Many small businesses tend to fight an uphill battle when it comes to competing with companies noticeably larger than them.
For one, the former typically do not have the manpower necessary for such competition.
Another factor going against them is that they usually are on a tighter leash when it comes to their spending budgets for marketing and advertising.
When you toss in the fact that many smaller brands are not as well-known as their bigger counterparts, it can make for some challenging times in terms of getting more business.
So, what’s a small business to do in order to get more attention, attention that can lead to a better revenue stream?
Your Website is Key
In order for your small business to receive as much recognition as possible, you need to be the king on a couple of fronts.
Among them:
- Blogging – First and foremost, look at your website as your online business card. With it, you can accomplish myriad of things, but that is only if you put the time and effort into what is necessary to succeed. For instance, how are you using your site’s blog to promote your brand? While some small businesses are adept at using their blogs, others are literally out of touch when it comes to how important blogs can be to a company’s overall business success. So that you are not one of those out of touch companies, make sure your blog is updated and promoted regularly, regularly that is with solid content. Post fresh content to your blog on a daily basis or at least every other day. Also look to guest posting for blogs within your industry. This allows you to get your word out on other site’s blogs, putting more eyes on your brand. If you are stuck as to how to get such opportunities, use your social media pages (see more below) to look for opportunities. When you see an interesting blog post from another brand come across your Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter pages, reach out to the author. He or she may very well be interested in doing some cross-promotions with you, opportunities that you should give strong consideration to. Lastly, look at guest blogging as a chance to be informative and authoritative, not someone trying to push a sale down another’s throat;
- Socializing – As important as blogging is to your small business, being a player on social networking sites is equally as important. With social media, you can basically promote your brand for free, albeit with the most focus going towards the time and effort it takes to successfully utilize the art of social networking. For instance, when you write a blog post on any meaningful topic related to running a small business, send it out on your various social pages. If you wrote a blog piece on how more consumers are interested in shopping for and buying goods and services via their mobile devices, write a post on this topic, then promote it on Twitter by using hashtags like #mobilemarketing, #consumers, #shopping, #mobiledevices etc. Twitter users (businesses and consumers) clicking on such hashtags will find your article there, perhaps sharing it with others they know. Before you know it, an article that may have gotten a decent share of viewers on your blog itself is now suddenly being shared by countless individuals. As was mentioned earlier about cross-promotions with other blog owners, the same holds true with social media. The more informative and authoritative posts that you tweet and share with your audience, the more likely others in the small business world will do with your stuff.
When you combine the powers of blogging and social media, your small business can grow by leaps and bounds.
The key is making sure you don’t do one or both on an intermittent basis.
Always remember that both work well together hand-in-hand, but only when done on a regular basis.
If blogging is something you haven’t been a main player in over the recent years, change that approach moving forward in 2017.
When you do, your revenue numbers should look even better.
About the Author: Dave Thomas writes about small business topics on the web.