Digital Marketing
Whether through printed or online materials, marketing is an essential part of running a successful business and a great opportunity to stand out from your competitors. Consider these marketing options for your business.
Connect by email
If you have an online presence, try communicating with your customers through email. Here are a few methods to get started.
- In-store: Use a simple, printed template or point of sale (POS) device to collect customers’ email addresses. In exchange, they’ll get emails with special offers from your business. You can also take the eco-friendly route by offering to email or text customers their receipts.
- Online: If customers are able to purchase your products through a website, give them the chance to sign up for emails from your business after checking out. In many cases, you can get more customers to sign up if you offer a discount code in exchange.
For some small businesses, frequent, ongoing emails can make customers aware of your product and remind them to shop with your business. To send regular emails, start by building an email calendar, with messages, topics and deals related to the season. Email topics may include details about special sales, contests, event invitations or reminders to connect on social media. Here are some tips for creating emails that are sure to get your customers’ attention:
- Provide exciting content that speaks to your customers’ needs; this will encourage them to click.
- Keep your email communications short, clear and well-organized. Your subject line should be short and catchy, and your email should end with a call to action that tells customers what you want them to do.
- Use marketing apps and programs, such as Campaign Monitor, Aweber or MailChimp, to test how well your email campaigns are reaching customers, then adjust them as needed to make them more successful. You can determine if you want to track how many people opened the email, clicked a link or made a purchase. With online metrics, you can easily see how many consumers opened, clicked on or unsubscribed from your emails.
- Send emails no more than a few times a month, and only send emails when there is important information to share. Too many emails can frustrate customers rather than attract them.
- Protect yourself by speaking with an email marketing professional to make sure that your opt-in, use and unsubscribe practices comply with local laws.
Register on review sites
You can also reach new customers by creating a profile for your business on a variety of review sites, such as Angie’s List, Yelp, the Better Business Bureau, Facebook and more. Remember that your company profile should be easy for customers to find, and should cover your overall business and the main products or services you offer. Include your business website and links to social media if you have an online presence, and keep your business’s information up to date. If a review site allows photos, include them whenever possible. The more places your business appears, the easier it is for people to find you.
To stay competitive, you’ll want to seek online reviews that are positive, original and current. Use the opportunity to show that you respond quickly to reviews and comments and that you’re dedicated to making sure customers have a positive experience with your brand. New clientele will notice, and if done well, this can help build your reputation and make more people aware of your offerings.
Encourage current customers to review your business and your products. People you know who are fans of your business, and your social media friends and followers, are the perfect audience to ask for a quick review. When customers leave a review, remember to thank them for their feedback. Showing you’re thankful for your customers and keeping communications friendly can do a lot to build your reputation.
Launch a website
If you’re looking to reach more customers, increase your business’s income or offer your product or service for purchase online, creating a website could be an affordable option. For many businesses across a range of industries, having an online presence is an important way to keep existing customers and attract new ones. With a range of low-cost website building tools available, there’s never been an easier time to build your own high-quality site. Here are tips to consider when taking that step.
Choose your domain name carefully
- When setting up your business website, you’ll need to choose a website address, or URL. You can choose from several domain registration websites; all are dedicated to making the process easy. Just remember that the address, or domain name, you choose should be easy to say, spell and remember. If your first choice of domain name is already taken, choose another that’s different enough to avoid any confusion with similar businesses.
Choose a host and platform
- A "host" connects your website to the internet and provides the technologies and services necessary for your webpage to be accessible online. When comparing hosts, do your research to make sure your site won’t crash and that you can make changes to your content quickly and easily.
- Most hosts offer several service plans so you can choose the best option for your business size, site traffic and budget. If the cost of web hosting is too high for you at this stage of your business, free web hosting services are available. Just note that these sites usually show customers advertisements, such as banners and pop-ups, which can mean a less positive experience for users.
- There are also many platforms that allow you to create your own DIY website, such as WordPress and Weebly. You can use these tools to design and build a site that fits your product and personality. Most use templates and offer tips on creating a more effective site.
Create a dynamic site
- When people visit your website, you want them to understand what you offer and how your business stands out against the competition right away. It should be easy for them to navigate the site, find pricing, learn how to buy your product and get answers to their questions. A successful site will also include clear calls to action, like "buy now," "make an appointment" or "contact us."
- Put yourself in the shoes of your customer and think about what will appeal to them in a website. Keep in mind that you need to grab their attention quickly and make them want to stay. Exciting imagery and short and catchy descriptions are important aspects of a successful site. When developing content, you’ll also want to create content that is search engine optimization (SEO) friendly. This means it includes many words that customers are likely to use when searching for products like yours online.
- Business websites usually include the following pages: Homepage, Products/Services and Online Ordering, About Us and Contact Information. If you have a retail shop, be sure to include your business hours as well. You should also consider including links to your social media pages and review sites, if you have them, along with any disclaimers regarding the use of your website.
- Consider formatting your website so that it is easy to navigate on mobile devices. With more people around the globe now using mobile internet versus desktop internet, it’s important to make sure customers have an equally good experience with your site when viewing it on a mobile device.
Promote your website
Once you’ve set up your website, consider how to best promote it and bring customers to your store or site.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the act of adjusting your website content to ensure that customers looking for businesses like yours can quickly find you when they carry out an online search.
One approach you can use is to make a list of keywords related to your product and weave them into the content, especially the headlines. Because search engines, like Google, identify and rank websites according to this content, using keywords can help searchers find you more easily, and it can increase the number of clicks your website gets.
Search engines analyze the content on your website to see if it will match what searchers are looking for. To help them find you, use a variety of keywords rather than repeating the same ones over and over. For example, if you’re selling shoes, you may weave in words like "stylish shoes," "footwear" and "discount shoes" across your site.
Track your website’s metrics to help ensure you’re reaching as many people as possible. You can do this using online analytics tools, such as Google Analytics; there are many options available. Setting up key performance indicators (KPIs) is a great way to begin tracking your website’s performance, as it requires you to set goals that you’d like to achieve.
A common KPI that businesses track is conversion rate. This measures the number of people that come to your website and also take a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up to receive emails. Seeing this information will give you a clearer picture of whether your website is keeping visitors’ attention and inspiring them to act.