While starting a small business can offer a multitude of rewards for many different kinds of people, there is little doubt that there will also be a number of major challenges in accomplishing this. Somebody will need to start with a basic idea of a product or service to provide, and then even after a business plan is in order, there will be a need to pitch lenders so capital can be secured.
As the Guardian reported in April 2014, social media has been a blessing for many small-to-medium enterprises (SME). The catch is that the sheer number of tools available can be daunting. Businesses must strike a balance between focusing too narrowly on limited social networks and spreading themselves too thinly by adopting too many.
Dani Booth of Jelf Small Business told the Guardian his company focuses on the “big four” of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ and advises others to keep their efforts manageable and their accounts active.
“There are few things more embarrassing than a Twitter account that was set up and forgotten with only one lonely tweet present,” Booth said. “Twitter is filled with people who have set up an account, said ‘hello’, and then abandoned said account because no one replied. Don’t be that guy.”
One business owner who has decided to focus their efforts was Maria Bateson. She set up a Facebook page for her silver charms business, which helped it to build up a loyal following, and now most of her customers come from Facebook. Bateson first turned to Facebook while living in Ukraine and found it was the best way of getting her designs visible to customers in the United Kingdom. Now based in London, she finds Facebook groups devoted to crafting are a good way of getting her designs showcased.
Another Facebook fan is Alison Howell, the founder and managing director of the 10-year-old travel company Foottrails who came to social media relatively late. She made the decision to focus on Facebook and Twitter because of limited resources and has used both networks since 2012. “Social media does take time,” says Howell, who takes on most of the responsibilities for social media herself. “I think it is best to focus on just a few networks and regularly update those.”
Anna Lundberg, a digital marketing consultant at Crocus Communications, told the Guardian that Facebook and Twitter represent a good starting point. She advised considering a target market’s age, gender, and interests before widening social media efforts. “YouTube is useful if you have video content and Google+ for search engine optimization reasons more than anything else,” she adds.
Here are some potential advantages of hiring a social media agency if you are a small business:
- Business Marketing — Hiring a social media agency will provide a significant benefit, as the agency will utilize effective strategies to promote products or services. Marketing is the specialty of a social media agency, so they will be certain to get results. Most companies manage a brand’s presence on all social networking sites while working to get the attention of the maximum audience possible.
- Building Brand Recognition — Social media agencies strive to establish brand recognition across all social media platforms and promote brands among influential individuals. Social media trends change daily, so it is wise to work with someone who is familiar with the landscape. Social media professionals will know where to start, which platforms to use, and which type of content can get results.
- Getting Clientele — Social media agencies are all about helping businesses get more clients. An agency may employ various social media strategies to achieve its goals, such as creating posts, sharing content, liking, and tweeting. An agency will ensure that your social media profiles remain active, and more importantly, that you are interacting with the customers with whom you are trying to establish relationships.
- Projecting Brand Values — A social media agency will be able to focus on the strongest aspects of your small business and effectively advertise those strong suits. This can be important because an agency will help a small business effectively communicate its larger goals and message to potential customers. There could be numerous benefits that an agency explores over the course of a relationship, and most efforts will generally help create a more favorable image with the general public.
- Brand Promotion — One of the primary goals of working with a social media agency is to increase the size of the audience viewing social media posts. An agency will continually work to increase your followers or likes, which in turn will result in more people seeing your ads. When you work with a digital marketing agency, they will generally have a strong idea of how to make your content appealing across all available channels.
- Dealing with Competition — One major thorn in the side of most small businesses can be their competitors. It can be challenging to ignore when a competing small business has more followers or generates more social media reactions. The good news when working with a social media agency is that they will not ignore this aspect and will actively work to close any gap. You can give yourself the strongest chance of competing by working with an agency.
- Achieving Goals in Less Time — The simple truth is that a small business attempting to handle social media on its own can spend an inordinate amount of time simply trying to come up with material. When you work with an agency, they can handle all these concerns for you, allowing you to focus on running your business. An agency is going to be working full-time to produce material for you, so you will never have to worry about creating material on your own.
The biggest challenges small businesses face include a lack of leads, issues with online and offline visibility, a lack of specialized marketing knowledge, insufficient time, and limited budgets. The data clearly shows that digital marketing isn’t just an option—it’s a necessity for tackling these challenges. To illustrate the importance of a focused digital strategy, recent small business marketing statistics reveal:
- 97% of consumers check a company’s online presence before deciding to visit their business, making an optimized digital footprint crucial for driving foot traffic (Source: SEO.com).
- 92% of business owners believe that having a website is the most effective digital marketing strategy, emphasizing the website as the foundational asset for your business (Source: BusinessDasher).
- 96% of small businesses utilize social media as part of their marketing strategy, acknowledging its role in brand visibility and connection (Source: BusinessDasher).
- 81% of shoppers research online before purchasing, proving that the buying journey starts long before a customer contacts a business (Source: BusinessDasher).
- Approximately 46% of all Google searches have local intent, underscoring the importance of effective local SEO in capturing nearby customers (Source: WordStream).
- 60% of small business owners report finding new customers as their top marketing challenge, a challenge a dedicated digital strategy is designed to solve (Source: Constant Contact via PostcardMania).
- 61% of marketers say their biggest challenge is generating traffic and leads, the exact pain point that professional SEO, paid ads, and content marketing address (Source: Wordstream).
- 73% of small businesses currently have a website, showing there is still a significant opportunity for market leaders to gain an edge over the competition (Source: BusinessDasher).
- Email marketing remains a powerful tool, with 87% of businesses using it to distribute content (Source: WordStream).
Find a Houston, TX SEO Company | SERP Matrix
SERP Matrix can be your local SEO expert. SERP Matrix provides guaranteed SEO services. We handle link building, search engine submission, and social media marketing, in addition to many other factors that impact your organic search results.
SERP Matrix can provide a thorough evaluation of your website and help you achieve more first-page results in local searches. SERP Matrix will help ensure you appear on the first page of local search results for major search engines, including Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Call (713) 287-1134 for a complimentary consultation or contact us online today to have us review your website and explore how we can assist you. Our office will contact you as soon as possible to arrange a discussion with an experienced Project Manager about the information related to your project.
The SERP Matrix Review Platform helps you generate authentic, first-party reviews directly from your customers, which can help you stand out in today’s new search experiences. You can also monitor and respond to reviews across the Knowledge Network, uncovering new opportunities to improve your operations and win more business.
We guarantee to provide services as outlined in the client’s SEO agreement. If we fail to complete services per the written agreement, then a portion of the fees for which the service was not performed will be refunded. SERP Matrix knows and understands local SEO. We can assist you in obtaining more reviews, creating consistent NAP data, and optimizing your online content.
Our team will be able to assist you with search engine submission. We will know how to perform the necessary keyword research and implement the keywords in the most effective way, so you can rank as highly as possible on all local searches. We also handle web design and development for younger websites that are still in need of the basic beginning elements.
No matter where you are in the local SEO process, SERP Matrix can be with you to make sure that you are as effective as possible online. If you are seeking SEO help in the greater Houston area, you should not wait to contact SERP Matrix. We will work closely with you and complete all the necessary work to make you a powerful voice online.
