Marketing has evolved, and we have to evolve with it or risk getting left behind. The days where businesses could take out a few ads in the local newspaper and put up a few flyers are long gone, and they aren’t likely to return. Nowadays, companies need to be tuned into things like social media and analytics. It doesn’t matter how good your business is if no one knows how to find you. Generally speaking, when we want to find a service or business in the year 2018, we can’t neglect these two strategies: by going online and by asking our friends. Ideally your business will reach people both ways, but the first way is much easier to control.
Social media matters
At the turn of the millennium, the only social media that people really worried about was MySpace, and it was pretty basic and informal. Nowadays, MySpace has been supplanted by the likes of Facebook and Twitter, among others. And there are so many others. To succeed in today’s marketplace, every business needs at least some social media presence. Facebook is essential, since many people use Facebook as a way to locate a new business. Let’s say someone is looking for a romantic Italian restaurant for a special occasion. If a friend recommends a place, then the person looking will go to both Google and Facebook to see what they can find. There are a very few places that can get by solely on reputation nowadays; 99 percent of places need a strong web presence. A restaurant should have at least part of their menu online, as well as representative photos of the restaurant’s food and decor. Photos are especially powerful; no one wants to visit a restaurant site that is mostly text and nothing else.
Twitter and Instagram are also good ideas depending on the nature of your business. Let’s go back to the restaurant concept. A new restaurant in town can post photos of that day’s special on its Instagram with a caption like “Our chefs are hard at work making this delicious smoked salmon. Come on down and try it out today!” It can be funny or formal depending on what you think fits your business best. Obviously, a coffee shop can get away with making jokes more easily than a crematory can.
Learning the ropes
Then there are topics like search engine optimization, or SEO. If you have good SEO, that means people in your area who are searching for businesses like yours are going to see your name near the top of the results. If you don’t have good SEO, you might get buried on the second or third page of results. If all of this seems confusing and frustrating, it doesn’t have to be. Take a digital marketing course Toronto (or wherever you’re located). There are a ton of other small business owners trying to figure this stuff out as well; none of us are born knowing about SEO and Twitter. If you don’t try and get a basic handle on these sort of things, then you’re potentially missing out on a lot of business.
