How Online Marketing Strategies Level the Playing Field for Small Businesses

When I was a kid, there was this little Mexican restaurant in town. It sat right next to a movie theater, and it was a hot spot. Those folks made a mean burrito! Kids always stopped in on the way home from school for nachos, and whenever we went shopping or to the movies, we’d grab a bite. It was cheap, tasty, and popular.

But apparently, it wasn’t popular enough. Because in 2003, when a big-box store wanted to move in and take over the space, both the restaurant and the movie theater (plus several other small businesses) got knocked out to make way for a chain store.

Rather than relocate and start over from scratch, the restaurant owners closed their doors and walked away after being in business for 30 years.

Missing Main Street

This is not an unusual story. Big businesses are constantly kicking the little guys off the map.

There was a time when every town and city in America was home to small businesses run by hard-working and self-sufficient people — people who possessed an entrepreneurial spirit. They ran restaurants much like the one I just told you about. They owned grocery stores, cafes, and bookstores. But in recent decades, big businesses have slowly been taking over, eliminating the mom-and-pop businesses that defined main-street America.

Nobody believed that a chain of coffee shops could drive community cafes out of business, but Starbuck’s proved it could be done. And because ambitious executives are hooked on exponential growth and thrive on eliminating or overtaking their competition, corporate growth has proven that no industry is safe from its reach.

After all, bigger businesses have the advantage. They have more money to spend on research and development, marketing, and personnel. They can even use that money to affect law, supporting politicians and bills that advance their agendas or opposing those that would give better leverage to the little guys.

Small Business Concerns

They say some industries are safe from corporate competition. I don’t believe it. If there’s a way to make money, the big businesses are going to want to get in on the action eventually.

If you’re a small business owner or if you’re thinking about starting your own business, these are real concerns.

Can you go up against bigger or more established businesses? Even if you can compete now, will a corporation move in on your turf a few years down the road? Should you just get a regular job and forget about it? Or can smart online marketing strategies save your business?

Small Business is Alive and Well

The truth is that small business is alive and well. It just looks different than it did ten or twenty years ago. True, it’s more and more difficult to find a grocery store owned by people rather than shareholders, but there is a whole world of entrepreneurs. And that world is the wild, wild web.

Remember that little Mexican restaurant I told you about, the one that went out of business in 2003? That restaurant recently got itself a Facebook page. Sounds odd, I  know. Why would you set up a Facebook page for a restaurant that has been out of operation for almost seven years?

Maybe the owners are thinking of reopening and are testing the market. Maybe they’re just waxing nostalgic. I have no idea, but what I do know is that they already have hundreds of followers, a pretty good indication that their little restaurant may be gone, but their customers have certainly not forgotten them.

21st Century Entrepreneurs

The entrepreneurial spirit will never die. Someone, somewhere will always find a way to outsmart the big guys and either beat them at their own game or build a brand new game.

In 1999, when big corporations already had their arms wrapped around shoe manufacturing, a little company named Zappos hit the scene. It was unheard of. Why would anyone go up against Nike or Manolo? But Zappos found that by skirting marketing and customer service models that big businesses favored and by operating on the web, they could in fact succeed and compete effectively. Less than ten years after it was founded, Zappos was sold to Amazon, reportedly for over a billion dollars.

Hoards of independent-minded people have figured out ways to make money using online marketing strategies. Some of them employ tactics that may be questionable (are they really selling anything?) but most online entrepreneurs just want to offer a decent product or service that brings value to their customers. They want to run a real business, and they want to succeed.

Many of these people make a living from home. Some of them work in their pajamas. Others are working from their couches or backyards. A few of them don’t even realize they’re running a business. They’re blogging for fun, and one day someone offers them some money for something, and next thing you know, they just turned a profit. That’s business, and this is still America.

Online Marketing Strategies

But it’s an online America, a globally connected America. And what’s missing on the game board are small businesses that are doing business the old-fashioned way (with a brick and mortar store, or an in-person service, or some really killer art to sell), while simultaneously harnessing the newfangled marketing advantages that the internet offers.

Let’s face it; some things just can’t be done online (home repairs, haircuts, dining, just to name a few). So, as big business moves in on these industries, traditional businesses need to use the web to compete more effectively.

If a little restaurant that closed its doors ten years ago can use the internet to reclaim hundreds of its former customers without even having a business anymore, then what can your business do with the web?

Scribizzy helps small businesses succeed online. Visit our web content services page to learn more about our copywriting, design, and marketing solutions.

Simple Online Marketing Strategies and Opportunities

Are you missing simple opportunities to promote your business online?

When you’re working for yourself or running your own business, the lines between your personal and professional life start to blur. You are no longer “on the clock” or “off the clock” because you own the clock. And you want it to tick.

When you work for someone else, there isn’t much motivation to put a link to the company website in your personal email signature. Lots of people who use Facebook and Twitter don’t even list their place of employment. And all kinds of forums are buzzing with workers who want to banter about anything and everything… except work.

Employed workers don’t promote their employers for a number of reasons. First of all, they may not be allowed to, legally. For the average worker, marketing and bringing in business is not part of their job description. Many workers won’t see any benefits from such efforts, anyway. Most would rather not think about work when they’re off the clock.

When these folks leave the cubicle behind for good and set up their own shops, old habits are hard to break. But think about it: now that you’re running your own business, you should seize every opportunity to let people know about the products and services you offer.

Online Marketing Strategies

There are two types of online marketing strategies. The first type is a concrete plan. You’re going to set up a website, publish a newsletter, and launch an email marketing campaign. That’s a clear, comprehensive plan. The other type of online marketing involves an open-minded awareness in which you are able to identify and take advantage of opportunities when they arise. When you’re filling out a form and it asks for your website, do you leave it blank because the form has nothing to do with your business directly? Well, that could be a missed opportunity.

Let’s say you have a Facebook account, which you use primarily to connect with friends and family. You post photos of your kids and pets, play games, and take polls and quizzes. This has nothing to do with business, right?

Wrong. Let’s say your second cousin twice removed lands on your Facebook page and notices that you work as a translator. Maybe she already knew this was your profession and forgot, or maybe she had no idea. The point is, she notices and as it happens, her company is trying to land a foreign-language client. Instead of hitting the yellow pages, she hits you up and you land a pretty decent gig.

You don’t have to wallpaper your life with your business information, but when there’s a space for business, you should use it, even if that space is one that you would normally associate with your personal life.

Signatures

Naturally, you have a website and an email account that uses your website domain. It’s just more professional when the emails you send to clients come from @yourbusiness.com rather than hotmail, gmail, or yahoo. Certainly, you’ve put a professional signature on your business email. Even workers in big companies are required to use such signatures. But what about your personal email account? Just about every email application includes a feature that lets you set up a signature. In that signature, you can put your name, a logo, and a link. So do it. Add a little reminder to let people know you’re in business and you’re available.

Social Media

I’m always surprised when I see business owners who don’t list their businesses in their social media profiles. If you’re using Facebook (or any social media) for friends and family only, why should you mention your business? Your friends and family already know what you do, and they know how to reach you. But that doesn’t mean they’re actively or constantly thinking about your services. When I first started my business, a couple of my acquaintances hired professionals who offered services similar to mine — because they didn’t yet know that I had gone into business for myself. If I’d been quicker getting my profiles up to date with my business information, maybe they would have. Including your business in your personal profiles will keep your business fresh in people’s minds, plus it’s a quick and easy way for folks to grab your link and send it to professionals in their greater network.

Forums

Lots of people use forums, or discussion boards, to engage with other people online. Most forums focus on particular interests — gaming, the arts, science, politics, spirituality. There are forums for every subject under the sun. People gather in these online communities to exchange ideas and information and to share their interests. As a forum member, you set up an account with a profile, which is much like a social media profile. And like an email account, you can usually set up a signature on your forum profile too. This will place your signature on all messages that you send and post in the forum. If you’re in a knitting forum and your profession is restoring antique cars, you may not want to be overt, but it doesn’t hurt to put the name of your website (with a link) just below your name.

All Business All the Time

The idea behind online marketing strategies is to make it as easy as possible for anyone to find you online. Marketing strives to pull people to your business so you don’t have to do as much pushing (selling). And that means using the simple opportunities that arise as well as implementing a comprehensive marketing plan. All three of these simple online marketing strategies (email signatures, social media profiles, and forums) have one thing in common: they each harness existing opportunities to promote your business.

Online Marketing Strategies

Scribizzy works with small business that want to establish an effective online presence. We can help with your online marketing strategies and other marketing collateral, including your website. To learn more, visit our web content services page.