3 Things Your Small Business Needs To Do

It’s December – the end of yet another year. You reflect on your business and plans for 2019. You have invested your time and money in creating your website, social media profiles and email marketing campaigns to help promote your brand, product and service. How did things go in 2018? Are there opportunities for improvement? Let’s answer that for you – yes! With the landscape forever changing, you are never completely finished when it comes to digital marketing. You need to constantly make sure that you are staying ahead of the game and not falling behind. Before the new year well and truly kicks in, take the time to review your current digital assets to ensure your foundations have been setup correctly to make the new year’s efforts really count! Here are 3 things your business needs to do.

1. Check That Your Website Has Been Correctly Optimised

If you have by-passed optimising your website in the past, make it a plan for 2019. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is vital when it comes to being visible online. You may have a website that looks good and provides information for users – however, if it can’t be found then it’s not really working for you. There are a number of elements you need to consider when it comes to implementing SEO tactics – On Page – Is your content being targeted to the right audience? Apart from the content itself, your web pages also need to be correctly optimised with targeted meta tags, sound URL structure, and relevant internal and external linking strategies. Off Page – What other online properties are pointing to your website? It’s not just about what you do on YOUR website; what you do on OTHER websites also counts. Search Engines, like Google view these as ‘ticks of approval’ and help you build credibility and authority based on the topic, product or service you are offering. Don’t forget to include this in your optimisation mix. Technical – Is your site working the way it’s supposed to? There are certain technical elements that need to be cross checked, and in some cases added or updated to ensure your website is being crawled and seen by search engines. If you don’t have the correct technical structure set up for your website, you could be missing out on key opportunities online. Having the right tracking tools implemented is also a must, so that you can identify and fix up issues like 404’s also know as dead pages.

2. Review Your Social Media Channels & Strategy

Not every social media platform is going to be the right fit for your business. It’s important to determine which ones are relevant for you and where your audience is hanging out. It’s also equally important to create the right type of content to engage with your followers, liker’s, and sharers so that you make the most of your budget and time. Social media can be a powerful tool when used correctly. If you have been using platforms such as Facebook or Instagram during 2018, a great way to look at their effectiveness is via your previous campaigns to see what worked best – posts that received high engagement levels, click throughs to your website and so on. Get set for the new year by researching your market and identify topics, questions and information about your product or service that users are searching the answers to. Be a resource, not a sales pitch! Developing relationships takes time both online and offline so it’s crucial that your business provides value by highlighting your worth with each post you create.

3. Update Your Email Marketing Campaigns

Added to the digital mix, email marketing campaigns provide another great way to promote your business. Over time, email marketing has also experienced transformation and change meaning you can no longer just set and forget, hoping your email cuts through the 100’s of others landing in your customer’s inbox. Email marketing will continue to be a leading channel as part of this funnel. What does this mean for you and your business? Don’t be complacent. You will need to put in more effort and not just focus on acquisition and rewarding long term customers. You will also need to be present during the customer lifecycle, incorporating personalisation, loyalty programs, and re-engagement emails with your campaigns in 2019.

In Conclusion

It can be a lot to consider, however think about the impact it can have on your business if you don’t! Reviewing and revisiting these areas is a must-do if you want to step into the new year on the right foot. Have you overlooked optimising your website, or created email marketing campaigns that didn’t quite take off? With years of experience in digital marketing, Doreen can help businesses just like yours increase online visibility. If you don’t have the time to take this task on yourself, why not get in touch today and let an expert handle it for you.