While it may be true that you need to spend money to make money, small businesses often have limited funds to spare. To keep your small business profitable, you need to make every marketing dollar bring the highest possible return. Here are six great tips that can help you get the most out of your marketing budget.
Consumer discovery and marketing play a key role in attracting consumers. Research shows that consumers prefer using digital channels such as a business website, social media, and email when determining where to shop. Small-to-Medium Businesses (SMBs) estimated that 15 percent of sales come from these channels, with the higher proportion of sales coming from medium size firms (27 percent) versus 11 percent for micro and 21 percent for small. (Annual sale criteria by SMB size – Micro <$500K, Small $500K-$5MM, Medium $5MM-$10MM.)
Search Engine Optimization(SEO)
Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is used to describe the marketing technique of fine-tuning a website so that customers looking for businesses like yours can quickly find you on search engines.
A free technique you can perform on your website is modifying the content and structure of a website’s text to match likely searched keywords. Remember that search engines index and rank websites according to your content, and the number of clicks your website gets. Search engines can look for words that not only match keywords but also match your website content , so your website ranking may be disadvantaged if things don’t match up. For example, if you’re selling shoes, it helps to have footwear related links.
We recommend checking out NFIB’s Guide to SEO for Your Small Business Website if you would like more details.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising refers to advertising on internet search engines. You pay a PPC service to have your ad appear when a chosen keyword or phrase is searched. Typically, you are charged each time a shopper clicks your ad. The ads normally appear under a heading such as “Sponsored Links.”
Performance measurement
Track your website’s performance to help ensure its reach is as wide as possible.
Setting KPIs (key performance indicators) are a great way to begin tracking your website’s performance, as it requires you to set benchmark goals that you’d like to achieve.
What KPIs should you set? Some of this will depend on why you decided to develop a website.
A common KPI that businesses track is conversion rate. This measures the number of people that come to your website and take a desired action such as making a purchase or signing up to receive emails.
You can find a variety of web analytics tools online that allow you to track your website’s performance and see how you’re doing.
Excerpt from Digital Transformation of SMBs: The Future of Commerce, presented by Visa.
