Advertising your small business online is a great way to bring in new customers that would not find you from word of mouth and traditional marketing. However, many small business owners still aren’t taking advantage of online marketing and end up missing out on potential profits. In a world as digital as ours, this can seem unthinkable, but there are a lot of barriers and myths that small business owners must overcome before they’re ready to advertise online. Do any of these sound like you?
They Don’t Know Where to Start
Online marketing has a lot of moving parts. Paid ads, social media, website traffic, email campaigns- where is the best place to start with online advertising? This can feel overwhelming for a local business owner who is an expert when it comes to HVAC issues, but more than a little lost with digital marketing.
There are a few ways to narrow down which areas to start with, but usually your first step is to make sure you have a functional website that works on both desktop and mobile devices. Even a single landing page will do for starters, but it’s a necessary introduction for your business to the world outside your bubble.
After that, you’ll want to think about where your ideal customer hangs out online. If they aren’t typically on social media, that’s not going to be a great use of your time. Do you have basic how to’s or product demonstrations that they would watch if you made a video? Do you have something you can turn into a downloadable resource or a discount to offer as an incentive for them to join your email list? Work with what you have to offer and with what your audience is looking for first.
They’ve Tried and Failed
Some small businesses jump into the world of online advertising with little to no research and are disappointed when their small ad budget gets eaten up with no results. Others quit after building a website and wish it would bring in more leads. Maybe they’ve even hired a digital marketing firm who promised them the moon and failed to deliver. All these scenarios can make it difficult to want to try again. After all, who has the time? But there are some simple steps to get back in the game that can help you test the waters if they mesh well with your demographic. Here are some ideas:
- Create a social media page and post 3-5 times a week with updates and information useful to your customers (enticing photos and videos help!)
- Make sure your website has the option to sign up for your email list
- Hire a digital marketing consultant rather than purchasing full services
- Update your business listing on Google with important relevant information and photographs
- Ask your customers to leave reviews on Google and Yelp
They Don’t Have the Time
There are only so many working hours in the day and small businesses often have all hands on deck just to deal with business as usual. Posting on social media is easy to forget when you have back-to-back appointments. Other aspects of digital marketing take time to learn and writing a blog post can begin to feel a lot like homework. One option here is to block off the time you need. That may mean that you schedule an “appointment” for yourself every Monday morning for 30 minutes, or after hours one day a week, and tackle whatever digital marketing tasks you can. Schedule your social media posts, write an email, or design some graphics in Canva. This leads us to our final hurdle.
They Don’t Realize They Can Outsource
In addition to limited time, most small businesses simply don’t have the budget to hire a digital marketing firm for done-for-you services or bring on an employee to handle their marketing needs. But one of the great things about digital marketing is that there are a ton of quality freelancers out there that have the knowledge to take care of any task you have.
Need a number of social media posts written with hashtags and links? Done. Need graphics made? You got it. Blog posts? Don’t sweat it. With the right freelancers, you can get any of these items taken care of with no ongoing commitment and no huge expense. Of course, you’ll want to make sure you’re hiring the right freelancers. Their expertise means you don’t need to spend the time learning several different aspects of digital marketing and their price points mean you don’t have to have the marketing budget of a fortune 500 company.
Online advertising can be an intimidating project for small business owners. There are a lot of potential costly mistakes when you don’t know what you’re doing. Plus, new trends and technologies pop up every day and that means more time to learn and implement. But it doesn’t have to be an insurmountable task. With the right help, and done properly, online advertising can greatly benefit any business.
Wondering what step to take next? Why not schedule a free call and build a great digital path forward for your business?
