There is a lot of pressure on businesses to engage in digital marketing. However, for many small business owners, they are unfamiliar with how digital marketing works and they do not have the capital to hire an in-house marketing specialist or team.
This is where outsourcing can be exceptionally helpful. You can hire a website design company to help you establish your online marketing plan, your website, and your social media presence. Although established as a website design company, you can often contract additional needed services on a contract or as needed basis.
There are so many different ways to spend your time and money when it comes to digital marketing, so it is vitally important to know where you time and money will have the greatest impact for your business. What will be most effective for you will depend on what your business is and who your target market is.
For example, nearly all business to business marketers utilize LinkedIn as part of their content marketing strategy. It is often considered the professionals social networking platform and it can be a great resource in promoting yourself to other businesses.
Google is obviously a great source for traffic. There are over 100 billion searches conducted on Google each month. Based on this number alone, it is clear that search engine marketing is highly valuable to businesses. Depending on what keywords are leading people to your business, this can be a significant source of traffic for nearly any business. Optimizing Google traffic is really about keyword research and content marketing.
Content marketing is really taken over a large space in the online world. Consumers want quality content, not just fluff articles stuffed full of keywords. while keywords and search engine optimization is still important, it needs to be worked into real content. Customers want instruction content, educational content, funny content, etc. Videos have grown tremendously over recent years. Content creation has been cited in some studies as the number one driver of inbound marketing.
One study stated that 64% of their study participants reported making a purchase after watching a marketing video on Facebook within the last month. However, an important aspect about marketing videos to remember is they have to be high quality. Home videos or super amateur videos are going to undermine your credibility as a legitimate small business.
Of the many social media platforms currently available, Facebook has been found by most to be their best source of effective marketing and traffic. This isn’t to say that other social media platforms are not also effective. It is just that for a general audience, Facebook is one of the most engaging platforms. Currently over 70% of all adults in the United States have a Facebook account.
It is also important to note that according to the available research, organic links get far more attention than paid links, which again means that content creation is essential. Content creation will get more attention than ads. A website design company will help you create an appealing blog that is easy to update and easy to navigate.
One study showed that companies that updated their blog 16 or more times each month get almost four times the traffic that other companies do. A blog that is not updated regularly is worse than not having blog at all. If customers are able to access a blog or social media account that is not updated, it will reflect poorly on your business.
Finally, it is important to know that not all blog posts are created equally. While it’s already been established that the post should offer value to the reader, the length of the blog also makes a difference. Research has shown that long form posts, or posts over 1000 words, are consistently shared more than shorter blog posts.
Hiring the right website design company will allow you to get a website that is user friendly and helps pull in traffic. Combining seo services with great design will be more effective than you realize.