Gone are the days of Mom and Pop businesses only able to thrive from hand-outs, street advertising, and newspaper ads. What’s a newspaper anyway? In order to keep a business going, Mom and Pops now need to invest in digital marketing services with mobile ready websites and SEO focused content in order to connect with customers of today. The 21st century has long since turned away from plunking out catchy phrases on the typewriter and has now turned those slogans into social media campaigns building a social media presence to boost their business rankings across the globe.
A small business can benefit greatly from carefully managing their reputation. Partnering with a marketing company or web design firm can help boost their online presence by offering on-page SEO services, web design, digital marketing services, and e-mail marketing suggestions. Mom and Pops will soon be shocked to learn the Entrepreneur.com recommends several tips to conquer a basic understanding of SEO.
- Keywords, Keywords, Keywords!: A strong keyword cannot be emphasized enough. When you think of your product or service, think of the different terminology consumers might use to find that product and those will become the best suited keywords. A good marketing company with strong SEO will place that keyword everywhere! Titles, headers, body content, and even business names. It has been found that businesses with a strong keyword in their name are likely to rank 1.5 times higher than businesses with no keyword.
- Website Content: Content needs to be attractive, appealing, and engaging to keep customers interested. Understanding basic web design or hiring a marketing company with solid digital marketing services can help create easily navigable websites. Adding images and videos are one way to improve consumer engagement. The content itself should contain the main keywords as well as supporting variations to optimize search engine results. According to Backlinko, longer content is ranking higher in Google with the first web pages averaging 1,890 words.
- Know the Competition: Back in the day Mom and Pops could make a dirty face or spread some gossip to boost their business rankings, but online marketing companies suggest doing some online research about fellow competitors. This allows your business to understand what the competition has to offer and what it can do better to improve its online presence.
Building an online presence can be overwhelming, but finding a helpful marketing company can reduce the time it takes to understand what your business needs to grow. Many marketing services are located in the northern VA area and collaborating with a marketing company will start you on the way to building a well-known online presence. After establishing your business’ name, another strategy to connect with customers further is e-mail marketing.
Everyone knows about spam mail, but if done correctly e-mail marketing is a tactful way to establish relationships with customers. E-mail marketing can be more personal than general SEO focused content. E-mail marketing connects with customers outside the website presence and can provide special benefits and promotions. This will entice people to keep coming back to your business and increase a positive relationship. Like website design, a key to good e-mail marketing is attractive, easy to navigate content.
Creating a business from the ground up can be frustrating, but invigorating and exciting. Understanding the benefits of an online presence can greatly increase your business’ reputation and standing among competitors. First, gain awareness through the use of SEO services by hiring a marketing company to help strategize and then follow up with all the customers your SEO content brings in with pleasant e-mail marketing. This will help Mom and Pops business compete in the 21st century.
WRITTEN BY
Rick Hogan, CEO & Co-Founder – Bleevit Interactive Rick possesses over 20 years of digital marketing experience and started Bleevit Interactive with the primary mission of helping local businesses succeed online. When he is not working he can often be found hiking Great Falls, Virginia with his Labradoodle Lily, or sailing the Chesapeake Bay. If you have any comments or suggestions on how we can improve this post or otherwise want to give us a shout, send an email to hello@bleevit.com.
