Growing small business is never an easy task, especially when you’re competing directly with large businesses that have a high amount budgeted for advertisement. The only place that guarantees your business a free and fair fight with these large businesses is the internet. Even with little amount of money you can gain your own share of customers and revenue in your niche. Growing your business online however, needs you to be harmed with an ample of information about how you can do this and maximize your Return on investment.

Without any delay, let’s explore how to grow small business online:

1- Get your small business listed on online directories

Most people’s journey of buying goods or services starts with a search on Google. To make sure your business shows up when someone searches for products or services, you need to get it listed on local online directories. For example, a stranger comes to a city and needs the service of a makeup artist, he/she will search for terms like “makeup artist near me” or “make-up artist (city)” on Google. Who do you think will get this business? The business that showed up.

The best local online directories to get your business on is Google My Business. 49% of businesses have a monthly view of 1000+. Google created the Google My Business primarily for local businesses.  Once you register your business, you can input your business name, address, contact details, logo, pictures of your office or previous work and even set-up a small business website for you. You can also register your business on local listing services like: Yelp, Yahoo, Bing, e.t.c

2- Have a strong Social Media presence

3.6 billion people are estimated to be social media users. If you are not promoting your business through social media, then you’re missing out big. Social media helps to generate brand awareness, drive more sales and help you maintain a strong relationship with your customers. With social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, you can display your products and services on them, and even sell directly through some features like Facebook shop and Instagram shop. So, to grow small business online social media presence is a necessity.

3- Leverage content Marketing

You can attract new customers to your business with content. Content can be in many forms, for example- blog post, social media post, how-to videos, checklist, guides and so on. Content marketing helps you to educate your audience and allow them to make informed buying decisions.

For instance, a bakery business owner may do a video on “how you can make chin-chin at home” and share it. People that see this video and were able to put it into practice, will trust this bakery owner. And when these people needed someone to supply them bread, flour or any other related products, who would they get them from? That’s simple – that bakery business that educates them. So, when you educate your audience, they see you as a trusted authority and they can also trust you with their most important resources- Money or Time.

4- Automate your sales through e-commerce websites

To grow small business online, you should automate your sales. With an e-commerce website people can buy your products anytime and anywhere. E-commerce websites enable you to display your products on the site, put a price on them and the buyer can select any of these products they want. E-commerce websites have payment methods integrated with them, this means the buyer can pay directly to your business account after selecting the products they choose to buy. The e-commerce website will collect their shipping address, and you can have these products shipped to these buyers.

5- Do Search Engine Optimization for your website

Having an e-commerce website or blog for your business is not enough, it needs to be showing up on search engines when people are looking for your products. SEO helps to solve this issue. Optimizing your website will enable it to rank high on the search engine result pages. So, whenever people search for your products they get to see your business. 

6- Get new customers with a trip-wire offer

Online customers tend to be more careful due to many options available to choose from. To make your brand stand out and acquire new customers you need to make use of a trip-wire offer. Trip-wire offer is what you use to get new people to buy from you. It enables people to test your product or service for the first time without putting too much skin into the game. It may be through offering these new customers coupons, vouchers, discounts, free delivery and so on.

For instance, an online clothing store may offer a free delivery service to its first time customer. A consultant may offer an hour of free consultation to a new client. Being able to convince this client of your expertise during this period, means he/she will be willing to pay for your service the next time.

7- Use a strong Call To Action

Call To Action is what you want people to do after seeing your content, adverts and so on. A strong CTA helps to create a sense of urgency to the people seeing that content or advert. It tells them what you want them to do right now. They are usually in short and concise forms. Examples of this are: Register here, Shop now, Buy now, Subscribe now, and so on.

8- Boost sales and traffic with paid ads

One of the best ways to get your product reach more people is through paid ads. You can sponsor a post on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. This post will be seen by audiences outside your current audience. People can be targeted based on their location, age, interest, birthdays and so on. Website traffic can also be boosted through paid search on search engines. These search engines like Google, Yahoo or other Ad Network services to display your website or ads when people search for products or services you offer. 

The above picture, is an example of companies that paid to have their website displayed when you search for dishwasher.

In this blog post, we have discussed how to grow your small business online with little budget. Try this strategies to scale your business, boost sales and generate more brand awareness.

Have any problem scaling your small business? Contact us at Digprom and let our team of experts digital marketers help drive your business to greater scale.