ESG MARKETING SOLUTIONS is built for Small and Medium-Sized Companies
If you’re like a lot of other small business owners, the topic of marketing could easily keep you up at night.
On the one hand, you know you need to spread the word about your business so you can get customers through the door. On the other, marketing is something you have to spend money on – sometimes what can seem like a lot of money – with no guarantees it will work.
So how do you get the best results while keeping your costs under control?
An excellent place to start is online for a few reasons. First, it’s where the overwhelming majority of people go for information before they contact a business. And second, online marketing is one of the most affordable marketing tactics available.
Online marketing tools are usually quick to set up, highly configurable (which means you have a lot of control over how much you spend), and easy to change when something’s not working.
The first and most important of these tools is your website.
It’s OK to start small with your website, you do not need your website to be complicated or sophisticated. Sometimes even a single page will do. What’s critical is for your site to give visitors a clear picture of your core business: what you do and why it’s great. Research shows people stay on websites longer when the value proposition is clear.
A new website will cost you money:
You will spend anywhere from several hundred to a few thousand dollars to build something simple. Many businesses try saving money by creating their sites themselves, and there are templates to help with that. Still, a professionally made site will give you more reliability and the technology you need to evolve, especially when you have analytics software built-in. For example, if you’re a hairstylist, web analytics will tell you if most visitors are attracted to your ‘portfolio’ page. That tells you one of your most significant selling points is how you’ve styled other people’s hair – and that you should add as many pictures as you can.
Website building tips:
Hire a professional!!! Unless you are technically skilled, investing in professional help with your site is well worth it. If you are incorporating customer interaction on your website, use an IT expert to make sure you have the right interface and processing speed. Make sure your online look and feel are consistent with your business cards, the visuals in your place of business, and any traditional marketing approaches you use. Consistency helps create a connection with your customers.
Make your site searchable:
Having invested in a great website, you need to make sure people can find it easily. Since 70-80% of search engine users focus only on ‘organic’ results2 – not paid advertisements – having your site rank highly can be a hugely effective way of driving traffic to your page. Getting good search results is one of the most inexpensive ways to boost your site’s visibility.
Content tips for your site:
Getting good results depends on having the right keywords on your website: terms people use in Google and other search engines to find products or services like yours. You can get a sense of what those might be by searching the web yourself, testing words you think people might use to describe what your business is selling. You can also ask your customers what terms they search or. Use those words in your web copy to get as high a search ranking as possible.
Raise your online profile:
With a good, reliable, searchable website in place, you can then make it the destination for other kinds of marketing campaigns. You can use traditional marketing materials like flyers and radio ads or other online tactics like social media, pay-per-click advertising, and more, to catch people’s attention and send them to your site.
Pay-per-click and social media advertising can both be affordable ways to promote your business because they allow you to set spending thresholds that fit your budget. And because they also include analytics, you can see in a short amount of time what’s working and what’s not, and make changes to fine-tune your message and get more bang for your marketing buck.
Online marketing is continuous:
Getting your website and online advertising up and running is just the beginning. After your site is live, you can – and should – keep refining it to make sure it performs optimally for your business. Use your analytics program to see what pages visitors view the most and build on that. Watch your sales to see if an increase in visits to your website is translating into more sales.
Finally, check to make sure that what you’re doing online is consistent with the goals you’ve set in your business plan because, ultimately, it’s your business plan that drives your business growth.
With the right foundation for ongoing marketing, you can manage your costs, maximize your results, and get a better night’s sleep.
WE CAN ASSURE YOU THIS IS NOT ADVERTISING PROPAGANDA FROM ESG MARKETING SOLUTIONS BUT AN ARTICLE FROM BELL CANADA.
ESG MARKETING SOLUTIONS is built for Small Business owners and can provide you with all the tools you require at prices that make sense for the Small Business owner.
Advertising and Marketing needed to take your business to the next level is exactly what ESG MARKETING SOLUTIONS provides.
In our experience, people shy away from advertising, not because of the cost, because they don’t know how to get results and they don’t understand the long-term residual effects. Think about it, if you knew that for every $100 you spent you could produce $200, you would get out your chequebook and spend away, right?
We want to first get the leverage to help you understand why you must add advertising to the mix and then we can start to talk about how.
When done effectively advertising is an essential part of the mix because:
- Advertising is the only medium you can control – if you want your message to hit on the day a product launches or event is about to happen, this is the only vehicle you control completely.
- Advertising allows you to target ideal customers only – when you match a very personal message to a very select audience you get a far greater connection.
- Advertising creates awareness for your content – The force that drives a great deal of conversion and trust building these days is educational content – ebooks, seminars, and blog posts – advertising is a great way to help get that content found and consumed once you’ve gone to the effort to produce it.
- Advertising adds credibility to your message – Don’t ask me why this is exactly, but every time we run advertising people comment that business must be going well. The perception that you can afford to advertise is often enough to sell and resell prospects and customers alike and makes it easier to get attention for your entire message.
- Advertising amplifies everything else you’re doing – When you are using advertising to create awareness for your content you automatically create more awareness for everything you are doing. Journalists find companies that advertise, referral sources remember companies that advertise, people fan and follow and friend from ads, and employees can point to well-placed ads as a source of pride in the place they work.