Are you a small business owner looking to increase your online presence to build trust, raise the response to your other marketing, and increase the chances of being “found” when prospects look for you so you can survive the imminent pandemic-induced recession, but don’t know where to start?

I get it, online marketing can be a beast of a job when you don’t have an advertising and marketing agency or experienced marketer in your corner. After over a decade of building brands and learning from some of the best in the industry (shout out to Robin Robins) our in-house marketer, Isabella Humphries, has laid out basic steps you can follow to increase your online presence right now without adding any overhead costs. To get started, you’ll need to set up your website analytics, create online profiles, and craft the right messages to send out to your people.

When the quarantines started in mid-March and we were all forced to stay home, we found new ways to keep ourselves entertained like subscribing to more streaming services, buying home fitness equipment, playing board games, and spending a considerable amount of time on social media. We saw an online usage spike of 25% in just a few days, a recent Wall Street Journal analysis found, which also stated that internet usage is “bound to remain substantially higher than before the pandemic.” Not having a solid online “footprint” was a tolerable situation before the COVID-19 era. But we are WAY past normal, and if you haven’t claimed your business on Google My Business, acquired positive online reviews, set up a quality LinkedIn profile, and have a presence on other social media sites like Facebook, then you are missing out on opportunities. As some of you may have noticed, the time required for a business to research purchases and make a decision has recently increased. The annual B2B Buyer Behavior Study from Demand Gen Report tells us “a whopping 77% of buyers report they spend more time researching purchases compared to 2019.” But don’t worry, here’s what you need to know to increase your online presence and get started generating more leads…

 

Small Business Online Marketing Cheat Sheet

 

Set Up A Google Analytics Account. After you set up your account, ask your webmaster to put the code from your Google Analytics account on your website so Google Analytics can begin tracking important data for you. You can add the code to your website yourself if you have access to the back end of your website. The code from your Google Analytics will track who visits your website, how they found you, and how well your website pages perform. This will help you execute critical evaluations and optimizations to your website for the purpose of getting people to contact you after they visit your website so you can make more sales (this process is known as Conversion Rate Optimization or CRO).

Connect Google AdWords To Google Analytics. If you have a Google AdWords account, make sure to connect it to your Google Analytics account in the AdWords Tools menu.

Enable Google Search Console. You will also want to enable Google Search Console in Google Analytics so you can see the list of keywords and phrases your website visitors are typing into their search bar to find you on Google.

Implement A Basic SEO Strategy. Keywords are extremely important when devising a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy to get traffic from “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on Google for services your business ACTUALLY offers. Success in SEO has been known to happen “over-night”, but it could take up to a year to gain any traction from your efforts. SEO drives 40% or more of Juern Technology’s new business and is an important part of any online lead generation process.

Claim Your Business On Google My Business. This one may seem like a no-brainer, but you’ll be surprised how many business owners fail to claim their business on Google or do it incorrectly by not completing ALL of the information and not posting pictures or videos. If you have more than one location, you can set up a Google Business Page for each location you want to be found for. If you already have a Google Business Page, it is still a good idea to verify the phone number, address, and website URL are all consistent with what is listed on your main website.

Ask Clients to Review Your Business On Google. 5-star Google Reviews are becoming more essential than ever for building credibility because let us not forget that the first impression potential clients will get of your business is online and you need that social proof.

Set Up Quality LinkedIn and Facebook Profiles. At the bare minimum, you should have complete profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook for your business. When uploading a profile picture, it’s best to use a professional picture of yourself (or whoever is the “face” of your organization) instead of using your company logo because people connect with people, not logos. If you’re using the default “shadow-man” image, stop what you’re doing and go update it NOW. It is equally as important to make sure that all information including your title, location, and industry are accurate. Carefully write a summary to highlight your expertise and include an irresistible offer for new clients. Don’t forget to add a “cover image”, as it can be used to further brand your company and tell future clients what you do, what makes you unique, and how to contact you. You should post 5-7 times a week using as many different kinds of media as possible like eBooks, free reports, webinars, videos, blogs, quizzes, checklists, infographics, quotes, surveys, and team photos to position you as the go-to expert. Be VERY careful when making controversial posts as people will unfollow you – or NOT do business with you – if your post disagrees with their views. Taking an advocative position can be beneficial when done right, but many companies opt out of controversial topics like politics and religion altogether. ALWAYS include a call to action (commonly known as a CTA) in your post to direct qualified prospects to a relevant offer. And lastly, ask your clients and employees to “follow” or “like” your profiles to build your audiences.

Create A Blog. The purpose of your blog is to be an easily digestible source of valuable information for your audience (current AND future clients) while also giving them a compelling reason to respond based on their needs, not yours. Have a primary goal in mind for your blog such as; keeping leads engaged, boosting SEO rankings, or building trust with clients. Blog posts are a great way to drive quality traffic to your website and take a break from “selling” to your audience all the time. These days, decision-makers want a plate-full of thought-leadership content to consume before making their final decision. A good rule of thumb is to create 85% of your content to educate, entertain, or inspire your audience and the other 15% selling your services. Here at Juern Technology, we tripled our website traffic during the quarantines by advertising our best blog posts on Facebook through prospecting ads targeting look-a-like audiences. It’s critical to be intentional when creating your blog posts and avoid posting random content or syndicated articles that have nothing to do with your offerings or specific market. Focus on talking about your client’s problems, because when you stop talking about their problems, they stop listening. And above all, don’t be BORING ya’ll!

 

Online Tools To Help You

 

Spyfu: www.Spyfu.com

This tool allows you to spy on your competitors’ websites, Google PPC campaigns, SEO stats and more. You can use the basic version for free.

Open SEO Stats Chrome Plugin: Search on the name and it will come up.

This free tool allows you to see a quick view of a page’s title, meta description, H1 and H2 tags, speed and other details for optimizing SEO and checking that your SEO plan was properly implemented.

MOZ: www.Moz.com

This online SEO tool will help you see how “findable” you are online, help you see what keywords you’re ranked for and provide reports and insights to help you get ranked higher. The “Essential” package is currently $9 per month.

CrazyEgg: www.CrazyEgg.com

This is a “heat mapping” tool that will show you what your visitors are clicking on (or what their mouse is hovering over) so you can see what pages are getting visited the most and what information a visitor is looking for so you can put more attention on those pages.