5 Tips on How to Get Your Small Business Online Quickly
Set your small business up for success online with little to no time!
Most retailers are now very aware of how much influence the online realm has on their business, but for those who have not yet entered that channel, it can be daunting to get started. Here at Evergreen Enterprises, we want to empower our small business retailers towards greater success and hope that the experiences we share will inspire our partners' online growth.
When most businesses start their online journey, they usually begin with launching a company website. While that step is highly recommended, the process of designing, developing, and launching it can last for several weeks. There are a few other things that can be accomplished in the meantime that can take just a few minutes to complete, yet can still have a significant impact on your business.
Tip 1: Google My Business
Google has dominated the search engine market share since the early 2000s, and through mobile technology and geo-location it's now the first place customers will go to find "stores near them". Google Maps has also become the GPS of choice for Android phone users.So it's a no-brainer to use their free "Google My Business" listing. It will help your customers find your store and will add you to the map of places to visit.
Just fill out your business name, location, phone number, category and website (optional). Once that information is submitted, you'll have access to your business on Google. And of course, the most important part is that your customers will have your information at their fingertips.
You can update your store hours, even with special holiday closings, get reviews, messages, post photos, and much more. One of the newest features available to users is posts! It allows you to share sales, specials, events, photos, community outreach, messages, and so much more. Try it for yourself.
PRO TIP: Yahoo and Bing have similar local business listings that would help your business if customers find you using those search engines.
Tip 2: Social Media
The world of social media is huge and getting bigger by the day. From Reddit to Wikipedia to Facebook to Instagram, there's no lack of choices from where you can market your business on a social channel. To figure this out, you need to know your clients, their demographics, and where they choose to spend their online time. In a nutshell, go where your customers are.
While you figure out the best places to post, we recommend at least setting up pages on the following two platforms:
Most everyone has a Facebook page - so it should be easy enough to setup your Facebook Page for your business. If you are just starting out, you can ask your friends and family to spread the word about your company for you. It can be as simple as inputting your business address, services, products, and photos of your store. If you're a bit more of an advanced user, you can target your customer list and create look-alike audiences of people who might become new leads. There are plenty of resources and blogs that will help you get started as well as give you plenty of fresh ideas of what to post. Our favorites are: Social Media Examiner, HubSpot, and Cubicle Ninjas.
If you're a company that has even multiple employees, you need to set up a LinkedIn company page. While most people don't shop on LinkedIn, they do plenty of research about you. People from realtors to bankers and even investors will try and find out what your brand is made of and what makes your company stand out from the crowd. Start a company page and build your credibility! It'll also collect information about the people who view your page and profile, helping you gather that so-very-important demographic information. You might even be surprised at who is interested.
Evergreen Enterprises has always been a proud supporter of Small Business Saturday, so it should be no surprise that we encourage small businesses to join the movement. You simply provide your email address and zip code, and you'll receive access to downloadable materials for social media, websites, and even print flyers for your business.
While the official Small Business Saturday is the day after Black Friday, there are plenty of things offered by American Express that help businesses year-round. Get listed on the Shop Small® Map as well as connect with other small businesses for tips, tricks of the trade, and more.
There are plenty of free blogging platforms, including Blogger, Wordpress, and Wix that are perfect for a budding new business. Whichever one you choose, the most important piece of blogging (beyond writing about topics that are relevant to your customers) is Search Engine Optimization. You need to pick titles that will capture the attention of your clients as well as write a short "meta description" of the posts.
Search engines will crawl through your articles and look for not only the most recent content, but the most well-written content in the keywords that customers are looking for.
A simple way to find out what's the hot topic or what's trending is Google Trends.
Setting up a new website can be as easy or complex as you wish it to be. For a first website, you might want to use a free website builder with a few short pages to get you started. For a complex e-commerce shopping experience, you will want to work with designers, IT staff, and developers to help you build out your site.
General Recommendations:
Set yourself apart through branding. Brand isn't just a logo, but it's your personality on the web: tone, colors, reviews, testimonials and much more.
Your site should be friendly to mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Again, Google ranks you higher in the search results if you use either a "responsive" design or an actual mobile version of your site.
Tip 3: Small Business Saturday
Evergreen Enterprises has always been a proud supporter of Small Business Saturday, so it should be no surprise that we encourage small businesses to join the movement. You simply provide your email address and zip code, and you'll receive access to downloadable materials for social media, websites, and even print flyers for your business.
While the official Small Business Saturday is the day after Black Friday, there are plenty of things offered by American Express that help businesses year-round. Get listed on the Shop Small® Map as well as connect with other small businesses for tips, tricks of the trade, and more.
Tip 4: Start a Blog
Search engines will crawl through your articles and look for not only the most recent content, but the most well-written content in the keywords that customers are looking for.
A simple way to find out what's the hot topic or what's trending is Google Trends.
Tip 5: Your Website
General Recommendations:
Include the essential pages that customers expect. These include a homepage to greet your customers and inspire them to shop, a "Contact Us" page so customers feel comfortable communicating, an "About Our Company" page to share your story, a "Products & Services" page to explain what you sell and how you're distinct from competitors, and a "Help" or "FAQ" page for customers to get answers to common questions.
Technical Considerations:
Your site should be friendly to mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Again, Google ranks you higher in the search results if you use either a "responsive" design or an actual mobile version of your site.
We'd advise having an HTTPS security certificate installed on all pages of your website. When searching for your business, Google notes if your site is not secure, which could make customers more hesitant to visit.
Include a customer support phone number with a clickable hyperlink, which will make it easier for someone on a smartphone to call you. This is a simple line of code that you can ask your developer to install (for example: <a href="tel:1-847-555-5555">1-847-555-5555</a>)
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