If you’re running a small business, no doubt you will be managing your marketing on a budget. With so many different options to boost your small business, choosing the right ones that will make a difference can be overwhelming. There’s also the issue that what works for one small business isn’t necessarily going to work for your small business. However, there are some marketing activities that will boost your small business no matter what industry you are in; and they will be within your budget. But what are these methods? We’ve got three winning ways that will boost your small business that won’t bust your budget.
3 winning ways to boost your small business
It’s never easy to know which way to turn when it comes to promoting your small business cost-effectively, but here are three ways that will undoubtedly make a difference.
- Google Business Profile – if you haven’t got a Google Business Profile (GMB) online directory listing, make it a top priority to set one up and start using it to your advantage. Did you know that 60% of smartphone users contact businesses via their online business profile? As well as being completely free, there are many benefits to a GMB profile; not only does it help you target your local audience, potential customers are able to find your business more easily online.
A GMB profile allows you to add your location, opening hours, a description about your business and more details about your services or products. You can also add images, links to your website and social media channels, and a key aspect of your profile is enabling customers to post reviews about your company. When 93% of consumers say that online reviews influence their purchase decision, reviews are a winning way to boost your small business for free.
You are able to engage with your audience by replying to review posts and by adding relevant keywords and phrases; Google’s search bots will include your listing as part of their SERPs (search engine results page) criteria. This makes your business far more visible online and locally in user searches.
2. Optimise your social media profiles – currently, 66% of the UK population use social media platforms, and that’s just the UK. So, if you aren’t making the most out of your social media platforms, you could be missing out on a wide potential customer base. Setting up social media accounts isn’t difficult, and it’s free. Optimising your social media profiles is a bit harder, but it’s still free.
The thing about social media is that it takes time to manage, and it takes time to start seeing the real-time benefits. However, it is one of the best ways of engaging with your audience and customers, particularly for small businesses. But caution must be taken when choosing which social media platforms to use. What suits a B2C business may not suit a B2B company. If your products are very visual, such as fashion, platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook are more relevant. If your products or services are directed toward other businesses, LinkedIn and Twitter are likely to be better platforms. Take time to research each platform and decide if it’s a good match for your business first before setting up an account.
There are plenty of benefits to social media activity:
- Posting on social media consistently over a period of time is a great way to build brand awareness.
- The content you share can generate trust and brand loyalty, as long as it is informative and helps your audience.
- Incorporating relevant keywords and phrases into your posts, and using the right hashtags, will improve your search engine visibility and therefore ranking.
- Boosts traffic to your website – every time you post useful content, it will be shared on people’s profiles, which expands your reach.
- Enables you to connect with your audience – by engaging with your customers and responding to requests, reviews and queries in a timely way, you are able to personalise your messages and even create brand ambassadors.
There is also the opportunity of using paid advertising services through social media channels, like Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads. These are a great resource for promoting your products and services to a specific targeted audience, particularly for local small businesses. Although there is a cost involved, it can be a lot cheaper than other online or offline advertising methods.
3. Content is king! There is no doubt that it’s not so much the quantity but the quality of your content that matters. This doesn’t mean that you can get away with posting a blog or social media post just a couple of times a month. You still need to generate regular content, but the content that gets noticed is engaging and informative and gives your audience a solution to a problem or something they can learn from. There are so many different types of content that can be shared on your website, on your directory listing, via your social media channels and offline, such as press releases. This means that you can vary the content you are offering your audience – blogs, videos, infographics, podcasts and imagery.
It’s proven that adding high-quality visuals is far more appealing to your audience rather than reams of text. In fact, people retain 65% of information when its visual compared to just 10% when it’s read or heard.
Any content should be easy to read, easy to assimilate, and it must be shareable. It’s all about your customer’s experience, and the aim is to ensure the content you are providing meets their wants and needs.
We also have to mention SEO (search engine optimisation) which is a critical element in boosting any business. Whether it’s your website, your social media platforms, your online business directory, your blogs, videos or infographics, it’s important to ensure it is all optimised for user search queries. Using the relevant keywords and phrases helps with online visibility and search engine ranking.
There are, of course, other marketing strategies that will also help to boost your small business on a budget. But these three winning ways will go a long way to generating success online.
At My Digital Agency, we offer a variety of social media, SEO, content and local marketing, as well as website design services that are not only highly effective but will also meet everyone’s budget, no matter how big or small it is. Whether it’s optimising your website, developing a social media plan or helping with local marketing, contact us today and let’s chat.
