4 Reasons your business needs to be online as a small business
With the world seeking small business validation from online reviews. Having a website is more important now than ever. Refraining from having a company website means that you are leaving out potential customers. Customers are now expecting to find their information online. If your business is not online, you don’t stand the chance to be a potential solution. Still not convinced? Here are a few more reasons, you’ll want to start advertising online.
Look Professional
Having a great website makes your company more credible. A website is still seen as an expensive attribute, despite its affordability in 2020. Companies have opted to start a website, based on the fact that it is now a professional norm. This means that not having a website, in unprofessional. The new industry standard commands an online presence with company information. Companies who aren’t online, potentially do not exist to the consumer.
Gain Visibility
You may have a storefront, well a website is your online real-estate. You’ve got to make your website attractive so that people will visit it. This is done by using SEO or Search Engine Optimisation. Writing blogs and informative content boosts this ranking and the visibility of your website. Increased visibility means more website traffic and MORE customers.
Stay Competitive
Presently, not many small businesses have a website. This means that there is a gap in the market for you to stand out above the rest. Using SEO and other techniques will aid your business in making a long-lasting impact on Google. Ranking higher on Google means getting found before your competitors. In turn, this means more business for you.
How to advertise your business online? Now that is a question that everyone asks themselves, right before they give up trying to so solve the answer. It is no easy task, and it is one that takes time to master. It is the reason Dutch Ink offers website building services and SEO services to all of our clients. We understand that online business is the future of small businesses in South Africa.
Ways to market your business online
With the world leaning towards online business as a result of the COVID_19 virus, we wanted to provide some insight. Businesses online are less affected by the virus. Service-based businesses which are remote are affected even less. Some businesses offer online services which have grown during the Coronavirus outbreak. These businesses use online techniques to continue to outperform their competition. Check out a few of the strategies Dutch Ink uses with our customers below.
Your Business Needs a Blog!
People underestimate the power of blogging. Blogging has the power of 100 newspaper articles when done. This is thanks to keyword research and SEO. Dutch Ink isn’t simply writing garbage, we’re uncovering insights into your niche and writing about them, the way people search for them.for example: How to Write a Viral Blog Post?
– You want people to use your painting services.
> We provide them with a blog on “How to paint your house?”
As counterintuitive as this sounds, it works in your favour. People who will read this article aren’t your customers. It’s the SEO rank that you get from those viewers which boosts your website’s ranking. This makes your site more popular and helps you rank on Google.
Connect with Social Media
At Dutch Ink, we have had clients who’ve started their social media careers years ago. Their consistency has grown its local followings into a valuable asset. This is an incredible feat which to which Dutch Ink was the catalyst. We used structured content to drive their business on social media, with a website backbone to boost their Google ranking. This combination of social media shows following and website ranking shows you how important it is to create backlinks. These not only improve SEO, but they also diversify where customers can reach you.
Facebook Advertising
Facebook advertising is great for small businesses. This is thanks to the radius feature. It allows advertisers to target within a radius km around their business. When you offer delivery services, this can revolutionise your customer base. Targeting this way is not only accurate, but it is also affordable. You will not waste money advertising to areas which you cannot service. Being a plumber, painter or other service-based business makes this advertising perfect. Working with Dutch Ink to manage this social media advertising means you’ll be able to target even MORE accurately. We have been advertising this way for years. Our experience makes our targeting strategies more accurate, and more likely to get those customers through your door. Our favourites include plumbers, electricians, builders and local delivery service companies with online stores.
Advertise your business online for free
People have come to believe that online advertising is expensive. Well, what if we told you that you pay R2500 for an ad in a newspaper. A single ad that will run once and have a limited, and untargeted audience. That sounds like a waste of money to us!
Social media and online advertising is better because we can track it. Unlike newspapers, we control the construct. Dutch Ink can target your key audience and ensure you of the number of customers reached. PLUS, a budget of R2500 has the potential to last small businesses tens of thousands of people over an entire month. A newspaper has less than 1% viewership retention because it is untargeted and copies printed are limited to those who purchase it. Social Media Advertising is FREE to the user.
Think carefully about WHERE you get your news. At Dutch Ink, most of our office news comes from social media like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. When was the last time you read an entire Newspaper?
Let’s get into some of the FREE ways your business can be advertised online.
Using YouTube Videos to Promote Your Business
Just as small business owners have forgotten Google and Facebook, they have forgotten YouTube. YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine. This means that it’s linked to videos that will rank higher on Google. Sometimes these videos will even rank higher than blog posts. For this reason, we encourage companies to create YouTube content for their online business, reviewing products and services. It means you’re able to rank higher on the internet for FREE with a single piece of content which you can easily share.
Email Marketing
Another underutilised tool! Email marketing is your direct link to your client. Why did you bother to collect their email addresses is you were never going to use them? Use regular newsletter communications to update your clients. Provide them with free information. Give them something free. This is the best way to use email marketing to build lasting client relationships. Just don’t SPAM them!
Collaborate
People believe that only money can buy you what you need. They have forgotten that the world started by bartering. Use your service offering to collaborate with those more popular than you. This will not only improve your ranking online. It will build your relationships with other online brands who will validate you with their stamp of approval. In-turn, their following will believe in you the way they do.
Conclusion
These are just a few ways by which Dutch Ink aims to build our clients. How to advertise your business online, is a great start to advertising online. It means that you want to take the step. Dutch Ink is here to help you along the way, and we look forward to working with you in the future. So, whether you’d like to give us a call, or take a look at some of our other blogs. Be sure to bookmark our page to stay tuned for the awesome content we have coming.
Remember we offer services which will aid you in all of the above mentioned online strategies here. Please browse through some of our existing clients here. This is a great way to envision what is possible for your businesses online presence today.
Kind Regards
The Dutch Ink team.
