With the rise of social media, smartphones, and e-commerce, every business from sole-proprietorship hot dog carts to Fortune 500 corporations have turned to the Internet for their marketing needs. With few exceptions, a business, even a small business, is essentially committing suicide if it does not have a strong web presence. There are certain web-based options which a small business would be wise to consider in their marketing efforts, most of which are either free or available at a nominal fee.
First, it is no longer necessary for a person to have a vast understanding of html coding and advanced web design training in order to put together a professional-looking, functional, and versatile business website. Several popular websites offer web design platforms with intuitive, user-friendly interfaces making the design of a fully-functional website with features previously only obtainable via high-priced web design firms. Sites like Web.com, Wix, Weebly, BuildYourSite, and others make the process of web design quick and productive. When creating your business site through one of these platforms, you can add e-commerce functionality if you have products to sell. You can include scheduling options if your business offers reservation-style service. If you are an artist, you can showcase your work in a clean, professional manner. You can also integrate into your site all of your social networking profiles and pages.
Once your website is up and running, you might want to consider implementing some sort of rewards/loyalty program. With the rise of mobile Point of Sale (POS) apps like Square, Spark Pay, PayPal Here, and an upcoming Amazon product, reward and loyalty programs have become almost unavoidable in the world of small business. Some of these POS systems offer an integrated rewards program, while others require the use of a separate app like Five Stars, Perkville, and several other options. While these rewards programs offer incentive for customer loyalty, they also provide a quick and easy up-sale model. If you are sitting on inventory that isn’t moving, you can offer discounts and freebies with combined and/or increased purchases in order to move stale inventory. Since most loyalty members have their reward apps installed on their phones and mobile devices, notifications can be sent directly to your customers when new deals, new products, and new rewards are available. The possibilities are practically endless.
There are also available now many effective options for driving traffic (both Internet traffic and physical, foot traffic) to your place of business. Every small business should be registered with Google+, Yelp, and Facebook. Depending on the type of business, other sites such at Angie’s List, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Tumblr can also be extremely useful when showcasing your business to potential customers or clients. You should try to make sure that your business comes up on Google searches, that customer reviews and ratings are easily found and displayed prominently, and that your business stands out whenever and wherever people are searching for the types of products and/or services offered by your small business. You can offer incentives to customers for “liking” and “checking in” with your business on Facebook and other social networking sites. Facebook also offers highly customizable advertising options, allowing the business owner to hone in on specific demographics, to set daily budgets, to restrict ads to specific locations, etc.
The Internet has become a necessity for the marketing of small businesses. If you are starting a new business, or even restructuring an old one to be more relevant in the modern world, it would behoove you to not neglect your business’s web presence.
