The best way to start marketing your small business is by creating the perfect website that your customers will love. While we can hear you say “yes, we know that”, many small businesses are making basic marketing mistakes on their website, selling themselves short and losing vital sales in the process.
As a small business marketing agency, based in Melbourne, we see a lot of businesses suffering as a result of their website, with lacking essentials letting their marketing strategy down, and draining the small yet crucial budgets completely. In this article, we take you through exactly what every small business website should feature to market their business, no matter what industry you are in, and outline why this content is important to your success.
What you sell/offer
Have you ever been to a small business website and felt completely lost by what the business offers? Establishing what your business sells or provides is a basic that needs to be achieved right from the beginning. It is essential to spell out exactly what your product or service is so that any person, of any age, demographic or industry can understand what it is you do.
Where most small businesses go wrong is giving in to the temptation to use heavy industry jargon that most people don’t understand. However, your website should be the place where what you offer is abundantly clear, so you can build clarity with your customer and sound SEO.
SEO
As we just mentioned, search engine optimisation, or SEO as it’s commonly known, is your website’s most crucial marketing essential. Simply put, SEO is what tells search engines, like Google, who you are, where you are located and who your ideal customer is. With millions of websites on the web, and millions more being added daily, the competition for your customer’s attention is overwhelming, therefore a specifically curated SEO strategy is the best gift you can give your website and your overall business bottom line.
Social Media Links
Your business social media accounts should be easily accessible and obvious from the moment a visitor lands on your website. Any and every account you have should be featured, as long as they are relevant to your business, so avoid posting your personal, private accounts.
With every social media account, you have the opportunity to link your profile back to your website. Ensure you do this, emphasising the link in your posts with a clear call to action.
A Call To Action
Easily the most neglected part of a small business website, and the overall business marketing strategy, is the call to action. A call to action (CTA) directs your customer to take action on your website by using encouraging and enticing language. Common examples of a CTA are:
· Join Now
· Shop the Latest
· Get 50% off now
· Click to buy
· Don’t miss out! Shop now!
Most small business owners are hesitant to use evocative marketing phrases like these because they don’t want to sound pushy, instead choosing to rely on the subtleties of their design to engage the customer. This hesitation will only hinder your ability to make sales, nor will it encourage repeat business with your loyal customers.
The ‘Why You’ Factor
What sets your business apart from the others? Why would we buy from you over other small businesses? Why would I buy from you at all? You know intimately how many competitors your small business has locally, globally and online, and the challenge of standing out in such a crowded market. Within all of your language choices, images, your website design, and your SEO, you need to establish why you are worth investing in, why your business can be trusted, and why your customer cannot be without what you do.
