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5 Techniques To Use To Get Your Small Business Noticed

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Small Business|5 Techniques To Use To Get Your Small Business NoticedNo matter what industry your business is in, you need to find clever and innovative ways to stand out from the crowd. Grabbing the attention of your customers, you need them to opt for your products or services ahead of your competitors. Without garnering this attention, your business will soon lose revenue and profits – something that no small business or startup wants to face.

In the modern-day, one of the best ways to gain attention is through developing a strong online presence. To do this effectively, you can use one or several of the following methods:

Create A Killer Website

This should be one of the first things that you do as a business. Nowadays, many customers discover a new business purely through their website. Therefore, it’s vital that you create an extraordinary website that entices them into what you have to offer. As well as making your website accessible across several devices, you should include information about who you are as a company, a payment platform, why your services/products are the number one choice, etc.

You might also want to consider starting a blog. Detailing information about your product/service as well as the latest news in your industry and other related information, it’s a key way of attracting new customers onto your site. You can do this by adding backlinks to other articles, asking for guest blog posts and including high-ranking links.

Ask For Reviews and Utilize Local Listings

To establish credibility, reliability and authority within your local area, it’s a good idea to encourage past customers to share reviews about your business. These can be posted either on your website or within third-party review sites such as TrustPilot.

Alongside reviews, consider creating a business listing on Google. This way, customers can discover what you have to offer through an organic search and they will see your business as credible.

An Effective SEO Strategy

Throughout the last few years, the powerful tool that is SEO has taken over. A force to be reckoned with, a successful SEO strategy can increase your profits in the long term. When creating an SEO strategy, make sure that you optimize your website so that it’s fully-functional and accessible, discover high ranking keywords, publish high-quality content, etc.

Alternatively, you could seek effective seo services to undertake the role for you. Giving you on-going support and ensuring that your website is ranking highly, it will assist with business growth.

Marketing, Marketing, Marketing

This might sound like an obvious one, but it’s still worth a mention. For your small business, you need to create an effective marketing strategy. This can include what your marketing campaigns are and where you will place them.

Think about the best ways that you can market your product or services to customers – will you do this solely online or will you branch out to create physical billboards/advertisements?

Social Media – A Powerful Tool To Harness

When working on your online presence, you should focus some of your effort on social media. Many customers look towards a business’ social media accounts to discover more about them and how they tackle customer service enquiries.

Therefore, you should create and use your social media accounts to not only post articles and links to new products or services but as a forum for customers to connect with you by. Lots of small businesses utilize social media, so don’t get left behind.

To assist with this and to increase efficiency, you can use scheduling software to push the various posts out. An example of which is Hootsuite.

The Ultimate Guide to Making Small Business Websites: This is What to Do

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article|small business websites |The Ultimate Guide to Making Small Business Websites: This is What to DoNearly 50% of small businesses reported that they did not have a company website.

With how popular technology is, it is surprising so many companies are unable to be searched online.

If you want to stand out from competitors and grow your business, you must create a website to draw people in and contact you.

Continue reading to discover the steps you need to take to make small business websites so that you have a strong online presence!

1. Get Started With the Basics

The first step to creating small business websites is to start with the basics and create a domain name.

Your domain name will also be the website’s name. You should check with online resources that you have a unique domain name that won’t conflict with another business. You will also need to take care of website hosting.

Website hosting includes your site’s homepage and files. There are many companies for web hosting, and some are free. This usually takes about an hour to complete, unless you can’t come up with a unique name.

GoDaddy, Bluehost, and DreamHost are all popular and trusted sites that businesses use to create their websites.

2. Set up the Format and Style

When readers go to your website, they should be able to quickly find information and understand it.

Formatting your website is important if you want it to flow for readers. Many people put a banner across the top of their site to help organize information. This has become a common tradition and doesn’t fail.

Without different pages and tabs, the website will look like one long list of information that won’t attract customers. You should also consider the style that you want to use too.

Many businesses design the site to match their logos. You should stay professional and use readable fonts. Try to stick with a common theme, so that your customers don’t feel like they are being misled to other sites.

Don’t be afraid to get creative and come up with a unique homepage. Graphic designers can also help your site stand out!

3. Create an Attractive Homepage

Did you know that the average computer user only spends 10-20 seconds looking at a website?

Beyond those 20 seconds, they have likely moved onto another site or lost interest. You must attract your customers and readers from the minute they get to your website.

By staying up to date on trends and using interactive pages, you can get readers to stay on your page for longer and consider your business. You can use high-quality videos and images on your page along with animation to draw in attention.

There are many things that you can do to draw people in, following the same patterns, however, will leave you forgotten like the rest. Try to come up with a unique way to display your business values and team to encourage new buyers.

4. Encourage Contact

If you want customers to consistently use your services or products, you should allow them a place to contact you.
Including a contact page on a website is standard. People use this tab to include emails, addresses, and phone numbers. If you notice that a lot of your customers like to offer feedback, you can even put a comment box on your contact page.

Letting your customers contact you lets them know that they matter. If something goes wrong or there is a defect, they can easily reach out to you, to resolve the issue. Make your contact page welcoming so that people feel comfortable talking to you and asking questions.

Sometimes, companies will include a picture of the person who will be answering your calls or emails. This help people put a face to the name and make your company more memorable. Adding personal touches will draw customers back.

5. Describe the Business

One of the most important things that your website should have is a summary of what your business is or does.
You want to let people know what your business is, immediately after going to the website. Without telling people what your services are, they may become confused and check out another site.

If you take pride in your company’s progress, it can help to include history online. When potential employees and devoted customers go to your site, they will likely want to know more about the company. A brief history is a great way to get your story heard and gain local business.

While describing the purpose of your company, you can present your mission statement and discuss everything you have to offer.

Explaining the progression of the business can be interesting to readers and teach them more about your values and hard work.

6. Display Your Team

Every good business comes with a solid group of employees that work well together.

If you are proud of your team and want to give them a spot on the website, you can do so with an “our team” page. This allows customers the chance to get to know who they are working with so that they can feel more comfortable.
Lawyers and other types of services that involve other people are recommended to include team pages. Offering this recognition to employees can also help make them more satisfied with their job and feel like they make an impact.

A business isn’t run by one person, rather a collective team working towards the same goal.

7. Market and Sell Your Products or Services

Another page that you may need on your website is a store of services page.

If your company sells products, like clothing, shoes, or accessories, you will want to display each item online. You should post clear pictures of products with detailed descriptions and ordering information.

This is where your customers can add items to the cart and try out your products. If your business doesn’t sell products, you can create a service page.

On the services page, you can include information about all of your offers and what you can do for your clients. Even if you can’t give them exact numbers, you can also include estimated prices for each service.

This will be one of your largest money makers in the company. Keep up to date of what your company offers, so that you don’t have to turn customers down.

8. Set up Payment System and Options

More than $158 million was spent online in the final quarter of 2019.

Online shopping has become so popular because it is convenient and accessible at any time. If you want your business to succeed, it is crucial that you set up a payment system online.

If you plan to sell products or services over the internet, online paying can help increase sales. Depending on the needs of your business, you will have to find the right plan for you. Many people have the account set up so that the money goes directly into the business’ bank account.

PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App are all other excellent options that you can accept payment through.

Don’t forget to include discount codes for customers if you are sending them out. To use these codes, they must be able to enter them in while paying.

9. Try It out

Now that you have all of your pages filled in with crucial information, you can test out the site.

This is an important step because it gives you the chance to fix any errors before making it public. Reviewing the site for spelling and grammar errors should be the first step. Editing and accuracy show your customers that you care and want to offer them the best service you can.

You will also want to make sure that all of your images, videos, and animation were uploaded correctly. Not all files are compatible with websites, so you may have to make adjustments along the way.

Testing out your site can also prevent you from having incomplete sections. With how many details there are in making a site, it can be easy to overlook a portion of the site.

Take notes of everything you discover on your test run so that you can make adjustments or continue down the same path!

10. Publish Your Site

You’ve uploaded all of your information, checked it over dozens of times and everything looks good. It’s now time to go live!

Publishing your site will allow access to internet users. Although your website may not be perfect, you can get feedback from customers about the site so that you can make sure it is meeting their standards.

This is an exciting step to creating a website and the beginning of a new chapter. Your business should continue to grow now that you have a strong online presence.

11. Market on Social Media

If you are wanting your new website to be seen by the world, you will have to market it.

After your site is error-free and published, you need to tell other people about it. By posting the site and sharing it on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest you can attract new customers. Use these sites to teach people about your company and why they should select your business over others.

An article by Corberry Digital Marketing examines marketing and factors that make a business fail or succeed. Read this to determine if your marketing efforts are working!

Don’t be afraid to find other avenues of marketing. You can also do so by word of mouth and posting ads in local papers.

12. Maintain the Website

If your website is continuing to work and bring in customers, you are likely doing something right.

If you want to continue the business, you will need to maintain your site. The contact information you provided should be accurate, along with employee information too.

When your business has new products or services being launched, they should also be uploaded to the website. Maintaining your site will prevent your site from being outdated and mismanaged.

Websites with blog pages should be having frequent uploads that stay up to date on trends and news. Many people recommend that you put aside a certain amount of time each day to work on your website.

13. Interact With Customers

Successful business owners know that you must interact with your customers if you want to keep them coming back.
You should be interacting with the customers online through your website and social media. Otherwise, your business can become forgotten. When customers comment on your posts or reach out to you in an email, you must respond to them.

Unanswered questions from customers can make them unsatisfied. A caring and conversational business owner can help make them feel comfortable to support your business.

You should always acknowledge what people are saying about your company. You may be able to increase sales if you follow the logical requests that people want.

Create Small Business Websites That Impress Customers

When you own a company, a lot of your business comes from word of mouth and through referrals.

Utilizing this guide can help you create small business websites that give you an online presence. This can help people learn about your company and all of the services that you offer. Most people look at online reviews and sites to determine if they want to support them or not.

To have an impressive website, you should use organization, media, and personal touches. Whatever you can think of to make your company look as unique as it is will help your site.

Be sure to check out our blog for more articles about improving your business with technology!

4 Online Methods for Helping Your Restaurant Gain More Customers

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Online Marketing for Restaurants|4 Online Methods for Helping Your Restaurant Gain More CustomersAs a restaurant owner, you will already be well aware of the difficulty and continual challenges it throws into the mix. Not only does operating a restaurant require strong dedication and consistency, but you also need to put in long hours on a daily basis.

With so much work that needs to be done every day, it can be even more challenging to find the time to do any marketing. Yet for your business to grow, you need to be able to get the word out. The more people who know about your restaurant, the more likely you are to attract new visitors ready to sample your cuisine.

Thankfully, this doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go around posting leaflets or attending events – although these are useful promotional methods. With the power of the Internet, you can reach more potential customers than ever before without stepping foot out of your restaurant. For proof, here are four effective online marketing methods:

The power of social media

Social media is an incredibly effective tool for marketing your restaurant. It’s an easy way to interact with your customers and advertise your business in a visual manner. Social media is also the perfect platform for running competitions, which can gain your eatery an extensive level of visibility among the local community.

Reviews = validation

In the world of restaurants, reviews are king. They serve as validation for the quality of your restaurant, and they are an easy way for potential visitors to know what you’re about. As a result, you need customers to supply positive reviews – the more, the better – on the likes of TripAdvisor and Facebook.

To gain business reviews for local SEO purposes, you could give customers a reason to leave feedback. Entice them with the offer of, say, 10% off their next restaurant visit. You could even run a competition where everyone who leaves a review is added to a competition for a free meal.

Build an informative website

Don’t just rely on social media and Google My Business to deliver your business information to customers. This should be done through a dedicated website, one which is modern and professional in appearance.

By doing this, you can customize and add as much information as you want. Want to detail the history of the restaurant? This can be done with an ‘About Us’ page. Perhaps you want to detail the meals and drinks you serve?Post an easy-to-read PDF of your restaurant menu.

Reservations are not only done over the phone

That’s right. You might be used to only accepting reservations over the phone, but it’s time to move into the present. Nowadays, restaurants offer the opportunity for customers to complete their reservations online. This added convenience is a subtle yet effective method for increasing visitor numbers.

To provide the option of online reservations, you could hire a professional web design company to implement a platform on your website. However, there are third-party platforms such as OpenTable which give you the opportunity of setting up online reservation functionality with little trouble.

7 Dental Marketing Strategies You Should Be Using in 2020

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, 7 Dental Marketing Strategies You Should Be Using in 2020

With almost 200,000 dentists practicing in America, having the best dental marketing strategies in place is a must.
People have to trust you to allow you to work on their mouths. There are things you can do to become more trustworthy to people, and we are going to talk about some of those.

Continue reading this article as we talk about dental marketing and the strategies you should use to get customers.

1. Optimize Your Google My Business Page

If you aren’t familiar with your Google My Business page, you need to make sure you’ve claimed it. Claiming your Google My Business page is easy.

All you have to do is Google it and follow the simple instructions on how to secure your page and verify your business.

Once you have your GMB page, you’ll be able to fix it up to look like a mini website. This is important because it will show up at the top of the Google pack when people are looking for dentists in your area once you’re starting to rank.

You can add recent photos and even update it like social media.

2. Create a Trustworthy Website

Now that you’re getting attention from the search engines, you need to be sure they are going to a website that commands trust.

When you have a slow website that looks outdated, that doesn’t make people feel like they can trust you. They might even question whether you are out of business or not.

Look at some of the most popular and well-trusted dentists in your area, and see how their websites look. You can model after their design elements and have a designer put something just as high quality together for you.

3. Rank Your Business in the Search Engines (SEO)

One of the best ways to get relevant customer’s attention is through the search engines. Learning SEO, which is also known as search engine optimization, is the way to give your website the best opportunity to appear on the front page of the search engines.

Search engine optimization requires work both on your website as well as off-page factors like building links to your site.

When you want to rank in the search engines, you should choose a relevant keyword for the pages you want to rank. Focus on that main keyword and build around it by using other keywords that are similar around the content.

Finding the right dental keywords for your company is important, so you’ll be able to target people that care about what you have to offer.

4. Keep Your Social Media Pages Active

If you don’t have a Facebook page for your business already, now is the right time to go create one. Having a social media presence is going to get people’s attention and make them see that you are serious about keeping your business active online.

5. Engage Customers With Video Marketing

While people can come to your website and read content about how amazing you are, the best thing you can do is create videos to post on your website. Videos allow people to see who you are and how you operate.

Not only should you be on the website, but you should also feature your workers, and show off the office.

Giving customers a behind the scenes view of your office will put them at ease and make them more likely to call and make an appointment. Video marketing is also another way for people to discover you on sites like YouTube.

6. Submit to Dental Directories

When people are looking for dentists, they might go to a trusted dental directory. You want to make sure that you’re on all of your local directories, so people will continue to see your business name when they are searching.

The more people see your business name, the more likely it is that they are going to do further research to see if you might be the right choice for their dental needs.

Submitting to dental directories is usually free. Depending on the area where you live, some of them might have some fees. Try these directories for a little while, and if they don’t give you the results you want, you can drop them.

7. Use Email Marketing

Email marketing is the best way to stay top of mind with your past customers. They need to come back in to get their teeth checked periodically, but you might need to give them reminders, and the 9 word email strategy is the best way to do this.

Some people might opt-in for your text reminders, but most people are more comfortable with giving out their email addresses for notifications.

You can use email marketing for more than reminders. If they have a birthday, or if there is a holiday coming up, you can use your email blast to wish them a happy holiday.

They know they need to come into the dentist, and just seeing your name might be enough to have them call and set an appointment up.

Implementing the Best Dental Marketing Strategies

Now that you know more about dental marketing strategies, you’ll be able to grow your dental practice. Not having enough customers can cripple your business, but proper marketing can make all the difference.

Do you feel like you need more help with your marketing efforts? Our site is full of articles that can help you as you’re growing your business and working on going to the next level.

Browse our site, find your favorite section for business marketing, drop a bookmark, and come back soon to read more.

10 Ways To Increase Your Visibility As A Local Business

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Increase Your Visibility|10 Ways To Increase Your Visibility As A Local BusinessIf you’re looking for ways to increase your visibility as a local business and you’re unsure where to start then don’t worry, you have definitely come to the right place. Whether you’ve been in business for 10 years or you’re just getting started, it’s incredibly important to always be thinking about how you can reach new customers and as a local business, often this can be a little more difficult. Luckily, there are lots of ways in which you can grow locally. With that in mind, here are 10 ways to increase your visibility as a local business:

– Start Using A Social Media Strategy

One of the best ways to increase your visibility as a local business is to start putting together a social media strategy that you can easily follow. Although you may feel as though you need to be on every single app in order to succeed, the truth is that it only takes a couple of platforms in order for you to reach your audience. You need to think about which social media platforms your audience are likely to be using, then start working on your strategy from there. Whether it’s posting content they relate to or sharing the latest offers you have, it’s important you know what you’re going to be using each channel for. For a guide to creating your social media strategy, you can visit this site here.

– Work With A Local Marketing Agency

If you’re unsure whether or not you’re going to be able to create a social media strategy on your own, you may want to consider working with a local marketing agency instead. Not only will they be able to help when it comes to your social media channels, but they will also be able to help in various other ways. From creating an email list to using video to attract new customers, local marketing agencies will know exactly how to reach those around you.

– Consider Pay Per Click Advertising That Is Targeted Locally

Another great way to increase your visibility as a local business is to consider using pay per click advertising, as this will allow you to target people based on their location. If you’re looking for just local customers, this is absolutely ideal! You can set location, age, gender and a whole host of other demographics that will ensure your advertisements are only seen by people that would be interested in them. For a guide to using pay per click advertising as a small business, you can visit this site here.

– Pay For Advertisements In Local Papers And Publications

If pay per click advertisements is something you don’t think will work for your business model, why not consider paying for advertisements in local papers and publications? If you know your target audience is going to be reading them, it’s definitely a great way to get your business in front of the right people. In some cases, however, it can be expensive.

– Attend Local Events And Fairs

Local events and fairs are amazing for local businesses and depending on the type of business you run, you may seriously want to consider whether or not they are something you should be attending. Whether you’re attending to network with local business owners or you’re attending to sell your products to attendees, once you start showing your face at three or four events a year, local people will start to become more and more familiar with who you are.

– Failing That, Sponsor Local Events And Fairs

If you can’t always attend a local event or you want to go that one step further, why not consider sponsoring local events too? Having your name on all of the marketing and branding is a great way to get your name out there when it comes to local customers, as soon they’ll start to see you as someone who is everywhere at all times. Whilst it can be expensive at times, the promotion you will receive is invaluable. For the benefits of sponsoring an event, you can visit this site here.

– Consider Investing In A Virtual Office

If you’re working from home and you want to make your business seem more professional, investing in a local virtual office is a great idea. For those that don’t know, renting a virtual office means that you rent an address to use within your business. Whether it’s using it to send your mail or using it to allow you to operate in a certain area, they’re a great solution to using your home address as a business address. If you are looking for a virtual office service, you can visit this site here.

– Aim For Local Coverage On TV

Although it can be difficult, local coverage on TV is a great way to get your name out there. Whether you’re helping a local charity or you’re doing incredible things for your community each and every day, it’s important you’re doing all that you can to get your name out there. If you’re looking for assistance when it comes to local TV coverage, you may want to consider speaking to a PR agency.

– Set Up A Local Loyalty Scheme

If you want your existing customers to come back time and time again, you need to be sure you’re offering a loyalty scheme that will encourage them. Whether this means offering a discount or giving away free products after a certain number of purchases, you need to love the customers you already have.

– Rely On Reviews And Word Of Mouth

Finally, you may want to consider relying on reviews and word of mouth. Although it can be hard to get everyone talking about you, your happy customers will be the best marketing you can possibly have.

Are you struggling to increase your visibility as a local business? What can you do to ensure your name is getting out there? Did we miss anything?