For small or medium sized business owners there’s no lack of challenges. From who to hire and cash flow, to predicting revenue. Another issue that many businesses face, particularly SMBs is maintaining their digital channels such as their website or mobile app.
One of the biggest problems facing many SMB owners is lack of quality content to share with their social media pages, and more importantly the of time to create that great stuff that viral dreams are made of. Add this to the sheer volume of social media platforms out there, and you can understand how just getting started can be intimidating. A recent study suggests that 75% of small businesses are spending less than two hours a week on social media marketing. This is a huge missed opportunity to build an engaging relationship with customers.
I get it, it’s really difficult, but it can also be very manageable.
It’s clear that a business that needs to attract local foot traffic has to have a presence across different local channels to capture their audience along their path to purchase. If done correctly, local marketing is an extremely effective tool for SMBs and enterprise alike. 75% of local searches can turn into in-store traffic within 24 hours!
According to IDC forecasts, small businesses will spend $668 billion on technology in 2020. This trend shows that their technological expenditures are increasing. It also shows that if they want to stay on top of their audience’s mind, they must adopt technology that makes the process of their business smarter, faster, simpler, more accurate and less reliant on the human element.
One side note I have to share is that visual content is the key to great engagement. Video is no exception to this rule. When you’re considering what types of posts to schedule on social networks in the coming weeks, think video: audiences are nearly 10 times more likely to engage, embed, share, and comment on video content than blogs or related social posts.
Small business owners often have to strike a balance between adopting the best technological fit and providing the most reliable solution to customers. Having a limited budget often creates an obstacle in choosing the best technological solution.
That being said, being enthusiastic about digital transformation won’t get you too far. In order to manage most digital channels, you’ll typically need a healthy dose of talent and technical expertise to ensure digital transformation is implemented in the right way for your business. Easier said than done, right?
In fact, implementing and maintaining new technologies is one of the biggest factors impacting future growth for small businesses, according to a Forbes Insights and Cox Business survey.
So, what can a business do? A few years ago, you could use Facebook to reach thousands of people and drive traffic to your business. In 2018 (and going into 2019) not having a strategy to reach your social media goals can hinder the results of your SMB.
Not having a large advertising budget isn’t a deal breaker, however you need to set your own expectations and understand that there are solutions that SMB owners should leverage to gain the upper hand.
Today, having a great mobile app has become a vital part of business marketing. DIY mobile app creation platforms such as Swiftic allow small businesses to build apps without any coding required. They can also get custom analytics on usage and build in features like push notifications.
In today’s world of social media and endless scrolling, eye-popping videos can set business apart. Creating a series of videos helps SMBs reach the right audience in a way that’s engaging and entertaining. That being said it may be difficult to gather the resources and set aside time to shoot and edit video for your brand. There are dozens of online services to help create videos for local brands that won’t break the bank.
Free design platforms such as Canva are great for creating customized logos, newsletters and other content for SMBs. The template-based program offers small business owners with little design experience a platform to easily create new content.
For businesses that have a somewhat bigger marketing budget, Retargeting provides a huge boost for both lead nurturing and customer retention. I recommend looking into Facebook retargeting and AdRoll retargeting tool for SMB marketers.
In short, there are no lack of free or fairly inexpensive platforms for SMBs to leverage. Some of them may require a little set up time, but they’re definitely worth the time invested in gauging their value towards increasing sales.
About the Author
Idan Didi is the Co-Founder & COO of Swiftic.com, world’s leading mobile app builder for SMBs; With over 15K customers worldwide, Swiftic unique auto-discovery technology grabs your existing online content and builds your mobile app in seconds.
