The internet is a crowded place, yet believe it or not, everyone can find a place. For this, understanding the market opportunities and your competition is essential.
As per SMB Digital Study, small businesses with strong online presence see 3.1x growth. If you are in the stage of building or revamping your online presence, this blog will be useful.
Optimizing Your Digital Presence
The first thing is to make sure your brand has a complete identity online, on various platforms. Focus your efforts on:
Website optimization: Is your website fast enough? Does it load well on mobile? Your website is the face of your brand online. It is also a good place to establish your market positioning.
Local SEO optimization: As per Market Research, local digital engagement increased 43% post-pandemic. You can stay ahead of the local competition by optimizing for location-based keywords and keeping your Google Business Profile updated.
Content marketing: My emphasis for my clients is always to generate content that the customers can find useful, such as how-to videos, infographics with stats, blogs, and so on.
Social media presence: Gen Z or not, your local community is spending a considerable amount of time on social media. And so is your local competition. I recommend creating a social media plan without delay!
Focussing on Cost-effective Strategies
Budget allocation: I would not recommend starting with a big budget immediately. Focus on areas that are most likely to show results. If your customers are more active on social media, that’s where you could put a part of your budget. Reserve some for long-term efforts such as website content and SEO.
Use free tools – Start with free tools such as Google Analytics, or Canva to streamline efforts and track progress without breaking the bank.
Use organic growth tactics – Organic growth happens through consistent, but useful, content creation such as blogs, reviews, social media posts etc. Competitive analysis is essential here, to find out the topics your competitor has not touched upon.
Community engagement – The best part of building a local presence is that you can collaborate with local influencers, sponsor events, or participate in neighborhood groups to build trust and visibility without hefty expenses. Showcase this on your social handles and website.
Performing a Thorough Competitive Analysis
Market research: Say, a health store is offering in-store health check-ups and wonderful health products, but what if the customer really wants is home-based health check-up and product delivery? Foresee the needs and stay ahead of the competition.
Competitor tracking: Use tools such as SEMrush or SpyFu to track competitors’ strategies, from their keyword rankings to their social media campaigns.
USP and Market Positioning: Make sure you have a USP that helps you stand out. Your online campaigns must communicate the USP to the target audience. But as a business owner, if things are looking hazy, a Dallas digital marketing consultant can help you cut through the clutter and make the light shine on your USP.
Building Your Action Plan
Prioritise – While everything looks tempting to execute, some tasks are more important than others for Dallas businesses, eg. website optimization.
Allocate resources – Mostly likely, time and resources will be limited. Allocate them wisely. Leave certain tasks to a web SEO consultant, such as SEO, marketing strategy, competitive analysis, etc.
Set timelines – Work on realistic timelines. For example, a campaign that coincides with a local Dallas event, a 6-monthly plan for publishing blogs, a month’s time for website optimization, and so on.
Set success metrics – What does success look like for you? Identify those metrics (clicks, likes, website traffic, etc.) and keep monitoring and revising.
While you know your business well, leveraging the expertise of a web marketing consultant can speed up the results!
