Is Online Marketing Essential For Small Business? What Small Business Owners Are Missing In The New Marketplace
In a survey taken last year, about 97 percent of American businesses said that they would be increasing the amount of their marketing budgets. About 50 percent of American businesses don’t have an online presence. With the changes in technology, an online marketing presence is critical because even if a business’s customers are offline, there’s a very good chance that the customer is also online looking for information about the business. Since about 97 percent of business searches are done on Google instead of the Yellow Pages, a presence on Google is essential.
Forbes said that many small businesses that operate offline think they don’t need online marketing. There were several objections reported that offline small business owners made as to why they didn’t think they needed online marketing. These included not needing more customers. Many said that their customers were offline. Some said they had tried online marketing and it didn’t work. Some small businesses considered online marketing to be a fad, too expensive, and they just didn’t get it.
For small businesses that want to increase their revenues, it’s important to understand how online marketing can help them. The first point is that consumer expectations have changed. Consumers expect to see a business online because that’s where they look to find businesses now.
Consumers block out online marketing and sales content, but they respond to content marketing’s “Teach, Don’t Sell.” https://t.co/K24fUxf4I3
— Forbes Entrepreneurs (@ForbesTreps) February 24, 2016
Another consideration is your competition. Just because you and your business are reluctant to adopt an online marketing strategy doesn’t mean that your competition hasn’t. They may already be poaching your customers, and every day they are online that you aren’t is another day they are ahead of you creating a better first impression for potential customers.
Because of the changes in technology, the rate of change in online marketing is also fast. The rate of change in the speed of the internet and more readily available devices that can access the internet have made customers more dependent on the internet and less dependent on offline structures. Because online marketing may not seem important to your business now doesn’t mean it won’t be important a year from now. It’s a long term investment.
As previously reported in Inquisitr, there are many online marketing trends in 2016 that small businesses need to be aware of if they plan to stay competitive. There are also many online marketing tools small businesses can use to help them to grow their revenue, and it’s important to be aware of those tools and trends. One of the most important is, of course, more mobile devices. With five times as many mobile devices as computers, it’s very important to understand these trends so that small businesses adapt their promotions to meet the technology.
op 5 Online #Marketing Tips for Start-upshttp:// https://t.co/AEc1xV2OYn #socialmedia #digitalmarketing #contentstrategy
— Jose Javier Garde (@jose_garde) February 25, 2016
Business reported that most business owners are on information overload. Small businesses may often have trouble focusing on what is important. Sometimes the most effective way to create an effective online marketing campaign is to simply cut the clutter and go with a more plain jane approach.
One of the first places to make changes is to get rid of the “more is better” approach. When releasing a press release, it’s better to stick with having a link to your website rather than a video and a lot of images. This puts the focus on your website, and you can use a call to action to get reader attention. Keeping marketing messages short and sweet makes it easier to connect with customers and get your point across.
One point many online marketers don’t take the time to focus on when creating their online marketing campaigns is results. Make sure you test all your online marketing campaigns to see how they perform, particularly if you are spending money to promote. A few tweaks may be all it takes to make an underperforming campaign become a winning campaign.
[Photo by Pixabay]
