One of the hardest business areas for small business these days is marketing. On one side, marketing opportunities have become widely available, but also very complex for most. Marketing landscape has gotten much larger since the days of radio and print advertisement. These days, small business marketing services encompass a wide range of tactics or methods. Such methods are Social Media, SEO, Blogging, Influencers, Videos, etc. There are many options small businesses have these days.
The most recent trend is Omni-Channel sales, which is most effective. It means to offer the products or services across as many relevant platforms as possible. Selling across social media, e-commerce, third party websites, brick and mortar, and so on has obvious benefits. A much wider and larger reach to potential buyers and desired target audience. For a small business, the challenges are how to cover that much ground, so to say. There are time constraints, staffing limits and budget limitations to consider.
Choices have to be made when a small business can’t do everything. Most companies cannot, but a smaller business especially. What should be done at that point? The are some foundational key investments a smaller business should make. These are below with more details.
Small Business Website
Marketing is extremely ineffective when the website is amateurish, poorly created, and not well managed. If your fishing net is full of holes, not many fish will be caught. The website is critical for a small business and not an area to neglect or lack funding for. This is an investment that is very wise to make. Meaning, a small business website should be professionally done. It is one of the key tools today for the business, marketing, and sales. Without a proper website, marketing services and campaigns will be less effective or not at all. The small business website is the foundation online for the business. A company should invest into a strong digital foundation. This includes a professional website and professional website hosting with plenty of added services such as automatic backups, firewall, added bandwidth as required.
Content, Content, Content
Most small businesses underestimate the amount of content required online. They are simply not experienced enough to know better. Unless they speak with experts through consulting services for example, how would they know. Content is everything such as images, videos, and all forms of text. This is white papers, case studies, website text, product details, about services, blogging, magazine articles, any text published. Not only is a large amount of content required, but also frequently fresh, quality, unique, and relevant content is needed. This alone often overwhelms small and larger companies. Content is king! Any size company would be very wise to invest into content creation and marketing. If a company is not saying much online, not much should be expected either.
Small Business Search Engine Optimization
SEO is something that rarely can be done inhouse. For a small business, it is not possible to hire SEO specialists inhouse. At least, not with enough experience to be very effective. So much goes into professional SEO services that it should be just contracted out. SEO enables a small business to compete even with much larger companies. Organically getting ranked for important keyword phrases has vast amounts of benefits for any size of company, but especially for a small business. SEO is a must investment for most types of small businesses. Not all, but most. SEO campaigns optimize the small business website and drive quality traffic to the site. This drastically increases opportunities for the small business. It enhances online visibility as well as credibility. There is much to gain from SEO services.
These are the key investments for a small business. Some social media of course should be done, but without content, a website, and an SEO campaign … it would be not that effective. The accounts tend to be created but not much activity generated. A small business should invest into the above cornerstone foundation for the business first. Then, add as it can afford paid advertising, social media marketing, etc. Social media accounts can be created right away, but a small business will only have a certain budget to work with. The above is for most small businesses a priority or should be.
Companies, investors, and entrepreneurs that would like to get assistance should look into consulting services. Working with a consultant enables a person to get temporary professional help specific to their needs. There is very little of a learning curve. Consultants can quickly get going and started, adding immediate value. Through various consulting services, a small business can get assistance with marketing, websites, sales efforts and much more. Consultants often have established relationships with quality vendors and service providers. Small business marketing services and challenges for companies getting started can be minimized with expert assistance.
