Many small business owners find it challenging to grow their business in today’s stagnant economy. Those that succeed do so in part by embracing cost-effective marketing tactics to attract and retain customers. Using free or low-cost online marketing tools, small businesses can compete on the proverbial level playing field and can generate healthy revenue.
The most effective small business marketers integrate online marketing with traditional offline marketing tactics, such as direct mail. In fact, a recent study found that integrating online and offline tactics increased return on investment in 62 percent of marketing campaigns. 1
For some business owners, the thought of adding marketing to their already full plate sends shudders down their spines. They fear they don’t have the time to do it right and wouldn’t know where to start if they tried. Many don’t get along too well with technology, either. The good news is that marketing is about building relationships – something most small business owners do every day – not technology. Marketing requires some time, but not nearly as much as one might think. The investment will yield results.
There are three fundamental elements to understand before moving into online marketing. Beginning a marketing program is like building a house; it starts with the foundation. Marketing’s foundation is the message; something to say that customers want to hear. A clear message statement defines a business’ value proposition and differentiates it from competitors.
Once the message is finalized, build a website. Easy-to-use templates make creating visually appealing websites a snap, even for those who wouldn’t know HTML code from a zip code.
After mastering the website, small business owners can add social media components such as video, blogs, Facebook pages, LinkedIn® and Twitter, one step at a time. Going at one’s own pace allows new marketers to learn how to effectively use tools and measure results.
After you embrace technology as a tool, the specifics become intuitive.
1. BUILD THE FOUNDATION FIRST
The foundation of any marketing plan is a compelling message statement that succinctly explains the value the business brings to customers. It’s the image marketing aims to create in customers’ minds matching their needs with what the business offers.
One of the best ways to determine what customers want is to listen to them. After all, they’re the ones whose opinions matter in this discussion. For some, the reason may be location or price or quality. However, more often the answer lies in how businesses interact with customers versus the product or service sold. Being the fastest dry-cleaner, the most empathetic veterinarian or the easiest-to-work with mortgage broker often holds more sway with customers than being the closest or cheapest.
3
Customers will often provide a wealth of information through face-to-face or online conversations that a business can use to develop its message so that it resonates with the target audience. Indeed, most customers are flattered (and surprised) to be asked their opinion. A variety of online listening methods will be presented later in this paper.
The message statement guides all customer interactions, from website text to in-store service. It should be written down and posted where it will remind employees what the customer wants from interactions with the business.
2. SPREAD THE WORD
Once a business can differentiate itself, it’s time to spread the word. Not too long ago this meant advertising in local papers or the radio. Today’s array of options can cause confusion and lead small business owners to abandon efforts before getting started. Concentrating on a few key online marketing tactics helps business owners create efficient and effect programs to build awareness and motivate prospects to patronize a business.
3. WEBSITES THAT WORK
To start with, every business needs a website. It doesn’t need to be fancy; simple and effective trump cluttered. While professionally created sites allow for maximum design flexibility, many website hosting vendors provide hundreds of free design templates suited to small businesses owners who can point and click their way to a simple, easy-to-navigate website.
An effective website meets three needs:
1) It clearly describes what the business sells.
2) It can be easily found through Google™ and other search engines.
3) It integrates a business’ online marketing tactics into a powerful lead generation tool.
A strong message statement coupled with clear calls to action and contact information serves the first need. Concise and compelling is the mantra. Web visitors want instant gratification.
“Once they click to your website, you have between five and eight seconds to convince them you can help,” says Larry Bailin, author of Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From? “It’s critical that you address their issues on your home page. Get to the point and get rid of anything that doesn’t need to be there.” 2
Search engine optimization, or SEO, increases a site’s relevance for Google and other search engines. Greater relevance results in higher placement in the order of search results, which increases the likelihood that potential customers find the site in the first place. SEO experts try to determine which keywords potential customers will use in searches, then sprinkle those terms liberally in the website content.
4
SEO need not stay the domain of experts. Anyone can select keywords based on a few minutes of research. Which keywords to choose? The ones with the greatest likelihood of attracting potential customers. Right-clicking on a page and selecting “View Page Source” discloses the keywords against which the page is optimized, providing a quick way to check competitor sites. Do-it-yourselfers can search prospective keywords on Google, then use phrases listed in the “related searches” result section as prospective keywords. A free tool, Google Insights, lets users further refine keyword searches by comparing search volume patters across categories.
Thirdly, a website connects a business’ multiple online marketing efforts. It serves as a hub integrating activity from blogs, Twitter and other social media.
The website as unifying element becomes more important as more small businesses adopt social media marketing tactics. “As small business users become more comfortable with social media, its benefits become clearer, and social media’s positive results become more obvious,” according to Small Business Labs. The organization identified small business’ increased adoption of social media as one of its top-10 business trends for 2011. 3
What’s more, a recent survey found that nearly half of small and medium sized businesses now use social media. “Why wouldn’t they?” asks online pollster Zoomerang’s Jason Miller. “Social media provides Small to medium businesses (SMB’s)with an opportunity to level the playing field against much larger companies by engaging directly with their customers in a cost effective manner.” 4
Building a website is only half the game. Marketers need to measure how well the site is attracting and retaining visitors. For beginning website measurement, Google Analytics, a free tool, “shows website owners how people found their site, how they explored it, and how to enhance their visitor experience. With this information, marketers can improve their website return on investment and increase conversions, and make more money on the web,” explains Google.
Zoomerang Survey: Marketing in a Digital World, SMB & Consumer Survey Results
5
4. CONNECT WITH VIDEO
Small business owners can harness the power of video to forge deeper connections with their customers on their website. Easy-to-use, inexpensive video recorders are ubiquitous and videos help bring personalities to life, be they empathetic doctors, no-nonsense legal teams or supportive local craft store owners. Also, “how to” videos can create demand by teaching viewers how to use a product, for example a fabric store video showing how to sew a dress.
Hosting videos on a website can be complicated and costly. That’s where YouTube comes in. Owned by Google, YouTube provides a free hosting service, with uploading videos a matter of drag-and-drop simplicity.
Businesses can add video to their websites by posting clips to YouTube, then embedding the link to the video on their company website. This way, businesses direct visitors to their website rather than to YouTube.
5. BLOGGING TO CONNECT
Blogs, or online journals, provide an easy way to demonstrate expertise with a human touch. Using free tools such as Google Blogger, WordPress or TypePad, business owners can start their own blog in minutes. Bloggers can choose from a variety of design templates to match their personalities and industry. The technical part of creating a blog is simple. The harder part is determining how often to blog and what to say.
As a rule of thumb, bloggers should post new entries at least weekly to maintain readers’ interest. Blog posts should communicate a business’ message statement and position the owner and employees as experts at their trade. Equally importantly, blog posts should convey the voice of the business. Blog readers expect a casual tone – conversational, as if talking to a friend.
That’s why blogs offer a perfect opportunity to connect with readers –potential customers – on a personal level. A dentist might blog about advances in the field or address common concerns of her customers, while a real estate agent might discuss current home buying trends – all in a friendly, approachable voice.
6
6. FACEBOOK FANFARE
Once a way to connect with friends, Facebook has taken the business world by storm. The New York Times declared that, “a growing number of businesses are making Facebook an indispensible part of hanging out their shingles. Small businesses are using it to find new customers, build online communities of fans and dig into gold mines of demographic information.” 5
The reason is simple. More than 500 million people use Facebook to connect with people. It has become the Web’s most visited site, and a business must go where its customers go. 6
Additionally, by “liking” business’ fan pages, they’re recommending vendors virally and at Internet speed.
Businesses can create a Fan page using a vanity address (i.e., www.facebook.com/companyname), and can link their page to the company’s website. Equally important, Facebook activity centers around users commenting on others’ posts. This provides a tremendously valuable opportunity to interact with customers and build relationships. Business can listen to what people say about them – the good, the bad and the ugly. Many businesses use the forum to identify new product or service suggestions.
Unlike traditional marketing communication channels, businesses don’t control content on Facebook or with other social media tools. The customer does. This lack of top-down control frightens some businesses. But customers talk about businesses regardless of whether the business wants them to. By engaging with customers directly, businesses can identify their advocates and their foes, and if they act appropriately can often turn a foe into a loyal friend and online ambassador.
Facebook also offers the type of highly-targeted advertising opportunity most small businesses wouldn’t have the resources to attempt a few years ago. Facebook advertisers choose keywords that search across the social network, scanning users’ demographic profiles and wall postings.
This targeting capability gives advertisers to ability to reach their precise target audience. For example, a wedding photographer spent a mere $300 in two years to reach women ages 22 to 28 who listed their marital status as engaged in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The campaign has driven more than $60,000 in business. 7
7
7. GET LINKED IN
Until recently, LinkedIn provided professionals a way to find each other online, primarily for job opportunities. Lately, the real action has shifted to LinkedIn Groups. These special interest groups – including many local business groups – offer ways to learn best practices, fine tune your supply chain, and communicate with potential customers. Groups are searchable by keyword, such as industry, interest or location.
A children’s clothing store owner might join both textile-specific groups to discuss industry news and identify new suppliers, and a local parenting group filled with potential customers. When joining groups, businesses would do well to listen to others before commenting. As a rule, social media users shun blatant sales pitches.
Instead, commenters should focus on establishing their reputations by adding insight and value to the conversation. It’s no different than a conversation at a cocktail party; no one likes the boor who’s only interested in talking about himself.
LinkedIn Groups are similar to e-mail discussion lists, which many small business owners have used for years. The tactic relies on building relationships with group members and demonstrating one’s expertise. That can take time, but the results can be significant.
“E-mail discussion lists have been my single largest source of clients over the last eight years,” says Shel Horowitz, a well-known small-business marketer. 8
8
8. MAXIMIZING TWITTER
Twitter polarizes small business owners. Some have jumped into the twitterverse with both feet, and credit the microblogging service with helping them make direct connections with customers, financiers and industry influencers they never would have had the opportunity to meet before. Other, less enamored businesspeople think it nothing but a black hole that will eat up their time with no reward.
What often gets lost in the debate is the fact that one can harness the power of Twitter without tweeting. That’s because Twitter provides a research bonanza, complete with insight into what customers want or problems they need solved, competitor moves, and industry news. A number of tools for Twitter, such as HootSuite™ or TweetDeck, help users manage their time effectively and automate processes. These applications let users “set up alerts and notifications, create groups, skim activity quickly and schedule updates,” explains About.com social media expert Alyssa Gregory. 9
Using Twitter without Tweeting
Take 30 minutes every week to run your own business’ keywords and terms through the
Twitter search function. Click through to the sites that have been shared. Save those page links in your Useful Content Library.
• Find interesting people and browse their recent tweets. If you like what you read, follow them so their tweets come to your Twitter home page. Or just add this person to your Useful Content Library.
• Look up your competitors. If they are active, you can gather ideas about what works and what doesn’t. What are they tweeting? Do they have any followers? Are they following lots
of people or businesses? If they are friendly competitors, call them to explore how Twitter is working for them.
• Find out if your best customers are active on Twitter, and follow them.
• Put Twitter tweets on automatic. Given the connectivity tools that exist today, if you blog you can tweet (the same goes for posting to a Facebook company page or a LinkedIn profile.) Just choose one of the many services that automate cross-posting of blog entries, such as www.dlvr.it.
Source: Kern Lewis, Forbes.com 10
9
CONCLUSION
While the 8 online marketing steps described here might be new to your small business marketing toolkit, it’s important to remember that online marketing tactics alone do not guarantee effectiveness.
Marketing plans should not only rely on the digital tools available today, including building a business website and utilizing social media outlets such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, but also include traditional marketing methods such as direct mail.
According to a recent survey conducted by marketing services firm, Epsilon Targeting, direct mail, especially when combined with other marketing tactics including email and social media sites, is still the number one choice among the over 4,000 survey participants. 11
The survey highlights more key findings that were surprising given today’s digital age with advanced technologies like email, mobile phones, iPads and social media.
These findings include:
• Direct mail is the channel of choice for the 18-34 year old demographic.
• 37% of U.S.
• Checking the mailbox is a source of enjoyment cited by 60% of the U.S.
• Consumers prefer personally addressed mail to unaddressed mail.
The study reiterates that it’s key for marketers to recognize consumer preferences and use
a variety of channels to establish a relationship with their target audience.
Small Business marketers armed with online marketing strategies combined with the
fundamentals of traditional offline marketing can build successful marketing plans in 2012
and beyond.
