5 Essentials of Small Business Marketing to Keep You Ahead of the Competition

Small business marketing isn’t for the faint of heart, but if you’ve been in marketing for more than two seconds, you already know that. Marketing your business is dependent upon doing some key factors well and these things will make or break a small business in this dog eat dog world we live in. Competition is fierce and understanding how to get the most from your web pages is tricky.

Here are five crucial steps to get ahead of the game!

1. Create a Marketing Plan – Don’t leave anything to chance. Create a well-thought out, to the point plan that maps out each of your marketing elements and what you need to do to accomplish it. Make it as detailed as possible. At the very least fill in the broad strokes.
2. Social Media Marketing – 91 percent of experiences social marketers generate improved website traffic and 79 percent generate more quality leads according to MediaBistro.com. Just how do they do this? They do not waste time with their social media marketing. Map out a strategy for social media and stick to it.
3. Build a Mailing List – Countless businesses make the mistake of not collecting client and prospect emails from the start. Email is far from dead. MarketingProfs.com tells us that email averages a return on investment of $40 for every $1 spent, far outstripping banner ads ($2) and keyword ads ($17). If you decide to neglect it, you’re leaving a big part of your potential profits up for grabs!
4. Video Marketing – Connect with all the local traffic that’s out there trying to find your business. Video marketing in this space is a relatively untapped vein, and having a quick video advertising your wares on page one of Google can result in tons of traffic and authority coming to your web site! According to the research company Forrester, any given video stands about a 50x better chance of appearing on the first page of Google than any given text page.
5. Have a Mobile Presence – Be sure your website is optimized for mobile, as more than half of all searches now are emanating from some sort of mobile device. Microsoft reports that mobile browsing is projected to overtake desktop browsing by 2014. Having your pages mobile optimized can help improve your reach, and also corral impulse buyers.

Don’t Make the Mistake of Going It Alone!

None of us can do it all, especially when it comes to the constantly changing world of online marketing. Find out what’s working now, learn from the best you can afford, and hire the best outsourcing you can find. It’ll pay off handsomely in the long run!