Why all small businesses should have an online marketing strategy
You’re a small business and things are kicking along nicely. You’ve got your logo, established branding, and you have a website. You may even have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ or other social media platforms set up for your business. These are all tools to help market your products and services and what you do with them is what’s important. So what next?
As a small business, we know there’s so much to consider – why, what, who, when, where, how?
Why market your business online?
- What’s your purpose?
- Who is your audience?
- Where should your focus be?
- What to write?
- When to post?
- Who will write the content?
- How do you know if it’s working?
An online marketing strategy will help you determine all the above, and hopefully more.
It’s true – you need a plan. Start your strategy here:
Why market your business online?
Print media is declining, and fast. Newspapers, magazines and print advertising are feeling the sting of free and fast information online. An article posted by Nic Christensen on mUmBRELLAon February 14th, 2014, states “most of Australia’s major metro mastheads have once again posted double digits declines in the last round of print circulation figures.”
Derek Thompson from The Atlantic posted about this back in 2012, musing that newspapers and magazines need to invest in online, “…otherwise, one hopes that rich people continue to be fond of paying for the production of great writing on bundles of ink and paper.”
Marketing online allows you to reach an unprecedented audience and success is actuallymeasureable (Google Analytics, Facebook insights, Google reviews and more). Furthermore, once you invest in a good website, most online marketing activity can be done by your business for free. It doesn’t cost anything to post on your website’s blog, or to schedule strategic posts on Facebook.
What is your purpose?
There’s little point simply going through the motions if you don’t have a purpose. You need to ask yourself what you want to get out of your online marketing.
You may want to build brand awareness, connect with your client base, reach new clients (and more importantly, attract them to take desired action), boost your ranking in Google for certain keywords and locations, or maybe you simply want to teach your clients something new every month and build your reputation as a leader in your field. You purpose shouldn’t be to sell, sell, sell – but rather to share, inform and inspire.
Who is your audience?
Who purchases your goods and services the most? Is it stay-at-home mums, trades, hairdressers, fisherman, teenage girls, football fanatics, backpackers, bridal couples, book clubs? Any online marketing strategy needs to identify their audience in order to produce content that is not only appropriate, but engaging for this audience. Your audience is your target market – who you want to engage your products and/or services.
Where should your focus be?
Part of your strategy should be determining which platforms you will use and where your priorities lie. Your website is your asset and you own it, so keeping your website up-to-date by blogging should be your priority. You do not own your social media pages, but they are great for building brand awareness and your reputation.
Then you need to decide which social media platforms are most relevant to your business. Facebook and Google+ is relevant for all businesses and might be enough to start with. Determine only the most relevant channels to engage your audience – i.e. LinkedIn is appropriate for an accountant, lawyer and other professionals. Pinterest and Instagram are excellent for photographers. Master a couple of platforms first, and expand later.
Write down the platforms you plan to use in order of importance, i.e. blogging on your website, eNewsletters via MailChimp (or other email marketing program), Google+, Facebook, Twitter.
What to write?
Producing content for a public forum can be scary – no doubt. Building a strategy should include determining what to write about. This requires some brainstorming on your part, and a good way to go about it is to block out an hour or so, bring in some staff, and look closely at your products, services, points of difference, events coming up you may be involved in and anything else relevant to your audience. For a 12 month plan, you will need 12 overall topics. Once you start brainstorming it is likely you will have more topics than months! Your monthly topics can be broken down into weekly subjects – i.e. if you are a restaurant and your monthly topic is focused on a new seasonal menu, your weekly topics could be: sourcing local produce, what ingredients are in season and being used in your new menu, matching a new menu item with a wine, and a tasting note from the chef to introduce the menu. Make sure you include some pictures of the new meals available to spark people’s interest.
If you a plumber a monthly topic should not ‘plumbing’, but something more specific such as solar hot water systems, in which case you could discuss suppliers, warranties, installation and benefits.
When to post?
You need to determine when you will post on your business blog, and when you will schedule Facebook posts. Your strategy may be to write one blog post per month, and three Facebook posts per week. You may send eNewsletters weekly, monthly or quarterly depending on your type of business.
You can determine the best times for social media posts through trial and error – schedule some of your social media posts for the morning, some for evenings, and some on the weekend and have a look at which ones receive the most interaction.
Who will do it?
It needs to be clear who will be implementing your strategy, and how long it should take them. If you are doing it yourself, make sure you stick to the strategy and mark things off as you go. Allocate a set amount of time per day or week and make sure it gets done. If you are delegating or employing a staff member to do it, ensure they understand what is expected, have access to the strategy, and you communicate with them along the way.
How do you know if it’s working?
Check Google Analytics for your website regularly. Blogging consistently with quality content including keywords and your target location should boost monthly website views. You may find certain trends emerge as more people view your site, such as a higher percentage of mobile device users, in which case you should consider a responsive website.
Watch the interaction on your Facebook page, Page Insights helps you track likes, post reach, visits and more. Other social media platforms have some form of statistical evidence or recommendation system so you can track how you are performing. However, unlike Google Analytics, social media statistics should be taken with a grain of salt as success is more subjective. If people are interacting positively and more frequently with your business profiles, this is a good indication people like what you’re doing.
Don’t forget, it’s ok to ask your audience for feedback! Send a newsletter or update your status and ask what they want to know about your business.
Online marketing can be daunting – even for qualified marketing professionals. But anyone can do it, and having a realistic strategy is the first step.
We provide the option for half day marketing training with clients, to help identify appropriate social media platforms and a comprehensive 12 month marketing strategy.
Based in Geelong, GOOP provides online marketing services for businesses Australia-wide.Contact us for more information about how we can help market your business online.