If you own or operate a small business, then it’s likely that you will have either experimented with or considered going online. The internet is, after all, a place in which many potential customers exist – and innovations such as geotargeting mean that even small businesses that operate in a particular location can do well. But what else is there for a small firm to think about? This article will explore some ways to scale up if you’re a small business entering the big world of the web.
Advertising online
It’s often assumed that internet advertising is not the sort of activity that small businesses can do, given that many of the advertisers you see on these platforms are large corporations with obviously huge budgets. However, Facebook, Google and other platforms are keen for businesses with smaller budgets to get involved, and they’ve developed products for that purpose. It’s worth signing up today, even if you just experiment with a few dollars here and there.
Get featured in blogs
For a small business owner who is just getting started exploring reputation-boosting internet marketing options, it may not seem immediately obvious how some brands seem to get linked to and featured in lots and lots of blogs. Surely, you might think, it’s way too time-intensive to approach lots of blogs and try to get a scarce place on their site’s content schedule.
However, the reason that some businesses manage to ace the blogging world is through guest blogging services. These services are able to match you up to an appropriate blog for your sector and then produce content that subtly links to your site – meaning that you get both a higher ranking in Google search results and added legitimacy when readers hit your page.
Keep trying
It’s worth keeping in mind that there’s no one right or wrong way to do internet marketing, and often some of the methods that are recommended to a small business may well not work out. That’s okay: all it means is that you need to keep on trying and experimenting until you can find a way that works for you to get to your customers. It may be worth keeping a set budget aside for internet marketing each month: that way, you can ensure that you don’t spend more than you can afford, and this sort of formalization will also give you an incentive to track what you’re spending where and monitor what performs well and what doesn’t.
With internet marketing, it’s all about experimentation. It could be that Facebook adverts are right for you, and help you reach your customers where they are. Maybe it’s Google Ads, or maybe it’s guest blogging – or a mixture of all three. All you need to do to find out which option works for you is to try out different modes, and see what you can do to get to the place you need to be.
