—
For small businesses and startups the first steps towards success are often the hardest. At an early stage entrepreneurs are still busy perfecting the product and building the team. Add the need to network and promote the business and the pressure can become too high. Turns out life is a lot easier for small business owners now. This is due to the shift that happened recently in the online marketing world.
Online marketing used to be so difficult and expensive that only a few companies with large budgets could afford to build their brands on the internet. For small business owners, the only way to reach their audience was a word of mouth. But word of mouth takes time and the ROI is impossible to calculate.
SEO consultant in Newry, Adrian McGivern from Leading-Results, says: “Referrals are unreliable and risky. You need to get at least 10 referrals to make 2-3 sales and you also need a system in place for managing all the incoming requests. A lot of people think that word of mouth is the most effective tool, but that assumption is not supported by any data, because referrals are so hard to track.”
Nowadays, thanks to the internet, small business owners can reach their audience faster, better and more efficiently. What used to be a closed playground for big brands is now an open field for everyone.
According to McGivern, competition in the online space is increasing at a lightning speed, but even so, small businesses are in a much better position because they can utilize such tools as Local SEO and Facebook Ads. Local SEO gives every potential local business a shot at attracting visitors from search. Having a physical location and proximity to customers gives local businesses an undisputable advantage when trying to break through the noise produced by the big players.
Facebook Ads is another field small business owners can leverage: it is affordable and incredibly effective. Due to ridiculously detailed targeting, Facebook Ads can bring leads in the last stage of the sales funnel when they are ready for an instant purchase. With data driven management, the right metrics, and incremental adjustments, any small business can lead the facebook game.
Adrian McGivern is a SEO consultant in Newry, specializing in local business SEO and online marketing. Website: Leading Results
Release ID: 218306