Simple Steps to Take Right Now to Improve Your Digital Marketing

Marketing your business used to consist of a much smaller pool of resources. Take a few ads out in the paper, print some flyers, and make sure you’re listed in the Yellow Pages, and you’d be all set! These days, marketing is a very different world, and the days of purely print marketing are over. It can seem overwhelming trying to keep up with all the different avenues and trying to figure out which are the best for your business. But we are in the digital age, and the importance of digital marketing will only increase as time goes on. If your business isn’t online, you’re invisible.

Fortunately, there are some simple steps you can take right now to vastly improve your online presence. Take a look at these suggestions for brushing up your digital marketing.

Update (or claim) Your Google My Business Listing

Google your business right now. Your business name, address, and phone number should appear on the right side of the page. Are those details accurate? If not, it’s time to update them. You can easily claim your listing so that you can make these changes.

If everything is accurate, and you’ve already claimed the listing, great! You can still brush it up with some new photos or a menu (if that’s applicable to your business). It’s always important to put up some photos because if you don’t, Google will automatically use any random uploads from visitors.

Going forward, remember to update your Google business listing when you make any important changes, like moving locations or getting a new phone number. It may slip your mind but changing it as soon as possible could prevent a headache down the road. Google is a consumer’s first step when researching a new business, so it’s important that your listing is accurate.

Refresh Your Social Media Accounts

Hopefully your business already has social media accounts (if not, what are you waiting for?). The main platforms you should have are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. After that, you can choose based on your industry. If you have a law firm, you probably want to have a LinkedIn as well. Or if you run a clothing store, Pinterest may be the way to go.

Whatever accounts you decide are right for your business, make sure you’re updating them regularly. Not sure what to post? Share some industry advice, your new logo, your updated business hours, or a photo of your staff – the possibilities are endless! If you’re really stuck for content, find a competitor of yours who is marketing themselves successfully and see what they’re posting. It will give you a better handle on what kinds of posts are working for them, and then you can find a way to relate those ideas to your company.

Respond to Reviews Promptly

In the digital age not only is your marketing primarily online, your reputation can be made – and broken – online as well. Google, Yelp, and Facebook are the most popular websites for reviews, which means that you should be monitoring them. Positive reviews can be a huge boost to a small business, and negative reviews can be incredibly damaging.

To monitor these reviews easily, claim your business page on Yelp, Google, and Facebook. This way, you’ll be alerted when a new review comes through. Whether the review is positive or negative, you’ll want to read them and respond.

If the review is positive, thank the client for their feedback. You’ll be reinforcing the great experience they had and show your gratitude for loyal customers. If the review is negative, you shouldn’t ignore it! If you get to it quickly enough, you may be able to ask your staff if they remember this customer and get the other side of the story. Sometimes, thanks to the anonymity of the internet, irate customers will exaggerate an experience, and by responding to their review politely with the facts, you can make this clear to anyone who happens to see the post. Your response could mean the difference between someone reading the nasty review and never visiting, or reading your response and realizing the truth of the situation.

Occasionally, you’ll get a review completely out of left field. Sometimes people just want to leave a negative review even if they’re never done business with you. In those cases, you can flag the review to the website and hopefully get it taken down. It just proves how important it is to keep an eye on your reviews!

Finally, truthful reviews are very important for building your reputation online. However, it is critical that you do not encourage or incentivize positive reviews. It may seem like a great way to improve you online presence, but an influx of positive reviews is a red flag to the review platform, and generally they will be taken down.

Digital marketing can be easy!

We hope these simple tips were helpful to you! These steps are a great way to quickly refresh your online presence. To stay competitive in your field, it’s critical to maintain and update your digital marketing. Feeling overwhelmed by where to go next? Brown Consulting can help! Contact us to learn more.