ConnectME Digital Marketing

Helping Small Businesses Grow

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How You Can Win More Customers Using Social Media Marketing

Casual business people talking in meeting at the officePeople always say that marketing only works if you are strategic and know where you can meet the goals and attract the right audience. There are many successful ways to run a small business through marketing and achieve your goals. Nowadays, we have a multitude of social media platforms to use such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, and more. Luckily, these days many have found that we are not spending the same amount on social media as we once did – no, there are other ways to draw customers in.

Increasing Traffic 

There are many steps used to guide your business in the right direction. We can help you understand these steps to make life easier on yourself and obtain the business of your dreams.

Assess the Demographic: If your small business has a physical store, it sometimes pays to sit down and watch who comes and goes. Understanding your demographic can give you a better idea of who you can target your products toward. The same can be said if your business is solely online – you can watch who is commenting and liking your products.

Community Events: Hosting community or online events can sometimes help. You may host an in-person or online party with deals for customers on occasion. You may hold a raffle, or donate to charity. You may stick to educating customers by uploading a video that shows them how to use a certain product to keep your business relevant in their minds. 

Location-Based Services: You can promote your small business by using mobile apps that target customers around your business. Many of these services like Groupon or Living Social can help others understand when you are having offers and find out your hours, as well as much more information relating to the business.

Keeping in Touch: You should always have an engaging social media presence. You can tie in all these previous tips through social media as a way to bring in new customers and appeal to those who have been buying for some time. Using social media can be completely free if that’s how you want to use it, albeit time-consuming if you are actively promoting your work. But the best thing that you can do is interact with your audience and be another member of the community! 

Keeping up to Date: Stay in touch and keep up to date with customers on social media. Remind your audience if you are sending out newsletters or deals on emails. There are many ways to engage your audience and see results!

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Understanding How Search Engine Optimization Helps Your Business

Business graph conceptIf you are trying to build your online presence and general audience for your business through social media, you probably already have a starting idea of what you want to do. You probably understand that this starts with understanding who your target audience actually is and how you need to be as specific as possible when it comes to these things. You probably also understand that SEO is extremely vital to your business, standing in as the main tactic that brings you many of your customers. You must consider what works for your business in the long run and attracts as many customers as possible, which is where we come in.

Importance of SEO

Some of the most important SEO tactics online include keyword researching, content marketing, link building, social media promotion, and more. SEO is one of the most important aspects of marketing as a whole. The reason? If customers aren’t able to find your website buried deep within the depths of Google, then they can never become a customer. This is how your business falls behind. If you are considering SEO and a strategy that will help you online, you want to consider the following tips:

  • You must consider on-site SEO, which consists of your written content, images, and more – and their presence on popular outlets like Google and Bing.
  • Off-site SEO is also important, as it includes links from reporters and others in the industry who list your company or have it in online directories.
  • You also want to consider keeping your website up-to-date and making it as speedy as possible. You also want it viewable on all devices, like smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

Quick SEO Techniques

Keywords: Keywords are important because they are the words that customers look for when they are interested in finding a new product or service. If you use the right keywords, you then improve your business’ ranking. You want to use keywords wisely, and only in places where they make sense. 

Content Marketing: Your content should be outstanding, to the point where it beats all the rest in your particular industry! This means looking at your website and using the most intriguing photographs, being as informative as possible, and showing videos of your product in action. People live for visible content! 

Social Media Promotion: Though social media promotion and searching doesn’t really go hand in hand, it can still drive people to your site when the word is spread about your business. People click social media links all day, every day – so be sure to keep yours up to date!

Analytics: What are analytics? These will tell you how your SEO is working and what you need to improve upon. Google Analytics allows you to see how people are finding your business through their searches. This tells you where you can improve your presence and how you can appeal to customers on all outlets.

It is important to tell what customers are seeing when they look for your business online. Whether they are coming from a search engine or social media posts, it is important to understand how your customers are interacting with your business. You can find out how to track this data through a free marketing report from Connect Me Digital Marketing. Contact us for more information on how we can assist you!

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How Instagram Can Help You Build Your Small Business

Instagram on iPhone 5There are many social media platforms that can help you excel in regards to your small business. Instagram is usually one of the social media platforms that business owners do not always think of when they are working on building their brand. However, without it, you are missing out on opportunities. One of the reasons for this is because Instagram is the fourth-most downloaded app in the U.S, with 500 million monthly users – which means more opportunity for growth. Instagram is more visible than it is text for reading, which means that you should gain a strong following and find many intriguing things to post about. We will show you how using Instagram can benefit you.

Usefulness of Instagram 

Using Visuals to Gain Followers: Businesses across the country use Instagram as a way for an audience to connect to their business. Everything that you do in your business will interest the right followers. This is why you could take photos around your workplace because it interests those who want to buy from you, of community events to show your lives outside of work, and of celebrations to engage consumers with your business.

Using Hashtags: Hashtags allow you to attract new followers. There are many popular hashtags, such as #throwbackthursday, #selfie, and more. By understanding hashtags, you can better understand who will take an interest in what you are posting and relate to your audience in a different way.

Interacting With Users: There are many ways that the Instagram platform allows you to interact with other users. You can like other people’s photos, comment on photos, mention people in posts, and tag other users. Just like many other social media platforms, Instagram also allows you to send direct messages to users. 

Advertising: You have the opportunity to advertise. You can use photo ads that have sponsored labels above the photos, video ads that are much like regular video posts, and carousel posts, which are ads that use multiple photos that users are able to swipe through. These ads appear on homepages when users scroll through the app.

Relating to Your Brand: It is a good idea to share images of things that are popular on the platform. However, if your business has nothing to do with these things, your followers could become confused and feel less engaged. Keeping things relevant can go a long way.

When you are building your small business, social media is the way to go. Through the use of these specialized platforms, you can extend your reach and meet with an audience that relates to what you are selling. Keep these tips in mind to help you grow and expand in a way that helps your business and engages customers.

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Is it Time for You to Update Your Business Plan?

Thoughtful man creating a business planWhen you start your business, you may have the ultimate plan in mind. You may have projections for the future, have your finances in place, and have the latest in trends on your mind. You may have the perfect target audience and believe that everything is working to standard. However, as the months go by, the plan may not be perfectly tailored to your needs anymore. You may still agree with the plan you once made, but small details may have changed. This is why it is important to sometimes revisit your business plan and make necessary changes.

Reasons Why a Change is Necessary 

  • If the competitors are reacting to your low prices or extending their business hours to set new standards, then it may be time for a chance in tactics. You want what works best for your finances, so help yourself and your audience by tailoring to all of your needs.
  • If the economy has drastically changed due to inflation or unemployment rates in your area, this will negatively affect a customer’s ability to buy. You may need to make adjustments to suit their needs.
  • Regulatory changes may impact your business in some way. In many cases, this comes down to sales tax on products. You may have to compete with online sellers in some ways, which is where you need to change your tactics.
  • If your firm has developed a new state-of-the-art product, it may be time for a change. When businesses make huge changes, their old business plan will not reflect.
  • Your company may have made huge leaps and bounds since you last revisited your plan. For instance, maybe you moved into a larger officer instead of working out of your home. Perhaps you reached enormous sales, more so than you would have planned for the year. With this comes a change in your everyday business plan.

The Necessity of a Working Business Plan

What happens if you don’t have a business plan to update because you never sat down to properly prepare a plan that works for your business? It’s never too late to implement a plan with the help of a mentor or somebody who can guide you with their experience. You should speak to your staff about how to move forward because working with your growing staff will produce the best results. Keep your business plan in mind throughout all the changes in the life of your business and help it grow.

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Not Engaging With Customers on Your Social Media Networks?

Business Communication Connection People ConceptWhen you are building your business, one of the best ways to do so is to utilize your social media networks, where customers will engage with your posts to understand the product you are selling. Many people believe that a business is not worth anything when customers are not engaged. If you are failing to gain social shares, comments, and feedback from customers, you may wonder what you may be doing wrong.

Things You May be Doing Wrong 

Content That Doesn’t Gain Attention: Your content must be engaging, which means that it must catch people’s eyes. This means that you should always utilize quotes, contests, questions, and more. Having uninteresting, black and white posts will encourage your customers to scroll right over what they’re seeing. Images and multimedia stand out to everyone, giving the audience a way to connect as they pause to look at the content. 

Wrong Social Media Platforms: You must always use the correct social media platforms based on the needs of your customers. If many of your customers have businesses themselves, LinkedIn may be the best place to share, as opposed to Facebook, where everyday consumers are browsing.

Wrong Audience: You may have to inspect the demographics of your customers, as you may be targeting the wrong type of audience. Understanding searching habits and social media interests can help you. 

Ignoring Fans and Comments: If you have particularly “loud” fans, these could be the advocates that help you build your business. You should always engage with customers of any kind, such as answering their questions as quickly as possible and showing gratitude when they brag about your product. If you ignore them, they may go away – and nobody wants that!

Quick Tips for Engaging Audiences 

If you want to engage your audience more than ever before, follow these quick tips that you may have not considered before.

  • Find the best, relevant content that will resonate with your fans – because when audiences feel they can identify with you, the result is better!
  • Post behind the scenes at your business as well as pictures of customers using your products, as it will show your audience what is involved in the process of your business.
  • Offer contests to your audience, but be careful not to overuse it.
  • Post infographics that are fun and enlightening, based on your audience’s preferences.
  • Be sure to include a little humor, as being boring never reaches an audience.

By staying engaged with your business, you also engage others. Know your business from the inside-out and keep these practices in mind. You may not have even known that some of the tactics you previously used were helping you lose customers… build your better business today!