This is the final post in GWS Media's four-part mini-series - aimed at helping you take control of your online promotion campaign.
We've written it specifically for small business owners, because these are the people we work with daily in Bristol, and whose concerns we hear:
Will they have enough time?
Will Facebook really do them any good?
What can Google Adwords really achieve?
These are the people we wanted to reach, to help them think about their marketing strategy - and understand more clearly how to get the best out of it.
Steps 1-3 have been posted already - start reading here.
Read on for our 4th and most important tip that will save you money and help you maximise your investment into social media!
This last post- step 4- is the one we feel is the most important. For small businesses, who can't afford to pour money away on experiments, this may be the one you will find most helpful!
4. Monitor the results of your internet marketing
Analysing outcomes is key to any business strategy, but it’s surprising how often businesses appear not to apply these principles online.
For example, if you have an Adwords campaign, make sure you also have Google Analytics (a free package - check it out here) on your site to work out what your visitors do when they click through.
By improving the experience for website visitors and driving more sales / contacts, you can spend money more wisely.
Likewise, monitor your blog or your Facebook account each month to work out - by numbers of contacts, or interactions - where your time can be most productively spent.
(Most applications, Twitter, and blogs have 'stats' tabs; on Facebook business pages, 'Insights' - investigate here).
Look at what your competitors are using social media for, if you need ideas before you start - don’t waste time making mistakes they’ve already made.
If their Facebook page is full of them posting well-written and interesting content, but their 110 'Fans' are not responding, you might take this as a clue that another platform may work better for your business.
Not all social media applications are the same or attract the same people- a little research can save you a lot of wasted time.
In summary, any successful small business owner already has many of the skills and abilities needed to market themselves online; the secret of social media and online marketing- as with traditional PR and marketing campaigns - is to set goals, monitor progress, structure time, and most of all, communicate - both with your clients, and with your colleagues promoting you online.
In other words, the secret is: There is no secret.
Though we're not claiming this advice is entirely original - let alone rocket science - we feel that getting the basics down on paper can help you to begin at the beginning and make sense of it all!
We hope it is of some assistance to those of you who had set aside that ‘closed book’ to grapple with later - and that you now have some ideas about how to maximise your investment into search engine promotion.
(For more technical tips on social media uses, view our ‘Guide to Online Marketing' series).
Good luck, and we welcome your thoughts and responses!
Return to Part One: Four Easy Steps to Take Control of Your Search Engine Campaign
