When starting a new business, the drain on capital can cause a pain in the pit of your stomach. Learn how to maximize your ROI. Nobody likes parting with money. If you’re like me, you’ve worked hard to earn every dollar. When starting a new business, the drain on capital can cause a pain in the pit of your stomach. A digital marketing strategy plays a vital role in establishing success from the point of view of future sales.
But, as the maxim goes, without risk there is no reward.
To keep the stomach ulcers to a minimum, let’s focus in on three strategies to maximize the return on the investment of your valuable cash.
According to an article published by KNB Online Inc., “…managing and responding to reviews…sends the signal to Google that the location is, in fact, real and monitored.” This is incredibly important for ranking when customers search your local keywords. Why do local keywords matter? What is a local keyword?
A local keyword is a regular keyword, with the added context of a location. For example, “Bagels in Boston” would be a local search phrase. Google wants to give its users the most relevant results and if your organization isn’t actively engaging with local reviews, Google considers your company to be one of two things: a former local business, or a spam listing designed to trick google into providing additional site traffic.
Before you can choose the right keywords, you need to know how keywords are classified. There are four main types:
Brand Keywords – are those keywords contained in your business name, business description or specific category of business? Generic Keywords – are keywords which are not directly associated with your company brand, but those which indirectly describe what you are offering or selling. For example, if you are selling clothing on your web site, then words such as clothing, T-shirts, dresses and swimming suits may be generic keywords. Pay-Per-Click Keywords – purchasing keywords that you pay a fee to use. Organic Keywords – naturally occurring keywords that you stumble upon and which seem to spontaneously appear in search results.Another classification distinguishes between two main keyword terms:
The good news is that if you’re capable of effectively communicating, it’s not difficult to manage your company’s online reviews. For example, spending 10 minutes a day checking your company’s Yelp listing for new reviews, and then replying to those reviews, is an excellent first step. Don’t miss out on local traffic by forgetting to say “Hello!” and “Thanks for the review!”
Yes, Google is the reigning king of the internet, but there’s a problem. There are multiple reports pointing to the fact that Google’s advertising channels are suffering from “advertising saturation”. Think about it. When’s the last time you knowingly clicked on an advertisement online? Our eyes and brain have been conditioned to ignore the tops and sides of websites; the location where most ad banners are displayed.
When typing a search phrase into Google, we subconsciously scroll past the advertisements to access the search results that are more likely to answer our question without advertiser bias. We’ve become conditioned to look for ads and filter them out of our browsing experience. And, if you really want to get serious about killing off website advertisements, free programs (i.e. AdBlock) can be installed to completely filter them out. You have to make sure that your Facebook advertising plan doesn’t fail.
Without any knowledge of crowdfunding sites, people have used Facebook for raising thousands of dollars in funds. Social media platforms are also a prerequisite for successful funding campaigns. You must have an active social media presence to share your story and ideas. The mastermind of any successfully funded crowd venture would tell you about the importance of videos in getting your ideas across. Connecting to potential donors and customers through websites, blogs and Facebook pages is also a great idea. You can also try and latch on to important networks and forums that provide exclusive markets for your product.
So, with all of these challenges, it’s no wonder that Facebook advertising has taken the lead in providing a return on advertising dollars. It’s much harder for the human brain to subconsciously filter advertisements presented as part of a scrolling News Feed. In addition, promoted posts on Facebook are more fine-tuned to draw in interest. More than 1.2 billion people use Facebook on a monthly basis. That’s more than 16 percent of the global population, and more than a third of the population with access to the Internet.
There’s data all around you. The buzz word is “Big Data”, and it’s ridiculously big. If trends continue, we’ll generate more than 40 zettabytes of data by the year 2020. That’s insane. So how do you harness the data to create actionable insights?
Well, you could hire an incredibly expensive data analyst to work with your team and develop insights. But, you’d still need to acquire (buy or produce) the data and effectively lead an individual whose skill sets are likely far beyond your comprehension. Good news! There’s an app for that. Well, sort of.
To harness the data around you, access to a scalable platform that can provide actionable insights is critical. Skip the hiring process and go straight to a team that can provide real advice with meaningful guidance. Recent advancements in Hadoop analysis of data has allowed companies to develop online tools to SME’s to access, analyze and extrapolate meaningful decisions from Big Data.
This isn’t necessarily new news. InformationWeek ran a story on its development back in 2014. In the world of Big Data, two years is a lifetime. But, continued advancement has refined the market and brought about meaningful advancement. Competition plus innovation means better tools and resources for your SME.
In the exciting world of digital advertising, there’s real opportunity to leverage your business and create meaningful value for your customers. Don’t let your startup miss out on great opportunities to connect with your customer base. The benefits of responding to online reviews of your company or service go far beyond basic customer service.
Google (*cough, Big Brother) is watching. Prove that you’re alive and thriving in order to earn local search traffic. Parse through big data and get smart about your advertising spend. With a laptop and an internet connection, you have virtually limitless opportunities.
Juan Koss is a business coach and researcher of essay writing service. He writes on topics such as small business marketing strategies, human resources related best practices and customer service.