Many small business owners face a steep learning curve when approaching digital marketing. After all, running a small business is mostly about keeping up to date and on top of your own business – without the added burden of having to keep up with and learning the many technical skills associated with digital marketing. Hiring professional help is not always an option particularly when you don’t know which options are going to work best for your business.
Starting slow and easy is a great way to get a feel for the digital channels that could serve your business best. You can do it yourself with little or no cash outlay and whatever you do will start producing results almost immediately.
You likely have an online presence, and perhaps a brick and mortar location too, and you want to establish online visibility for best results and so people can find you.
Its pretty important to consider a variety of factors, many of which you may not have heard about before, in order to successfully build your online visibility as a small business.
This guide examines the key components for marketing on a budget in your small business. Not all small businesses have unlimited capital, so the tips here wont cost you an arm and a leg. Better yet, you can probably do them on your own. So read on …
Run A Google AdWords Campaign; Use Free Credits (Costs Between $0 – $5)
Write A Guest Blog, Or Two (Costs $0)
Keep Your Business Listings Consistent Across The Web (Costs Between $5 – $50)
Run Alerts, Comment On Blog Posts That Make Sense (Costs $0)
Run Google Alerts On Competitors, Clone What You Think They’re Doing Well (Costs $0)
Write Some Evergreen Content (Cost $0)
Use Question and Answer Sites To Your Advantage (Cost $0)
Participate In Forums (Cost $0)
Install Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools For Tracking (Cost $0)
Give Great Descriptions (Cost $0)
Display Testimonials (Cost $0)
Seize the Day on Video (Cost $0)
Network in Person (Cost $0-50)
Working through this list you’ll find tasks that you can do easily and naturally. The results your efforts produce with give you the direction you need to persist or channel your energies elsewhere. Slowly your skills will develop and as you see success your interest will grow and you’ll start getting really good at the tasks you like and that produce quality outcomes.
From a business perspective you will be able to see which channels provide the best return on your investment and perhaps invest a little more by getting some dedicated professional help to really start driving those channels. After all you still have your business to run and your marketing and the technical expertise required to do it well can be outsourced with excellent results. You’ll have enough knowledge of your successes to set realistic goals and be assured of profitable outcomes. When you now that your base investment is profitable you be willing to crank it up a few notches and maybe even experiment with other channels.
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