being available once a week for a small period of time, to answer questions from the public on social media platforms can also establish the company’s thought leadership capabilities, while also creating interest in the company itself, and its products.