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These days, it seems like everyone’s talking about FOMO – the fear of missing out. They use it to talk about life experiences and events, including everything from trying new foods to traveling to new places.
Well, that fear of missing out applies to marketing, too.
You might think that you’re doing everything you can to market your business…
… but what if you’re not?
You might be losing out on:
- New customers
- Increased sales
- Your future success
You don’t want that to happen to you. And you might be wondering what marketing strategies you should be implementing to make sure it doesn’t.
Here they are.
#1: Optimize Your Website
This first marketing strategy might seem obvious but a lot of local businesses don’t bother doing it. That’s because they have limited marketing budgets and know-how and they often create websites on their own. We’re talking about optimizing your website.
That might not be a problem for a business that already has a solid customer base, but what if you want to grow your company? An optimized site is a must.
There are two key kinds of optimization to think about:
- Optimization for local search
- Optimization for mobile
Both kinds of optimization are designed to help you attract organic search traffic to your site. For the former, you’ll need to audit your site, choose the right keywords, and use tags and content to get your site to rank.
For mobile optimization, the key is to use a theme that allows mobile users to view all your content easily regardless of what device they use to access your site.
#2: Claim (and Standardize) All Online Listings of Your Business
Your website is important, but it’s not the only way people find you online.
You might already know that, but few local businesses take the time to research their online listings and claim them – and that means they’re missing out.
Unclaimed listings may be incorrect. The last thing you need is a misleading listing that has the wrong URL or business hours.
The process of claiming your listings should go like this:
- Do a Google search for your company and identify all online listings
- Claim each listing according to the instructions on the site
- Standardize all NAP listings (that’s Name, Address, Phone Number) so they’re identical. Everything, from street names to abbreviations to the format of the telephone number must be the same.
If you do this, you can be sure that you’re not diluting your online presence with a slew of inaccurate or unclaimed listings. It might seem like a small thing, but it makes a big difference to Google.
#3: Include an Opt-In Form on Every Page of Your Site
Building an email list is a must for every local business. It lets you communicate with both existing and prospective customers, announce new products and events, and turn leads into sales.
So why is it, then, that so few local businesses do everything they can to attract email subscribers? It might be because they don’t realize how easy it is to maximize their efforts.
It all starts with an opt-in form. If your form is appearing on only one page on your site, you’re not capturing as many subscribers as you should be.
The solution? Put an opt-in form on every page. On some pages, you may want to include an offer, such as a tip sheet or a short eBook, to attract subscribers. On others, the presence of the form on the sidebar or as a pop-up may be enough.
The main point is that anybody who lands on ANY page of your site is a potential subscriber – so treat them that way.
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#4: Be Smart on Social Media
For some local businesses, social media is an afterthought. They might have a Facebook page or a presence on Instagram, but they post sporadically and don’t do much to build or engage their audience.
There’s no denying that social media looms large on the marketing landscape. Here’s what you should be doing:
- Creating and adhering to a content-posting schedule so your followers know when to look for you
- Posting content that’s entertaining and valuable to your audience
- Varying your content so it’s always interesting
- Answer questions from customers
Don’t let your social media accounts stagnate. They’re the perfect place to engage current customers and show new ones what they’re missing.
#5: Pay for Advertising Strategically
There’s an awful lot you can do to market your company online for free, but sometimes, it pays to pay.
Here’s the thing: on Facebook, your posts only reach a tiny fraction of your followers organically. The number was 6.5% as of 2015 and it’s declined since then. Some business with a lot of followers may only get about 2% organic reach.
There’s a similar problem on Twitter due to the volume of Tweets on the average users feed. It’s easy to miss things.
Don’t lose heart, though, because the solution is a simple one. Every so often, you need to pay to advertise on social media.
On Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, you can boost a post – often for just a few dollars. Boosting greatly increases the number of people who see your content.
Here are the types of things you should post:
- Content that gets a lot of organic engagement
- Product announcements and event information
- Content that’s designed to attract email subscribers
- Content that you think is particularly relevant and useful to your audience
There’s an art to boosting content, and it’s your job to master it. Even if you spend only a dollar a day on boosted content, you’re likely to see a significant increase in your engagement.
Stop Worrying about Missing Out…
… and put yourself in the thick of things. You might not have a huge marketing budget, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t achieve your marketing goals. The five marketing musts on this list will ensure that you don’t have to worry about marketing FOMO ever again.