These days, scaling a business through digital means is very important. A recent statistic published by Retail Today revealed that 81% of shoppers research online before purchasing. Therefore, using strategies to put your business in front of billions of online audiences is the best way to survive in the highly competitive business sector.
The conventional ways to scale a business are very costly. Moreover, they are rapidly becoming obsolete due to the decline in people’s usage of things, such as newspapers and magazines. Refer to the image below to see the vast difference in audience acquisition between the traditional vs digital methods.
- Source: assetdigitalcom.com
Big organizations have dedicated teams for marketing and management, making it easier for them to tap into the digital world. They also have significant sums of money allocated for both traditional and digital marketing. However, small business owners struggle to make a mark. They usually wear too many hats to run the business and promote it. Plus, they don’t have a lot of money to invest in marketing.
If you, too, own a small business and are looking for a piece of thorough advice on how to grow it online, you have just landed on the right page. We have got you covered with the most beneficial tips to make your small business a big success.
1. Create a Website With an Attractive Design
Blue Corona Statistics reveal that up to 64% of small businesses have a website. In other words, there are still 36% of businesses that don’t have a website! They are surely missing out big on the benefits of getting targeted, organic traffic via a business website.
Having profiles on popular social media forums is not enough. Create a website with a catchy design and exciting content, including images, videos, and blogs to attract the relevant audience. Use best practices in web design like fast loading speed, clutter-free design, clear navigation, and the proper use of branding on your website.
These practices will ensure that the user has a seamless experience on your website and spends more time on it.
A well-designed, mobile-optimized website will give the impression that you are a professional in your field. It will help improve SEO which eventually brings organic traffic, leads for your sales funnel, and also boosts visibility in the regional market.
2. Employ SEO Best Practices
The heart and soul of every business marketing is Search Engine Optimization. Learn basic SEO techniques like enhancing your content using keywords, link building, and optimizing your GMB (Google My Business) listing. It would be best to improve your website’s speed by optimizing images as a slow-loading website has a high bounce rate.
Source: desipandora.comIf you don’t have enough SEO knowledge, you can also hire an SEO professional or take help from a reputable SEO agency to get the job done in a better way. As your website’s ranking improves, your business will thrive, proving that SEO has a high ROI.
3. Build a Robust Content Strategy
Search engines are always looking for informative content to show to their users. They have specific algorithms that rank the most informative, easy to read, and engaging content on top. That is why having a good content strategy leads you to the top spots on Google.
Your content strategy involves your web content, blogs, social media posts, videos, and guest posts on high authority websites. Other forms of content you can publish as a small business owner are e-books, infographics, whitepapers, and case studies to show how your product and service are beneficial for the customers.
Source: hubspot.comThe blog section on your website is the most important. It is where you use most of the keywords. Users who visit your blog will stay longer to read one blog post after another if you manage to churn out engaging, informative, and SEO-friendly content regularly.
Content optimization is one of the things that increase traffic to your website. Optimize your content by using on-page and off-page SEO techniques to ensure its high ranking.
4. Create a Sales Funnel
A sales funnel is the most effective way to turn targeted leads into retained customers. It is a step-by-step process where various types of content are used to attract a customer, increase his interest, and lead them towards trusting and making a purchase.
A high-performing sales funnel will help you retain customers who want to buy from you again and again. Here is a brief visual guide on a sales funnel and what type of content should you produce for each stage.
Source: moz.com
5. Automate Tasks To Save Time
Owning a small business means that you have so much to do while your business is still in the budding stage. There is paperwork to handle, customers to entertain, sending numerous emails, and tracking your budget. All this is enough to consume most of your time which you could productively use to scale the business.
Thanks to the technological advancements, small business owners can now take benefit from the following software and tools to automate time-consuming tasks.
5.1. Seo campaign tracking:
Use analytical tools such as SEMRush, or Moz to get insights into how well your SEO campaign performs.
5.2. Email marketing tools:
There are a variety of email marketing tools that send automated emails for your sales funnel to prospects. You can use any of them, including Mailchimp, Omnisend, or Sender, for your business.
5.3. Budgeting and finance management:
It’s a no-brainer how accounting for the business can suck up hours from your precious time. Use cloud-based software to handle your finance management without worrying about data loss. The best small business accounting software will track your income and expenses, send automated invoices, and send you monthly reports so that you can manage your business budget.
5.4. CRM
A good Customer Relationship Management Software relieves you from the tedious process of lead generation and customer retention.
5.5. AI chatbots
On your business website and social media chats, using AI chatbots will answer the customers’ faqs, giving you more time to focus on building meaningful customer relationships through other means.
6. Use Social Media to its full potential
Social media forums like Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Whatsapp, and Pinterest aren’t just for casual socializing. They are now gaining recognition as brand-building platforms. The Digital Marketing magazine Stats show that social media guide purchasing decisions of 74% of consumers.
Source: reliablesoft.netThe use of social media to grow a business is a highly diverse topic itself. We will sum it up by stating a few ways you can use it as a small business owner.
- Live sessions on Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook.
- Influencer marketing to extend your reach.
- Hashtag campaigns on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter
- User-generated content to form meaningful relationships
- Partnerships with other brands
- Posting social proof
- Forming a community around your brand via a Facebook group
- Quizzes, competitions, giveaways.
- Using stories on Instagram, Youtube, Facebook
- Rich pins to educate the audience on Pinterest
- Social media ads
By leveraging social media, you can increase leads and referrals for your business. You can also use it for spontaneous customer service by replying to customer queries in the comments section. Also, you can drive traffic to your business website by linking your product, blog, or landing pages in the posts.
Takeaway
Rather than being contended with a meager income that your small business is generating right now, think big and focus on making it a big success. Applying the tips mentioned above stepwise will ensure that your business will grow rapidly in the online arena.
Not only you will get a boost in sales, but your target audience will start trusting your brand and recommend it to others as well, contributing to further growth opportunities.
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