Today’s Internet marketing may seem confusing, but small businesses have many reasons to give thanks
With Thanksgiving knocking on our door, it’s time to pause and consider all the things for which we’re thankful. For small businesses, that list may be long and diverse, from the freedom to chart your own course to a flexible work environment that doesn’t look like the cube farm in “Office Space.” We’d like to add something to that list: Internet marketing for small business.
For small businesses looking to maximize their marketing dollars, the list of things to be thankful for keeps growing by the day. In today’s über-connected world, opportunities abound for reaching more potential customers, forming better bonds with your existing customers and boosting your company’s brand—all with a substantially better return on investment than the traditional marketing and brand-building activities of yesteryear. The trick is knowing what tools to use and how to use them, or finding the right partner to help you maximize those tools. So, with that in mind, here’s SMO Pros’ list of “Why small businesses should be thankful for Internet marketing.”
Today’s Internet marketing runs on the proliferation of social media. It seems like there’s a social media network for everything these days. There are networks for socializing with friends and family, for connecting with your business network, for getting news, for sharing pictures, for sharing videos, for sharing music, for assembling collages of visual inspirations, for broadcasting messages, for holding intimate conversations, for … well, for just about anything you can imagine.
While it’s hard to keep up with all these options, the diversity of choices is a real positive for business marketing. Here’s why: In today’s social media environment, you can target a specific audience through a specific network, very specifically. At SMO Pros, we recommend that clients zero in on a handful of networks that work well for their market, and then forget the rest. And within those few social networks, you can concentrate on one or two where you get the best traction. Does your business rely on a strong professional network for referrals? LinkedIn is a great option. Do you market primarily to women? Pinterest, with its majority female user base, is a strong choice. Is there a lead person at the head of the business—like a dentist or author or physical therapist—then Google+ and its connection to a Google Author profile would be invaluable.
Successful business isn’t about trying to be all things to all people. It’s about focusing on what you do well. Social media marketing is the same. Find where your clients are, focus on those spaces, and knock their socks off. Trust us, you’ll be thankful for the connections you create.
Today’s Internet marketing is backed by great analytics. Analytics are programs built in to different Web systems and social networks that give insights on a wide range of Web use statistics—everything from the number of people visiting your website on a given day to the number of people that clicked your latest Facebook update. Google Analytics is the most robust, longest-standing program for website analysis, showing just about anything you can imagine. Facebook has built-in analytics for its company pages, Twitter has gotten into the analytics game, and LinkedIn shows detailed stats for ads and sponsored updates on its system. Just to name a few.
Want to see how many people clicked from your latest e-newsletter to your website, and at what time of day they did it? You can do that. Want to see how long people stay on specific pages on your website, or how many pages they click before leaving? You can do that. Want to see what social media sites, and specific posts, create the most traffic for your main business website? You can do that. And those tasks are just scratching the surface.
The key with analytics is knowing what to look for, and how to use the data to improve your marketing. Ultimately, it’s about converting Web traffic into paying customers, and there are many ways to encourage that conversion. If you don’t have the time or inclination to learn about this process, consider partnering with an Internet marketing company that can guide you. The information is out there. The difference between success and failure of a marketing campaign so often depends on how that information is used.
Today’s Internet marketing offers a better ROI. Marketing is all about return on investment, or ROI. Online marketing is no different. How much are you getting back vs. what you put in? Is it worth it?
One of the biggest advantages of Internet marketing is a lower initial investment, when compared to traditional marketing methods. Many of the tools and social networks are free to set up, at least at the basic level. Even paid online advertising can be much more affordable—and more specifically targeted—than traditional print, radio or TV advertising. So that initial buy-in is lower, and you can do more with less. Instead of allocating funds to things like printing or traditional media overhead, you can put your money directly into campaigns that target your ideal customer in the ideal way. For small business owners trying to stretch a slim marketing budget, that should give you plenty to be thankful for.
Today’s Internet marketing is a great equalizer. In the old days of traditional marketing and advertising, only big companies could afford impressive media campaigns. Small fries looked like small fries, with more limited scope and lower production quality for their promotions. Today’s Internet has flipped that model on its head. Now, with a reasonably modest investment, you can give your small business an online presence worthy of a multinational conglomerate. True, bigger companies with bigger budgets are still going to have a more robust online footprint, but the gap between big and small business has closed considerably. And perhaps more significant, the cost to present yourself professionally is well within reach for most small businesses. If you want to get paid like a top-notch pro, you need to look the part, and today’s world of Internet marketing is set up to help you do just that.
This is only a partial list of all that small businesses have to be thankful for in today’s online world. For more articles like this, including tips on how to implement Internet marketing strategies, check back with us here on the SMO Blog.
Until next time, we wish you happy Internet marketing, a happy business and a happy, happy Thanksgiving.
