If you own a small business, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed by all the new emerging ways to connect to customers and promote the growth of your business. You may be wondering how you can leverage the power of mobile, social and online marketing to be successful.

I recently came across an infographic about small business marketing and discovered some facts:

 

27%     of small businesses have a current SEO plan

52%     plan to increase their SEO budget

40%     of marketers are using mobile marketing tactics

63%     of small businesses think social media is a good way to increase loyalty

27%     plan to increase their investment in social media

 

If your small business is looking to revamp its marketing strategy, consider the following suggestions:

Get Mobilized

In addition to optimizing your business’ website for mobile, there are several other marketing tools you can employ to make sure you reach those consumers who are always on-the-go.

With the economy still in recovery-mode, consumers are still searching for those deep discounts. Use mobile marketing to target those shoppers who are looking for affordable deals by sending coupons and loyalty rewards directly to their mobile devices, or creating a mobile call-to-action through a QR code. Mobile marketing has proven to promote loyalty among customers and encourage repeat visits, plus, what better way to reach consumers than on a device they’re carrying around with them all the time?

Be Socially Active

Social media can facilitate communication between businesses and their customers or clientele, but businesses need to be aware that simply creating a presence on social media sites is not enough. Businesses must be active on these sites, engaging with customers to get feedback, posting content that holds value for customers, and creating an identity for your brand that will make others want to engage with you.

Businesses should also be aware of social media analytic tools such as Google Alerts to find out what people are saying about your business and then join the conversation.

 

Go SEO

Another important element in a marketing plan is implementing an SEO plan. Looking for the elements that will get you to the top of a search is very important for a business’ online presence. A big part of SEO is being conscious of keywords—adding keywords to the hidden meta data (the code of information on the backend of your website that helps search engines recognize data) includes the keyword field, page titles, descriptions, site maps, and heading tags.

Links are also very important to a company’s online presence. If you have reputable websites link to your content, you’ll have good SEO. Adding a blog or posting videos, podcasts and other types of content are some other easy ways to optimize your business’ site for search.

New marketing tools don’t have to seem so foreign. Check out this infographic below that shows how small businesses are allocating their marketing budgets and using these tools to grow.

Have a thought?