Tips For Small Business Marketing

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Small businesses should not rely on word-of-mouth to promote their business or services. You should be just as diligent as larger businesses when considering your marketing tactics. Making a few changes to your strategy can put your business in front of more potential customers.

Understand Recent Algorithm Changes

In 2016, Google recently implemented a little-known algorithm update named "Possum." Fortunately, the Google Possum update has improved search visibility for small businesses. With this in mind, you may want to consider slight modifications to your current business marketing. For example, search engine results may be different depending on the keywords typed by searchers.

Your business might use location specific terms in your static content to help drive traffic and increase online visibility. Instead of keeping your location specific terms the same, it will help to vary them slightly. For example, if you strategically use "plumber in VA," try to add at least a few variations, such as "plumber in Richmond, VA," "Richmond, VA plumbers," and/or " VA plumbers" to ensure you capture most search variations.

Learn How To Use Geo-Targeting Ads

Geo-targeting is a specific form of advertisement that typically uses a computer's internet protocol (IP) address as a method of displaying advertisements. Although this is a useful strategy to market your business, the way you use this service may depend on your specific type of business. For example, it can be harder to have the right targeting when your business is location-specific.

If you utilize geo-targeting, you may find your ads are being displayed to people who are not local if the service you use does not match IP addresses with a physical location. This can be problematic if you only have a physical location and need to attract local customers. Although it is important to use geo-targeting that is matched to a physical address when you sell online and have a physical store, if the ads are displayed to people out of your locality, it is not a complete waste of time because they can order online. 

Focus More On Audience Segmentation

Audience segmentation is an excellent way for small businesses to show they keep abreast of the needs of their customers. If your business continues to communicate with your community via newsletters or other forms of direct correspondence, such as physical mailers, ideally you should have a segmented audience. Typically, when you send correspondence that is relevant to the people within your community, they will more likely open and read the information.

For example, if you have a local HVAC business, it makes little sense to market new units to people who have recently made a purchase. You should segment your audience based on people who have purchased a new unit within the last five years and those who have not. For ones who have recently made a purchase, you are better off advertising maintenance specials. The customers who have not made a purchase should receive information on ways of knowing it is time to upgrade or replace their units in addition to maintenance information.

There are always changes in search engine and advertising strategy that can affect your business. Keeping abreast of the best ways to market small business can help maintain or improve your visibility online.

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28 November 2016

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