For small businesses, it can be hard to promote your business to your target audience and get the ball rolling. Your marketing knowledge may be low to non-existent and you do not have a multi-million-pound budget… we are here to tell you, you do not need to! Because of this, we have collated our favourite beginner marketing tips which are sure to skyrocket your company.
Local search research – Your positioning on the search results page is vital to the amount of traffic to your site. Often, a business’ main route of traffic is organic (users searching for your website), therefore, you NEED to introduce search engine optimisation techniques into your marketing strategy and plan. If you are a small business you will want to focus optimisation for your local search result as this will require less work and less budget. However, it is important to know you will not see quick results and will require consistent work to effectively reap the benefits.
Make sure your website is optimised for people and bots – Your website will need to be able to effectively convert customers, but also must be readable by bots. When someone searches a term on a search engine, little bots are sent and scour the internet to find sites which appropriately answer the user’s query. Therefore, you will need to optimise your site to make their job easier to find you. For example, a sitemap, useful content, alt tags, low load time, internal links etc. will all help to do this.
Start to link build – As well as internal links, you will need to link to other websites and encourage other sites to link to you. This will help with your search rank and position in the industry. However, you cannot link to random sites which have no relevance to your business or web page- it is quality over quantity with external links. For a small business, why not contact local businesses, bloggers or news sites to exchange and apply links.
Use keywords (however, not unnaturally) – Make sure to use the words which your target audience are using to find the product/service you are providing. Once you have established these keywords, make sure to naturally implement them onto your pages and blog posts… but! Make sure you do not use the specific keyword more than 5 times as you may be penalised by search engines for spam.
Ask for email addresses – Whether that be in exchange for an offer, newsletter or for the transaction process, make sure to gain as much personal information about your customers as possible. This will contribute to future marketing, research and sales! All will help your business flourish.
Maintain your PR – When we say PR (Public Relations) we do not mean large newspaper and magazine press articles. This can start small by developing your online presence, local newspaper coverage and customer response. Make sure to get as many positive reviews from your customers as possible, if you feel you had a great interaction simply ask them to write a few sentences about their relationship with your business on the platform you want to focus your efforts. E.g. Facebook, Google My Business, Your website, Online directories etc.
Connect with other small business’ in the local area – Make sure you become known in your local area, this will be where most of your business will come from therefore it is necessary you become friendly with your community and other businesses. This will help with your networking, PR, link building and search rank.
Social media – One of the most effective tools… and it’s free! If your target audience allows it, make sure to include social media in your marketing plan. Your customers will indicate which platforms will work best for you, make sure to be selective as you will not want to be wasting your energy on accounts which will not bring any return.
For further insights and guidance, we invite you to explore our blog at 07hm.co.uk/blog. Here, you’ll find a wealth of information tailored to the needs and challenges of SMEs navigating the digital landscape. Additionally, if you have specific questions or need personalised advice, don’t hesitate to reach out to us via email at info@07hm.co.uk or telephone on 01702 410663.
