Paying attention to new trends and emerging channels are always critical for effective marketing. Although you might feel confident in your small business’s current techniques and marketing strategies, you should always be aware of what’s coming next so you can stay ahead of the competition.
To keep your small business successful, here are three digital marketing tips to get you started.
#1. Content marketing – Attract your customers with useful information
One powerful method to get your small business noticed is by creating meaningful content for your potential customers. Blogging is a great way for content marketing. Since people rely on search engines to solve their daily problems or find the information they need, why not provide content that meets their needs and drags them to your website?
By optimizing your webpage for search engines with quality blog posts, your business will appear at the top of search results for topics related to the products or services you offer. This provides not only a great amount of traffic but also makes your brand more trustworthy, which all leads to potential business growth.
Some businesses, however, focus on the frequency and neglect the importance of quality, which is not a good way to do content marketing. You can post a keyword-driven blog every week, but if the content doesn’t provide value, you will lose the interest of your readers. Try to create exciting, shareable and informative content to keep your readers engaged.
For example, say you are the owner of a restaurant, you can have blogs with topics such as “5 popular drinks for your next outdoor barbecue” or “10 recipes for a perfect Christmas dinner”. Try to understand what topics interest your customers, conduct market research if you need to.
Also, always integrate the latest trend into your topics. In the example of a restaurant business, as there is a growing concern of healthy eating habits, you can have blogs with titles such as “Top 10 healthy ways to cook fruit and vegetables”.
#2 Build a social media community – Increase loyal customers
In order to gain a higher customer loyalty, you need to have a good social media plan and establish a strong social media community, which includes having engaging conversations and being responsive to customers.
Conversation
Try to start a conversation with your customers through different posts, this will strengthen the bond between your brand and the customers. A conversation can be started as simple as “What was the first meal you ever cooked? How did it turn out?”
Not only can your brand be perceived as a “humanized friend”, but you can also get some insights from your customers. For example, if “steak” appears several times in the reply, you can have a blog or video post about how to cook a perfect steak.
Listen to the conversation with your customers to gain ideas to put into your social media plan.
Responsive
Customers expect to receive a personalized response rather than an automated message when they post comments on your social media. Being able to acknowledge each comment demonstrates that you are aware of your customers’ needs and dedicated to offering the best service experience. Always remember to start a reply with the name of the customer, this brings them closer to you.
Although customers might leave a complaint on social media, this is still an opportunity to publicly show your compassion for your customers. By taking time to respond the matter authentically and professionally, your brand will be perceived positively as a company devoted to customer satisfaction.
One successful example of a business being responsive to social media is Beginning Boutique. Managing and answering social media channels is the first and last thing of the day for the founder Sarah Timmerman. The dedication of treating customers as their best friends and the immediate response to customer comments on social media have made Beginning Boutique grow from a small online fashion site to a seven-figure business.
#3 Social media marketing – Target the customers you want
Small business should make the most use of social media marketing, as it can target specific customers effectively.
So, how exactly does this work?
Social media sites like Facebook has been used by at least 90% across all gender, age and location segments, it provides outstanding ways of identifying different target segments based on different attributes. Therefore, Facebook advertising can be used to promote your small business to untapped targets. For example, advertising your latest blog post through Facebook advertising not only enables the selection of demographic and location that your business wishes to reach but also targets those who had shown interest in similar topics.
Moreover, Facebook advertising is relatively affordable compared to some traditional advertising. The freedom of controlling your budget and the flexibility of when to stop a campaign are ideal for small businesses which have limited resources.
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