In Part 1 (LINK HERE) of this series, we talked about the time, money, and other marketing excuses that many small business owners use to prevent themselves from building a website. Here are some additional excuses and why they are not valid.
SEO wouldn’t work for my small business.
Search engine optimization (SEO) can certainly be overwhelming to someone simply trying to make his new business viable and profitable. Managing vendors, employees, customer complaints, creditors, inventory, quality control – all that can be challenging enough. Why would a small business owner want another task of learning and employing SEO into their website, especially since it is seemingly only useful to the big brand-name businesses found on the internet?
The truth is that SEO is an important marketing tool for any sized business. Your potential customers are using the internet to search for the businesses, services, and products they need. If you want search engines to take notice of your small business and present it as a search result, you must practice SEO.
However, you don’t have to manage your SEO campaign by yourself. You can hire a company to set you up with the right foundation for your website, and if your budget allows, they can manage your SEO strategies each month. Publish weekly blog posts that are infused with your top keywords or hire a freelance to compose them by yourself. While this approach will require a small investment, the results pay off in major dividends.
I don’t need a social media presence.
Social media has become one of the most effective marketing tools for small business – if you know how to use it. Most small business owners say they do not get any additional business or customers through social media. However, if you utilize the power of social media updates and promotion, you would find that you gain a loyal following and can generate significantly more revenues.
If you don’t want to focus on social media yourself, you can hire cheaply by creating an “intern” position for internet-savvy college students who love to play on social websites. Have them create your social media pages and employ them to write regular updates and links to your website. It doesn’t take much time, they can do it from home or class, and they get real-life marketing experience through your business.
A website may not seem like an important marketing tool to some small business owners. However, since internet use has exploded over the last few years, it is absolutely an essential part of the marketing mix, and it should have a priority for any entrepreneur.
