Your business has a small but mighty customer base already, but now you want to help your business level up. The only way to drive the kind of growth you want to see is by reaching new members of your target audience — whether you run a local shop, an ecommerce-only business or an omnichannel operation.
You are confident people will want to patronize your business once they’re aware of your existence. So, the challenge then becomes attracting the right kind of attention to your brand.
Not sure where to get started? Here are several tips for growing your online presence.
Optimize Your Small Business Website
Your company’s website will continue to serve as the hub through which people familiarize themselves with your brand story and product lineup — and hopefully convert into customers if they like what they see. There are a few different angles from which to approach optimizing your website, also known as making it the very best it can be in terms of both how it looks and how it functions.
For user-friendliness
Above all, your website needs to be easy to use for longtime customers and first-time visitors alike. A clean design that aligns with your brand personality is a must. The navigation bar should be easy to find and use, with links organized in an intuitive manner.
Not sure if your website is easy to use? Ask a few trusted family members, friends or colleagues to utilize it for specific goals, like adding a product to the cart and finding the contact page. Take note of any hurdles they encounter so you can smooth out the process.
For search engines
Another important aspect of website optimization is ranking as high as possible on search engine results pages. This endeavor is a many-pieced puzzle, but here are a few search priorities to keep in mind:
- Fix technical issues like broken links and duplicate content.
- Insert keywords into titles, meta descriptions and body content.
- Claim your company on Google and fill out the listing.
For mobile devices
Whereas desktop computers used to be the device of choice for people surfing the web, now most people search and shop from their smartphones. This means business websites need to be optimized for speed and usability on smaller screens.
Diversify Your Content Marketing Efforts
Marketing for your small business always involves some degree of “throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks,” so to speak. Experimentation when it comes to the types of content and the channels on which you promote that content is important.
However, you’ll also need an underlying strategy driving your content efforts. Many experts recommend creating a content marketing calendar for the upcoming year, then filling it out ahead of time with different creative content ideas. This gives you plenty of time to research topics, write and edit content, shoot videos, write social media captions and more. When in doubt, try to cover a different theme each month so you’re giving existing and potential customers plenty of fresh content with which to engage over the course of the year.
At the heart of effective content marketing is always understanding what members of your target audience both want and need from different media, from product videos to written how-to guides.
Growing your online presence the right way will help your business get more attention, which can translate into sales and customer loyalty. Making sure your business website is the best it can be and putting some serious thought into your content marketing strategy are two foundational steps toward commanding a larger presence online.
