The internet gives businesses the opportunity to market to an audience all over the world. The tricky part is figuring out how to best position your business in a way that gives you that exposure, which can then lead to new customer acquisition and sales.
There is a lot of information online and it cane be overwhelming to those new to online marketing. But, it doesn’t have to be complicated at all. Or costly. Many business owners think they cannot afford to market online due to limited budgets.
But there are ways you can start with little to no money, and slowly grow, which can then help you drive enough business that allows you to then roll over that revenue into more aggressive marketing options. This is where large scale business growth can occur. So, let’s jump into a few options you have.
Start a Blog
A blog helps your business online a few ways. First, it gives your website visitors something to read when they are browsing. This is an opportunity to introduce your business to them and tell them all about you.
Second, it can help you attract search traffic on Google, and when you match a blogging strategy with intelligent keyword research, you can start to increase your traffic on a consistent basis.
Lastly, you can then use your blog content across other marketing channels. You can send your latest blog posts out to your email list. You can share your blog posts on social media.
Optimize Your Google My Business Profile
Your Google My Business profile has everything about your business, from your address and contact information, to your hours of operation. This is the information Google, as well as other directories, pull from for their local search results.
Darryl Howard of NuWays MD says your Google My Business profile needs your full attention. “It’s important to fully optimize this listing, as it directly impacts where your business shows up in organic search as well as when a local customer performs a voice search.”
Make sure that all of your contact information is correct and also be sure to use keywords in your listing description that will help local customer find your business.
Focus on Attracting Business Reviews
Reviews on your Google My Business profile will help your position in the search results, but it’s important that you not only focus on reviews across all channels, like Yelp as well, but also make it very easy for your customers to leave reviews.
Chris Moberg of Slumber Search advises businesses to come up with creative ways to encourage reviews. “The easiest way to get reviews is just to ask. Most customers won’t leave them because they don’t think about it, but if you simply ask them to do so they will be more than happy to do it.”
Consider setting up an automated email that asks your customers to leave a review and provide them a direct like to your review pages to make the process simple for them.
Be Active Daily on Social Media
With so many people active on social media every day, it gives you the opportunity to introduce your business to new customers all the time.
Chris Dziak of Pure Nootropics suggests being active daily on social media. “It only takes a few minutes a day to post content on socail media, and there are even tools that can help you schedule posts in advance, making it a hands-off process.” Fred Franks a local Ocala Home Builder a few different types of tools for his social media marketing. Using a tool like Hootsuite allows you to post everything far in advance and have it drip out whenever you want.
Using a tool like Hootsuite allows you to post everything far in advance and have it drip out whenever you want.
You could spend a day creating posts and content, and map out the next 30 days worth, ensuring your business will be putting out content that could potentially attract new customers daily.