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As the COVID-19 pandemic has grasped the world by its claws, everyone seems to be trying to find ways to cope up. The same goes for businesses worldwide. Almost all kinds of businesses and industries are today struggling to keep their operations running, let alone thrive, amidst the coronavirus outbreak.
As a business, it’s important that your main focus remains on surviving the situation, even if there is no significant growth. Because there is sure going to be an after-COVID-19 time, and only businesses who made the right decisions and took the right actions now will survive to see it.
Due to the COVID-10 global pandemic, the biggest impact is being seen on small businesses and startups. Because of decreased demand and income, these businesses are finding it difficult to survive these times.
So, what’s next? What can small businesses do differently to make sure they remain to see the after-COVID-19 time? Well, Digital Marketing may be able to help you.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing refers to the process of marketing/promoting a business or brand or its product/service in the online space through the use of digital devices, tools & technologies.
In other words, digital marketing is a technique used to drive leads, traffic & sales to a local or online business.
The best way for a small business to survive the ongoing situation is to maintain the flow of customers so that the company is not forced to close their gates for good. And in modern times, one of the most effective ways to drive new customers and leads to a less-known business is online marketing, which can help expand your business reach, make it famous online and improve your reputation as a trusted authority in the market.
Besides, SEO can improve the search engine ranking and visibility of your business, thus enabling you to generate more leads from Google, Bing, and other search engines.
Still confused? Here are some of the –
Top Ways Digital Marketing can help your Small Business Survive and Thrive during the Coronavirus
1. Expand Your Online Reach
Irrespective of whether you’re an online business or a local store, a lot of your customers may be using Google to find you.
How do you think a new customer comes to know your business? What are the main sources of lead for your business?
In most cases, it’s Google that helps potential customers connect with a brand. And if you’re not online (on Google), you’re probably missing a lot of good leads.
Digital Marketing will help expand your business reach on Google and other online platforms. SEO (Search Engine Optimization), for instance, can boost your search engine rankings for target keywords so that your website/business appears more often when potential customers search for your products/services.
Here’s how it works.
Suppose that you sell mobile phones. Now, a customer looking to buy a new mobile phone will almost definitely use Google to search for the best mobile phones in his/her budget, compare different mobile devices, read reviews, check the price, etc. What if your website or business was listed on Google and appeared whenever a user makes a similar search? It will certainly open up new opportunities for your business to get leads/traffic from Google. SEO is a Digital Marketing process that will help put your business/website at the top of Google for the best target keywords.
Don’t have a website? Don’t worry. Get your business website now at the lowest price with Proven Digital.
Similarly, Social Media Marketing can help expand the online reach of your business and get you in front of millions of potential customers in no time.
2. Get More Engagement on Social Media
We all are aware of Social Media sites and apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. In fact, most of us use these apps on a regular basis, but mostly for socialising and personal use. But, what if you could use social media to sell?
Social Media is one of the best platforms in terms of audience base. Each one of these popular social networking sites has millions, if not billions, of active users, and many of them might be your potential clients.
And Digital Marketing is the best way to reach and approach these potential customers.
You can use social media marketing, a digital marketing technique, to find and connect with potential customers on social media, engage (converse) with them, and ultimately promote your product/service to them. Even if you do not wish to promote directly, you can use social media to share curated content about your services/products so as to drive traffic back to your site.
Also, there is a paid advertising aspect of social media networking that you can use to promote your business directly to potential customers via ads.
3. Boost Your Offline Business Growth with Local SEO
As a local business, if you’re struggling to get traffic and new leads to your store, focus on building a stronger online presence through Local SEO.
Local SEO refers to the process of using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to promote local business and drive traffic/leads to it. It involves optimising the online presence of a business through various means like Google business listing, directory listing, NAP optimisation, review optimisation, social media listing, voice search optimisation, local news stories, mobile optimisation, among others.
Here’s how we will boost your local business growth with Local SEO.
Suppose that you run a local store selling designer clothes. You want customers to know about your store, make it easy for them to find your shop, and establish yourself as a popular and trusted garment shop in the local area. Moreover, you may also want to expand your local business reach so that more people from other areas or cities know about and shop from you.
Our local SEO service will help achieve that. We will promote the online presence of your local store so that people searching for a garment store in your area can easily find and reach you. Also, we will optimise your online reviews so that there is a good reputation for your business in the market.
4. Pay Per Click
Pay Per Click is a paid advertising service offered by Google and various other online platforms, allowing businesses to get more visibility and leads through ads.
You must have seen ads on the Google Search results page. The top 2-3 results for any search are paid ads. By using Google’s advertising services, you can also get your product/service ad to appear at the top for any search that is relevant to your business.
Compared to SEO, PPC (pay per click) requires much less effort and the results are instant and definite. However, you need to spend money to get users to click your ads, who may eventually turn into sales and make you money.
Besides Google, many other online platforms, including social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, also have their paid advertising services. You can choose a PPC platform as per your unique business and marketing goals.
PPC advertising is not for everyone though. If not done properly and with a planned approach, you can end up wasting a lot of money for not so good results.
Need help? Hire results-driven PPC/Paid Advertising Services from Proven Digital.
5. Strong Mobile Presence
Irrespective of whatever industry you’re from, a lot of your customers may be using mobile devices to find and connect with your business.
However, if your business website or online presence is not optimised for mobile, you can simply not expect those leads to convert. Mobile users don’t usually like to visit or transact with websites that are not optimised to appear well on mobile phones.
So, if you are targeting potential customers on mobile devices, make sure that you have a strong mobile presence. Even better if you could get a dedicated mobile app for your business.
Digital Marketing services like SEO will also make your overall online presence, including your website, mobile responsive so that it fares well on all devices and across all platforms.
6. Improved Customer/Page Experience
Another major benefit of online marketing is that it can help improve user experience, which is important if you are serious about building a strong and long-term business reputation in the market.
Users only love to trade with businesses or websites that can deliver a smooth and friendly user experience. If your website, for instance, is not responsive, has a poor design or lacks informative content, chances are that visitors will leave it immediately, giving you nothing but a high bounce rate.
Even Google now uses page experience as an important factor in its ranking algorithm as a way to determine the user experience and quality of web pages.
Conclusion
If you want your business to survive this global COVID-19 pandemic and any future situations like this, make sure to deliver the quality user experience. Users may forget your product or service, but they will always remember the experience they get from your business or website.
Use Digital Marketing services to expand your business reach and visibility online so that you can continue getting clients despite the economic slowdown due to COVID-19.
See you on the other side of the Pandemic!
To hire our digital marketing services or to consult your business/marketing requirements with an expert (for free), just give us a call (1300 160 807) or send an email ([email protected]).
