Build-a-Biz: Fundamentals of Marketing

If you’re like most small business owners, your days are filled with many tasks that have nothing to do with why you started your company in the first place. If marketing is in this category, you’re not alone. Many small business owners have little to no experience in marketing their products or services.

Introducing an amazing business is simply the first step. Getting customers enough to attract them to your products or services requires marketing.

Marketing takes multiple forms, from print ads to websites to television promotion, and everything in between. Even word-of-mouth, which many small businesses rely on, is itself a form of marketing.

Why is Marketing Important?

Marketing is vital because it enables businesses to secure long-lasting and ever-present relationships with their clientele. It is not a one-time fix, it is a continuous strategy that helps businesses flourish. Aside from this, it also:

Informs. Marketing educates current and potential clients about your business and how it serves a need they have.

Engages. It’s one thing to offer a superior in-person experience or a frictionless online shopping journey. But marketing makes sure your business lingers in people’s minds after a purchase is over and before they need you again.

Builds reputations. Because marketing spreads the word about your business, it’s a major part of the reputation your business takes on. Strong, professional marketing indicates to people, even if subconsciously, that you’re a reputable business. The connection is undeniable.

Sells. Even the most passionate business owner needs to make money. Marketing draws attention to what you’re selling so that people can buy it.

Helps Businesses Grow. This final function is partly the culmination of the first four. If you successfully educate customers, keep them engaged, create a strong reputation in their minds, and regularly sell to them, your business will most likely do well. On top of that, most (if not all) businesses thrive on the acquisition of new customers. Marketing is how you attract those customers in the first place.

Build Your Online Presence 

When you’re searching for a distinct product or service, one of the first things you do is search the web to see which businesses in your area have what you need. After you type in a word or phrase relating to what you’re looking for, you get a list of results. You then browse those results to see which business can best meet your needs.

Exploring the internet has become second nature to most consumers, and that builds an opportunity for your business. Just how widespread is search engine use? A recent survey found that 80% of people online used a search engine to find a local produc

t or service in the past week, while 87% used one in the past month.

Remember, your business doesn’t have a website solely for the sake of having one. When used smartly, websites are powerful tools that drive new business. The trick is getting your website noticed in the first place, and search engines are one key way to do that. Here’s how to give yourself the best chance of showing up when people search for the products or services you offer.

Why SEO Is Important

A term you may already be familiar with is SEO, which stands for search engine optimization. Basically, this is the process of establishing your site so search engines notice it. Several factors go into SEO, including the usage of keywords and phrases on your site that drive business growth, as well as high-quality original content that’s pushed out regularly.

Your website is one important method to drive business, and SEO is a crucial tool for getting that done. If you don’t develop and manage your website using SEO techniques, you risk losing out on possible business. 

One of your SEO goals should be to show up in the results when people search the web for details related to your products or services then proceed performing SEO best practices so your website moves forward on those search results. Your competitors are likely making the most of SEO, so your business needs to do so as well.

Should you give PPC a try?

PPC or pay-per-click marketing is a form of online advertising in which advertisers accumulate costs when users click their ads. Advertisers offer on the perceived value of a click to the keywords, platforms, and audience type in which it originates.

One of the good things about paid search is, while it does require money, it doesn’t take a large investment to get going. You can dabble in paid search for a couple of dollars and see if the outcome is worth that expense.

If you give it a try and start to see a business improvement, you may want to include paid search in your long-term plan. On the other hand, if you don’t see a return on investment that makes sense for your business, then sticking with conventional SEO tactics may be enough.

Conclusion

You started as a business owner and ended it as a digital marketer. Now that you’re familiar with the tools of the trade, you can choose the marketing techniques that will get noticed by your clients. You now know how to start spreading the word about your amazing business.

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