Small business owners deal with difficult tasks every day. Positioning themselves against nationally recognized companies with multiple locations, big budgets and “brand power” is more than just difficult though…it can be nearly impossible. The good news is that the business world is filled with examples of David slaying Goliath, and that’s especially true on the web. Making your small business look bigger online doesn’t take a huge budget. But it does take an understanding of digital marketing tools and resources that are available to anyone.
Harness the power of a Facebook Ads account Make no mistake, the goal of using Facebook ads isn’t to grow a list of followers on your company page. The goal is to use their powerful targeting and deep understanding of their users to pinpoint ideal customers. For example, boutique bakeries might target women in nearby zip codes that have recently changed their relationship status to “engaged” with targeted messages about custom wedding cakes. Restaurant owners might target nearby fans of local sports teams with special offers in advance of a big upcoming game. There are more advanced targeting options as well, with easy ways to hone in on age, income, interests and online activity. You can pull of a great campaign for hundreds of dollars, which sure beats trying to butt heads with bigger brands on traditional media outlets.
Get your best customers talking Reviews are more powerful now than ever. Not only do they add an element of social proof to your business, they’re also an important factor for search engines like Google and Bing that decide when and how your business is displayed on search results. Having customers that would take the time to leave a positive review on your Google My Business page can have an incredible impact over time. It’s important to understand that having these accumulate slowly over time is more beneficial than getting 12 in a month and then going dark for the rest of the year. The cadence or velocity of your reviews is just as important as the total. A small business with a trove of positive reviews will look much more appealing online than a chain store with few or none. Best of all, the only investment this requires is your time to re-connect with your top customers (which you should be doing anyway). This is a must for any small business or digital marketing company to focus on.
Embrace the importance of online impressions
One of the hardest things about working with a limited budget is keeping your businesses brand and message in front of your target audience with frequency. The greatest tool at your disposal is Remarketing – a form of online ad retargeting offered to anyone with a Google AdWords account. Basically, after inserting a small snippet of code on your website, you start collecting IP addresses of past visitors. You can then keep your message in front of them with online ads as they browse the web. Two great things about this are 1) you only incur a cost if they click your ad, otherwise your brand is in front of them frequently with no cost to you; and 2) Google’s network covers more than 70% of websites that contain ads. This includes everything from your local newspaper website to cooking blogs, sports blogs and even some large national websites. It’s a fascinating tool for making your business look much bigger than it actually is.