I have spoken at several conferences over the years and I have been asked several times about things that a small business can do themselves to help their digital marketing. And, every time I’ve given these same examples. While some of these are labor intensive they will help improve your digital marketing immediately.

Content Marketing

This term has become all the rage as of late and no one is really doing all that great of a job explaining it. But, content marketing is more than just blogging and hoping someone finds it through the web or online via some Search Engine Optimization magic. Content marketing is an actual process. It is comprised of not just creating but distributing it and then using it to get people back into your online sales funnels.

How do you know what interests your audience? Great question. First you can do something crazy and ASK THEM. Simple enough, send an email or call them and ask what they want to learn more about. Or, you can use a number of softwares out there that will tell you what articles are getting shared the most on the web and you can create your own version based on your experiences. Don’t be a copy cat!

Lastly, if you can create any of that content as a download then do it. If you can find a way to get an email address to add to your email marketing database it will help your content pay dividends in the future.

Search ( Engines)

Yes, this may seem to be the most in your face easy answer. Don’t leave yet. Stay with me here! There are two ways you can get found through search engines, paid search and organic search. One is much easier and less time-intensive than the other, but one ( SEO)  will stick with you much longer. So, just like everything in life you get out what you put in.

Organic Search: SEO, local SEO, etc Search Engine Optimization, is all about making sure your whole website is set up with correct content and search terms, that your site is interlinked, etc. Often referred to as the “free” way on google since you don’t pay them. But, you will probably need to hire an SEO company to make sure everything is done that needs to be done.

Paid Search ( PPC): This is buying ads on google. Now there are a few ways you can buy ads on google.  But, most people know about the 3 or 4 ads you see at the top of the search results or in maps. This is a somewhat easier process to work through since you can use google’s admin to set up and place your ads.

Claim Your Business Listings

There are hundreds of locations you can get online business listings for your business. There are a few reasons why claiming your listings are important.

• Linking building- setting up these listings will give you valuable links back to your websites from a very viable source or website. So, it will help your SEO!
• Customers Reviews- yeah I know this is a sword that can cut both ways. But, Making sure you have reviews on google is super important these days! Actually having reviews on all of your listing websites is important. Here’s why!

Reason 1 you want reviews:

Having positive reviews on your business listing accounts will help your SEO. So, your SEO company should be advising you to make sure you are getting as many reviews as possible.

Reason 2, It WILL help you get business.

People do judge your business from the reviews left on google or your business listing accounts.And, people make buying decisions based on them too. So, ask your customers to leave you a review online.

• SEO- I feel like this needs to be stated again as its own point. But, claiming all of your listings is a major part of SEO. Not only just having all of them pointing back to your website, but having customers leave positive signals on them makes that link even more powerful.

Make Sure Google Search Console Is Connected

First off, you may be asking yourself “What is Google Search Console?“. At the rate that I’ve seen people missing Google Analytics from their websites these days, it doesn’t shock me to hear that people don’t know what this is. Formerly called Google Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console has several benefits. The main benefit being that you can plug the sitemap for your website ( yes i know you may not know what this is either) into it and give Google a live feed to your website. So, when you add new content or make changes to your website Google knows. This helps you rank better & faster in search.

Get Consistent With Posting To Your Social Media

I know that creating a social media plan can be challenging and regularly posting can be really difficult as well. But, being present and active on your social platforms is super important. Now you don’t have to post something every day, but picking 3 days a week to make sure you are sharing something about your company can make a difference in your follower’s eyes. Social Media is about being visible when a need for your product or service arises.

The recent stat I read is that you want to post anywhere from 3 to 10 times a week. I normally stray closer to the 3 posts per week side of that. Here are some social media post ideas that will help you. Staying consistent can be made really easy though. You can use any of a number of posting platforms to schedule your posts through these days. So, all you would really need to come up with is 12 posts for a whole month. Now does that sound as hard?

I know the next question is HOW DO I CREATE ALL THAT CONTENT? Check back soon! I am going to create a post for you to see how I create content for my clients and myself. I will show you the main platform I use and give you some basic costs. While it takes time to think through and create the pieces, you don’t have to be some super skilled photoshop guru. And, No I do not use photoshop to create any of my social media post graphics. 🙂 SO, CHECK BACK!!

Social Media/ SEO tip: make sure you are adding links in your social media BACK TO YOUR WEBSITE as much as possible. While Google doesn’t give you credit for the link per se it still helps drive traffic to your website.

Submit Your Website To Google News

Yes! This is a thing. You can submit your blog to google news. This will help that content get indexed in google almost instantly and it makes it even more discoverable. So, there is a chance your blog post can show up in the google news feed. Now it is a little time consuming to go through the process, but it is worth it in the end.

Email Marketing ( automate it)

No matter what you may have heard or you might feel personally, email marketing is still the champion. Just like your social media posting, sending emails to your clients is important. They do want to hear from you!

You can automate this part too! So, when you sit down to plan out and schedule your social media posts you can do the same thing for your email blasts. Sending one or two emails a month will not irritate your customers. You can use some of the same content your post to your social media.

In Conclusion

I know some of the list above can seem daunting. As you get into working your way through this list, please know that I have been where you are at one point trying to figure it all out on my own. But, I don’t want you to feel like you are by yourself in this process. So If you have any questions or could use some help, please feel free to reach out to me anytime!

Have a great day! David