As a business owner in today’s world, the way you promote your business has drastically changed. Even though you’ve worked hard in your industry for years to build a solid client base, there’s always room for improvement when it comes to getting eyeballs on your business. A newspaper flier or sign outside of the shop used to be enough to bring the local customers in the door.
But what if you want to expand? Or better yet take a day off?
Chances are, like most small business owners, you’re doing it all in your business: sales, marketing, accounting, you name it. But, you also have a life. Whether it be personal or networking, a person has to get out every once in and while.
Market trends have taught us that time is of the essence. In today’s world, that means you need a professional website designed to send buyers to your doorstep, whether it be online or in person. In addition to a good website, you need the pieces and parts implemented to drive people to your website.
As you look into expanding online, there are a few simple steps to help you implement digital marketing effectively. Let’s check them out.
Build a Website
Your digital home will be your website.
What does this mean? It means spending time on making your website well-designed and efficient. Improving your online presence begins with a website and then driving traffic to your website. Tracking your overall traffic simply means counting the number of users who land on your website in a given time frame.
Consider this fact: your competition is on the internet. It’s no longer a “nice to have” but a requirement to have an effective, sales-making website.
Setting attainable traffic goals will help you dial in your website and allow you to move on to promote your website further.
Create a Mailing List
We may sound like a broken record the past few months at GreenCup Digital. However, the importance of email is worth repeating. Engaging with a visitor on your website is one thing, but how do you retain that engagement? The simple answer to this- create a mailing list.
Social media gets all the attention while email sits in the corner, quietly creating up to a 4400% return on investment. YES! You heard correctly. 90% of adults and 74% of teenagers use email! Email is a great way to remind your customers that you’re there, and you may still have something to offer them. Using email to offer specials, discounts, and education resources continues to be an investment well worth your time as a business owner.
Set monthly goals like subscriber rate, open rate, and engagement to drive your promotional ideas. You can easily track what’s working and what’s not when you see how many names come into your database.
Track Social Media
As mentioned above, social media gets all the attention, and for a good reason. It’s taken the world and turned it upside down in basically every facet of life. You can create entire communities of fans using social media for your business. Many people check their social profiles multiple times a day, so maintaining a presence is a solid use of your marketing dollars and time. Tracking key metrics will let you know if your strategy is working, or if you should pivot.
A warning we continue to give is that you do not own your social media followers. Facebook owns Facebook and Instagram; Twitter owns Twitter. YOU own your website, and YOU own your email list.
Create Content
People say “blogs are dead,” but that could not be further from reality! True, the number of blog posts has grown exponentially (in the billions), but that doesn’t mean you can’t utilize it for your business.
Creating content is a chance for you to communicate with your visitors in a way that’s more of a conversation. Blogs can be as current and specific as you choose, and you can address the needs and interests of your loyal followers as they present themselves. One of the best reasons to maintain a blog is that Google likes updated, current content, and it invariably increases your SEO score. So when a person looks for a product or service that you offer, your name will creep to the top of the list!
Remember, a simple Google analysis will tell you which of your blog posts are performing the best. When you know what content is working best, you can produce more of it. So give the people what they want!
Optimize For SEO
In addition to updating your website regularly with blog posts, you can also increase your searchability through other necessary steps. SEO (search engine optimization) is a selection of actions used to boost your website higher in the rankings when a person searches on Google.
Most online purchases start with a Google search. Is your website there when you search for your product?
Optimizing for SEO has become a requirement to complete on the web. These SEO tools (many of them are free to use) will help you get started.
Take the Plunge
If you aren’t a web designer, SEO expert, or marketing guru, you’ll probably need someone to help you realize your dream to grow your online footprint.
If your business is going to be sustainable, you need to take steps to ensure your business can stand on its own. After that, the sky’s the limit for companies that want to take that next step into the world of online selling.
Get back to the business you love, and let GreenCup Digital handle some of the load. Contact us to learn more about how to implement digital marking along with our SEO, Content, and Social Media packages!
Then, maybe, feel comfortable about taking a vacation for the first time in 5 years!
