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Originally Posted On: https://chilledbutter.com/online-presence-for-your-small-business/
How Online Presence Will Make or Break Your Small Business: Strategizing Success
Knowing how to next tap into the great potential of your online presence can be a serious task.
A business’s online presence isn’t just about selling; it’s about showing your value, representing your brand, and connecting with customers.
In this guide, we’ll explain why your small business needs an effective online presence. We’ll cover how people find your business on Google and social media, why customer reviews are important, and more.
The Power of Online Presence: More Than Just a Digital Business Card
Establishing your brand online offers endless benefits–from increased visibility and wider reach to easier interactions with potential clients.
97% of people learn more about a local company online than anywhere else, these days!
First Impressions are Everything
You cannot have an edge in a competitive marketplace without an online presence. It helps mold those inaugural impressions that your customers will have of your small business and influence their decisions.
It also serves as a platform to represent each and every function of the business, giving users detailed information about your services, client testimonials, or even engaging features—everything under one umbrella.
Clarity and Confidence
Information easily accessible from your website or online reviews not only provides you with an easy way of answering questions from customers, but it builds trust by creating confidence in your services.
By giving them a clear view of your offerings, you build trust and confidence in your services while showing your clients that you are truly committed to serving them. This kind of transparency will be helpful in building long-lasting relationships and growing your small business.
Expand Your Reach
Remember, a solid combination of social media, SEO, and content marketing really works to reach more audiences and attract new customers.
Each of these tools is key in a strong marketing plan to spread the word and improve your business’ presence and reputation online.
Social Media vs. Google: Where are Your New Customers Coming From?
As a small business owner, you’re probably wondering: should I focus on social media or Google to attract more customers?
Well, you aren’t alone–many entrepreneurs find themselves in the same boat. It largely depends on the nature of your business and your target audience, so there isn’t a single answer.
For example, many salons might find that Instagram is their customer-acquiring best friend, while a MedSpa might benefit more from SEO efforts.
Social Media Skills Pay Off
The most famous social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, boast millions of active users every single day. There is an ocean of prospective customers ready to be interacted with by you.
It’s been shown that up to 76% of companies reported an increase in website traffic due to social media marketing, according to Statista. Without a doubt, the social crowd is indeed one powerful and cost-efficient way of marketing your small business.
The Power of Google
On the other side, there is Google—the search engine giant—all with their own benefits.
We all use Google for questions like “Where to eat tonight?” or “Where should I get my hair cut?”—so building a strong presence there means driving interested customers to your local business. Even better, if people find you through Google, it means they are likely on an active search for someone who does what you do, so these are quality leads.
Google My Business can be especially helpful to small businesses targeting audiences from surrounding neighborhoods.
By claiming your Google My Business account, managing it, and keeping it updated, you’re already boosting your online presence. This makes it easier for customers to find you amidst the competitive clutter.
Mix it Up
It’s so important to diversify your online marketing efforts. Don’t just choose one platform! Consider using a mix of social media and Google in your online marketing strategy.
Unleashing the Power of Strategic Social Media
Social media has been an ultra-powerful tool in the digital world for service-based businesses like barbershops, nail salons, medspas, and salons. It helps them engage with their target audience, showcase their work, and acquire new clients.
But it’s not enough to be on social media; you need to think strategically and post regularly to drive marketing efforts here.
So here are a few strategies that service-based businesses like yours can use in order to harness the power of socials:
1. Define Your Brand Identity
When you’re showing off your business to the masses on social media, it’s crucial to establish a clear brand identity that reflects the unique personality and values of your business.
Determine what sets your small business apart from the competition and use this as the foundation for your social media content. Whether it’s a focus on luxury, affordability, eco-friendliness, or creativity, your brand identity should shine through in everything from posts to story highlights.
Speak to your audience’s needs and aspirations–do they want the coolest nail designs money can buy in your city?
Convey your unique brand value–show them amazing hair transformations that take your average girl-next-door and turn her into a fashion icon.
Whatever the answers, be sure to implement a combination of your love for your craft and the needs of your clients.
2. Choose the Right Platforms
Not all social media platforms are created equal, and it’s important to focus your efforts on the platforms where your target audience is most active.
For service-based businesses (particularly in the beauty and wellness industry), platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest are often the most effective for visually showcasing your work.
But don’t overlook others like Facebook and Twitter. These can be valuable for engaging with your community and sharing updates about your business.
3. Showcase Your Work
Probably one of the most powerful ways to secure new customers through social media is by showcasing your work with quality photos and videos.
It may be a beautiful nail design or rejuvenating spa treatment; regardless, the bottom line is that visual content allows potential clients to see the quality of your work and picture themselves as customers.
Mix up the kind of content you have on your feed with before-and-after photos, behind-the-scenes videos, and client testimonials to keep it fresh.
4. Engage with Your Audience
Participating actively on social media channels also fosters engagement with your audience. It’s one thing to deliver content, but a higher level of engagement happens when you start discussions and respond to comments to make your audience feel seen and heard.
Encourage clients to tag your business in posts and share their experiences with their own followers. This can foster a strong sense of community and improve brand loyalty because engaged customers are often repeat customers.
5. Keep an Eye on Numbers, Update as Needed
A combination of strategy and creativity goes a long way.
To obtain insights, it’s crucial that you pay attention to performance data (psst – Chilled Butter offers reports for your business included at every level!) This information about your staff, your customers, and more will spark ideas and strategy!
By continually tracking your business and social media analytics, you can gain a clear understanding of what resonates with your audience and what to avoid. This way, you won’t be flying blind, but rather making informed decisions that boost your social media marketing effort and overall online presence.
6. Targeted Ads
Even though social media is essentially one, big, free platform for sharing your business, it also offers surprisingly intelligent and targeted advertising.
While you do have to pay for them, they might arguably be the most efficient way of putting your business in front of real, ideal customers. A small social media ad budget can bring your business to the right people and help to bend the curve towards profitability. Strike a balance between organic reach and smart, targeted spend.
Untapped Potential: How Google Can Drive Your Small Business Forward
Your reach is maximized way beyond Instagram and Twitter, as Google stretches your online marketing to a bigger, better target population.
Google My Business
This free tool allows you to promote your Business Profile and business website on Google Search and Maps.
Use it well and it’ll enhance your visibility when customers are searching for local businesses.
Alongside your business name, address, and phone number, you should also:
- Utilize Keywords: Integrate relevant keywords into your business description to improve your chances of appearing in local search results.
- Add Photos: Albeit old info from Google, businesses with photos have received 42% more requests for directions and 35% more click-throughs to their websites. We can’t imagine these numbers have gotten any less significant.
- Gather Reviews: Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews to boost credibility and influence potential clients.
- Keep Information Updated: Hours of operation, special offers, and events to ensure accurate information is provided to your customers.
Remember, in so many ways, your Google My Business profile will be the first exposure of many to your brand. Ensuring that it is filled out, attractive, and up-to-date can make a world of difference when driving local engagement and fostering customer trust.
Google Ads enables your business to appear to potential customers exactly when they’re searching for the types of services or products you offer, even if your business doesn’t organically show up at the top of the page.
Geographic locations, demographics, targeting of specific keywords—these factors make it an extremely customized online marketing tool.
Search Engine Optimization
The farther down the search results page your business is, the more factors come into play, but it’s something important to consider if you need to attract customers to your business.
Even though SEO can be tiring for small business owners, don’t fret! Google has its own tools to help you. Google Search Console and Google Analytics can aid quite a lot in giving insights into the performance of your website and how visitors are engaging with it so you can better strategize.
Embrace These Tools!
The combination of it all may feel confusing at first but even the most basic use of these tools gets you further than doing nothing at all. Google’s tools offer you a level playing field, no matter the size of your business.
Customer Reviews: The Power to Make or Break Your Small Service Business
Customer reviews are arguably as important as the quality of your service, and it’s not an overstatement to say that they can make or break your small service business. Why? Because they are a testament to your credibility, competence, and commitment.
Think of reviews as your digital word-of-mouth: they contain recommendations or warnings that prospective customers read before engaging in business with you.
According to Dixa, 93% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase. It’s a defining moment – a transaction waiting to be made or aborted.
Because of this, your focus should be:
- Providing high-quality service
- Accumulating positive reviews
The Good
For many, online reviews are about as trusted as a recommendation from a friend.
Positive reviews, therefore, are important stepping stones toward the growth of any small personal care business. They get people excited about your services and show that what you offer does work.
To harness their power, ask for testimonials from already satisfied customers. Then, share on your website, social media platforms, and Google, and watch as these reviews bring new prospects organically.
All you need to do to respond to positive reviews effectively is say a genuine “thank you” and some variation of “please come again”. Responding to positive reviews shows your appreciation and goes a long way in showing that you value your customers.
The Bad
On the other hand, negative reviews require a compassionate and tactful approach.
Here are some tactics that will hopefully soften the influence they leave on potential customers:
- Apologize for their bad experience (genuinely!)
- Offer ways you could improve on the experience they had, such as inviting them back to have their haircut fixed with another stylist.
- Extend things they might find helpful or incentivizing to come back and give your business another try such as coupons or free products.
- Provide an e-mail for them to complain to directly so you can gather feedback, they feel it’s being taken seriously, and you can attempt to solve the problem 1-on-1 before it escalates.
Remember, everyone is watching your response, and it’s an opportunity to exhibit your professionalism and dedication to customer satisfaction.
The Feedback
Keep in mind that it’s not all about damage control with negative reviews. They are a goldmine of feedback–use them to identify any recurring complaints.
Plus, customers appreciate a brand that listens and evolves based on their needs, which in turn improves brand loyalty and draws in new customers.
Simply put: good management of customer reviews lets you turn pitfalls into major stepping stones for success.
How to Grow Reviews
So, now we know that positive reviews are the backbone of growing your customer base but how do we accomplish that?
The simple answer is to just ask.
Customers who have had great experiences at your business sometimes don’t even need to be asked to leave a glowing review about their experience. But, for those who do, it never hurts to have a plan of action for asking.
You might consider:
- Signage at checkout asking for reviews for good experiences on Yelp, Google, etc.
- A modest discount on their next service for supporting your small business with a review.
- Sending an e-mail or text survey to ask how their experience was.
Sending a personalized note to prompt customers is, in our experience, a really effective way of growing your online reputation. We also know that it can be time-consuming and difficult to keep up with.
That’s why we offer a Reputation Growth feature for our clients. Chilled Butter will automatically send out texts and emails asking your recent clients to give feedback on their experience so you can make the most of every service by utilizing satisfied customers and replying to unhappy ones.
Keeping Up with Visual Content: Why Photos Matter More Than You Think
Visual content has entered the chat.
Basically, images and videos are the best way to show what your business is all about. For small service businesses, the quality and relevance of images make a huge difference in branding and better customer engagement.
Here’s why visual content matters more than you realize:
Picturing Your Brand
Photos serve as visual representations of your brand. Quality pictures can really bridge the gap between your brand and the customer. They show the story, the values, and, of course, the superiority in service offered.
But remember – the key to successful branding is consistency. Cohesive and professional images across all your digital platforms allow customers to recognize the brand.
Make Your Business Approachable
Pictures somehow have a way of catching our attention and then sticking in our memory. Because of this, good quality images and videos do much to describe your services—more than what words can—and might even be a deciding factor of where a potential customer should choose to go.
Relevant pictures will help customers get a feel for your business environment, so they can picture themselves there and decide if you’re capable of fulfilling their needs. These pictures are where they consciously or subconsciously ask themselves questions like “Do they have experience with the hair color I’m looking for? Does the shape look even on their nails? Are the injection results natural enough?”
Websites: The Heartbeat of Your Small Business
Imagine walking into an outdated store where the layout is confusing, products are disorganized, and there’s nowhere to find help. You’d likely find the shopping experience to be frustrating and walk out without purchasing anything.
This same principle applies to your website–it can either attract potential customers or drive them away.
Include Valuable Content
Your web content helps with that ever-confusing SEO, so long as it adds value to your audience.
This could include:
- Reference Pictures
- Helpful Videos
- Informational Articles
Accessibility
This means making sure that your site is easy to navigate, with clear menus and categories. A good user experience includes enabling the site to load quickly, having easy-to-read fonts, and offering a responsive design that adapts whether your customers are using a smartphone, tablet, or computer.
In this mobile age, a website that isn’t optimized for mobile is virtually invisible.
Online Booking
Your customers need easy access to your business so they are motivated to book an appointment.
Simply providing a phone number or contact sheet on your website is leaving appointments in the hands of your customers’ attention span which is a dangerous game to play.
An online booking widget for your website makes appointments accessible and simple. It also means customers can fill tomorrow’s calendar while you’re at home cooking dinner.
Design Reflects Your Brand
Remember what we said about the importance of branding? Your website design should be a reflection of that, too.
It should be consistent with your business’ identity, tone, and style. A well-designed website is more than just visually appealing, it should truly look like your business.
Don’t Have a Website?
Surprisingly, this isn’t the end of the world. Chilled Butter includes a customized landing page (nope, no extra fees) for your customers to book appointments. It gives you all the website essentials–basic business info, portfolio images, online booking, and more.
More Than Scheduling Software
If getting the most out of your online presence sounds daunting, it’s okay. We’re here to help.
Chilled Butter is more than scheduling software.
We’re here to support your online presence and help your small business flourish.
How do we do that?
Our unique features go beyond basic calendars and staff management to give you that much-needed edge.
Schedule a free demo with us to see how we can grow your small business!