Small Business

Traffic-generating strategies must be implemented in conjunction with two different, but extremely powerful, tactics in order for a business to succeed. Pay Per Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) are often compared on how soon they provide results versus sustained, long-term ones.

The most appropriate decision for a business is dependent on its market, goals, timelines, and a host of other factors. The key to making an informed investment is understanding your options and the likely outcomes.

Having a hard time selling?

Google ads appear at the top and bottom of search results pages when users enter a keyword and pay for them. The traffic you generated can be immediately transformed into leads if you have a decent website (and all the other critical boxes are checked).

You may choose this option if you’re desperate for sales. Upon stopping the payments for your ads, however, no new leads will come in.

 

The importance of optimizing your website

On the other hand, SEO involves optimizing your site so that it will be viewed as a high-value option for someone searching for a specific term. It does have a drawback in that, yes, it requires a long-term investment, and it’s only feasible if you play the Google game.

SEO involves researching what people search for online, then customising your website so that it becomes the default choice for those keywords. Most websites require a variety of tweaks and additions to the technical aspects, structure, content, images, and pages, as well as generating off-site links. This all takes a lot of time and resources, and even then you may have to wait while Google decides whether to improve your ranking.

 

Search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising

I believe a mix of paid advertising and SEO is likely to be the best option for your business. Your sales will increase immediately, and you’ll set yourself up for success on an organic, sustainable basis.

As you analyse your traffic, you can then adjust your investment over time. As SEO brings in more sales, you can reduce your advertising budget and enjoy the benefits of a search engine optimised website without paying for PPC.

 

Tips for SEO

Invest your SEO efforts on the pages that are most important to your site. A service business usually has a homepage and a services page – make sure you have a separate page for each service that you provide. When you are creating an e-commerce website, think of which products and categories are most profitable for your business. 

Unless you have a large budget and are unable to outsource an entire campaign, I recommend outsourcing keyword research and mapping. By doing so, you will know what you’re optimizing your pages for.

Even though you may be tempted to rely on paid ads for quick wins, SEO is your best friend. When nurtured with patience, it yields reliable, low-maintenance results.

 

Marketing is the lifeblood of any business, and it’s more important than ever in the digital age. From educating to informing, from building a strong reputation to maintaining demand and relevance, it’s essential for any company!

 

With the right strategies, your marketing campaign is sure to be a success! All it takes is some effort and time on your end and you can boost sales, attract new customers, or build brand awareness.

Exciting new marketing methods are being developed all the time! Here are some techniques that you can use to increase your marketing ROI.

1. Identify your core metrics

Sales, leads, and traffic are the key metrics for any marketing campaign. Your marketing messages will be effective if you measure conversions, bounce rates and unique visitors after each campaign to see how they responded.

No matter how much you know about marketing, you can always improve. Make sure your ROI continues to grow by refining your marketing tactics using this data.

2. Use a variety of marketing methods

In the digital economy, it is imperative to test different campaign channels, but it is equally important to find the right mix of digital and traditional channels. Finding the channels that work best for your business and objectives is the key.

Here are some key marketing channels to consider:

• Google AdWords
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Social Media Marketing

By determining what channels are most effective, you can focus on them to maximise ROI.

3. Try something new

Experimentation is essential to product development and marketing. An easy test-and-learn approach can provide many valuable insights. You can, for instance, try taking one action with a target group and none with a control group.

Now that you’ve completed your experiments, you’ll want to compare the results from each group and determine which action was the most effective. To ensure that your results and process are as clear as possible, it is a good idea to keep your experiments focused on one topic at a time.

4. Perform split testing

You can compare two versions of the same campaign to see which strategy is most successful by using A/B testing. By doing so, you can determine the best way to optimize your marketing efforts and achieve the best possible results.

5. Measure the impact of a survey through survey sampling

Asking your customers directly is one of the best ways to find out what they want. A sample of your customers can be surveyed to get answers to important questions that will influence your marketing efforts.

You can choose a sampling method that works best for your specific needs from the many available.

6. Keep an eye on your spending and income

If you are looking for ways to increase your return on investment, you need to look at the amount you spend and the return it generates. Make sure you analyse your spending and income at each stage of the campaign to find out where you are spending a lot but getting little return.

If you want to find out if you’re getting the results you want, you can compare your metrics across all your marketing channels.

For this reason, measuring your marketing ROI is essential for determining the success of your campaign. With tangible numbers, you can evaluate the campaign’s performance and find out where improvements could be made.

With this data, you can create and steer future marketing campaigns in the right direction. A better campaign will ensure you’re adding value to your brand and help shape marketing investment decisions in the future.

 

Small businesses are times tougher than large corporations when it comes to surviving disasters. 

They don’t have the same resources or manpower, and after COVID many of them were out of business because customers couldn’t get in touch with their offices for weeks on end.

During disaster situations like COVID, small businesses are hit much harder than larger companies. 

They may not be as equipped or prepared – they rely more heavily on physical locations where people can come into contact with each other in person rather then online shopping which was severely impacted by the virus shutting down access points throughout the country (and world). 

Due to such an event, local shops will likely see far less foot traffic than usual; so, please support them now more than ever.

What was COVID’s impact on small businesses? 

There were some who were hit more severely than  others. Victoria was the hardest hit geographically due to the four-month lockdown. In total, 140 days have passed, compared to 6 days on average elsewhere in the world.

Jobkeeper was a lifeline for hospitality, tourism, entertainment, and residential trades. It also failed for small businesses in the face-to-face sector. You will see plenty of ‘To Let’ signs around Melbourne.

Businesses that don’t face customers faced challenges to adapt. Zoom was discovered by many B2B services. Food services have developed delivery capabilities.

Seeing as many businesses, public and private, work from home now, I think businesses catering to city workers will struggle for a while.

I think many changes will stick because of the convenience factor. The key to a successful change is finding ways for it to be convenient, and with our increasingly busy lifestyles that are getting busier by the day, this has become much easier than before.

What sort of things can small businesses do now coming out of COVID to recover?

The face-face industry is struggling in today’s uncertain environment. When someone sneezes and there are lockouts, people can’t plan things out because they don’t know if the event will still happen or not.

Cancelation policies are one of the biggest gripes consumers have with booking services, but many businesses don’t find them to be a drawback. If people know that they can cancel at any time without consequence, then it takes some level of risk away from their decision and encourages more business interactions in general.

The concept is simple: if customers think there’s no penalty for canceling an order or service midway through what may turn out as being bad experience after all – such as cancelled trips because weather was too rough-then why not give yourself permission to bail when things start going downhill? The customer will take on less responsibility knowing you’re able to accommodate sudden cancellations if need be; this ultimately leads these same clients back into your shop again!

How important are local communities in supporting small businesses?

You know you’re not alone. You can find other people who are just as passionate about causes that matter to them, and all it takes is a little bit of groundwork on your end! Get involved in local communities by attending events sponsored by councils or any organization with similar goals aligned with yours. 

Networking will also help; but don’t be afraid to venture out into the world solo too – there’s always someone else looking for a new friend like yourself so get out there and give back while meeting others interested in doing good at the same time!

Corey, the butcher we all know from his cooking show on Facebook is now branching out to pre-cooked meals. Just heat and serve your favorite dish for a good time with friends or family anytime of day!

Be active in local social media so you can keep up with Corey’s “Cooking With Corey” Shows where he does slow cooked lamb or barbecued ribs that are available as a pre-cooked meal at The Butcher Shop following day.

Create a database of people’s contact information so that you can stay connected to them by sending emails.

If you want your business’ customers to be more loyal, then create an easily searchable and accessible directory with their contact details for easy communication!

What are some of the major difficulties small businesses may encounter at the moment?

It’s been a year since your customer last visited. It might be difficult to get them back on the bandwagon, but they’re likely having new experiences in that time and may just need more convenience for their life now so you can give it all together again!

In times of uncertainty, take the risk away from your customers.

What can small businesses do to attract more local customers?

Be easy to deal with.

Be visible in the community or online.

And build your database so you can communicate regularly with your customers.