If you’re just starting out, marketing can be a bit of a challenge. No matter what industry you’re in, whether you’re a small business or a corporation, there’s always some kind of marketing that needs to happen. You might be trying to gain some interest in your product or service among potential customers, or you might just want to grow your audience on social media.
The truth is that marketing is as important for small businesses as it is for large ones, and there are just a few tactics that you can use to grow your business online.
This article will teach you about the most effective marketing statistics for small businesses, so you can become more informed as you grow your business.
Website Traffic
Websites are the digital version of a typical storefront, and just like storefronts, websites need to be visible to potential customers. The only difference is that instead of having someone (A Store Manager) walk up to the customer and offer them your product, you have an online salesperson (A Website Manager) who interacts with the customer via email, phone, or live chat.
Website traffic is the total number of people who visit a website, whether they choose to buy a product or service or not. The term ‘visitors’ can be a bit confusing, because unlike other marketing statistics, the numerator (the total number of people) and denominator (the number of visits) are usually the same. For example, if you have 500,000 monthly visitors to your site and you run a paid ad campaign, you will know that you have 500,000 x 1.31 = 662,500 website traffic visitors.
Social Media
In the age of social media, everyone and their mother is on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For small businesses, these platforms can be the key to gaining exposure, engaging with potential customers, and driving sales. The key is to figure out which one is the most effective for your business, and then to focus on that channel.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Just like in physical retail stores, everything on a website is keyed to words and phrases that someone might use to find your product or service on the internet. For instance, if you sell office equipment, you might want to consider adjusting your website’s content to include the terms ‘office equipment,’ ‘computer,’ and ‘PC.’
SEO is the process of getting your website to display prominently in organic (non-paid) search results for relevant searches. There are five steps in creating a successful SEO strategy for your website:
- Research the competition
- Determine the key phrases you will use
- Build a content strategy
- Create content for each relevant platform
- Optimise all content for SEO
- Measure the results of your efforts
- Refresh your strategy if needed
If you’re just beginning your journey as a small business owner, the first step in your SEO strategy should be to conduct a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, andThreats) of your business. This will help you figure out where you stand now, and what you need to work on to better your position in the marketplace.