“There’s never been a better time to be in advertising, and there’s never been a worse time.” Digital marketing services are very crucial for small brands who can’t spend a fortune in advertising and marketing. Online presence is very important for local businesses, as consumers learn about them more online than anywhere else. Employing advertising, Local SEOs, maintaining a social media presence have their own set of challenges to face.
Here are 10 great tips to level up your digital marketing game and make your local business a great success:
Upgrade your website
The website plays a significant role in your business’ presence and reach. The page shows who and what you are and how a potential customer can get in touch with you.
A study reveals that almost 94% of the negative feedback is basically related to the design of the website. So creating a website that is easy to use is crucial.
Any potential customer going through various business pages will easily skip your page if it takes a bit too long to load. For instance, if your page takes even 10 seconds to load, the probability of a person leaving your web page immediately increases by more than 120%.
The ideal speed taken to load the page should be between 0-2 seconds to get the best traffic and revenue. So make sure your website loads instantly to match up with your customers’ short span of time.
Another change you have to do is have a mobile optimised website. BrightEdge study says that nearly 60% of web traffic is from people accessing through mobile phones. This can drastically increase your reach and response.
Email marketing
In 2020, the Global e-mail marketing market was valued at $7.5 billion and possibly can increase up to $17.9 billion by 2027. So it looks like email can never go out of style.
Emails are best suited to maintain a contact with your old customers and periodically inform them about the offers and new collections. This increases opportunities for repeat purchasing, as they already know you and trust you. A good customer service along with this email check-in can easily retain many customers.
This can also help you get in touch with new customers who are already interested in your business. Sending the right content at the right time to people who haven’t purchased anything yet can easily make the sale.
Almost everyone uses email. So, invest in a good email marketing tool (mostly inexpensive or free) and start with sending newsletters, promotions and informing them about new offers coming up.
Social Media: An important tool
Over the last two decades, social media has become one of the leading marketing mediums. It is no longer just a platform for entertainment. No matter the age or generation gap, social media has its own value among the users. With almost 56.8% of the world’s population being active on social media, it’s now very much necessary to have a social media presence and its marketing strategy.
Social media assures clear communication, exposure and engagement. Building a community online helps to express the brand’s policy and personalities, and gaining trust among an influential set of people.
You can start posting content by creating informational videos, posts and promoting your blog posts which can attract traffic to your website. Using suitable tools and keywords, you can make a huge engagement without being expensive.
Source: Statista website
Know your audience
Identifying your potential customers is very easy with a few analysing steps. By clearly analysing them, you are one step ahead to making them your customers. By directly approaching people and getting to know the type of customers that are being the most benefited from your business, it’s an easy approach.
There are several tools to define groups who buy your content, especially through social media. People interacting with your account are your first targets. With those info and researching the followers of your competitors, you got the list.
Start Blogging
This is a good way to have organic traffic, especially for people who are yet to decide on the purchase. This gives them assurance and clarity with your product and guidance with your service.
There are various free or inexpensive tools to launch your site. Start from scratch, write topics related to your business, use the right keywords,
posts with regular intervals. This can attract traffic and visibility to your website. Once developing the page, adding call-to-action is perfect to reach potential customers.
Google Business account
When anyone wants to know some basic information about a particular business, they search in the primary search engine. This is an easy way for people to know about your products, how to contact you and your customer service.
This is called Google My Business listing, a free and a prominent way to establish your business and clear your customers’ doubts.
Once you create this account, regularly make changes with the information and reply to your customer’s concerns. For your business profile to be preferred by google, optimise your profile, which is possible once you’ve completed your verification process.
Hashtags
Hashtags are key when it comes to broadening your reach on social media. This tactic comes in handy after you’ve started to post content which will be information for customers and promotional for you. This easily attracts people who are already interested in your particular product or service.
Using a variety of hashtags, customised just for your brand targeting a particular set of people, from a particular boundary is more effective rather than being general. You can find hashtags from Google by mentioning your niche.
Local SEO
Google’s basic work is to deliver the most precise and relevant pages with good returns for any particular search. So when you compete with big brands who are willing to pay, you should do the exact steps needed to make you to the top without spending money.
Local SEO is a bit hard, but with consistent efforts the outcomes are worth it. Some steps to take are:
- Publishing blog posts related to your business.
- Cross verify with online directories to make the customers sure of your information.
- Include relevant keywords to your site.
Investing in Influencers
In 2022, influencer marketing has become very important, especially for local business. People trust fellow customers more than your advertising. So, investing wisely in influencers can level up your social media game.
You don’t have to approach influencers with a million followers initially. Influencers with a considerably less following and more engagement and influence can help you reach your target audience.
To find the right influencer:
- Use hashtags related to your niche, to find influencers who are already interested in your products.
- Approach them and express your needs and their pay.
There is a very good chance to find potential influencers in your own followers. Keep track of who regularly engages with your content. They are already doing the work without any pay. It’s time to give them a little extra credit for a much better work.
Know yourself
An indispensable aspect to gain a huge customer group is to maintain a good identity. Be it social media or websites, your personality and positive view towards the business can subconsciously attract the audience and make them trust us.
Create a unique identity, one which makes a difference from you and your competitors. The audience should be compelled to work with you, viewing your prospects and space.
Have a clear objective and recognize where you can make huge effects. Work hard on that area.
Conclusion
It’s definitely not easy to establish an online presence, but in the long run it will be a great hit.
Remember, not every strategy will be suitable for your business, so analyze, explore and test out and accordingly.
ALSO READ: Google Algorithm Update: Google Rollout Desktop Page Experience Update
