Reality Check: Small Businesses Must Be Using Social Media
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| Source: Photo Dune |
There was a time in which many businesses questioned themselves if they should take action and participate in social media or not. Nowadays having effective social media accounts is not only an option but a necessity if companies want to succeed, as it gives them the opportunity to communicate more effectively with their customers. Still there are some small businesses out there who decide not to use it.
BestCompany´s CMO Chase Sagum states “It’s no secret that small business owners are hungry to get a prospect’s attention, while keeping their current customers coming back for more”. During the 2016 Small Business Technology Impact Study, the procedures and criteria consumers used to select the business who to buy from were analyzed. The results:social media and a business website are a must. The rest of the findings of this study will now be presented.
2016 Small Business Technology Impact Study Findings
To begin with small businesses need a solid online presence. From the people surveyed during the study a 36% answered they probably wouldn't decide to make businesses with a small company that has no website. And not for a bad reason, your company's website is one of the first contact points your company has with the consumer, if it doesn't exist then the customer won't engage with you or even find you at all.
Another finding of the study is that companies have to be active in social media, specially when it comes to answering to critical reviews. According to the study 1 in 5 customers will avoid businesses that don't respond to bad reviews. Customers like to see that companies accept their errors so that they can correct them and improve their service.
Knowing the age of your customers and how to approach them is another important point. As an example the study revealed that when it comes to presenting the owner and the history of the company the millennial population (73%) were more interested in it than the population of 55 years and older. Developing your strategy according to demographics like age is a basic practice in marketing and applying it to your digital marketing strategy aswell is a smart move.
Finally another key finding is that data protection is one of the most important factors when it comes to customer retention, this comes with no surprise. As a customer when you choose a company the least you expect from them is that they will do everything to keep your information safe. If a company can not assure this then just a few people will be willing to purchase a product or service from them.
Small Businesses Still Lacking Digital Marketing
As important as digital marketing is today there are still a lot of small businesses who don't have a good strategy and even some of them don't have a strategy at all. According to a 2016 marketing trends report 1 in 5 small businesses did not have any intention of investing in digital marketing. Unacceptable considering all the main industries are going through a digitalization process.
The problem is not only that small businesses are not investing in their strategy but that they are not doing it properly. The trends report indicates that 50% of the respondents didn´t even know what their Return on Investment was. And of the ones who knew, 14% indicated they were not receiving an acceptable ROI.
To conclude we can say that small business owners need to invest in their digital marketing to keep gaining customers but specially they need be critical of the way they invest in it. The findings given previously are just an example of ways to properly implement their digital marketing strategy. If small business owners follow them and in addition apply the knowledge of their own being critical, they will see their social media improve and as a result their whole business be more successful.
Gerard Galindo & Marcus Pernegger
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