In the United States alone, there are over 30.7 million small businesses, making up over 90% of the business population of the country. With so many competitive businesses in various industries, setting your brand apart from the competition is vital for a steady growth rate, improved sales revenue, and a boost in your market share.
A robust digital marketing strategy can do wonders to help you achieve your business goals and meet demanding KPIs. While it may be intimidating to compete against much larger businesses in your local market, you can vie for the customer’s attention with effective small business SEO strategies that convert into sales.
What makes SEO strategies such a viable option for small businesses? They offer cost-effective solutions to traditional marketing that’s often dominated by larger businesses. With higher ROIs and measurable performance metrics, digitization is the way forward for small businesses.
Funneling Organic Traffic
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It’s no wonder that SEO practices and Search Engine Results Page (SERP) rankings have been at the forefront of digital marketing strategies. These marketing techniques offer brands the opportunity to grow organic traffic and direct it to the sales or conversion funnel.
It’s said that 96% of all Google search clicks go to the first 4 results, making high SERP rankings a top SEO priority for many small businesses. According to HubSpot, 61% of marketers are dedicated to growing their organic presence through improved SEO strategies.
These are effective in directing traffic to your website and driving up conversion rates. However, small businesses may not be able to compete with larger corporations solely based on SERP rankings and SEO.
Small businesses with limited marketing budgets can’t invest in PPC campaigns and Google advertising in much the same way. For this reason, they stand to lose out on potential customers and much-needed brand visibility.
In comes social media marketing.
With the rise of countless social media sites, you can add a unique spin to your digital marketing strategy. Small businesses are aware of the impact of social media marketing. Almost 96% of them claim they use these channels to foster customer relationships, address concerns, and capture their unique brand personality.
Selecting The Right Channel For Your Small Business
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to social media marketing. No two social media sites are the same and each one has a lot to offer in terms of content form, outreach, target markets, and engagement.
The powerhouse—and pioneer—of social media marketing sites is Facebook. With over 2.45 billion active users every month, the social media network is an effective tool to incorporate into your marketing strategy.
Reaching a market that your brand will appeal to is necessary for high returns on your marketing investment and ensuring a boost in sales. Facebook offers one of the highest penetration rates, reaching 71% of American adults—many of whom lie between the ages of 18 and 49.
1 billion active users, audience engagement, and eye-catching unique content are all hallmarks of Instagram marketing. With 200 million visitors to business profiles on the social media network, Instagram is a force to be reckoned with in the world of marketing.
Choosing the right platform for your business is essential to social media marketing success. Depending on the nature of your product/service, target market’s usage patterns, and relevance to your business, you can opt for a channel that’ll add value to your SEO strategies. The right social media marketing tools—such as videos—have converted leads into sales for 93% of marketers, after all. You can hire a social media management company to work by your side for guidance.
Developing A Collaborative & Dynamic Strategy
A well-rounded strategy is the key to succeeding in your digital marketing efforts and reaping the returns on your investment. There’s no denying that social media marketing offers a gateway to e-commerce success in the coming years.
A collaborative strategy of combining on and off-site SEO and social media marketing can spell success for your small business. Denver businesses rely on https://magnifysigns.com/ for their building signs.
Boost conversion rates
Interestingly, 49% of people report making a purchase after seeing a social media ad for it. Moreover, 92% of Instagram users claim that they’re inspired to purchase a product after seeing it on the brand’s Instagram page. These astounding figures point to one thing: small businesses should leverage social media marketing alongside SEO tactics.
Effective SEO strategies include optimized on-site content with long and short-tail keywords, off-site SEO techniques, backlinking efforts, analysis of metrics and analytics, and optimization of your Google My Business profile, among others.
Personalized approach to marketing
You can bolster SEO strategies—such as blogs, guest posts, and Google My Business posts—with a turnkey social media marketing campaign. Social media allows you to boost brand exposure, gives you a competitive edge, reaches your target audience, and builds lasting customer relationships.
The personalized approach of social media channels makes your customers feel valued. This isn’t just important in terms of sales—84% of companies that prioritize customer experience report higher revenue—it also solidifies brand loyalty.
Brand exposure and identity
While social media links may not boost your search rank, they play a part in putting your social media profiles on the map. A quick Google search of the brand Sephora shows that the company’s Twitter page shows up as the second result.
On the right side of the screen, you can see Sephora’s other social media profiles to redirect interested customers. If anything, this proves that a social media presence is vital to establishing your company’s identity and generate leads and organic traffic.
Leverage affiliate marketing
Social media marketing offers the unique advantage of marketing your product or service through performance-based efforts. By working with online affiliates and bloggers who have a social media presence, you can introduce your company to a larger target market, while generating sales and traffic from the referral.
The marketing efforts of influential social media affiliates who’ll direct potential customers to you can help you reach the top spot in SERP rankings. In fact, the organic traffic your website receives from affiliate marketing efforts is 5.66 times more likely to convert than other paid traffic.
Strategies Your Small Business Should Adopt
Social media marketing is an effective tool to include in your arsenal of marketing strategies, but how can you determine which ones will be best for you? Implementing a successful social media campaign will open up new avenues of success for your business, giving you the online traction you need to boost conversion rates.
Treat it like a search engine in itself
Did you know that almost 90 million small businesses have Facebook pages that add to their online presence?
A website simply doesn’t suffice in bringing in the kind of traffic you need to boost your net revenues.
In today’s evolving digital sphere, social media sites like Facebook aren’t just used to reconnect with old friends or share a sweet holiday picture of your family. Social media platforms function as search engines in themselves in some capacities, and you need to know how to leverage that.
Take a look below.
As you can see, a quick Facebook search of the words “swimming pool cleaner” produces a list of all the nearby businesses that can be sorted through based on of rating, pricing, and availability.
For a small business struggling to break-through in a competitive market, this is an ideal way to get on the radar of the local market and effectively drive interested customers to your website. That’s why maintaining an up-to-date social media presence can be beneficial for your business—not just in terms of brand identity, but for sales too!
Use hashtags to your advantage
Whether you’re a social media aficionado or beginner, you’ll know the importance of an effective hashtag. Customers don’t just want one-way communication with a brand, they want to feel included in the community you create.
Hashtags let you do just that. Whether you kickstart a catchy hashtag trend or give customers the chance to tag you when they post about your services or products, every hashtag helps you gain traction.
A prime example of this is Coca-Cola’s #ShareACoke campaign. The viral trend encouraged people to gift a personalized drink to their loved ones and post about it on social media. Using the hashtag along with their post, the brand attracted new customers and got people engaged in what others were sharing using the hashtags.
https://twitter.com/iNicoNation/status/1244568842409517061
The image below is just one instance of the thousands of images shared across all social media platforms with this hashtag, and it still continues to be a success!
You can similarly create some buzz around your products and services by adding relevant hashtags to your posts and encouraging your customers to do the same. The snowball effect of customers discovering your social media site will inevitably translate into organic website traffic and conversions!
Leverage eye-catching visual media
What puts social media marketing in a class of its own are the boundless marketing opportunities at your disposal. With so many brands competing for the customer’s attention, creating enticing media that diverts their attention to you is a winning strategy.
Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are built around eye-catching, vibrant visual media content, making it the perfect place to reap results.
According to research, the average person watches a total of 84 minutes of online videos every day. These astounding numbers mean only one thing: the creative video content you put onto your social media sites plays a vital role in bringing attention to your brand.
As much as content marketing is important in establishing industry authority and bolstering your link building efforts, video marketing is unparalleled when it comes to customer attraction.
An estimated 82 percent of global internet traffic is expected to be driven by video streaming and online video content by 2022. With the capability to generate traffic and drive up your organic outreach considerably, it’s no wonder that video marketing is the way to go for small businesses!
Get social with a unique brand personality—and stick to it!
When consumers opt for your business’s products or services, they’re investing in more than just a transaction. According to Forbes, a consumer’s experience is shaped by the “digital research” they do of your brand before they even make a purchase.
Every time a potential customer comes across your website, they’re likely to go through your social media accounts, see what people are saying about your company, and whether your brand identity aligns with their beliefs. It’s essential to make a connection with your customers—not just to convert them into sales, but to establish a life-long relationship with them.
Social media gives you the chance to curate a unique brand personality. The various ways you can communicate with your audience—through live streams, replying to comments and queries, video content, frequent updates, and showing empathy in times of difficulty—will help you develop a brand personality that makes an impact.
Depending on your audience and target market, you can develop a personality that speaks to the people you’re reaching out to. Luxury brands like Chanel or Gucci, for example, have embody opulence through a sophisticated brand voice. Wendy’s, on the other hand, has a distinctively bold personality that’s all about sarcasm and humor.
The uniqueness of your brand’s persona is just as vital as its endurance. Your brand personality should be consistent across all marketing channels—for both, SEO and social media marketing. The last thing you’d want is an inconsistent brand voice that consumers aren’t able to relate to.
Opt for a fresh, relatable take that creates a positive perception for your brand. You never know what could spell the difference between sales generation and loss.
A Final Word
There’s no right way to make your small business succeed in the local market. From boosting outreach to driving organic traffic and generating sales, there’s a lot that goes into picking a strategy that works.
As a small business with a limited marketing budget to cover your expenses, optimize your ROI with a collaborative SEO and social media marketing strategy. With so many unique tools at your disposal—and most of them free!—this viable technique will help you achieve your business goals more effectively!
