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Tag: marketing

The Easy Guide to Holiday Marketing: Four Tips to Help Land Last-Minute Shoppers

The Black Friday frenzy might be over, but that doesn’t mean people are done shopping. If your customers are anything like me, they’ll be walking through your doors at noon on Christmas Eve.

So how do you score the last-minute shoppers? Here are a few easy, last-minute marketing tips to help your business succeed this holiday season:

1. Go Mobile

According to Think with Google, 28% of all holiday retail sales were influenced by shopping-related mobile searches last year. Having a mobile-friendly site weighs heavy in user experience; users can better navigate your inventory, contact you, and see what kind of holiday deals you can offer them.

2. Utilize Social Media

Utilizing social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram can be a great way to draw customers into your brand. Showing them their shopping options and being easily accessible is a way to set your business apart in such a busy and competitive season.

3. Tailor Your Content

Tailor your content specifically for the holiday season. Your social posts should be helpful to the customer, something along the lines of “We’ve picked out the perfect gifts, so all you have to do is buy them!” Your posts shouldn’t add to the stress of their last-minute shopping. Website content should feature holiday hours, holiday shipping notifications, and anything else that might affect a customer this holiday season.

4. Make Your Business Stand Out

Offering incentives like free shipping, free gifts with purchase, and giveaways can help your business stand out among local competitors. Advertise these incentives on your site, social channels, and in your store. With so many ways to reach your business, you want shoppers to easily know why they should choose you over a competitor.

Use these four super quick and easy ways to better market your business this holiday season.

Image Credits:

Orange gift

Red gift

December 15, 2015
Dude, Where’s My Location? Google Removes Location Search Ability

While most people were recovering from Thanksgiving food comas on December 1st, Google was quietly removing the ability to change the location of your search. For those of you who don’t fondly remember, there used to be an option in the search tools that allowed you to pretend you were in a far off land searching, places like Saginaw and Cleveland.

What This Means for Online Marketing

The impact of this change is now starting to really be felt for those of us in the online marketing world.

Advanced Web Ranking, a popular keyword tracking software, had to make a quick fix for their product. Before this change, tracking keywords anywhere your clients was as simple selecting a location in the software. Just like that, you were seeing the results for “french fries” right along with everyone else located in Newark.

Then, BOOM. Google changed that.

According to Google support, the solution to this problem is now to add the city to see results for that city.

My example of “french fries” while searching in Newark has now become “french fries Newark” while in New Orleans.

Changing Keyword Searches

If you spend time looking at search volume, you might be aware that there is a difference between any two keywords, no matter how similar they may seem. Everyone is different, and I might search “french fries Newark,” you might search “Newark french fries,” and my neighbor might search “french fries in Newark.”

Since AWR updated their software to fit the new location definition, they are unfortunately changing what is actually being tracked. If you read the comments on their release of the news, users are not happy with the change. AWR needs kudos for their quick response to a large change in online marketing, even though it did not adequately address the change.

As AWR’s change magnifies, Google has drastically changed online marketers’ ability to peer into markets of their clients from afar. It really brings home the point that online marketing and SEO is are ever-changing industries, and you have to always on your toes, even over the holidays.

Image Credit:

Tom Hanks

December 9, 2015
Will Camp Out for Marketing Tips: Your Black Friday Survival Guide

November is here! A month full of falling leaves, dropping temperatures, giving thanks, and many people’s favorite shopping day: Black Friday. Last year, 133.7 million people shopped during the Black Friday weekend, according to a Fundivo.com study. As a local business, you may be trying to get a piece of the Black Friday pie this year, but you might not know where to start. Follow these tips to make the most of your online marketing efforts on one of the busiest the shopping days of the year.

Plan Early

The time to start thinking about marketing for Black Friday is now. If you traditionally experience a high volume of customers and sales during this time, like a retail store, you won’t necessarily be able to think about your marketing plan as you’re stocking extra inventory a few days before.

One of the first things to decide is what your business is going to offer for Black Friday. Is it going to be a storewide sale? Will you sell a product you don’t typically offer? Consider your goals and determine what makes the most sense for your business.

Get the Word Out

Once you’ve chosen your Black Friday offer, you need to let people know about it. By promoting your offer online, you’ll be able to reach significantly more potential customers than by promoting it in-store alone.

If you don’t have extra budget specifically for your Black Friday offer, use social media to connect with your fans. Stand out amongst competitors by posting images of products that will be available during your sale or offer an online-only incentive to entice shoppers to stop in on Black Friday.

If you’re willing to put a bit of spend behind your efforts, Facebook advertising is an affordable alternative to a costly pay-per-click campaign. You can use their impressive targeting options to get your message in front of your specific demographic. Facebook targeting ranges from gender, age, and location to education, income level, interests, shopping habits, and more.

Also, consider adding a page to your website with information specific to your Black Friday offer. That way, anyone scouting out sales in your area beforehand will know exactly what to expect from your business.

Be Creative

Black Friday isn’t just for retail. Although retail stores tend to see the majority of the action, it doesn’t mean other industries can’t jump on the bandwagon.

Not everyone loves waiting in line overnight and battling crowds all day, but who doesn’t love a bargain? If you’re a service area business, reward your customers for being productive with home maintenance on Black Friday by offering discounted service or installation. Since many people take the day off work, it’s a great time to take advantage of gaining some extra business.

Restaurant offers are also a great way to capitalize on Black Friday foot traffic. Let customers know ahead of time that appetizers are half off or you’re offering happy hour prices all day so they know where to go when they need a break from the shopping crowds.

Make sure your business is taking full advantage of Black Friday this year by creating your marketing plan early, making your offer known, and utilizing creativity to gain more customers.

Image Sources:
Jingle All The Way
Glee
Gossip Girl
Shopaholic

November 10, 2015
Stalking, Espionage, and More: The Guide to a Successful B2B Marketing Campaign

Dealing with business to business, or B2B, clients in search engine optimization, search engine marketing, or social media can be challenging. There is an extra layer of difficulty associated with a technical business that you don’t typically have when working on B2C campaigns.

The key to starting a B2B online marketing campaign is to focus on your business. Having a jumping-off point of information also allows you to craft thoughtful questions to ask in your initial meeting. Here are some easy things you can do to understand a technical client’s business and industry (besides scouring their site).

Understanding the Client

1. Watch the Tube – I love watching YouTube videos that my clients have created. Industrial clients tend to be good at showing off their technology via video. It can be super insightful, and it may help with your strategy down the road.

2. Set up a Google Alert – Reading up on industry news can initially help with learning about the B2B client, and it can be informative later on when you need ideas for social media posts and press releases. (Side note: I think it’s 110% acceptable to have a Google Alert about yourself, so go on and set that up too.)

3. Do Some Stalking – Head over to LinkedIn to find out who you are going to be speaking with and what their background involves. I’ve also gone as far as joining engineering groups on LinkedIn to see what people in the industry are talking about (and more importantly for SEO and SMO, what types of posts get them engaged). I would also advise checking out any professional associations, charity organizations, and conferences where they regularly attend or present.

Reaching the Client’s Customers

1. Infiltrate the Buying Center – Find out (most likely by asking) which industries the client works with, and ask the right questions to find out who the decision makers are in the buying process. This can help you with ad targeting and creating relevant content for C-level buyers vs. operational team members.

2. Find the Trigger – I always ask technical clients about their sales cycle, and most importantly, what triggers the need for our client’s goods/services. It is helpful to know what other businesses are going through and where search engine optimization fits into the B2B marketing plan.

Relaying that Knowledge to Your Team

1. Shout It from the Rooftops – Let the appropriate people on your team know the information they’ll need in order to produce the highest quality work for your client. This might be the hardest part of a B2B marketing campaign. Ask anyone on my team: I’m guilty of giving everyone all of the info I have on a super-technical topic! One short-term solution is to keep an ongoing “Everything you need to know” doc and organize it through bookmarks. This way, your team can quickly get to the info that impacts their task.

What are some of your tips for working with B2Bs in SEO? Let us know in the comments!

October 23, 2015
Franchise Marketing: If You Aren’t Following These 4 Tips, You Aren’t Doing It Right
Franchise opportunities and the franchise sector grew by a whopping 28,800 jobs in June 2015, according to the latest report from the ADP Research Institute. It’s true: franchises in the U.S. are growing at a powerful rate. With this growth comes a need for specific digital marketing solutions to deliver optimal franchise marketing results for companies with multiple locations.

A strong local Web presence that is consistent with the franchise or corporate brand is proven as one of the most effective lead sources. In fact, local franchisee websites were voted among the most effective customer lead sources behind only customer referrals, according to the 2015 Franchise Local Marketing Trends survey conducted by franchise software company FranConnect.

Strategize to Succeed in Online Marketing

Local website marketing strategies are a necessity for success, yet many franchisors are not providing any support to ensure their franchisees succeed online. Consider this: nearly half (48.2 percent) of franchisees manage local marketing, including franchise SEO, by themselves without corporate support. Another 44.6 percent manage their local marketing through corporate support, according to data from the survey.

Set your franchisees and multi-locations up for successful Internet marketing and franchise SEO with this local marketing checklist.

1. Create location landing pages for every location within your multi-location business.

Each business location or franchise should have its own location landing page on the brand website. This strategy allows major search engines like Google, as well as your customers, to better decipher the different locations in specific geographic areas.

2. Each location landing page should include the following for successful SEO for franchises:
- Name, address, and phone number
- My Map to Google+ page
- Unique content for the specific franchise or business location
- Directions to the business location from various landmarks, highways, or surrounding cities
- Photos of the location
- List of products and/or services (These can also link to the main brand products and services pages.)
- Link to the individual franchise or business location’s social media pages
- Strong call to action, such as “Call us today,” “Schedule an appointment,” or “Get a free case evaluation” for a law firm, for example.
3. Leverage online directory listings for new franchisees.

More than half of franchise CEOs and marketing execs have said that online directory listings for new franchisees are often created by corporate (some with agency and franchisee support). At the same time, 16.7 percent stated that new listings are simply not established, according to the Local Marketing Trends survey mentioned above.

4. Confirm that all business locations or franchises are listed on major online directories, such as the following:
- Google
- Bing
- Yelp
- Facebook
- ExpressUpdate
- Localeze
- Acxiom
- Factual
- Best of the Web
- Superpages
Be sure to list all of your business locations’ names exactly the same way on all online directories instead of “Company Name – Specific Location.” The different addresses and phone numbers will distinguish each location.

The secret to setting up every franchise or business location for local marketing success is that it takes work. The fact is that 60 percent of corporate franchise offices have marketing teams of only one to three people, according to the Local Marketing Trends survey. Search Influence provides online marketing solutions for franchise and multi-location businesses, whether they consist of two business locations or several hundred. Contact us to find out how we can maximize your franchise marketing online, including franchise SEO and more.
September 24, 2015
Insta-Ads: Facebook Brings Instagram Ads to Life

Good news for advertisers! It appears that Instagram Ads are now open for advertisers through Facebook’s Power Editor.

While no official announcement has been made (and Instagram hasn’t even updated their site), I stumbled across these new features while poking around my Business Manager. What tipped me off was the ability to claim Instagram accounts under the Business Settings in Business Manager. From there, you can assign ad accounts to individual Instagram accounts. Interesting, right?

There is also a notification at the top of the page that states that “Instagram ads are gradually rolling out and might not be available to you right now. You can claim your Instagram account to have your setup ready. Read more here.”

How Do They Work?

After doing some digging and playing around with Power Editor, I was able to create an ad for Search Influence’s Instagram profile. However, the only ad objectives currently available on Instagram are “Clicks to Website” and “Mobile app installs.”

Earlier this month, Instagram launched its Ads API Partners program. According to AdWeek, “Instagram Ads API Partners will be able to perform tasks including scheduling and publishing content to the Facebook-owned photo- and video-sharing network, monitoring audiences and sharing access to Instagram accounts across teams.”

What Does This Mean For You?

All of these updates come as very welcome news, as managing and advertising for businesses on Instagram was difficult in the past. Previously, Instagram advertising was only open to larger brands willing to spend $200,000 or more on brand awareness for a three-week campaign.

Do you plan on using Instagram advertising? How do you think it can benefit your business?

August 27, 2015
Word of Mouth in the Digital Age: The Importance of Online Reviews
Having just moved, I’ve spent a lot of my free time shopping on Amazon. From new bathmats to nice wine glasses, a majority of my paychecks have gone towards furnishing my new house. One thing I really needed, though, was a solution to the rock of a mattress that came with the apartment. I needed a mattress topper. Since it was something I would use every night, I wanted the ability to test out the feel of it first. The only negative of Amazon is that you can’t do that. So, whose opinions can I trust other than my own? Fellow customers.

I spent all night (on the rock) searching through different mattress toppers. I didn’t look at the actual toppers as much as the reviews, though. “This one’s too lumpy,” or “This one smells funny” were the words that guided me to finding the perfect topper. And now, I’m sleeping like a queen, thanks to my fellow customers.

In this scenario, I was the customer, and the product was the business. I passed up on a lot of toppers that were probably just as good as the one I ended up getting. Having a lot of bad reviews or no reviews at all were the deciding factors for me, and these things can be the deciding factors for whether or not your business succeeds online.

Why Reviews Matter

According to a study done by BrightLocal, “88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.” Reviews can greatly impact consumer decisions, showing how valuable positive reviews are to local businesses. In the same study, “72% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more.” Thus, positive reviews increase conversions.

Negative reviews can hurt business and prevent a potential customer from converting. However, negative reviews can also be a positive thing. Negative reviews give a business unique insight in the ways they can improve, and they can also help eliminate consumer suspicion if there are too many positive reviews. A study done by Econsultancy found that “68% of consumers trust reviews more when they see both good and bad scores, while 30% suspect censorship or faked reviews when they don’t see anything negative at all.” Overall, businesses should leverage the value of negative reviews by working to enhance their business and improve customer relationships.

SEO Benefits of Reviews

Not only do consumer reviews enhance customer experience, but they also provide some SEO benefits:
- Improving local rankings by showing Google that people are engaging with your brand on third-party sites like Yelp.
- Adding new content to your site. Search engines like to see unique content being added to a site regularly.
- Increasing chances of ranking for long-tail keywords. Users reviewing your business tend to use the same terms that other potential customers may use when searching for your business.
  - Add reviews to many pages on the site in order to increase the amount of pages ranking for long-tail terms.
- Adding schema markup for reviews, which enables rich snippets.
Sources:

http://searchengineland.com/88-consumers-trust-online-reviews-much-personal-recommendations-195803

https://www.brightlocal.com/2014/07/01/local-consumer-review-survey-2014/#methods

https://econsultancy.com/blog/8638-bad-reviews-improve-conversion-by-67

https://econsultancy.com/blog/9366-ecommerce-consumer-reviews-why-you-need-them-and-how-to-use-them/
August 24, 2015
Continuity Is Key: 5 Tips for Syncing Up Your Multi-Location Franchise Marketing Plan

To the Small Business/Franchise Owner Interested in Growth:

You have started a business and are considering an expansion, which will include another location (or several)! In doing so, you’ve been able to achieve what many people only dream of doing. You’re reaping the rewards and ready for more, so what do you do next with this new intent to further grow your business?

You probably have hundreds of things on your business “to-do list,” but be careful not to lose sight of your online marketing efforts along the way. After all, 97 percent of consumers search online for products and services, according to SCORE, a U.S. Small Business Administration-supported nonprofit association. Although 51 percent of small businesses have websites, many are not built for success. Simply put, the success of a business can depend on the success of its online marketing strategy. Therefore, while you may be concerned with all of the logistics of expanding, you must remember to analyze your current marketing and understand how to evolve your strategy with regards to the changing business environment.

Small businesses have great potential to benefit from localized advertising and franchise marketing. Several factors are to be considered when expanding your marketing strategy across multiple locations with regards to SEO for small business, Internet franchise opportunities, and more.

Timing (Is Everything)

As with your decision to open a new franchise location, the timing of your release of marketing initiatives is crucial. If your marketing efforts are out of sync, you can easily confuse potential customers about your brand and the logistics of your new operation. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself about the timing of your Internet marketing efforts:

•Are your locations on different schedules?

•Is the seasonality of one business different than another? For example, if you work in retail, will one store have a stronger focus for the holiday season?

•Does one location exist in a space where certain holidays or events are celebrated that have lesser (general) importance? For example, if you operate a clothing store in Baton Rouge and want to open a new location in New Orleans, you have to consider adding merchandise and respective advertising for events like Red Dress Run, White Linen Night, and of course, Mardi Gras.

Implement Franchise Social Media at the Local Level

Whether it was a part of your previous local business Internet marketing efforts or you’re new to promoting your business on social media, it is important to create and maintain a social media strategy as your business grows and you build more locations. From there, you can manage your growing business and make sure the right people are seeing you throughout their daily routine on their platform of choice, and you can investigate the Ads Managers available to your business. Keep these questions in mind while you consider what role social media plays in franchise SEO for your business expansion:

•Do your multiple locations all warrant the same type of social media coverage?

•Do you have to create a new Facebook page for your new location, or can your posts promote all of your locations at once with the same content?

•Is one platform suited for all of your audiences, or does your new location/venture speak to a different client base that may be better reached another way?

Consistency Across Platforms

In addition to social media, it is important to make sure you provide marketing coverage for your business across all of your existing channels. Maybe your new location is something you want to push a little harder, so you might decide to purchase an outdoor advertising package or a television ad spot! No matter what marketing channels you use, do not lose sight of your original message. Don’t get so caught up in your expansion that you lose your brand and unique identity. Make sure that, no matter the platform, whether it’s traditional or digital media, you are consistent in your output.

Content Marketing Strategy

During this tumultuous time that could possibly make or break your brand, it is crucial to produce fresh, up-to-date content with a consistent message across all of your media channels. More eyes will be on you during the first few weeks (even months) of your new location, so soak up that limelight and wow them with fresh and captivating content! Keep in mind “content relevance.” For example, if your new location attracts a different type of customer, even a slightly different type, think about the sort of content that will spark their interests the most. Research the latest trends in your industry and see what they’re suggesting you write about or how you present yourself. Always remember: the medium is the message!

Build Solid Relationships

You’ve done it from the very start of your business, and it continues to be important as your business grows. Networking never goes out of style. As your business grows and you expand your marketing across multiple platforms, remember to keep spreading the word about your brand! Of course, if your brand is well-established already, people may be excited enough that they will come to your additional location without question. But some may require more convincing. Therefore, don’t neglect the relationships and connections you’ve made throughout the life of your business, as they can prove useful in helping to promote your newest venture.

Want to make sure you attract customers online for your expanding business or franchise? When it comes to online marketing solutions for multi-location businesses and franchises, trust the experts at Search Influence. For example, a Search Influence franchise client with more than 160 locations saw a more than 85 percent increase in total website traffic and an increase of more than 135 percent in total organic (unpaid) website traffic. This website traffic increase resulted from just two years of online marketing efforts. To translate that to dollars, revenue generated from organic website traffic increased by 65 percent. If you would like to see these results across your own business, contact us today to get started with a new, successful strategy to online marketing with Search Influence.

August 13, 2015
A Tale of Two Google+ Updates: Shutting Down G+ Pages & Disconnecting YouTube From G+

In the past week, two new Google Plus updates have come to light. First, we found out that as of July 28, Google has plans to shut down inactive and unverified Google My Business (aka Google Plus) listings. On Monday, July 27, Google’s Bradley Horowitz posted on Google’s official blog that in the coming months, it will be removing the requirement for users to have Google+ profiles to use various Google products such as YouTube and Google Photos.

The Update: Google My Business is Shutting Down Unclaimed, Unverified Listings & Unverifying Inactive Accounts’ Listings

On July 23, a Local Search Forum user posted an email they received from Google as follows:

UPDATE – Announcement from Google July 22, 2015

Dear photographers and agencies,

In the past few months, you may have seen some changes in the look of Google+ pages that have been associated with Google My Business (GMB) accounts. These changes, including how we treat business pages without owners, are part of Google’s ongoing effort to simplify people’s experience with our tools. We are constantly working to provide only valuable and rich content to our users.

On July 28, Google will begin shutting down those GMB–associated Google+ pages that have not been associated with user accounts and are also not verified. You may find that some of your Business View tours also sit on such pages, but note that after this removal of unverified Google+ pages, the Business View tours will still remain available on Google Maps and Google Search.

Here are a few recommendations for informing any business customers that may be impacted by this:

Encourage your business customers to verify their listings if they wish to retain their Google My Business page …

If a business owner decides later that they would like to have a Google My Business page, please advise them to create a new page and verify their listing. The Business View virtual tour can be then transferred to the new verified listing. Please log a case to our support teams to request that images for your business customer be forwarded to the new GMB page.

Please point your business customer to their images in Google Maps.

Best,

The Google Maps | Business View team

This was specifically geared towards photographers so they would know how to handle the effect on Business View tours. What this means for all Google My Business users is that unclaimed local pages will most likely no longer be visible (as Google has always said is the case for unverified Google Plus Local pages).

As always, this update is accompanied by Google’s explanation that all actions are in the best interest of users and geared towards improving the user experience. Thanks, Google!

On June 4, via the Google Business Help forums, Jade Wang (come visit us in NOLA again soon 😉 ) of the GMB Maps team also announced: “If a user is unresponsive to our attempts to contact him or her and has not logged into Google My Business for a significant length of time, then we may unverify pages in the account.” Here’s the full update from Jade:

In some cases, we may contact Google My Business users via email to confirm that they are still actively managing a business page. If a user is unresponsive to our attempts to contact him or her and has not logged into Google My Business for a significant length of time, then we may unverify pages in the account. We’re doing this in order to continue to provide users with the best experience when they’re looking for local businesses like yours. If you find that a page in your account has been incorrectly unverified, please contact support to get assistance restoring verification.

It’s a good idea to keep an eye on the inbox associated with your Google My Business (Locations) account. It’s also a good idea to regularly log into Google My Business (Locations) to confirm that your business information is current and accurate.

My Take On It

Both of these updates could mean great news for businesses that have struggled with requesting ownership of listings that were verified in the past by a person or an account they no longer have access to. To fix this issue in the past, you’d have to submit an ownership request form to Google to gain access to these listings. Then, you’d have to wait 10 business days (as per Google’s rules) and reach out to support (they could check to see if the account never responded to the request). After this 10-day period, the support representative could determine that the account that owned the listing was inactive and release the listing to you for claiming and verification.

Basically this means inactive accounts are no longer roadblocks to getting access to business listings in Google My Business!

While some issues may be alleviated with the update, what’s harder for search engine optimization work is that now it’ll be more difficult for us to see unverified duplicate G+ pages, old or closed G+ pages, and practitioner G+ pages that could be hurting businesses’ local rankings. Map Maker should allow us to still see the data but not the pages themselves.

But there are signs this hasn’t rolled out completely yet. I have some unverified, fake listings in my Plus account (shhh, I know) that I use for training purposes that haven’t been touched yet. This is likely a slow rollout that started July 28. I did notice some changes to Maps navigation recently that were probably in preparation for this, though. For example, you used to be able to click “Write a review” from the Maps results to get to the G+ local page for a business, but now that just opens a review dialogue in the Google search results for that business in another window. This makes sense, since unclaimed businesses will no longer have pages.

The Update: Google+ Is Disconnecting From Unnecessary Services

On Monday, July 27, Bradley Horowitz posted on Google’s official blog that Google+ would be moving towards a “more focused Google+ experience,” which basically means no longer forcing users of various other Google products to have a G+ profile to use said products.

Specifically, Google wants to foster the natural sharing environment of G+ by adding new features such as Google+ Collections. This update means that all you need to share content, communicate, and have a YouTube channel (among other things) is a Google account and not necessarily a G+ profile. Also, it will continue to keep Google accounts private and unsearchable. For those who were forced to create G+ profiles to use YouTube and other Google products in the past, Google promises that it will “offer better options for managing and removing those public profiles.”

My Take On It

Congrats to everyone who was pissed when they couldn’t use YouTube without a Google+ profile!

At first, it seemed that G+ pages that are already connected to YouTube channels might be disconnected. But, that last comment about offering ways to get rid of unwanted G+ profiles, points to the fact that this update will not actively affect anyone in this way.

Since this update has not yet rolled out, however, it is important for users to realize that they should not delete their G+ yet! Doing so prior to roll out will force you to delete your entire YouTube presence!

Let me know your thoughts on all of these new Google updates! I’d love to hear what other users think of these changes.

Image source:

Mad Men gif

July 31, 2015
Small Business, Big Difference: Social Media Use on the Rise
Clutch, a B2B research firm, has released the results of its 2015 survey on small business practices in social media. The survey, which received more than 350 submissions, asked small business owners or managers to give insight into their social media and Internet marketing practices.

The Findings

Here are some highlights of the small businesses surveyed:

Small business digital marketing strategies
- 53% of small businesses use social media
- 45% of small businesses work on SEO
- 25% of small businesses use online advertising
Company size
- 60% of responding businesses have fewer than 10 employees
- 14% have between 11 to 50 employees
- 18% have between 51 and 250 employees
- 8% have over 251 employees
Investment (employee time, agency spend, ad spend)
- 38% expect to increase their investment
- 38% plan on keeping the same investment
- 16% plan to decrease investment
What Does This Mean?

It’s weird to think back to 2006, when Facebook was essentially just for high school and college students to interact with each other through basic status updates. Nine years later, Facebook has around 1.44 billion monthly active users, yet only 53% of businesses surveyed indicated they use social media. In today’s social media age, having an active social presence is one of the easiest and most inexpensive options available to small businesses. It’s free to create a business page on Facebook, Twitter, and the other myriad of social media pages. Additionally, with the abundance of users on these sites, your customer base and target audience is already available to you; you just need to bring them to your page.

Benefits of Social Media for Small Businesses

When customers shop at small businesses, they tend to value the qualities of these stores versus their big-box competitors. Having a question answered on a local bike shop’s Facebook page is usually easier than reaching out to a large retailer’s customer service team. Allowing customers to post to your business’ page also gives other viewers the ability to see reviews, photos, and that the business cares about its customers by maintaining an active social presence. Maintaining a strong social presence can work as a way to “warm up” your potential customers and introduce them to your brand for a relatively low initial cost.

Small Business Investment

Besides simple statistics, the survey discusses the necessary investment of small businesses to ensure that their social media strategy has the best chance to be successful. While it may seem that just having a profile is enough to effectively market your business, there is additional effort that should be taken if you want to see your desired results. Employees should have a hand in the content strategy and the day-to-day operations. Various opinions can help diversify your strategy and give additional insight into your broader customer base. By spreading the responsibilities of managing the page across a few employees, each individual’s workload should not be greatly affected, while the overall product will be of high quality. Wondering how you can make time for social media and continue to run your small business? Check out these social media tips for time-starved entrepreneurs.

Content Strategy

In addition to diversifying where your content is coming from, it helps to vary the content you’re sharing with your followers. If you’re only talking to your current customers about products or direct business promotions, people new to your page may dismiss your content, as it doesn’t apply to them. Try to think outside of the box and delve into your potential customers’ other interests. By using this practice, your pages and posts can be beneficial in more ways than reminding customers of your weekly promotions. Writing about the best local bike trails may bring more people to your page through liking, sharing, and commenting, and it can help to organically get your store’s name into your community.

Takeaway

Seventy-six percent of the companies surveyed responded that they would either keep the same investment moving forward or increase it. Facebook and Twitter have shown over the past five to 10 years that the sites are not simply the most visited social media pages, but two of the most visited websites of any kind. When establishing your small business, it is important that your business could be found on Google. But in 2015, it is becoming important that your business be available on social media sites as well. Moving forward, each company should take the necessary time to see what resources can be used to begin a social media campaign. Start off by managing a page yourself, working your way up to reach an ideal social media campaign, and involving an overlap of employee involvement, agency guidance, and some use of social media advertising such as Facebook fan-building campaigns, for example, which have shown to have the best results for success with these small businesses.

To view the complete report, visit Clutch.

Image source:

Clutch infographic
July 29, 2015