If you’re running a small business, there’s a good chance you’ve wondered whether you should be doing more to promote it online. With so many different marketing opportunities available, from Google AdWords and SEO to Facebook advertising and email marketing, it can be difficult to know where to concentrate your efforts, particularly when you don’t have thousands of pounds available to spend every month. I’ve spoken to plenty of business owners who recognise that digital marketing could help them attract more customers, but aren’t entirely sure where to begin or whether they’re going to see a worthwhile return on their investment.
Having worked with businesses of all sizes over the years, I think one of the biggest mistakes smaller companies make is assuming that they need to be doing a little bit of everything. They’ll set up accounts on half a dozen social media platforms, occasionally publish a blog post, experiment with Google AdWords and perhaps send the odd email newsletter, without really understanding which activities are generating results. Personally, I’d suggest concentrating on a smaller number of marketing channels that are genuinely relevant to your business, rather than spreading your time and money across everything that’s available.
Start by Understanding Your Customers
Before spending any money on marketing, I’d recommend thinking carefully about who your customers actually are and how they’re likely to find your business. This might sound obvious, but the approach you take to marketing a local plumbing company should be considerably different from the one used by an online retailer selling specialist computer equipment.
For example, somebody looking for an emergency plumber is probably going to search Google for a local business that can help them immediately. They’re unlikely to spend several weeks following plumbing companies on Facebook before eventually deciding which one to use. Conversely, somebody selling handmade jewellery might find that Facebook or Instagram provides an excellent opportunity to reach people who weren’t necessarily looking to buy anything until they saw a particular product.
The important thing is understanding how people make purchasing decisions, rather than simply choosing marketing channels because they’re popular. I’d also recommend considering the value of each customer, particularly if you’re working with a limited budget. A company selling products worth £10 might struggle to justify spending £20 acquiring a new customer, whereas a business offering services worth several thousand pounds could potentially generate an excellent return from the same advertising costs.
Make Sure Your Website Is Doing Its Job
One thing I’d strongly recommend is making sure your website is actually capable of converting visitors into customers before spending money attracting more traffic. I’ve encountered plenty of businesses that are desperate to improve their Google rankings or increase their advertising budgets, despite having websites that make it unnecessarily difficult for potential customers to get in touch.
Your website doesn’t necessarily need to be particularly complicated or expensive, but it should clearly explain what your business does, provide useful information about your products or services and make it straightforward for visitors to take the next step. It should also work properly on mobile devices, particularly now that so many people use their phones to browse the internet.
For smaller local businesses, I’d also recommend setting up a free Google My Business listing, which allows your company to appear in Google Search and Maps alongside information such as your address, telephone number, opening hours and customer reviews. This can be an extremely effective way of attracting local customers without spending anything on advertising.
Is SEO Worth Investing In?
Search engine optimisation is something I’d generally recommend considering, particularly if your customers are likely to search Google for the products or services you offer. Unlike paid advertising, where you usually pay every time somebody clicks your advertisement, organic search traffic doesn’t incur a direct cost for each visitor.
However, SEO isn’t necessarily free, and it can take considerable time to achieve worthwhile results. If you’re operating in a competitive market, you might find yourself competing against businesses that have spent years developing their websites and building their online reputations.
For smaller businesses, I’d suggest concentrating on relatively straightforward improvements initially, such as ensuring your pages have appropriate titles, contain useful information and target the searches most relevant to your business. If you’re providing services locally, creating genuinely useful content about those services and the areas you cover can also help, although I’d avoid producing dozens of virtually identical pages simply to target different towns.
Should You Use Google AdWords?
Google AdWords can be particularly effective for small businesses because it allows you to advertise to people who are already searching for something relevant to your products or services. Rather than attempting to persuade somebody that they need a particular service, you’re placing your business in front of them at the point they’re actively looking for it.
However, I’d be careful about setting up campaigns without understanding how the platform works, particularly when it comes to keyword matching and geographical targeting. It’s surprisingly easy to waste money attracting visitors who aren’t particularly interested in what you’re offering, and even a relatively modest advertising budget can disappear quickly if your campaigns aren’t configured properly.
I’d recommend starting with a small number of highly relevant keywords, monitoring the searches that trigger your advertisements and making sure you’re tracking enquiries or sales rather than simply counting clicks. There’s little point spending £500 a month attracting visitors if you have no idea whether any of them are becoming customers.
What About Social Media?
Social media is another area where I think smaller businesses sometimes spend considerably more time than necessary. While Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn can all provide useful marketing opportunities, that doesn’t mean every business needs to maintain an active presence on all four.
Personally, I’d concentrate on whichever platforms your customers are most likely to use, and consider what sort of content they’re actually interested in seeing. A restaurant might benefit from regularly posting photographs of its food and promoting special offers on Facebook, whereas a business selling industrial machinery might find LinkedIn more appropriate.
It’s also worth remembering that building up thousands of followers doesn’t necessarily mean those people will see everything you publish. Facebook has been reducing the organic reach of business pages for several years, meaning that even companies with substantial followings can struggle to reach their audiences without paying to promote their posts.
Don’t Forget Your Existing Customers
One marketing opportunity that I think businesses frequently overlook is encouraging existing customers to purchase again. Attracting new customers can be expensive, particularly if you’re relying on paid advertising, whereas somebody who’s already bought something from you might require considerably less persuasion to return.
Email marketing can be particularly effective here, especially for businesses selling products that customers purchase regularly. Services such as Mailchimp make it relatively straightforward to send newsletters, announce new products and promote special offers, although you’ll obviously need to comply with the relevant data protection and electronic marketing regulations.
I’d also recommend encouraging satisfied customers to recommend your business to other people. Word of mouth remains incredibly valuable, and providing excellent service can sometimes generate more business than an expensive advertising campaign.
Measure What Actually Works
Ultimately, I think the most important thing is making sure you understand which marketing activities are generating worthwhile results. Google Analytics can help you identify where your website visitors are coming from, while properly configured goals can show which channels are producing enquiries or sales.
However, I’d be cautious about concentrating too heavily on metrics such as website traffic, Facebook followers or advertising clicks. These figures might look impressive in a report, but they don’t necessarily mean your business is making any more money.
My advice would be to start with a couple of marketing activities that seem particularly appropriate for your business, measure their performance and gradually invest more time or money in whichever ones prove successful.
There’s no reason why a small business can’t compete effectively online with considerably larger competitors, particularly when it’s targeting a specific market or geographical area. However, successful marketing generally involves understanding your customers and making sensible decisions about where to spend your resources, rather than simply throwing money at every advertising platform available.
If you’ve only got £300 a month to spend on marketing, I’d much rather see you concentrate that money on something that generates profitable business than spread it across six different activities simply because somebody told you that you need a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.