Small Business Marketing – 3 Crucial Digital Marketing Strategies

Higher ROI with Proven Cost-Effective Small Business Marketing Strategies

They are not a ton of “dumb luck” successful small businesses out there stealing your customers and eating up your market share.  High performing businesses have developed small business marketing plans and deployed digital marketing strategies that increase sales, grow market share and build brand awareness. (Yes, even the smallest mom-and-pop or basement startup has a brand.)  To survive your marketing has to be efficient, but to grow your digital marketing has to be masterful.

consumer-online-research-reputation-marketing

Are you struggling to grow your business in a crowded market?

Are you looking for a better return on investment for your online marketing dollars?

Are you utilizing the most cost effective digital marketing channels?

3 Small Business Marketing Digital Strategies You Need to Be Using

Lead Generation and Traffic Beyond SEO with Paid Advertisements

The importance of good search engine optimization has been repeatedly drilled into your brain.  You are profoundly aware of what a game-changer it would be if your business showed up number one in search results. As part of our small business marketing plan you’ll want to publish quality optimized content (website pages, blog posts, videos, images, etc.) that cater to the latest search engine algorithms and you’ll rank high in organic search results.

Done right, effective SEO is cheaper and longer lasting than paid advertising. That is why SEO deserves all the attention it gets. However, when it comes to lead generation and website traffic, it shouldn’t be your only focus.  Planned with ROI in mind, online advertising such as PPC (pay per click) and retargeted ads work well to get your business in front of consumers who are interested in what you are selling.  It’s important to remember that paid advertising isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it strategy.  If you are new to paid advertisement online, start with a small budget and remember you must monitor and analyze the data from your paid marketing campaigns and then make metrics-based improvements to get the best return on investment.

ALSO READ: The New Google SERP Layout

Make Reputation Marketing a Higher Priority and Get More Customer Reviews

When looking for the highest return on investment with your small business marketing, reputation marketing is a clear winner.  Your online reputation is largely made up of SEO friendly and keyword rich content that is continually refreshed in the form of customer reviews.  Because good reviews have to be earned and can’t be bought, reputation marketing is one of the most cost-effective and influential marketing strategies you can employ.  Review monitoring is essential, and marketing those reviews to attract new business is easy which makes reputation marketing such an effective tactic.

Consumers have become very internet-savvy with the research phase of their customer journey.  They know what websites will give them reviews and ratings they trust to make their buying decisions.  “Trust” being the most important word in this entire section.  Consumers trust reviews on reputable sites like Yelp, Google, and Angie’s List.  That is why it is crucial that you build a positive online reputation with stellar customer reviews and market that glowing reputation on your website and the sites your customers turn to when they need to pick the best provider for the product or service they are going to purchase today.

Reputation Winning Customers

Some businesses don’t try to collect reviews for fear of getting a negative review posted online.  If you don’t create a profile on Yelp then no one can leave a review good or bad, right? Wrong!  Customers are online talking about their shopping and buying experiences, and you want to monitor, if not control, any part of those conversations you can.  Did you know that some review sites allow people to create a profile for a business that hasn’t claimed a profile?  As you can imagine, that level of investment just to leave a review is more likely to come from a very dissatisfied customer.  Claim and optimize your business profile on the review sites and directories that matter most to your business and respond professionally to any negative reviews you do receive with future review readers in mind.

ALSO READ: Reputation Management for Local Small Businesses

Manage and Optimize Your Businesses Online Directory Listings

Most business owners and managers don’t think to include business listings management in ther small business marketing plans.  Your business’ listings in online directories make your business visible to both search engines and customers who are looking.  The more listings you create; the better chance you have of customers finding you.

Your business listings and citations are important to search engines like Google, so they should be extremely important to you.  These are factors in the ranking algorithms used to create search engine results and a business with more citations will (if all other factors are equal) rank higher than a business with fewer citations and listings.

Knowing the importance of local search results to your business, managing your business listings is not something you want left undone or haphazardly maintained.  Ranking high in local search results is highly dependent on search engines being able to confirm your correct contact information and properly categorize your business.

Business Listing StatsYou can easily automate your business listing management, saving time and ensuring your business is listed and managed accurately in the online directories that secure your online presence.  Managing all these critical business listings on your own can be time-consuming, so if you choose to go it alone start with the most impactful listing and claim, verify, and optimize your Google My Business profile.  Google pulls from these profiles for search results that include customer review star ratings and search users trust these search results pages.

 

Free Demo RepLoop

Zach_Color_Trans_small_CroppedAbout The Author

Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.

The post Small Business Marketing – 3 Crucial Digital Marketing Strategies appeared first on Reputation Loop.

from Reputation Loop http://ift.tt/1P8ccWN
via IFTTT From Our Associates at Reputation Loop

from RepPilot http://reppilot.com/info/small-business-marketing-3-crucial-digital-marketing-strategies/
via RepPilot

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *