Many small business owners are paying attention to using social media platforms to grow their business. Rightly so. The increase in reach, targeted campaigns and low advertising costs make it a no-brainer. However, what many brands have forgotten is the fact that social media is only one marketing tool available to businesses.
What we find fascinating is that many South African brands are fearful to engage with Google and how they can actually grow their business online digitally. With over 8.5 billion searches in Google per day, where 63% of the global online community use their mobile devices to perform searches, marketing your business through Google (basically the internet) is an important strategy to consider when it comes to their marketing plan.
1. Google My Business Page
The Google my business page helps businesses to be found online when potential customers are looking for a product or service in a specific location. You can create your business page and update it regularly with information related to your location and offerings. If you are running a promotion, have an up and coming event or want to share the latest company news you can do so under your page. You can also request customers to review your business, increasing the feedback on your business and service offerings.
2. Google Test My Site
Many business owners spend loads of money on a website developer to create a website, but the reality is if your site is not optimized for speed and mobile it won’t capture the attention or convert visitors into paying customers. Test my site is a feature provided by Google that allows you to test your website and how well it is optimized. After testing your site Google will provide you with a full report on where you need to improve and the changes required.
3. Google Trends
The best way to create solutions and to solve problems is to understand what your customer is looking for. Google Trends allows you to find out what consumers are searching for and the key words related to specific terms during a specific period. As an example if you search ‘marketing’ in Google Trends you will find related topics like affiliate, consultants and certificates. You will also receive a breakdown from which countries, cities had the highest search over a 12th month period.
4. Google Ads
We know that Google ads are very expensive but they are also very effective. Consumers are bombarded by marketing messages every single day and Google ads allow your business to stand out breaking through the clutter. Google Ads are purely created to target individuals based on their key words entered into the search engine. Google ads also allow you to rank first out of all the thousands and millions of businesses listed online.
5. Market Finder
Where do you go or start to find your ideal audience and market? Market Finder is the perfect feature that can assist your business. Market Finder uses terms related to your business to match and connect to your ideal audience based on a global online search. You will receive a report that gives you an indication of the ideal country and location that will be best suited for you to do business.
Being found online involves a process of feeding Google content consistently and regularly. These Google tools will not only help you to create an online presence, but also help you to grow your business and connect with your ideal audience.
Rucien Petersen is the founder of Spottmedia, serves as vice chair on the Cape Chamber Tygerberg Committee Group and has over a decade of marketing experience within the traditional and digital sectors. He has a passion to help small businesses in assisting them to implement and execute marketing strategies geared towards taking their business to the next level. Instagram: //www.instagram.com/rucien_petersen/
