Everyone these days is an online small business owner marketing expert. They’re ready to teach small businesses how to ‘hustle, grind and crush’ their way to digital domination.
If the expectation is such, this article can’t help you hustle or grind.
The Hustle, we can probably do on the dance floor.
What it can do, however, is provide insights into online marketing strategies for small businesses, which when done smartly, consistently AND with lots of patience, will likely get results in major search engines like Google.
You can demystify digital marketing
Digital or online marketing is not that mysterious. It’s really about understanding the online behaviours of your prospects and clients and implementing strategies and tools that will communicate your value to them in a way they wish to receive it.
For example, if your brand targets Gen Z, understand that they are motivated by social responsibility or social good. It, therefore, makes it important that you develop socially responsible programs that resonate with them.
They care and they are more likely to buy from you the small ‘mom and pop’ store that larger brands.
Don’t bother faking it either – they can smell the disingenuity a mile off.
If you were to take this example a bit further, you would also understand that with Gen Z, their online marketing tool of choice would be videos and social platforms like Snapchat and Instagram. small business owner
Long emails and text won’t move the needle. Their attention span is probably similar to a fruit fly.
Now that we have set the stage, let me share with you, online marketing strategies that I am confident will work for your small business.
A caveat before we proceed – you either put the work in or pay for the necessary skills to get the desired outcome. Knowledge without action is useless.
Here’s how to survive your 2018 online marketing:
1. Have a website that converts and make it about your customers!
If you need a clear reminder – here it is. Your website is not for you! It’s not about how great you say you are; it’s not about touting your credentials from here to the Philippines nor is it about those cute photos of you and the team in your spiffy outfit and coiffured hair-do.
The photos are nice, don’t get me wrong.
But the ‘no secret, secret’ is to let your prospects and customers know how you will solve their pressing problems.
Your website is your online store front, billboard and business card, all wrapped up in one.
When you strategize for your website (which I hope you take the time to do with your web developer), remember it’s for Peter the Piper, whose online marketing has not produced the leads and conversions he needs.
Peter must resolve this issue quickly because his sales pipeline is floundering and he will likely miss his quarterly target.
He is deeply concerned – his rent, payroll and supplier invoices are on the line.
It’s for Connie, Carmen’s daughter who is a member of the sandwich generation, caring for her mom.
Connie needs to find the perfect in-home caregiver because her mom can’t be left alone. Carmen, has early signs of dementia.
The long and short is that your website must address the visitors’ most pressing problem in a few short seconds to capture attention and keep them on your site.
Google, the biggest search engine, is very clear about user intent and user experience.
If you missed the memo, here is what John Mueller, Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst had to say:
“I see lots and lots of SEO blogs taking about user experience, which I think is a great thing to focus on as well. Because that essentially focuses on what we are trying to look at as well.
We want to rank content that is useful for them (Google Search users) as well and if your content is really useful for them, then we want to rank it”.
There you have it – from the ‘horse’s mouth’.
In a recent survey by inbound marketing and sales software company HubSpot, they asked consumers what was the most important factor in the design of a website, here are the results:
- 76 % of consumers want a website that makes it easy for them to find what they want
- 10% want a beautiful appearance
- 9% want a cutting edge interactive experience
Your prospects and customers are not really interested in a pretty digital brochure, instead they are interested in a website that solves their problem and anticipates their intent.
I see too many small business owners spend precious time and resources creating a website without a proper strategy in place. A website is perhaps one of the biggest online marketing investment yet so many business owners get it wrong. They neglect to view it through the eyes of their buyers.
Do you clearly answer what you will solve?
Is the process clear?
Is there an explanation of what will happen first, second, third and so on?
Do you highlight how you have helped others like them in the past?
Build it and they will come. Nope, not true. That was a decade ago.
In 2018, a website must be built for online conversion. It must be built with the customer journey in mind. And it must be built with a few key functionalities in mind.
Web traffic and visitor behaviour must be measured and tracked.
You can’t set it and forget it!
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2. Write useful content for your buyer
I almost feel like a stuck record when I say ‘it’s ALWAYS about your prospects and customers.
I can’t help it, because it’s true and my guess is that you are in business to serve others, not yourself.
Your ultimate goal is to transact a sale.
Every opportunity you have to touch a prospect or customers should be clear you have them in mind.
When you create content, providing value should be at the forefront. If your content isn’t engaging and does not grab the readers attention it’s likely to fall flat and they will keep moving in search of the next site that answers their questions.
The last thing you want is a high bounce rate. It’s a signal to Google – not a good one, either.
Bear in mind that content doesn’t have to be text alone. It can be images, videos, audio, charts or infographics as well.
Studies suggest, content that contains at least one image gets an average of 94% more traffic and tend to rank best in Google.
When you think about content, consider it a to be no more than a conversation with your buyer.
Your buyers are searching online because they have a need and they are looking to fill it. If you can thoroughly answer their questions and/or overcome their objections, you’ll do better than your competitors.
However, to have that meaningful conversation, you need to know who they are and how they are likely to behave.
One size doesn’t fit all. They don’t have the same pain or seek the same pleasure.
Peter has a bleeding neck and Paul has a bleeding heart.
The conversation is a bit different and so should the copy. The solution for a bleeding neck is not the same as a bleeding heart.
It’s imperative that you know your customer type or customer persona as we marketers like to call it.
When you write the solution for Peter’s bleeding neck make it super detailed and thorough. It’s not good enough just to skim the surface.
Consider the pillar content concept, that is, content that provides details from A-Z.
Pillar content is a very good online marketing strategy.
The bleeding neck content could include things like: How to stop a bleeding neck, the causes of a bleeding neck, doctors who specialize in bleeding necks, the signs that a bleeding neck is healed, common myths about a bleeding neck, do’s and don’ts when you have a bleeding neck.
You get the picture.
Here are other key considerations for effective online marketing content:
- Use compelling language that speaks to your audience
- Use keywords throughout – no keyword stuffing though
- Use bullet points to break up text
- Use visuals for appeal –a picture is worth a thousand words – right?
- Write with precision – don’t use 10 words when 5 will do
- Write so that your 6-year-old nephew Tommi can understand – you won’t impress your readers with ‘big’ words when simple ones will do
When you consistently provide valuable content, you will be viewed as the subject matter expert, you’ll gain authority and become an influencer. People will seek you out.
3. A great value proposition is hard to resist. Serve it up!
My business coach Judi Hughes of Your Planning Partners, a downtown Toronto business consulting and coaching company offers a half day workshop called Taste The Chocolate. It’s a great FREE workshop that allows you to experience the work they do.
The value is off the charts – it’s their irresistible offer to prospects.
Once you experience their work, you walk away knowing they are the only business coaches you want to help you grow your business.
While that’s an offline unique marketing value proposition, a free value like that could be easily converted to an online marketing irresistible offer, with a few tweaks here and there.
Perhaps, converting the offline workshop to a free webinar or comprehensive guide to small business success.
Asking your site visitors to sign-up for your newsletter, which is usually hidden at the bottom of the homepage, won’t cut it anymore.
Would you sign-up for your own newsletter if there was no exceptional value to your life or business?
Prospects and customers have way too many online choices to have their inboxes cluttered with content they don’t find useful or they can get elsewhere.
To cut through the noise and clutter, offer something of real value – if you show your visitors how you will ‘scratch their itch’ or ‘stop their bleeding neck’ your email subscriptions will increase.
Speak to their pain or pleasure.
With permission email, you have a golden opportunity to connect directly with them and from here you can begin to build a lasting relationship.
4. Fast Loading Site and Mobile First is 2018
Google is the top dog of online search engines – they maintain a whopping 86.3 percent market share (as at April 2018).
When consumers do online searches, Google is their default.
Notice how Google is now a verb? We Google anything and everything. These days, we even voice search: “Google, find me best practices for online marketing”.
In a flash, a myriad of snippets and answers pop up.
Since Google is the top dog and we want our small business to rank higher, perhaps we need to pay closer attention to their ranking factors.
They have publicly confirmed that they use your site’s loading speed as a ranking factor.
If your site’s speed is slow as a manatee your site will be penalized.
Google makes it clear that it rewards sites that provide the best user experience (ux) for a given search.
If your visitors hate slow moving websites so does Google.
How fast is fast enough? 2 seconds? 5 seconds?
Some web experts believe 3 seconds and under is most desirable. It also depends on your industry too.
Others argue that the standard will evolve as the technology evolves.
The obvious answer to me though, is as fast as your visitors want it to be. They are the ones who will appreciate it.
Bear in mind, when page load times are slow or delayed, visitors tend to interact less with a site and bounce quickly. It, therefore, makes a site less desirable.
We are now in the era of mobile first, where search on mobile has significantly surpassed desktop.
63% of all traffic in the US is done on mobile, according to Stone Temple, a US based digital agency.
So mobile has become another key area of consideration when thinking about page load times.
When it comes to fast loading sites your speed needs to be as fast as you can make it without affecting your customer experience.
For page speed success there are several factors in play like, the web hosting provider, the content, the browser, the device and so on.
As the technology evolves and search engines update ranking factors it’s crucial that you keep abreast of the changes and make the shift as well.
Blink and you could be left behind.
Here are a few neat tools to check how fast your page loads: Pingdom, PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix.
5. Video Marketing is mandatory
Mandatory. Yes.
In 2018 video marketing is mandatory for your small business; a total no brainer to me.
To stand out, I believe video should be firmly entrenched in your content and search engine optimization (SE)) strategies.
And it doesn’t have to cost a month’s payroll.
With so many free tools and smartphones, video marketing is within reach.
Not convinced?
Here are a few facts and stats to prove that you need to jump on board now:
- By 2021 online video will make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic
(Cisco)
- 1 minute of video is worth 1.8 million words to a consumer
(Dr. James McQuivey, Forrester Research)
- There are over 30 million total daily active YouTube users
(OmniCore)
- You’re 53 times more likely show up first on Google if you have a video on your website
(Forrester Research)
- 100 million hours of video are watched daily on Facebook
(Wyzowl)
Speaking of Facebook, back in April 2016, it launched it’s Facebook Live: live video streaming that allowed users to broadcast from their mobile devices to their News Feed.
With this tool, businesses have been able to connect and interact directly and immediately with their followers.
Over the years, live videos have grown in popularity and is said to have 3 times more engagement than traditional videos shared on other platforms.
What this clearly indicates is that Facebook has recognized the sea change in how people consume information and has made a massive investment in live video.
So too has Amazon. They recently bought Twitch, a former gaming platform but now being used for live video.
If Facebook, Amazon and other big brands have recognized the seismic shift – what about you?
It’s time to leverage video marketing to find new customers and convert your existing ones in raving fans.
6. Google My Business (GMB) is for local businesses
An often-overlooked SEO strategy for local businesses, Google My Business is a secret weapon every small business owner should have in her back pocket. It has enormous potential.
If you haven’t yet utilized this fantastic tool, get started by claiming and verifying your local business at https://www.google.com/business. Fill out all the information asked for and populate as many features as you can.
If you have already claimed your business, get more active – often. With the recent upgrades, you can add a description of your business, embed videos, include a message, add buttons for events, upload photos and glean insights.
There are also posts you can add which provides another grand opportunity to stand out. Posts can be used to highlight a seminar, workshop or some other event. You can even create a shorter version of your blog post (maximum 300 words) as your post or highlight a sale.
The possibilities are really endless.
The best part? It’s a ‘freemium’! A free Google tool which can increase your chances of showing up in organic ranking and local searches like Google Maps.
With it’s recent feature upgrades, Google is signalling that it’s serious about local search engine optimization.
So, should you.
Where to begin?
Nike says: “Just Do It”.
I say, just start. Nothing needs to be perfect because ‘perfect isn’t done’.
Decide on your priorities and align those with your business and marketing goals then go from there.
Online or digital marketing often times seems mysterious and complex as the tools and technologies evolve.
Trying to keep up is a zero-sum game.
Don’t.
Simply pick a spot and start, that’s the first step to success.
If it becomes too overwhelming get help.
But whatever you do, don’t become paralyzed by information overload.
Your small business marketing success in 2018 and beyond requires strategic action.
It requires that you embrace digital marketing.
Your buyers live online.
What will you do? I’d love to hear.
