Small Business Strategies to Survive the Recession

Small Business Strategies to Survive the Recession

Sep 8, 2022 | Video Marketing

If you’ve watched any TV news broadcast lately, you will know that the economic future is clouded by uncertainties. The COVID-19 epidemic is still around globally, and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine impacts soaring interest rates. This could all be a disaster for your small business.

Economists predict that the United States will enter a recession by late 2023 or early 2024. With a recession on the horizon, businesses and industry leaders are in uncharted territory.

Is digital marketing a good approach during an economic downturn?

To put it simply, yes!

People will continue to look for products and services online even if overall demand has reduced. Therefore, your digital marketing efforts should not be shut down during a recession.

In fact, this is likely the most useful marketing decision you can make during an economic slump. Digital marketing allows you to reach people who are actively looking for what you have to offer. Also, whoever most closely match your target audience.

Experts agree that strong internet marketing is the smartest long-term investment for your company during a downturn in the economy. Recession-proof business marketing methods are more important today than ever.

Prepare Your Small Business for a Recession

There is one thing that separates recession-proof businesses from the competition. The fact that they take action sooner, and start business planning for a recession before their competitors do.

Have you started making plans for a recession in your business? Follow these digital marketing tips to better prepare your business for a recession and safeguard your brand:

Improve Your Online Presence

Building and maintaining a strong online presence in any economy is one of the foundations of recession-proof companies. Maintaining a strong digital presence enables you to capture a larger portion of the market when a recession occurs.

You must stay top of mind with your target audience, invest in market research, and create a mobile-friendly website. Hire a expert to help you with your search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) marketing.

There are many things to consider with a recession on the horizon. This includes establishing a stronger digital presence and staying on potential clients' radars.

Do Not Reduce Your Small Business Marketing Budget

During a recession, business owners must decide where to make sacrifices. Reduce their marketing budget, suspend marketing efforts, or double down on their digital marketing campaigns.

It may seem sensible to some to suspend marketing during a recession. Spending a lot of money on digital marketing may feel unimportant when sales are down. Consider what took place in 2020. Spending on digital marketing campaigns fell about the same time that 255 million full-time jobs were lost globally. Due to lower ad earnings during the COVID-19 epidemic, even Google had to cut its marketing budget by half.

So, why should you keep working on your digital marketing strategy and investing in digital marketing services?

Businesses that continue to market throughout a recession are more likely to survive, according to studies. During an economic downturn, many businesses reduce their advertising budget. This is a opportunity to show that your business is stable even when things are hard. So continue your digital marketing campaign efforts! Or, at most dial them back slightly, but never fully suspend them.

To keep business flowing, have a digital marketing strategy in place. Discontinuing your marketing efforts will make it much easier for your competitors.

It's Time to Optimize Your Website… Now!

Check out your website. Is it generating leads for your company 24 hours a day, or is there room for improvement? Not sure which parts of your website should be improved or updated? Consult with a reputable digital agency – it's what they do!

Agencies normally will employ conversion rate optimization (CRO) specialists. They perform in-depth website audits to evaluate your website's interactions. A specialist will also discover areas you need to optimize to meet your goals.

Conversion rate optimization helps you make the most of your traffic. This is done by examining the data from your website to improve the consumer experience.

You will learn what pages are visited the most and which pages receive the least engagement. You also can examine cart abandonment and overall customer behavior.

Gather this info to create a data-driven strategy. That way, you'll know that any changes you make to your website are more likely to affect your bottom line.

Maintain Your Social Media Efforts

During an economic downturn, many people prefer to stay at home in order to spend less and save more. This also shows that potential customers spend more time on their mobile devices. This is an ideal time to use social media marketing to attract new consumers. And, nurture leads via your sales funnel.

Continuing your social media marketing also ensures that your audience is aware that your business is still active online. A little can still go a long way to attracting new/existing customers.

Create Compelling Video Content For Your Small Business

Certain web marketing approaches pay off due to their cost-effective, creative approach to audience involvement. Video marketing is one example of this .

Video marketing is still one of the most engaging ways to connect with your target audience and deliver information. It fosters trust and confidence in ways that text alone simply cannot.

Consider creating video content that is evergreen and will continue to be useful content for years to come. This ensures that your dollar goes further than if you spend more on campaign-specific content.

Share videos on your social media platforms. Ask that customers create video reviews for you to use on your website. Allow followers to communicate with your brand and ask questions in real time by live-streaming on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.

During a difficult time, Americans are likely to spend time online keeping up with friends and news. Video marketing is a great way to engage with your target audience. Learn where they spend the majority of their time, and grow your customer base!

Optimize Your Marketing Budget and Choose Your Priorities Wisely

Digital marketing is not like a light switch.  You can't just turn it on or off, it is an ongoing process.

Even if the economy is struggling, you owe it to your team and customers to figure out how to source, sell, and optimize your business to get through difficult times.

It is crucial that you begin improving your digital presence and investing in new digital marketing methods. These methods will make positive long-term benefits for your business.

Looking for a good way to create video content for your small business? We can help! Sign up to meet with Jay Vics on the Meet the Experts podcast. Create great content and get your name out there!

Local SEO Tweaks You Can Use To Boost Rankings

Local SEO Tweaks You Can Use To Boost Rankings

Aug 3, 2022 | SEO

When it comes to running a business in your local area, search engine optimization (SEO) is essential.  If you aren’t sitting pretty in the top rankings on page one, it makes potential customers wonder one thing – how good are you REALLY?

With that in mind, if your business doesn’t have the search engine rankings you need, you might want to consider using some of these local SEO tweaks to give your rankings a boost.

Create more internal website links to boost local SEO

The first place we recommend you start for improved local SEO is more internal links. Internal links are links that take the user from one page of your website to the next. So, if you own a website where you provide various handyman services, such as drywall installation, tile laying plastering and painting, or you would find ways to link to each of your services across various pages.

Example: Applying plaster takes patience and experience.  If you rush the process, you will likely end up with sub-par results.  So if you don’t have the extra time needed then Painting the area will be your best option.

Internal links should be built around relevant keywords used across your website. It is a great way to ensure traffic is more evenly distributed across each page, improving your overall traffic level.

Local SEO is linked to local questions found on Google

Another key to local SEO is to make sure you have the answers to the common questions locals have. If you do a search for the product/service(s) your business offers, you will most likely find a list of commonly asked questions on Google. These questions are a great place to start to ensure you have answers to these common questions on your website. There’s 2 ways you can accomplish this.

  1. Create an FAQ page that lists all these commonly asked questions in one place, with your answers to each question below but the best way to handle this is to…
  2. Create a blog around these questions.  For example, if you run a car detailing service, and one of your most frequently asked might be…. “Is it better to clean with steam or soap & water?”  So now you have an opportunity to go into more detail about why it’s better to clean with steam VS soap and water and all the benefits your car will receive because of it.

Boost your local SEO with local directory listings

From Google My Business to business directories in your local region, you should be creating as many of these little profiles as you can.  Also referred to as citations. Yelp.com, YellowPages.com, BBB.org, Manta.com, Angi.com, are all examples of business directories also called citations.  Each one creates another link back to your website.  Which is exactly what you want – Useful external links coming from relevant sources.

At the same time, though, these websites provide you a directory listing that helps people to find your business. So not only can you get a local SEO benefit, you will also get traffic coming directly from these sites.

Local directories are useful, but make sure you’ve got a Google My Business page. It’s the “Grand Pumba” of all citations. Technically it’s now referred to as your Google Business Profile, but it is the same thing – and it is free to create, so why not benefit from the potential it provides?

Turn your current content into new opportunities

If one of your main problems is coming up with new content and ideas all the time, that’s totally relatable.  One great way to get the most out of your content is to repurpose what you already have. By taking a blog post and turning it into social media snippets, or an explainer video, you can stretch the content you already have and maximize its impact.

Do not ignore your user experience (UX) rating

In 2021, Google released a new search engine update that focuses on the quality of the user experience. Specifically, how fast is your website loading? How stable is your website – does it crash often? And how responsive is your website? Does it work well on all devices and browsers?

Working with your web developer to improve these elements of your layout, design, and back-end should be a priority. Google and other search engines will value your website higher if it meets its higher UX rating. Make this a local SEO priority!

Make the most of Google Discover

One of the best local SEO tweaks we can suggest you try out would be to use Google Discover. This is an AI-managed news aggregator that is created by Google. Essentially, it looks to pair people up with content and platforms the AI feels are relevant based on their previous activities.

Getting people to like your content on social media and on your website – such as leaving comments, sharing links, etc. – can ensure you are more likely to appear in this powerful news aggregator. You’ll need to create high-quality content that encourages engagement, this is a high bar to reach for.

Take your old content and improve it

As time goes on, it is inevitable that new information is discovered and your expertise in your business niche will grow. Is it time to go back to your older content and refresh it?  Are there new details you could add now that were not available back when you first wrote that content?

Going back and updating old content is a great way to refresh the traffic volume and squeeze more juice out of what you have already done.

Conclusion

Okay listen, it’s a busy world. If you don't have time to implement all of the SEO tips listed above, that's fine. Start with one or two that seem to be the easiest and begin there. Businesses who succeed at SEO are the ones who take action, so anything is better than nothing.  Once you see your rankings increase you’ll know it’s worth the effort!

Looking for ways to get your name out there? We want to help! Click here to be featured on an episode of the Meet the Experts podcast. This is an opportunity to showcase your business and your expertise.

Local Influencers That Are Right For Your Business

Local Influencers That Are Right For Your Business

Jun 22, 2022 | Uncategorized

Influencer marketing is a 6.5 billion dollar industry and the best marketing tool for businesses today. As this online marketing strategy evolves, businesses are foregoing celebrity endorsements. Instead, they are choosing to collaborate with local influencers in their community. Here’s why.

Increases brand awareness

First and foremost, local influencers bring the names of businesses to the attention of people who were previously unaware of their existence.

Obviously, all types of influencers do this. Local influencers are simply more effective and successful for businesses in specific geographic areas.

Plus local businesses can turn their favorite customers into their own personal influencers for fairly low cost. This is accomplished through offering small incentives, like food & drink or merchandise.

Increased Engagement

Local influencers tend to have a deeper, more genuine connection with their followers than macro and celebrity influencers. They are more likely to know and connect with their followers on a more personal level.

Influencers with 100k or fewer followers tend to make time for thoughtful responses and engagement.

According to research, influencers with 1,000 followers have the highest engagement ratio. Don’t count them out! The ratio of engagement to followers is more important than the number of followers.

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri is considering removing 'likes' from the social media platform entirely. “We want people to worry a little bit less about how many likes they’re getting on Instagram and spend a bit more time connecting with the people that they care about.”

This potential evolution will make engagement an even more potent tool in the world of influencers.

Local Influencers Are Less Expensive

Contrary to what you may think, local influencers do not need to be paid thousands of dollars to endorse your business. Many people are willing to be influencers in exchange for smaller incentives.

“When I post a photo for taco Tuesday, I get free queso? Please sign me up!” Give people the opportunity to try your product and share it with their friends and family. This is a great way to generate repeat business. It's a win-win situation!

Influencers gain credibility for their recommendation, businesses gain new customers, and both gain exposure.

Local Influencers Increase New Followers

Local influencers are ideal for small businesses because the majority of their followers will live in the same area who have never heard of your brand. This means an influencer collaboration will allow you to reach a larger market of people who are close to your business!

No matter how fantastic a local pizza joint is, it's unlikely that someone will fly across the country to try it. More likely, they’ll try it while they’re already in town. Unless they really love pizza, have a lot of spare cash, and are dying to go on a world's best pizza tour. I mean, never say never, right?

But, if someone is scrolling through Instagram and sees a friend’s rave review, they may decide to head there on their next night out. Visitors from out of town will also see great reviews about your pizza while searching for food locally. They would be more likely to want to try it themselves!

Enhances Authenticity

Marketing professionals have long recognized that word-of-mouth is the most effective form of marketing. Local influencers do this without making it appear as if the company is bragging about itself.

It's not salesy or gimmicky; it's just a person sharing something they enjoy with the people in their network. People are much more likely to respond a sponsored to this than to a post from a business page or influencer with a million followers.

At HowTo.agency, Jay Vics uses TikTok to authentically engage with his audience.

Generates Fresh Content

Giving up some control and allowing an influencer to create their own content promoting your business accomplishes two important things.

#1: It reduces the workload on marketing campaigns. The business can provide guidelines (such as their unique hashtag) or suggestions, but the influencer knows how to best communicate with their audience. After all, they are the ones who are most familiar with them.

#2: Allowing local influencers to create their own content provides the business with new insight into the voice of the target audience. Pay attention to what influencers say and how their followers respond. It’s an excellent way to learn about your target audience!

Followers Can Trust You

When it comes to influencer marketing, savvy consumers are wary of celebrity endorsements.

Have you ever seen a celebrity in a skincare commercial claim that their secret to looking young is some miraculous anti-aging eye cream? Most people might laugh at these commercials and dismiss them. But, if a friend recommends a new restaurant that just opened up in town, they may be much more likely to try it!

Local influencers' human aspect is the future of internet marketing. Consider the importance of quality above quantity. Even if they don't have a large number of followers, they have a significantly better chance of reaching your target demographic.

Where Can I find Local Influencers?

Some of the most effective methods include:

1. Look at your current social media following

Whether or not your business has a strong social presence, you may be shocked to find that some local influencers are already following you on social media. Check if they match your brand and are relevant to your product or service. They may be someone with whom you should explore forming a connection!

2. Research local hashtags for your area

A local hashtag search on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms is a wonderful approach to locate relevant local or micro-influencers. Of course, you can use Google to perform a local hashtag search and see what results it returns. You may also utilize the hashtag to see popular posts that include it. This may lead you to trending material generated by the local influencers you're looking for.

3. Find out who’s talking about your business – the good and the bad

It's far easier to locate and work with influencers if they already know about your business – and are likely delighted with your product or service since they're already talking about it. The rationale is simple: they're more inclined to promote your brand with enthusiasm.

4. Or use online tools like: Local Influence or Insense

What does it cost?

Prices and fees vary widely, from the micro-est of micro local influencers who are happy to trade a post for products & merchandise from more established influencers depending on their followers you can expect to pay $.01 to $.025 per follower or more. If you use tools or an agency that cost can go up even more.

Wrapping Up

No matter how many followers they have, local influencers can help you. Use them to grow your business's social reach, improve your brand image, engage your audience, and attract new consumers. So, what do you have to lose? Now you’re armed with the information you need to pick the right local influencer for your business!

Now, you’re using the power of local influencers to target your audience. Look into other ways you can uniquely and effectively promote your business! We want to help. Reach out today to book your time on the Meet the Experts podcast. No one knows your business better than you, so get your name out there!

5 Tips on Building Your Local Brand

Jun 20, 2016 | Clients, General, Uncategorized

Local Brand business ownerHave you given much thought to building a local brand for your small business? If you’re like a lot of business owners, you haven’t. You spend your days wearing many different hats, handling everything from accounting to ordering to marketing. If you don’t have a dedicated marketing person, then brand building might be a low priority – but it shouldn’t be.

The truth is that even if you don’t have a website, online store, or social media presence, you have an online local brand. Recent research shows that 80% of consumers research brands and products online before making a purchase. With that in mind, here are some tips to help you build a solid online brand for your business starting today.

Tip #1: Make sure your listings are consistent

The first thing you need to do, even if you don’t have a website, is to check out your listings online and make sure they are consistent. Your name, address and phone number – also known as your NAP listing – plays a big role in how easy it is to find you online. Even if you have a professional website, inconsistent NAP listings can affect your rank on Google and other search engines. To give you an idea of how nitpicky these things are, keep in mind that even something as simple as having “Ave” on one listing and “Avenue” on another can be a problem. Pick the format you want and then stick with it.

google local brandTo ensure that you catch everything, do a Google search and then check specific listings that you think might be relevant. For example, even if you have never claimed your listing on Yelp, you might have one there. The same goes for Google My Business and local business directories. It might be time-consuming, but make the effort to go through and claim everything.

If you search a promising directory and find that your business isn’t listed there, find out how to get it listed. Citations, even if they’re just a listing of your NAP, can help to build your online profile and attract people to your business. Keep in mind that it may take a few days or even weeks for your new or updated listings to appear.

local brand mobileTip #2: Optimize for mobile users

2015 marked a turning point in “online search”. It was the first year that mobile searches outpaced searches done on desktop computers, a trend that is expected to continue going forward. Combine that statistic with Google’s recent “Mobilegeddon” update – and the promise of more such updates to come – and there is no denying that you have to make your business easy to find for mobile customers if you want to succeed.

If you have a website, then the best option is a mobile-responsive design – one that automatically detects the type of device being used to view the site and adapts accordingly. Such designs ensure that mobile users won’t have to scroll horizontally to read your content or have to deal with trying to hit a teeny call to action button on their screen.

It’s not enough just to make your site accessible on mobile devices. You also need to do user testing to ensure that your pages load quickly and respond well to user activities. Mobile users are notoriously impatient, and a page that takes more than a few seconds to load will likely see a high bounce rate. If you have a WordPress site, making it mobile-responsible should be easy. All you need to do is choose a mobile-responsive theme for your site. However, if you want a more detailed overview of what is required to get your site mobile-ready, click here.

Tip #3: Network your local brand with other local businesses

network local brandThe #LoveLocal movement is gaining traction online as a way of encouraging people to buy from local and small businesses. One way to build your local brand and reputation is to take the time to network with other small business owners. They know better than anybody else how difficult it can be to keep a small business afloat, and they are often very eager to refer customers to other local businesses to keep the community thriving.

Consider visiting Townsquared and seeking out other entrepreneurs and business owners in your area. You can establish yourself as an authority, learn about other local companies, and even build partnerships and referral sources.

social media local brandTip #4: Use social media effectively

There’s no denying that social media use is high – and getting higher every day. If you aren’t already using social media to build your local brand, then it’s time to get serious about it.

A well-thought-out social media strategy can help you connect with existing customers and attract new ones. People love to connect with their favorite brands, but it’s important to remember the “social” in social media. Nobody is going to follow you on Facebook or Pinterest in the hopes of being hit with a barrage of aggressive sales pitches. Your social media content should follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of what you post should be interesting and relevant content that provides value to your followers, and only 20% should address your specific products and services.

Certain industries and businesses are better adapted to some social media sites than others. For example, if you sell an aspirational product that lends itself well to being photographed, especially if your product appeals to women, then Pinterest is a great choice. Facebook is still the most widely-used social media site, and the most versatile. Instagram and Snapchat are highly visual and tend to lend themselves to marketing to young people.

Whatever sites you decide to use, make sure to post regularly and always keep your brand in mind. The voice you use on social media should reflect how you want people to perceive you.

Tip #5: Stretch your ad dollars by focusing on paid social media advertising

local brand ad dollarsFinally, if you’re on a tight budget and don’t have much money for advertising, consider using your dollars wisely by advertising on social media. Ranking for top keywords on Google can be difficult, and the competition (and the cost) is high. Social media advertising is very affordable and versatile. You can target your ad so that it reaches one of two groups: your followers and their friends; or a chosen group targeted by demographics and interests. Research shows that users are most likely to make a purchase when they have repeated exposure to a company or brand. Every time a user sees your ad, it increases the likelihood that they will eventually buy from you.

Advertising on some social media sites is still rolling out and not available to everyone, but Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter all have well-established programs. You can run a Facebook ad for as little as a dollar a day, and they provide free analytics so you can see how your ad is performing.

business-man local brandThe bottom line is that you have an online brand. Whether you are managing it properly is another question. By using the tips provided above, you can claim your online brand and build it into something that accurately represents your business – and you.

At JVI Mobile, we are passionate about creating and growing awesome social relationships. Tell us how we can help! We’ve got a crack team literally at your fingertips!

If you haven’t already, check out our Digital Marketing Assistant. It’s a brand new Facebook Group we are offering where you can get expert help and ready access to the JVI team will all your digital marketing concerns and questions!

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