Running a small business is tough. I know. I run my own small business. Making sure that sales pipeline is full is key for service-based businesses. eCommerce stores need a steady flow of visitors buying from the website. We all know that digital marketing can play an important, if not vital, role in your business’ success. Whether you are a startup or an established business looking for some serious growth, getting highly targeted traffic to your business is the key. Here is a list of small business marketing ideas to help you get those creative “juices” flowing.
Content Marketing
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is where you write an article or blog post on another website. Simple enough. These guest posts are a great way to get more traffic and brand awareness on your website.
Ideally you will be able to link back to your website within the guest post or have a bio where you can briefly describe who you are and what business you represent.
There are typically three main strategies for guest blogging:
- Building authority and positioning yourself as a well-known figure in this industry.
- Backlinks which can be good for SEO.
- Brand awareness and getting exposure for your business.
Learn More: Guide To Guest Blogging
Start A Blog For Your Business
Google loves content. Prospective customers love good content that meets their needs. Creating content that serves both is the key. How exactly do you do this? With keyword research. With proper keyword research, you can find out exactly what people are searching for. You can see the keyword phrases they are using in Google search. Once you know that, then you create specific blog posts for these different search phrases.
The idea is to think about your target audience and what kind of things they might search for. For example, let’s say you run a plumbing company. You may want to consider writing a blog post about ‘how to prevent your pipes from freezing’ or ‘how to stop a leaky faucet’. People who are performing these types of searches are looking for help and education. They are at the very beginning stages of finding a solution. If you can be the plumbing company that provides them with some help or education through your blog posts, then you just introduced yourself to potential new customer.
People are generally appreciative of businesses who provide value and can educate them. Is it possible people who read posts like these end up going the DIY route? Sure. It’s also possible they end up calling your business to fix the issue.
Email Marketing
Send Periodic Email Blasts
Some businesses focus so much on content marketing they forget the power of email. A well-worded blast can boost your traffic and help you reach new customers with informative emails, but don’t send too many or it will become burdensome for recipients! And always make sure to include some kind words about what people love best from their experience using a product – this is an easy way keep those word flowing in both directions
Paid Advertising
There are several popular platforms for running paid ads online. Google Ads is the biggest and most well known. Other popular platforms include Facebook (Meta), Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Amazon, Pinterest and Twitter.
Run Paid Ads
Paid search, social media advertising and display marketing are all excellent ways of attracting visitors. When combined with targeted content on your site or blog posts that discuss relevant topics in an engaging manner then it can lead you more traffic which may result into increased sales too! However each channel has its pros & cons so before choosing one over another think carefully about what objectives will be achieved by utilizing this strategy for achieving those goals. Do you want to promote your business and increase awareness? Or is increasing leads and sales most important to you?
Here is a list of the most common advertising platforms businesses tend to use.
- Google Ads
- Amazon
- Taboola
Here are a couple of more articles about PPC that may help. How Paid Advertising Works and the Best Places To Run Ads Online.
Social Media
Promote Your Existing Content
To get the most out of your content, you have to be proactive. One way is by promoting it through social media channels like Twitter and Google+. Social networks are great for short links that encourage people on their phones or computers access more information quickly; this type if promotion seems especially effective in B2B niches- where LinkedIn also works well as long as promotions aren’t too distracting from what they’re looking at when browsing images instead text only posts!
Engage On Social Media
While it’s true that social media channels are not only for sharing content — you need to actively participate in the community, too. Got a Twitter account? Then join discussions with relevant hashtags and answer any questions people have about your business. Is your audience leaving comments on Facebook posts or otherwise interacting with you online? Answer questions and engage them! Nothing turns people off quicker than using these platforms as broadcast tools. Instead use them how they were intended: by actually interacting and having two-way conversations.
Search Engine Optimization
On-Page SEO
You might be thinking that SEO has gone the way of dial up internet, but you couldn’t
more wrong. Optimizing your content for search engines is still an extremely valuable practice for any business. Getting on page SEO nailed can help boost organic website traffic and lead to increased leads and sales.
Are you using meta descriptions and Title Tags? What about image alt-tags? Is your content created around keyword research you have performed? There is quite a bit that goes into on-page SEO and it is important you have a sound strategy in place before you get started.
Target Long-Tail Keywords
If you don’t have long-tail keywords covered, then you are missing out on a majority of web searches. The internet is powered by people,and they’re searching for what matters most to them, which tends to be very specific.Your target audience typically does not search using broad terms like “buy shoes” or “plumbing”. They tend to be more specific using longer phrases of three to 5+ words. These longer phrases are referred to as long-tail keywords. They tend to have less search volume than shorter phrases, but they can be worth more to your business.
You may be more inclined to find keywords with the most estimated search volume, but that is not necessarily where you can “make your money” so to speak. If high volume keywords are relevant to your business, then go for it. But long-tail keywords tend to be used by people who are further down the sales funnel and may be ready to take action such as buy something or call a business to inquire about services. Learn more about long-tail keyword research.
Don’t Forget About Internal Linking
When people first learn about SEO, they will fairly quickly comes across the importance of link building. This is the practice of acquiring links from other sites that point back to your website. But, there is another type of link that is important for SEO and these links are called internal links. Internal linking is one of the most overlooked aspects in SEO. It not only helps you rank higher, but it also provides a better user experience which can increase traffic to your website!
What are internal links? They are links within your website content that link to other pages on your website. They don’t link out to other websites. These links stay within your website, hence internal links.
Implement Schema Markup
Implementing schema will not necessarily increase traffic to your website on its own, but it can make things easier for bots and humans alike. For SEO purposes in particular though – because rich snippets result from using this format- implementing Schemas may lead not only more clicks (from web searches) but also better quality ones!
Learn More: Schema Markup Beginners Guide
Website
Create A Responsive Website
When more people than ever before are accessing the internet on their mobile devices, it’s imperative that your site be easily viewable. The days of desktop browsing being exclusively for humans with large screens are long gone; today we use smaller smartphones and tablets which have a range of screen sizes to accommodate all sorts of users. Make sure you’re designing an accessible website so everyone has access not just those who can comfortably pinch or scroll around but also includes folks looking at shorter websites such as Twitter feeds!
Create A Fast Website
We all know that websites take time to load. If your site is taking too long, you’re going
to have a high bounce rate and people will get frustrated with waiting for content they want on the page! Make sure this doesn’t happen by optimizing images in terms of file sizes as well as structurally Simplifying third party plugins so everything loads quicker – who wouldn’t love being able enjoy browsing without patiently staring at an error message?
To test your current page speed and find areas where you can make some improvements, check out this tool – https://pagespeed.web.dev/
