Small businesses are the backbone of every local economy, but they can also be a challenge to compete against in the digital age. There are thousands of small businesses competing for customers online. With millions of websites and social media accounts competing for users’ attention, standing out is more important than ever. In the UK, in 2019, 99% of UK businesses were SMBs and over 65% of those used digital marketing effectively.
If you want your small business to succeed and grow, you need to develop a digital marketing strategy that sets you apart from your competition. If your company isn’t one of the top competitors in your industry, you need to take action now to ensure that another business does not upstage you. Read on to learn more about how you can implement effective digital marketing strategies for small businesses.
- Audit Your Existing Pages
- Use Social Proof
- Look Into Voice Search
- Focus On Mobile Responsiveness
- Get Listed On Google My Business
- Add A Blog To Your Site
- Utilise Customer-Generated Content
- Summary
Audit your existing pages
While you don’t want to overhaul your site constantly, you want to make sure that the pages you have been optimised for the keywords you want to rank for. If you have a product used for gardening, you might want to optimise your product page for the keyword gardening tools. If that page is not optimised for that keyword, you won’t rank for it. Do a quick audit of your existing content to ensure it’s optimised for the keywords you want to rank for. If it isn’t, you can try to edit the page to include those keywords. You can also add more related content to your site to make sure you’re covering all your bases. Sites with a lot of content naturally get a boost in the search engines because they look like they’re more legitimate.
If you find this too big of a task or don’t know what to make of your audit results, it might be beneficial to partner with a digital marketing agency that can put your audit to good use and find the right digital strategy.
Use social proof
One of the best ways to prove to customers that your business is legit is to leverage social proof. Social proof is anything that demonstrates to customers that others have used and enjoyed your product or service. You can use social proof in various ways to boost customer confidence and encourage them to buy from you. You should build social proof into your website in a few different places. The most obvious place is your homepage. You should make it clear that others have used your product or service and that they were satisfied with the results.
Alternatively, you can use social proof in your product or service descriptions. You can also include customer testimonials. Another good place to showcase social proof is in your online reviews. If your business already receives online reviews, you should encourage customers to leave additional testimonials. If your customers aren’t leaving reviews, you might have to ask them to leave feedback on your platform of choice. If your business doesn’t have existing reviews, it might be time to take action.
Look into voice search
Another marketing trend to note is the rise of voice search. Google announced that more than one billion people use the Google search engine per month to ask questions by voice. This means that you need to be prepared to optimise your website for this kind of search. You probably won’t have time to re-write your content to make it voice search-friendly. Instead, you can use an online transcript service to take your content and make it downloadable. This way, you can still rank for voice search terms, but your content is still readable for people who prefer to read. You can also use a transcription service to add a transcript to your video content. This makes your video content accessible to deaf or hard of hearing people. It also increases the likelihood that your video will be shared and viewed more often.
Focus on mobile responsiveness
It’s no secret that mobile traffic is on the rise. In fact, mobile accounts for nearly half of all internet traffic worldwide—and that number is only growing. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re losing out on a significant chunk of potential customers who cannot view your website as it was intended. You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to determine whether or not your site is responsive. If it isn’t, you can also use this tool to get tips on how to improve your mobile-friendliness. In addition to fixing your website, you should also ensure that your social media pages are mobile-friendly. Many social media sites allow you to create mobile-specific pages, which you should definitely take advantage of.
Get listed on Google My Business
Google My Business is a free tool that allows you to create a rich snippet on Google’s search results. Not only will being listed on GMB will enable you to appear above your competition in the search results, but it also gives you the chance to add lots of information (such as a detailed business description, customer reviews, hours of operation, etc.) directly to your listing. This information will help Google users make more informed purchase decisions and will also give you a chance to distinguish yourself from the competition. Being listed on GMB is free, so there’s no reason not to jump on this opportunity.
Add a blog to your sitE
Blogs are one of the best ways to connect with customers, build brand recognition, and generate interest in your products or services. Many experts suggest blogging regularly (at least weekly) to create a loyal following of customers and generate interest in your business. If you want to be successful with blogging, you need to ensure you’re doing it correctly. Be sure to choose a topic relevant to your business and interesting enough to keep readers engaged.
Also, remember that you don’t have to write lengthy essays—short, to-the-point posts are perfectly acceptable. Once you’ve established a regular blogging schedule, you can begin to monetise your blog by hosting paid advertisements or product reviews. You can also use social media to promote your blog posts.
Utilise customer-generated content
People love to talk about their favourite products and brands. If you’re not tapping into this passion and encouraging your customers to create content, you’re missing an opportunity to grow your business. You can create a customer-generated content (CGC) strategy that enables your customers to create content about your brand and products. You can do this in a variety of ways. Allow reviews to be collected on your website or via third party sites such as TrustPilot.
You can use user-generated content on your home page as a features section so users can immediately see previous testimonials. Share good feedback on your social media account or include reviews in product listings so new customers can get a better idea of the product or service in real life from people who have experienced it.
In this day and age, people are looking to their peers to see what they think and make more informed decisions. This is why using CGC is vital in a digital marketing strategy.
Summary
The best way to succeed in the digital age is to cut through the noise. You can create engaging content and then promote it as aggressively as possible. With the advice in this article, you can create a digital marketing strategy that sets you apart from your competition. Now is the time to act if you want to succeed in your industry. If you follow these strategies, you’ll be able to attract more customers and create a lasting brand that people love. You can make your small business a big success with the right marketing strategies.
Disclaimer: MoneyMagpie is not a licensed financial advisor and therefore information found here including opinions, commentary, suggestions or strategies are for informational, entertainment or educational purposes only. This should not be considered as financial advice. Anyone thinking of investing should conduct their own due diligence.
