Marketing
December 23, 2022
Marketing a small business online is no easy task, but if you follow these steps, you'll be on your way to reaching new customers and increasing sales.
Create a website.
A website is a place to showcase your business, products, and services. A good website will make it easy for customers to find information about your business, connect with you through social media and email, and ultimately convert into paying customers.
A simple website can be built with WordPress (a free platform), Squarespace (a paid option), or Wix (also paid). If you don't have the time or money to build one yourself then hiring a designer is recommended; this could cost anywhere from $500-$1000 depending on what's included in the package.
Build your presence on social media.
You need to be on social media. You may have heard the phrase "if you're not on social, then you don't exist". To some extent, that's true, but there are a few other things to consider when building out your presence:
- Create profiles on the most popular sites or apps in order to share your content and engage with customers. If you have a small business with limited resources, this is an area where it makes sense to prioritize platforms that are already established and will help you reach your target audience more easily than starting from scratch.
- Use social media as a way of finding new customers by monitoring trends and feedback around what people are talking about in their personal lives that could overlap with the type of products or services offered by your small business.
Optimize your site for search engines.
- Optimize your site for search engines.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of making sure that people can find your website when they search for relevant keywords. While SEO can seem complicated, it's really quite simple: you want to make sure that people who are searching for what you offer will find your site on the first page of results.
SEO has become more and more important since Google's algorithm update in 2016. That update made it so sites with high levels of quality content would rank higher than those with low quality content, regardless of how old or new they were. This means that if someone searches Google for "high-quality content," they might just land on a page like this one!
Here are some ways you can optimize your site:* Make sure all pages have titles.* Use keywords throughout.* Update often.* Use good images and videos when possible
Branch out with pay-per-click advertising.
Pay-per-click advertising is an ad that appears at the top of a search engine results page when someone searches for a keyword related to your business. When you click on the ad, it takes you to an external landing page where you can find out more about products or services, sign up for emails and newsletters, and make a purchase.
The most common way to use pay-per-click advertising is through Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords), which allows businesses to choose keywords that best describe their company and its offerings. For example: “small business marketing automation software” or “biodegradable packaging containers.” You then set a daily budget for how much money you're willing to spend per day on promoting those particular keywords. If someone searches for one of these words on Google or other search engines during the time frame set by your budget limit, your ad will appear at the top of their results page in order of relevancy based on performance metrics like clickthrough rate (CTR).
Having an online presence can help you market your business.
Having an online presence is important if you want to market your business. Your website and social media accounts are great tools for building trust with potential customers, promoting your brand, and engaging with the community. If you don't have an online presence yet but are interested in getting started, read on!
Conclusion
We hope you’ve found this guide useful. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact us at any time!
Check out some of our other blog posts if you want to learn more about lead generation, if you need any help choosing the right advertising agency in Philadelphia, or how to get started with Facebook ads.
