Between the 2020 pandemic, political divides, natural disasters, election uncertainties, murder hornets, and economic uncertainty, I don’t know how we all made it through. I don’t want to speak too soon for the general remainder of 2020, but I do want to talk about what can be done to improve your local small business digital marketing in 2021.
If you’re like a good portion of the locally-focused small businesses across the United States, you’re feeling effects of 2020. The effects vary widely from industry to industry, urban and suburban location, and state-by-state. If you’re a restaurant or any client-facing local service business, you’ve probably been punched in the face financially by 2020. Between the complete shut-down except for essential businesses and the ever changing health department rules, this year has been next to impossible for many businesses.
We are looking ahead to 2021 as a year of rebirth and increased normalcy in life. You want your business to succeed, so here are 7 tips to get your small business digital marketing started in 2021.
1.) Create a plan
One of the first steps is to organize and plan your path to obtain your business goal in 2021. This doesn’t need to be a full marketing plan, but it should be something in writing you can reference. Decide your business goals and marketing budget, and then create ways to measure results consistently. One measurable goal is to get two new leads per week. How did that person find you? You will have to allot a budget and try different marketing avenues to achieve them.
2.) Set up your calendar
Create a marketing calendar where all your different digital marketing efforts can be tracked. I like to have a calendar that has all holidays and important events listed for the coming year as a template so I can schedule marketing pushes around holidays. “Dads and Grads” is a good example of a great opportunity for a marketing push.
3.) Establish your social media and directory listings
What is the first thing you do when your sink starts leaking? You google “plumber near me” or something similar. In the results, Google will usually show their paid ads first, then a local maps listing of local plumbers in your area with reviews, and finally the organic search results. As you scroll down, you see Yelp, Angie’s List, HomeAdvisor, some website results, then more paid ads.
The objective here is to claim all your free social media and directory listings, like Google My Business, Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. depending on your industry. Once claimed, you will fill out ALL important information consistently. Later on down the line when a customer decides they would like to use your business, they will google your business directly by name. The results when someone googles your business name is when branding is most important for your company. All your directory listings/social media/review websites come up, along with your website. At this point your branding better be in tip-top shape so you look professional and reliable so your potential customer will chose your business over your competitor.
4.) Create or update your website
If the holiday season is your slow time, utilize this to get all marketing ready…especially your digital marketing. This can be as little or big of an investment as you’d like depending on your budget, time, and desired results. For a quick, simple website, I usually recommend a Square Space site to start since these can take local SEO coding nicely. Local SEO, aka local search engine optimization, is almost as important as having a business name. It allows search engines to “see” your website and products/services you offer clearly in order for them to “list” your business in search results. Make sure you have a professional logo, content, and images so you can have consistent branding across the Internet.
5.) Set up a Google Ads account
Setting up a Google Ads account initially is valuable. Not only does this help with immediate search visibility while your organic rankings grow, it can be used later when you have specific marketing pushes you’d like to use for “Dads and Grads”. The ability to turn your Google Ads campaign on and off (enable or disable) is very handy. It allows you the agility to move from one campaign to another without a huge amount of additional marketing time.
6.) Keep looking for new digital marketing opportunities throughout 2021
Keep your eye on the changing social trends and technology so you can take advantage of new digital marketing opportunities in 2021. There are so many opportunities for more than just basic digital marketing depending on your industry. Shorts in TikTok, voice search on Echo, image advertising on Pinterest, video marketing on YouTube, real-time messaging on Facebook, expanded SEO for your website, redesign your branding, create interactive graphic design for your website, create educational videos in your industry, and so on. Video marketing is extremely effective right now on YouTube. You would need to consider hiring a videographer for this endeavor to create a few short videos. All of these options will require more time, effort, and money, but are likely to increase your brand visibility if nothing else.
7.) Track data, measure, and compare ROI monthly
Yes, this is the fun part: measuring and comparing data. This is the only way you are going to realize your return on your digital marketing investments. You’ll need to know if you are achieving your two-leads-per-week goal, and how much you’re spending to attain those leads. You need to try new digital marketing avenues, track changes, make adjustments, measure results, and repeat. There will always be new forms of digital marketing options becoming available as new technology, social patterns, and devices emerge.
In summary, its a good idea for local small businesses to get a strong start online marketing digitally early in 2021. By creating a plan and setting up a calendar, you’ll be able to manage your local SEO, social media, directory listings, website, Google Ads, and even more digital marketing platforms to bring new leads to your business via local online marketing.
For more questions and a FREE assessment of your digital presence, contact Axys Digital Marketing today.
