According to the American Marketing Association, the average consumer in the United States experiences 4000 to 10,000 brand messages a day. With that kind of saturation, it can be challenging to stand out as a small business amongst all the competition. Whether you are a referral business or one that has to drum up leads, you have to have a digital presence to connect with the over 85% of consumers who research their purchases online before buying. Just let that sink in for a moment. Here are the basics of digital to get you started.
Some additional statistics to ponder:
When choosing a service provider or product, 92% of consumers are looking at a company's website.
Every second of every day, 84% of people in the United States shop for something.
Google Maps is used by 86% of consumers to locate a business.
Google Business Profile
The first thing you need to do is make sure that your business is registered with Google. While there are other search engines, the bottom line is Google is the leader capturing over 92% of the market.
Got to Google My Business
Enter Your Business Name and Address in the Search Box
Select or Add Your Business
Make sure all your information (NAP Name-Address-Phone Number) are accurate
Verify your business
Google Reviews
At the very minimum, you have to have some reviews on Google. Encourage your happy customers to post a review.
Website
You have to have a website that is easy to navigate. The more difficult it is for your potential customers to find what they need, the less likely the visit to your site will convert to leads or sales. Your website also needs to load quickly, and you also have to have rich content. Balancing the two is essential. The slower it loads, the higher the bounce rate.
Create landing pages for deals as you create them and use forms to collect data on your visitors. Make sure your forms are as simple as possible and require the least amount of information to minimize bounce rate.
Create Content
Google cares about expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness to rank you. Organic search still makes up a great deal of the searches, so it is important to try and optimize your content so that consumers can find you. Create content that is thoughtful, engaging, helpful, and, most of all, authoritative. Determine who and what your niche is and post helpful content and demonstrate your expertise. Link your content to other sites and writers who have authority in your industry.
Google Ads
Paid ads are a great addition to your organic content. Google Ads only charges you when you get a call or a click on your website, which can be an effective way to generate leads. Your ads need to be created with keyword searches for consumers to find you based on the words they are using on Google.
Set your goals
Do your research
Strong purposeful messaging
Have a way to measure your goals
Use a tool like Google Keyword Planner to determine what words your buyer persona is looking for and use those keywords to determine the content and focus your Google Ads.
Social Media
Social media is a tool you are likely using. Ensure that the platform you are using reaches the personas you are trying to achieve. Also, consider your hashtags and how they are working for you too!
Twitter
LinkedIn
Stay updated on how they are evolving. For example, Tik Tok didn't have any ads, but it changed. Likewise, the audience was very young, but now the audience is evolving and "aging", changing the landscape and potential to reach your target market.
Paid Social
Facebook Ads and other paid social content can boost your digital visibility with consumers. Of course, you have to weigh the cost versus rewards, but it is certainly something to consider.
Email/Newsletter
Your email needs to be automated, and to be most effective, you need to have a workflow. This is where you generate a variety of emails to reach a variety of buyer personas at the different stages of their buyer's journey. Email has a very high ROI and can be very lucrative in generating leads and sales.
Copywriting Basics
Here are some tried and true copywriting basics for you to follow as you create ads, blogs, emails, and landing pages:
Capture the value that your company brings over the competition
Use language that is simple and easy to understand
Avoid acronyms
Avoid jargon
Reduce wordy phrases to single words
Avoid nonspecific nouns
Use power verbs
Use Call To Actions in all of your content. In your blogs, insert a few CTAs, in an email, have a CTA to one of your landing pages or your content, etcetera.
Ask yourself these questions about your social posts and paid ads:
How does this ad align with buyers' values?
What makes this offer unique?
What are our company's values, and are they portrayed?
How to optimize your content:
Create landing pages for each deal and have your ads and landing page copy align
Make your landing pages simple - they should be singularly focused - remove navigation bars to other pages on your site that might distract your audience.
Add your CTA halfway up the page of content.
When you have forms on your landing pages, make sure they are as simple as possible.
All of the different strategies have the potential to grow your business. It is difficult to know which and where and at what cost. It is constantly changing and evolving, and unless you have dedicated personnel to follow the way digital marketing is trending, you could fall behind your competitors. That is where digital marketing strategists like Anneomaly Digital comes in; we'd love to help you boost your digital presence to the millions upon millions of digital consumers that are at your fingertips and stay ahead of the competition. Contact us today.