#01: Optimize Your Website
The past few years have brought about lots of changes for websites. You may be wondering the best way to market your business in 2019, and optimizing your website is one of them.
> Be Very Clear About What You Do/Sell
Tell people in an attractive manner what you do or sell. Don’t use a lot of vague stock photos and industry jargon that most people will not understand. Don’t let visitors leave your site confused. Give them the information and contact details they need.
> Solve A Pain
The easiest way to market your business is to gently walk people into their problem, then provide the solution. If you do this well, you will win at marketing.
> Pay Attention To SEO
Search Engine Optimization is an ever-changing beast that is hard to keep up with, especially for small business owners. For example, if your website content is stuffed full of keywords, this could actually be hurting you. Also, more and more searches are being made by voice, which means your content needs to be conversational and easy to read.
> Optimize for Mobile-First Indexing
For one, Google introduced a brand new mobile index, which means content on mobile is not a priority. If your site is not optimized for mobile, you will be losing most of your potential traffic in 2019. Many times this will require a site redesign.
> Reduce Load Time
If you are paying for cheap hosting, it may be time to switch. Shameless plug, we offer premium hosting services. No one wants to visit a site and wait for it to load, especially if you are visiting for the first time. Bounce rates will go up (visitors leaving your site soon after they enter) and you will see a negative impact on your SEO.
> Install SSL Certificate (aka the Padlock”)
You may have noticed that websites with only
#02: Produce Valuable Website/Social Media Content
The expression “content is king” has been around for a few years, but it is increasingly true as we enter 2019. Nearly 80% of small businesses do not invest in content marketing, according to research from Clutch. This is a startling statistic because great content marketing can be the best source for high-quality leads.
> Write A Blog
If you don’t have a blog, then 2019 is a great time to get started. A consistent stream of content on your website will draw in visitors and will make search engines very happy, which will only bring in more visitors. Make blog content part of your budget, and see how it helps you to market your small business in 2019.
> Be Active On Social Media
This is one of those tricky areas. We all use social media, but when it comes to marketing ourselves it can be very difficult. No one wants to be the person posting about themselves, and no one wants to see it every day.
Having a presence on every major social network like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. can be overwhelming. Here are a few things to try:
- Don’t let your accounts go dormant.
- Make an effort to post something once a week, then try twice a week, etc.
- Show people what you do behind the scenes
- Let people see who you are
- Offer solutions to common problems
> Be An Expert And Win Trust
Be open and freely help others. Join some niche groups and share valuable advice and helpful content. Soon you will become an expert and win the trust of those who see you interacting, and ultimately you will win their business.
#03: Advertise To A Target Audience
As technology is advancing, it is becoming easier to target specific people with your ads. This is an extremely effective way to market your small business in
> Use High Converting Landing Pages
Gone are the days of hoping people will find your main website and buy your products or services. The use of a separate landing page will increase conversions and allow you to convert visitors into customers without the distractions of your whole website.
> Be Specific With Who You Want To Reach
The beauty of marketing today is the ability to narrow down your audience to exactly the type of people you want to see your ad. For example, you may want to target rich people who have an interest in pottery and love cats and live in Pennsylvania.
> Retarget
Another effective strategy is to send ads to people who are already interested in your business or have visited your website in the past. For this, you need to be sure to have the proper code installed on your website.
> Use Email Automation (see next section)
A landing page will not be effective without proper email automation. This is useful in many ways. For example, if someone subscribes in exchange for an ebook, the email program will take care of the delivery for you. After that, you can set up a series of follow up emails to prompt them towards your goal, whether that be buying a course, a product, etc.
#04: Automate Your Emails
Another way to market your small business in 2019 is to use email marketing effectively. Most of us get tons of emails every day, and some of us send just as many. So how can you stand out and use it to your advantage?
> Segment Your List
Be sure to organize your email contacts appropriately. If a customer buys a product on your website or signs up to your email list for a specific reason, then the person will probably not appreciate getting generic emails blasted at them randomly. If someone buys a product from your store, send them an email specifically related to that product: ask how they like it, ask for a product review, or send detailed instructions.
> Personalize Every Email
This one goes along with segmentation. As you organize your email contacts into groups or tags, be sure to also include very personalized copy. Talk to them in common language. Use your own voice, not corporate sounding jargon.
> Use Automation
Why waste time when you can automate? That concept may sound scary if you may feel like you need to write and read every email that you send or receive. The great news is, with email automation, you can! When you set up the automation, everything is in your control including your message and tone of voice.