How to grow your small business online

Maintaining a strong internet presence is essential to growing your small business online. In today’s digital age, using social media, digital advertising, emails, and videos are all ways to expand your business’s outreach. These methods are simple and cost-effective when your small business uses them properly. Whether you want to target certain locations or want to increase your sales and visibility to anyone with internet access, Microsoft Advertising can help you.

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Digital marketing tools for small businesses

There are digital marketing tools your small business can use that will stay within the constraints of your marketing budget. Some of these tools are free, and you might already use them in your personal life. Don’t worry if your marketing tool costs money because there are many that are still affordable while giving you a wide scope of services. Using social media, keyword research, a business website, and an email list are all cost-effective ways to grow your small business online.

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Keyword research: Before you post on social media or design your website, you’ll want to conduct keyword research. Keyword research will help you determine what relevant words and phrases your small business should use in its online presence. Microsoft Keyword Planner can help you find how people are searching for goods and services that are related to your small business. Once you have your list of keywords, you can implement them on your small business’s website and use them in your social media captions.

Social media: You can grow your small business online by using social media platforms. The key here is consistency. Some social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, allow you to create, schedule, and post on your business profile without having to pay for a huge advertising budget. If your small business doesn’t have employees to manage the different social media profiles, there are other tools you can use to consolidate the posts. Microsoft Advertising is a simple way to streamline your social media management and post to multiple channels from one screen.

Website building: Your small business doesn’t have to spend a ton of money paying website designers and computer engineers who know how to code. There are plenty of free and affordable website building platforms that you can use to create your small business website. Use the relevant keywords you found from your research so that your website has a better chance of appearing on search engines. Microsoft’s Digital Marketing Center eases your worries about high expenses by letting you build a website for free.

Email marketing: Some people check their emails as much as they check their social media pages. Email marketing is an effective marketing tool that reminds consumers that your small business’s goods or services exist. Set up a place for customers to enter their email addresses on your website for them to join your email list. Send them emails when you have new products, when old products are back in stock, when there are new sales, and coupons to show your appreciation for them. Some email marketing tools are free if your small business doesn’t exceed a certain number of customers. These tools allow you to send the same email to multiple consumers at the same time.

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Online advertising

Digital communications can help your small business grow online, but using online advertising methods can also increase your sales and consumer base. Online advertisements can be seen on search engines, social media platforms, other websites, and more. Exploring different online advertising solutions can help your small business tap into audiences that you might not be able to immediately reach when you first design your website.

NATIVE ADVERTISING

In the digital world, consumers are served advertisements everywhere they look. An excess of advertising can be overwhelming or even annoying for some people. When designing your online advertisement plan, consider using native ads. These are less intrusive forms of advertising because they usually blend well with the webpage or platform that they’re shown on. Native advertising can help your small business inform consumers about goods or services in a subtle but powerful manner.

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a convenient way to make sure your ads and small business website are seen on search engines. SEM uses relevant keywords to decide the instances your ad should show on the results page. A search engine results page (SERP) includes organic pages that don’t use advertising spots to show up for a specific query, and the SERP also includes paid results from websites that use SEM. One of the best things about search engine marketing is that it can place your small business ads above all results—even organic ones. This means that your website will be the very first page that a consumer sees when searching online.

VIDEO ADVERTISING

Video ads might be shown on social media platforms, other websites, and in the middle of other videos. Using video ads instead of text ads or still photos adds a valuable visual component to your small business’s online presence. People are watching videos now more than ever. Video ads can influence a consumer’s decision on purchasing your good or service. Use video advertising to show the direct benefits that yours offer. The Microsoft Audience Network can help you grow your small business online using video advertising.

Digital advertising benefits for small businesses

Advertising your small business online can be more affordable than renting a physical billboard or buying ad space in a magazine. With digital advertising, you have control over your business’s online presence. Some other benefits of online advertising are that you get to decide how long an advertisement stays up, when it changes, and how much you want to budget toward your marketing plan.

COST-EFFECTIVE

Unlike billboards and other forms of physical advertising, marketing your small business online gives you a greater visual reach at a lower cost. Consumers in your city might see your business’s website or advertisement while browsing online as well as someone who lives on the other side of the world. You can use free or affordable digital services to implement your digital marketing ideas. If you use the
pay-per-click method, you can control how much you’re spending on online advertisements, and this method can cost much less than physical advertisements.

TARGETED REACH

Your small business can target new customers who are looking for your goods or services with online advertising. Conducting keyword research can help you target the consumers who are more likely to click on your ad or website based on what they’re searching on the web. This helps you manage your business’s advertising plan because you can use the
click-through rate to determine how effective your ads are. The Microsoft Audience Network can help you find your target audience and track the success of your online marketing plan.

MEASURABLE

Once you use the Microsoft Audience Network to track your ads’ metrics, your small business can adjust its advertisements accordingly. Not only can you track how many people click on your ads or website, but you can also track what people click on while there. Use Universal Event Tracking to see what’s effective on your website based on where customers are clicking and spending the most time.

Grow your small business online with Microsoft Advertising

Digital advertising methods are cost-effective ways to grow your small business online. These tools and methods expand your business’s outreach, increase the website’s position on the SERP, and give you more flexibility on when and how you want to advertise your goods or services. Help your small business grow online today using Microsoft Advertising.