A great content marketing strategy is an invaluable asset in establishing a successful small business. So, what constitutes content marketing?
Essentially, content marketing means promoting one’s content on various platforms in order to get the desired exposure. It is crucial for small businesses to lay the groundwork of consistent customer flow which content marketing enables you to do.
As you might know, creating an original content surely is not an easy feat to achieve. There is a myriad of things one should take into account:
Engagement. Engaging content is as precious as gold itself. On the Internet engaging means are lucrative. Therefore, producing content that is both accessible and alluring is of a high degree of importance.
Relevancy. Following a trend is not always a good idea. Sometimes, treading off the beaten path is the way to accomplish what you desire. However, it doesn’t mean that you can’t tweak and tune your content based on the current trend standings. Refining and honing one’s content is an ever-present practice in content marketing.
Inspiration. There is a marked difference between drawing inspiration from something or someone and outright duplicating someone’s content. Inspiration ought to be the initial push that acts as stimulus in creating a unique content piece.
It is wise to consider ideas as products of inspiration. With proper resources to extract inspiration from, one can ensure a constant generator of ideas. Now, what content marketing ideas small businesses should take advantage of? We shall look at different ways to reinvigorate the staleness of the matter and help you achieve success.
Producing a Thoughtful and Firm Blog Post
First and foremost, the crux of your content is a well thought out and pensive stream of text. The challenge here is, as was already mentioned, to make it engaging and buoyant, thus granting you the ability to reach a wider customer base. The hallmarks of interesting and structured text starts with the headline.
Your headline is, unironically, the head and face of your blog that imparts to your viewers the first impression of what your text might be about. There is even a study showing that 6 in 10 people share links based on the headline and not the content itself. This makes the gravity of coming up with catchy and trendy headlines even more serious.
Writing should be an embodiment of your character. It should not act as a farce and facade. Frank and candid writing will garner a much higher success rate than a disingenuous one. Another valid point worth mentioning is conciseness. Treat your writing as a sword that leaves small but deep cuts. It should be piercing and accurate rather than long-winded and bland.
The visual appeal of the blog is oftentimes sidelined, although it’s an aspect that incurs a significant contribution to the “clinginess” the viewer has. Blogs with appropriately accompanied multi-media will incentivize a visitor to spend more time on the page, which is even more valuable if you are conducting an Internet business. Because the more time a customer spends on your blog, the higher is chance of them making a purchase.
Help From Professionals
Sometimes all we need is a little bit of outside help to jolt us in the right direction. There is nothing wrong in asking for constructive criticism or relying on someone to prod you further. Incidentally, as we live in the age of the Internet, we are quite fortunate to have at our disposal the various services that can provide the opportunity for ourselves to offload.
Services like LinksManagement can be of great convenience at times of “content crisis” or as a simple boost-up that gives you an inspirational pat on the shoulder. For a relatively small investment you can expect your business to sprite up and, consequently, guide it to further success yourself. That’s the beauty of services like that.
They take the weight off of you and give you a golden opportunity to spread your wings a wee bit freely taking into consideration other matters that can potentially arise. So, if you are stuck, there is nothing embarrassing about asking for professional help. Especially, if it concerns the SEO side of things that requires a substantial amount of time to dabble in yourself.
Social Media Content Marketing
The social media ecosystem is unimaginably big in scope. Therefore, omitting social media influence is a cardinal sin that you don’t want to commit. Why is social media marketing is so integral? It is not only the scope but also the multitude of needs that are waiting to be fulfilled and explored.
Social media is probably the biggest avenue to establish connections in. It will prove itself helpful in finding sponsors, investors, or merely curious individuals ready to acquire your product or service. It is no wonder then that many small businesses start their success stories on places like Facebook or Instagram, as it provides an average user an unprecedented outreach to promote their business.
As in all aspects of content marketing strategies, social media platforms are only vessels that need content and engagement to float. Thus, determining your initial goals, expectations, and theme should take precedence over other yet inessential things.
After establishing your route, it is advisable to choose the platform that would best suit your content. For instance, if your business revolves around clothes, shoes, or accessories, you might be willing to explore the valleys of Instagram rather than, for example, LinkedIn. Although, merging and combining the best of both worlds is also an option. As both Facebook and Instagram work great in tandem and can complement each other greatly. According to statistics, high-quality retouched photos attract three times more attention to a post or an ad.
In social media marketing, it is crucial to be consistent and ubiquitous. Monitoring and checking existing or nascent trends should be considered as a day-to-day practice since social media is a rapidly-changing environment that requires constant care.
Conclusion
There are quite a slew of factors at play but the most important one is to remember that with a novel and unique content complemented with proper graphical addendums you can expect your business to grow untamed. Your main goal should be to pursue great and original content creation since it is the very factor that has the biggest impact on your business’ success.
Are “as-a-service” digital business models here to stay? Customer values are projected to shift in the post-COVID era, and a direct-to-consumer world may require an online presence for both products and experiences.
It’s hard to think ahead when we are up to our necks in the misery and fear of a pandemic, but every CEO should be focused not just on how to survive, but how to thrive in the COVID-era. I say era because this is not a passing phase, but a new reality.
COVID is accelerating many societal and technology shifts and reversing others. The COVID-era is a technology-driven era with widespread and often forced adoption of trends like work-from-home, online retail, pickup/delivery services, entertainment-as-a-service, telemedicine (well, tele-you-name-it), and machine-learning. Embodied in this change are deep behavioral shifts that, even given a decade, might never have reached these proportions. Enabling nearly all of these shifts is an “… as-a-service (XaaS)” capability be it data, infrastructure, platform, software, or experience. XaaS was already on it’s way to becoming a juggernaut, with a market value of $93.8 billion in 2018 and projected to triple to $344.3 billion by 2024, but it’s now on a whole new COVID-triggered upswing.
These XaaS enabled remote service paradigms are here to stay, maybe not at today’s artificially enforced levels, but to a significant degree all the same. Everyone now knows the perils of work-from-home, but they know the benefits too. As the COVID-era continues to require social distancing for some time, we can’t all go back to the cramped office. And why should we? I hate to see the airline industry in turmoil, but I can’t say that I’ve missed air travel. Now everyone knows just how easy it is to get your groceries or your food delivered, and contactless at that. I miss the big screen, but I’ll settle for great content, 65” TV, and homemade popcorn if I can share the experience with all my friends wherever they are.
But the current change is not just a digital transformation to cloud and consumerized applications, it’s also a behavioral transformation. Forward thinking businesses are seizing this unprecedented opportunity to pause the growth/execution treadmill and imagine a new value/ideation opportunity. Whole teams have been liberated from soul-destroying wash-rinse-repeat cycles and are free to think through new ideas. For better or worse, companies are also leaner and more agile, having been forced to transform their business in order to thrive.
Adapt both your product and your experience
So, what do CEOs need to re-imagine in their business going forward as we enter a new XaaS powered world? First and foremost the COVID-era is a direct-to-consumer world where you may be literally bringing your offering right into the consumer’s home. For B2B, that means an acceleration of the consumerization of the enterprise and often means a self-serve experience with a consultative sales model. Your offering needs to be consumable over the internet. Not only do your products need to be available as-a-service, but so does your experience. Some call it experience-as-a-service. Paid or free, it’s about helping customers understand how to leverage your offering to meet their own transition. Self-serve models are the most scalable but rely heavily on great product experiences.
Like the rest of the country, companies of all sizes in Reno are struggling to cope with the new reality of doing “business as unusual!”. They can no longer take customers and clients for granted. Business owners know that, even when things return to the semblance of what they were, regular customers might not return in the same volume as before.
That’s the underlying challenge that PR firms and advertising companies are working to help over come for their clients today.
Digital Age Advertising Service Menu
Businesses need customers. We know where to find them.
Whether it’s a wholesaler, retailer or service-based business, you rely on having a steady, predictable flow of customers for your products and services.
This is a digital age, and everyone that’s in the advertising or digital marketing business understands that. So, as an advertising company, what value can you add to your client’s businesses? Well, one thing’s for certain: The old school approach, of running ads in the community newspaper, or posting flyers in malls and shopping centers, won’t work in a digital era. But in today’s digital world, there’s plenty of value-add that advertising service providers may offer to local Reno businesses:
Advertising Campaigns
From creating stand-alone digital ads, to knitting those ads into cohesive advertising campaigns for their clients. Advertising companies are great at visualizing online themes that clients and consumers are looking for; and then building marketing campaigns around them.
Obviously, to do that, advertising companies must have an online presence of their own. And for that, your first step is to establish a robust website where you showcase your own prowess for clients and prospects to see.
Competitor Research
Your clients want to ensure they offer the best products and services they can to their customers. But today’s digital era means they (your clients) are competing against many other competitors online, than just bricks-and-mortar stores. They’re also up against rapidly changing customer tastes. They’re dealing with new ways to advertise and market their offerings.
In these circumstances, advertising companies can research the competition, the marketplace and evolving consumer trends, and deliver a slew of data-driven marketing ideas to their clients.
Branding
The online marketplace is fiercely competitive – more so than the competition traditional in-store businesses face today. As a result, clients of advertising companies need help to differentiate what they have to offer, versus what their competitors are offering. Unless your clients demonstrably show why customers should opt to choose them (versus their industry peers), it’s unlikely they’ll beat the competition!
And that’s yet another value-add that advertising companies can offer their clients. By using digital branding strategies, you not only highlight your clients as the segment leader; but you can also use similar strategies to position your company as the advertising specialist in the client’s niche.
Cost Effectiveness
As an advertising company, clients typically turn to you when they have questions about ad-spend. Which advertising channel should they spend their marketing dollars on? How much should they spend on each strategy? Which advertising medium should they choose to get the greatest bang for their buck?
All these questions effectively translate to the oft overlooked question about the cost effectiveness of advertising budgets. Because digital advertising is the way of the future (and very much the present too!), as an advertising company, you can deliver superior value to clients by offering insights into cost-effective digital advertising strategies.
Advertising Agency Resources
Clearly, advertising companies have a lot to offer local Reno businesses. But, as a Reno advertising agency, you’re not alone in helping clients make the most of your business, and the services you can potentially offer to support them. The resources at your disposal include advertising industry associations, staffing and human resource support groups, government trade and industry agencies, and many other institutions and organizations dedicated to providing the resources you and your clients might benefit from.
Some of the resources you should consider leveraging include:
The Reno Chamber of Commerce is a great place to turn to when you are looking for help and guidance related to trade and economic developments within the Reno-Sparks area. With over 1,700 full-time members, the Chamber represents the interests of more than 10,000+ businesses, from a cross-segment of industries, in the Reno-Sparks region. As an advertising company, you too could be the beneficiary of the over 4-million-plus referrals the Chamber makes for member services
If you are an advertising company specifically focused on a unique business segment, such as Banking, Mining or Builders and Construction, then the Chamber has industry-specific resources and associations that you might be able to leverage.
Not in the advertising business too long, or looking to receive industry certification for your advertising or marketing business? Well, there’s no better resource to turn to than the Nevada Business Advisors. Alternately, tap into the resources offered by the Nevada Department of Business & Industry to receive help and support on certification
And while you are at it, why not become a member of the Nevada Government eMarketplace (NGEM). Through one central portal, you’ll be able to access business opportunities from thousands of participating companies at the marketplace. As a business development resource, NGEM is priceless!
When looking for inspiration and direction on delivering superior advertising services to clients, the American Advertising Federation of Reno (AAF Reno) is a great local resource to tap into
Depending on where your advertising company operates in Reno, you might also find some excellent marketing support from the Reno-Tahoe chapter of the American Marketing Association (Reno-Tahoe AMA)
Stay connected with, or get involved with programs and events hosted or sponsored by the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN), to capitalize on local marketing and advertising opportunities
If your advertising clients represent specific segments of the local economy, you must associate with specialist agencies and associations that represent businesses in that niche. Tap into resources offered by organizations like the Reno-Sparks Association of Realtors (RSAR) or the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority (RSCVA)
A great way to continually develop the skills and talents of your own staff, and those of your client’s, is to take advantage of all the support that the Northern Nevada Human Resources Association (NNHRA) has to offer
Every business needs some form of advice and support, especially during the formative years. The Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) offers a number of resources that advertising companies may tap into
Some entries, in the collection of resources mentioned here, are marketing and advertisement agency specific, while others may be resources for the broader business community – including marketers and advertising companies. The point of mentioning them here is to underscore the fact that, as an advertising entity helping clients make the best of their advertising strategies, you have many resources that you can tap into. As well, as a value-added service to your clients, you could also direct them to leverage these resources.
So, what specific resources and services might advertising companies hope to tap into through these organizations? Well, the range of benefits are very broad, and could include preferential financing terms, best practices, networking, clarity on industry rules and guidelines, lobbying for legislative improvements in the advertising industry – and a lot more.
If you are specifically looking to take your business online, or if you believe your clients might benefit from digital marketing, then RenoWebdesigner can help. We can help you understand critical-to-success aspects of your online marketing strategy, including how your business ranks online, where the significant portion of your web traffic comes from, and what keywords in online searches are the most profitable for your business.
The Advertising Agent’s Online Toolkit
As an advertising business, you owe it to yourself and your clients to arm yourself with an array of services in your toolkit. These tools are what you’ll unleash when clients ask you to help them get ahead of their competitors. And appropriately enough, the tools you need to compete against your own competitors are the same toolset your customers and prospective clients are looking for.
More specifically, your digital toolkit must include skills, tools and techniques to help clients in:
Mass Messaging
The days of sealing and mailing individual envelopes with your marketing message are long gone! Today, online advertising campaigns, like Pay-per-Click (PPC) and email marketing reach a much broader audience than snail mail does. Advertising agency clients look to their service provider to help them with digital mass messaging.
Promote Loyalty
Your website is a powerful tool that you can use to promote loyalty within your client base. However, if clients visit the site and see something “plain” and “uninspiring”, it’ll do anything else but promote loyalty in you! Having a professional web presence is key to instilling customer loyalty!
Instill Confidence
One of the main goals of any advertising company is to help clients gain the confidence of their clients. However, to do that, clients must first have confidence in the agency (you!) that’ll help them build client confidence. By promoting your own services online, through blogs, articles, opinion pieces, and other confidence-instilling strategies, you’ll ensure that clients have confidence in your ability to deliver what they are looking for.
Building Networks
Making strategic use of social platforms, like Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, advertising companies can tap into a vast network of professional associates to further their business objectives. However, to do so, you need to establish a well-designed social networking profile of your own. It is only then that you can help your clients tap into their own social presences to market and advertise their own services.
Brand Recognition
A crucial arrow in any advertising companies quiver is their brand. Having an online branding strategy is very important for any advertising company, because that’s what sells. By engaging in online advertising, promotional campaigns and content marketing activities, you can ensure that prospective clients (and existing customers) know and recognize your brand.
As a local Reno advertising company, one of your objectives must be to help promote your clients beyond just the local market. And relying on old-school tricks and techniques to do that won’t cut it anymore – not in today’s digital world. You therefore need to band together all the above tools, into a single unified online marketing strategy of your own, to position yourself to support clients make their presences felt beyond Reno.
Taking Your Business Digital
Taking your business online, and establishing a robust, professional digital presence is the best way to showcase your own business. And it can be a way to attracts clients, and prospects, looking for professional assistance with their own advertising strategies. Reno advertising companies provide invaluable services to their clients, especially in today’s new age of digital marketing and advertising.
From digital advertising campaigns to social media marketing; and from SEO to PPC marketing, it pays to position yourself as a full-service digital advising service provider. However, if you aren’t a digitally-savvy advertising company – no problem! Work with RenoWebdesigner to not only create a powerful online presence of your own, but also to provide value-added digital advertising and marketing services to your clients.
How might we collaborate to unleash the power of digital advertising and marketing, both for you and your clients? Through a combination of advisory, consulting and web services, including:
Web Design
Web Development
Digital Marketing
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Brand and Reputation Management
…and a whole lot more!
Reno advertising companies have yet another powerful local resource they can tap into to learn more about how they can transform their business in today’s world of digital marketing and online advertising. Join Sandy Rowley, one of Reno’s leading online marketing experts, each month for a FREE marketing workshop.
Did you know that people leave a website in 3 seconds if they don’t like the design? If a website layout or content is not attractive to a user, they usually leave in a matter of seconds. A user can determine if they like the layout of the website within the first few seconds and this is why you need to create an aesthetic website that keeps prospects engaged.
Developing an attractive website can make an impact on your bottom-line profits and increase customer retention for your business. The ‘bounce rate’ is the amount of time people spend on your website before they leave. The average website has a bounce rate of 15 seconds – this is the average amount of time a person spends on a website before they leave (even high-performing sites!). To lower the bounce rate on your website, you have to develop an aesthetic website.
There are two ways to develop a website 1) Develop it yourself 2) Hire a website design service. The latter is more practical choice because you’re hiring experts who have years of experience in the website design sphere. Investing in your website is one of the best investments you could make in your business. This guide will focus on the main benefits of hiring a website design service and what it could do for your business.
How To Hire A Website Design Service
Hiring a design service is not as simple as calling up the first web designer in your city and arranging a meeting. You need to research multiple agencies to find out what their rates are, past experiences, portfolios, and have a consultation.
This process can take as little as a few hours and as much as a few days. However, there are signs that let you know you’re dealing with a reliable design firm. Reputable design firm tend to have glowing client reviews, large portfolios, engaging websites, etc. Here are the top 4 reasons to hire a web design agency for your website:
✔ Make Your Business Stand Out
A design agency can make your website stand out from every other competitor. When a client is considering buying something, they usually look at 5-10 listings at once. This means they’ll be directly comparing your website to at least 5 other competitors. If a competitor has a better-designed website, the customer will give them their business.
If you hire a web design firm, they can design your website in a way that it “pops” and stands out among your competitors.
This will improve user engagement, drive visitors, and help you get more customers. Web design agencies tend to get very creative and their abilities might exceed your imagination. You can get a fully customized website that is unique to the business and makes you more credible in the eyes of customers.
✔ Save Valuable Time
Developing a website takes a lot of time. Even if you have basic design experience, you may have to spend days developing the logo and figuring out how to tweak the theme. Not to mention, you’ll have to try out potentially hundreds of different themes in order to figure out which one works for your business. You may even have to draft up a custom design that matches your business’s vision and make it stand out from the competition thereby attracting customers. This can take weeks at a time.
Designing a website is a long and tedious process that will take days or weeks, and there’s no guarantee you’ll get it right. Meanwhile, a web design services with hundreds of websites under their belt will easily design your website because they have the experience and know-how to do this.
There’s also the pragmatic aspect of how this affects your personal life: If you have a busy schedule, you’re going to waste valuable time designing a website, when you could be engaging with customers, building your products, making sales, and promoting your business. As the CEO, your time is better spent focusing on the grand vision of the business.
Trust your designers that they’ll deliver for you and instead of spending your time designing the website, take your time to convey your vision to experts and make sure they get the job done for you. Website design services tend to be affordable and you can gain a lot from hiring them.
✔ Agency Design Experience
Design firms can bring years of experience to each project. When you hire a web design service, you’re getting decades of combined experience across a dedicated team. If an average designer has only 5 years of experience in the design field and the team is comprised of 5 designers, you’re getting a team with 25 years of experience in web design. This is why if they ever run into problems designing your website, they’ll solve it quickly.
Most design services have one designer who does the logos, another who drafts the websites, coders who put the design together, banner/advertising personnel, and more. These experts specialize in their own design area of expertise and they join forces to design your website – each contributing a small piece for the final project. If you don’t have experience building a website, you can greatly benefit from having a team of designers working for you.
✔ Optimize Your Website
An experienced design firm will optimize your website for customer retention and performance. If your current website has a conversion rate of 2 people per 100 visitors, an experienced design firm may increase that up to 4 per 100. This is a conversion rate increase of 100% with a single design makeover. The design of your website can significantly influence buyer’s decisions to hire you or buy your products.
Experienced web design companies know how to change the layout of your website in order to maximize its performance. They may change the images, text structure, overall layout, or entire brand. This creates an effective website that turns prospects into customers. If you want to increase the results your business is getting you should invest in the website design.
The algorithms of search engines are constantly changing, but there are things whose role is still important. These are backlinks and the quality of content – on the position of the site in search they have the strongest impact.
The requirements of Google to the quality of links and content are becoming higher, which complicates the work on search promotion. This is especially important for small businesses and new online stores, they are not ready to spend a lot of money to buy backlinks. But there is a solution: you can get quality SEO-links without buying them directly from other people’s sites.
In this article, there are some methods of obtaining external links, for the use of which you do not need to be an experienced specialist, and instead of money will have to invest only your time.
1. Creating pages in social media
The first thing to do is to create official company pages in social networks. This is the easiest way to get external links as soon as you launch your online store. Even if you do not plan to work actively on SMM, this opportunity is definitely worth using.
Do not limit yourself to the popular Facebook and Instagram, make pages for your company in Google+, Tweeter, YouTube and LinkedIn. You will get 6 quality and completely free links at once.
2. Working with forums (crowd marketing)
You can work not only with niche forums but also look for thematic branches in forums of thematic sites. If there is information on your site that could potentially be useful to participants of the discussion, you can safely share it in the discussion. It is well perceived by users, as opposed to direct advertising.
On many forums, members whose posts have exceeded a certain threshold (15-20 posts) can leave links to their site in their signatures. If you actively communicate via such a link, other users begin to move regularly.
3. Sites with reviews
For any company, regardless of its size, customer feedback is very important. They attract other people’s attention and can often have a decisive influence on your product selection.
There are specialized websites on the Internet that are aggregators of feedback about companies, their products, and services, for example, Otzovik.com, Tripadvisor.com.
On such platforms, you can create a company page where people can leave their reviews, and you get a free link to your site.
4. Interviews for media
This can work particularly well with regional media, which often lack interesting stories on the agenda. So you can get a link to the company’s website, and additional bonuses to brand recognition.
In addition to interviews, it is possible to work through individual materials on topics in which you are well versed and offer your comments as an expert (by writing a letter to the author of a blog or to the editorial office).
5. Thematic aggregators
Aggregators – sites with a lot of information, mainly business-oriented. We are talking about thematic catalogs, for example:
Catalog of foreign language courses.
Catalog of dental clinics.
Catalog of companies that work in the construction industry.
Aggregator of tutor services.
Aggregator of online stores.
If your target region is large, you can find several dozens of aggregators through Google, and on each of them you can register by creating a company page.
6. Creation and distribution of valuable content
It can be a step-by-step guide to solving a particular problem, a research result, a checklist to complete a task or an electronic PDF book dedicated to a specific topic.
High-quality content takes time to prepare, but its publication attracts the attention of the audience, and many people share links to such a page on the site with friends, forums and social networks.
This approach is especially popular in the English-speaking segment of the Internet and has for many years been considered one of the most effective ways to get backlinks to the site. It also has a very positive impact on the credibility of the business. You can check LinksManagement, service that helps build links.
7. Cooperation with bloggers
This approach works very well in the case of online retailers. The audience of some bloggers is comparable to the audience of popular media. In exchange for a review and/or mention of your store, you can offer a blogger to test the product.
First of all, pay attention to authors of offline blogs (sites), owners of promoted Instagram accounts and YouTube channels. Working with them, you can get the link and a recommendation from a reputable person in your niche.
8. Info partnership for events
Even in small cities, not to mention millions of people, regular exhibitions and other events are held on a variety of topics. The organizers work with the media and individual companies to disseminate information about the event and attract more participants.
By contacting the organizers, you can offer them support in the form of information partnerships ( blog postings and social networks), in exchange for mentioning your company with a link to a shop. Often partner links are posted on the main page of the event website.
You can agree on cooperation with the organizers of fairs and masterclasses, offering them to organize a competition with a drawing of one of your products among the participants or give small souvenirs to the participants. For this, the organizers will tell about your shop on their website and on social networks.
Conclusion
If your online store has links to pages from other quality projects in your niche, the search engine considers it more authoritative than other similar sites, all other things being equal.
As a result, the visibility of important business keywords is growing, positions become higher, and all this together leads to an increase in traffic.
There are some other important bonuses that provide quality link mass:
Brand recognition grows due to the increase in contact points with the target audience on external resources.
Links from other sites to your store’s pages can be used by potential customers, and this is additional sales.
Marie Barnes is a writer for Bestforacar. She is an enthusiastic blogger interested in writing about technology, social media, work, travel, lifestyle, and current affairs. She shares her insights through blogging.
The best way to grow your company: Move your business online now!
We’re in a new business environment, where even the most successful businesses face challenges for growth and continued existence. By all accounts, this “new paradigm” is likely to be with us for a long time to come. Businesses will have to innovate and evolve to survive and thrive. Otherwise, the competition will get the better of you!
And, what’s the easiest way to compete and stay relevant in today’s fast paced business world? Move business online!
Three compelling reasons to go online now
The Reno + Sparks Chamber of Commerce is the largest organization of its class that represents over 1,700 businesses from the local community. Proof that Reno is a serious hub of business activity – not just within Nevada, but also nationally. Proudly, “The Biggest Little City in the World” also ranks #11 (national 2019 rankings) on Forbes list of The Best Places For Business And Careers. That same ranking places Reno at #41 for the Cost of Doing Business, and #2 in terms of Job Growth. And all that means plenty of business opportunities for our local business – but only if we leverage those opportunities quickly and effectively.
As a local Reno business, you’re probably wondering if you can compete with your much larger and more dominant competitors – locally, nationally and globally. The answer is simple: Yes, you can! But only if you realize what it takes to make your business more competitive. What’s important, as well, is for businesses to understand why they need to change their business models to start competing online now:
If you don’t have an online presence, and are depending largely on a bricks-and-mortars model, then your business may soon face dwindling revenues. Shifting preferences for online shopping means more consumers in Reno and its surrounding area will not find you on the web – but they’ll find your competitors instead!
If you are one of the lucky local Reno businesses that have recently gone online – then you’re already in a great position to take on the competition. However, as your competitors focus on strategies like search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Marketing (SMM), they’ll soon start poaching your customers – unless you act quickly to deal with the threat!
And if your online business is thriving, you still can’t be complacent. As your competitors move business online too, they’ll start offering highly responsive, mobile-friendly websites to their clients. And, because most online shoppers do their browsing and shopping via mobile devices these days, your business may experience severe customer exodus – unless you respond equally aggressively to the new challenges!
Whether you haven’t taken that first step to going online yet; have recently launched a business website, but aren’t doing much with it; or have a sizable online business, but haven’t kept up with updates or upgrades – now’s the time to review your online marketing strategy and go digital. And the best part about doing that is the tremendous local web designing and digital marketing support you have right here in Reno!
You can do it…and Reno Web Designer is right here to support you! Call or text Sandy at 775-870-0488.
Local web designers taking you global
As local Reno businesses contemplate strategies to move business online, it’s important to carefully analyze all available options before choosing the right digital marketing partner to support you. It’s often tempting to just say “I’ll work with a Big company from a Big city…and make my online presence felt”.
Sandy Rowley voted best web designer in Reno, 3 years running! Call or text her at 775-870-0488.
But working with “Big” companies from “Big” cities often means you paying BIG bucks! But there are a whole host of other reasons why you should consider working with a local Reno web designer and digital marketing strategist instead:
We’re right here…in Reno – which means we’re within easy reach. You can talk to us, consult with us and even walk in and meet with us in person – all in your local time zone! So, if you’re looking for truly one-on-one service, then a local web designer is your best bet
Because we are plugged-in with the local community, we understand local business issues and challenges better than “outsiders”. And that means we have an edge when it comes to offering competitive advice and proposing locally personalized strategies to help you manage, market and promote your brand
Our local Reno web designers and developers have the same, if not better, skills and experience profiles than those available anywhere in the State or across the country. And that puts us on a level playing field with the “Big” players. However, our ability to respond locally, using global techniques and technologies, makes all the difference to our clients
When you work with a local Reno-based web development company to help you to move business online, you’ll be supporting your local economy. In turn, we support our local businesses make their transition to the online world. That’s a powerful team dynamic – and a sure recipe for success! – that working with “outsiders” can’t match!
The truly universal nature of internet-based services makes the location of your web designing and development partner irrelevant – they may operate in your local community, or they may have a presence half-way across the globe. However, choosing a web designer that can swiftly and decisively respond to local developments – such as local supply-chain challenges, business impact of local government decisions, community responses to local business environment – gives local businesses a competitive edge in the long run.
Local online business enablers: What to look for
Having a great-looking website is one thing. Online visitors and casual browsers love peeking in at sites that glitter and dazzle. But creating a professional online presence is whole different ballgame. Whether it’s a B2C (Business to Consumer) website, or a B2B web presence, your customers and prospective clients want more than just glitter and dazzle. In fact, when it comes to professional-looking websites and dazzle – sometimes, less is more!
Five must-haves to check out
For those local Reno companies that are looking to move business online, the choice of partners therefore, to help them make the transition, isn’t simply about developing cool web pages with lots of bells and whistles. You need to consider other aspects about the skills, capabilities and reputation of your web site designer.
Here are five key points to keep in mind when selecting an online business enabler for your company:
Local presence: Building an ongoing relationship with strategic business service advisors and consultants is key to long-term prosperity. Having a web services advisory team based in or around your local community – where you operate and conduct much of your own business – results in stronger and more lasting professional bonds.
Working with a local presence is like working with a professional that’s part of your extended family. These are your neighbors. Your fellow business owners. They may even be your customers and fans. No one else is likely to be more firmly in your corner, rooting for your success online!
Established track record: Before signing on the dotted line for web design and digital marketing services, make sure your partner of choice has plenty of experience…and a track record to match! Hitching your company’s future with an inexperienced web services provider, just because they have a local presence, might not be the best way for Reno entrepreneurs to move their business online.
Personal bond: If possible, have a one-on-one chat with your prospective website design consultant. This might preferably happen via video conference calls -versus just a voice chat. Ideally though, when conditions are ripe, visiting your future web design partner in-person at their office can shed additional light on the company, its founder and key staff who will be working closely with you.
Broad-based skill sets: Online business success today depends on more than just web design and coding skills. While those two capabilities are important, working with a partner that brings a cross section of other skills to the table can make all the difference to your online marketing presence.
So, look for a local Reno web design company that develops web sites which flow across a broad spectrum of design styles – from simple, minimalist flat designs, to vibrant and modern designs. But don’t just stop there! Once your site is up and running, you’ll need a partner to help you promote and market it. So, working with a partner, that also has SEO, AdWords, Email Promotion and other digital marketing and advisory skills, is an asset as companies work on a strategy to move business online.
Excellent client reviews and testimonials: A standard sales pitch is: “We are Number 1 in customer satisfaction!”. Don’t just take their word for it. Make sure you ask for, receive and verify client testimonials and recommendations. And, when you do ask for the information, don’t just be satisfied with vague testimonials like “Brian X from a retail client says…”.
Client references and recommendations are only as good as they are real. So, insist on fuller disclosure about who the client is and what specific services the web development company provided.
And, if you are going to make such references a part of your decision-making criteria, base it on clients who have received the same (or significantly similar) set of services that you are shopping for. For example, if you are in the market for SEO services, see what a website optimization services client has to say about their level of satisfaction – not someone who has received hardware selection advice!
Additional thimgs to consider
Clearly, if your local Reno web designer meets all the above criteria – and then some! – chances are that they’ll make the cut into your short list of prospective partners to consider to help transition you to your online business model. However, there are two additional aspects to investigate, that’ll round off your “What to Look For” list:
Free consultation and evaluations: Often, you might not be able to accurately verify or validate a prospective web service providers’ skill – unless you’ve tried them first! Professional internet service providers and web design companies understand the “try before you buy” sentiment. That’s why, before you decide on which company to work with to move your business online, ask for some free advice and see how you feel about what they say.
The more professional web services businesses also offer some great value-adds for FREE – such as Free SEO Audits of your website, or limited slots of free consulting advice. Having such offers available means the web services provider is confident about what they can do for their clients, and are even willing to provide some basic value-adds for free, so clients might appreciate what’s on offer.
Commitment to consumer education: They say “An educated consumer makes the best customer!”. But it takes time, energy and resources for professionals to conduct educational and informational outreach sessions. The fact that a web design company or digital marketing firm conducts regular lunch/learn workshops and sessions, underlines their commitment to creating a savvier prospective client base.
Making your move…
There’s no doubt that, as a savvy Reno business owner, if you wish to survive and thrive in today’s highly-competitive business environment, you need to move your business online – NOW! However, making such a move isn’t always easy – especially if you have a relatively small (or none!) online digital footprint. While you could try the DIY approach, or reach out to someone from across the State or overseas for help, there are experienced and capable service providers right here in the city that can help.
So, don’t waste any more time thinking about making the move. Instead, make your move and contact Reno Web Designer.Com, or join owner and web-entrepreneur Sandy Rowley and a host of local Reno business owners at one of Sandy’s informational workshops. You’ll not only connect with like-minded business owners, but also learn a lot more about web designing, Social Media Marketing, PPC marketing…and a whole lot more.
Best of all…these workshops are FREE, with no obligations or commitments. It’s just one way that Sandy is giving back to her local Reno community!
Multifaceted Reno SEO services: Bringing the world to your door!
When we talk about our connected world today, we think about the awesome digital power that tech giants – like the Google’s and Microsoft’s – command. But what Reno businesses and entrepreneurs should realize is that “thinking local” often pays much bigger dividends. Working with a Reno SEO service provider is a great way to access local digital talent to access a global marketplace.
Taking you beyond static websites
Internet marketing used to be about glitzy websites and digital ads filled with bells and whistles. But no more! While having a well laid out and professionally-designed web presence is vital to any businesses’ success, the world of online marketing has moved past static websites and flashy ads. For local businesses to compete in a global marketplace today – and succeed! – requires a special type of digital marketing strategy.
And there lies the paradox of competing in a global marketplace: While physical barriers – borders, distance, time zones, access – to competition have all but evaporated, digital marketing has become ever more competitive and complex! And that’s thanks to our increasingly digitally-connected world today. As a local business person, you need to understand and deploy strategies like:
SEO
PPC Marketing
Google AdWords Campaigns
Social Media Marketing, and
Email Marketing
And then, there’s the added complexity of attracting not just human traffic to your website, but also search engines algorithms and their accompanying digital Spiders, Creepers, Crawlers and BOTS. And as you develop and implement those strategies, you also need a local Reno SEO company to ensure your website supports the objectives of those campaigns. For instance, launching a successful SEO campaign or an AdWords drive could potentially increase your website traffic 100% – but can your web design sustain that increase?
Unless well executed, an immensely popular SEO drive, not supported by a corresponding web design strategy, may turn out to be a disadvantage. Instead of having customers lining up for your products or services, they may start deserting you for the competition. Why? Because of a slow-loading website; or one that uses too much bandwidth on a mobile device; or…because it’s just plain old boring!
An internet marketing solutions company has the skills and expertise to weave all these strategies into a seamless digital marketing plan to help you move beyond…way beyond! – the realm of just static websites and chain emails.
Unrivalled local value proposition
The best way to tap into the power of local SEO is to either join a lunch-and-learn session, or opt for a FREE SEO audit of your website. You’ll be amazed when you learn about the power that SEO offers.
The best part about working with a Reno SEO company, like Reno Web Designer, is that you can receive amazing value for investment locally – without having to travel outside the city or across state lines. Yet, at the same time, the SEO measures, digital marketing strategies and web designing ideas put in place have the potential to unleash global demand for your products and services.
Now, that’s the power of thinking global and acting local!
For startups, securing funding and finding talent could be a challenge. This is especially felt by startup owners throughout the world; in fact, a lack of skills in a startup’s team and an inability to raise capital are in the top 10 reasons why startups fail, according to EU Startups.
A problem of a lack of talent is becoming a pressing issue throughout the world, too, and it becomes even more serious when added with insufficient funding.
However, there’s a way startups can increase the odds of survival: outsourcing some areas of their activities. Statistics support the claim that outsourcing is a legit business strategy to reduce the overhead costs and compensate for the lack of talent:
Outsourcing can save up to 60 percent on overhead costs for companies (source: Entrepreneur)
23 percent of U.S.-based digital marketing professionals claim increasing their content marketing outsourcing budgets in 2019 (source: Content Marketing Institute)
23 percent of companies outsource their software development to gain access to knowledge and expertise (Eastern Peak report).
Source: Eastern Peak report on outsourcing in Europe
As a startup owner, you should be able to identify the activities that your company needs to outsource to remain competitive and reduce spending. Here are some ideas.
IT Services (Software Development)
This is one of the most important activities that gets outsourced by startups. Hiring a software developer from another country can be a lot cheaper plus it can be used to leverage competitive advantage. As a result, you don’t have to rely on in-house resources for the product launch and redirect resources for other important purposes.
In this regard, Poland has been one of the hottest destinations recently. Being home to the third most skilled programmers in the world, the country has been successfully increasing the value of the IT outsourcing market for more than a decade. According to Statista, it has already reached $2,087 million in 2018, and is projected to increase to $2,311.7 million by 2021.
Source: Statista
Such impressive growth is fueled by companies based in North America and other destinations.
Content Marketing and Advertising
“The majority of companies use content marketing to advertise their products in a non-pushy way, which creates an unbelievable demand for content creators,” says Estelle Leotard, a content editor at TopEssayWriting. “Content creation and marketing requires long-term investment and commitment, but, with many startups not being able to afford full-time in-house content teams, this has become another popular area for outsourcing.”
If you need to increase the ranking of your website on Google or conduct content marketing campaigns, then outsourcing content creation might be a good idea. As mentioned above, 23 percent of U.S. digital marketers are planning to increase the spending on content marketing outsourcing next year, which also shows the effectiveness of the strategy.
Administrative Duties
Most startups have various employees perform administrative duties such as benefits management, legal, pre-employment screenings, data entry, and research. Often untrained to so, the employees trusted with these tasks commit costly mistakes that lead to both immediate and long-term effects (and no one can really blame them for that).
If this sounds familiar, I strongly recommend outsourcing all of the administrative duties and responsibilities mentioned above. The benefits include:
It gives you more time to focus on more important business tasks
It reduces spending
It helps to get more projects done.
Upwork, one of the most popular freelance online marketplaces, has virtual assistants ready to take on administrative tasks for an average of $18-35 depending on skills and experience. Hiring such a professional part-time would definitely take a huge load off your employees’ shoulders.
Payroll
Incorrect payroll information may cost startups billions, annually, but this is something that occurs pretty often. Outsourcing these tasks will protect both you from potential legal fees, in addition to reducing the workload that your employees have to handle.
The selection of a partner to outsource payroll, however, can be tricky. Make sure that the company or the individual you choose has appropriate certifications and skills to help, as handling payroll takes more than positive reviews online.
Human Resources Services
Anyone who has ever worked in a startup will tell you that people join young companies and stay there for three reasons:
To achieve a better balance between work and personal life (flexible work hours, home offices, etc.)
To learn new knowledge (startups are the best place for getting new knowledge, fast)
To have fun (because that’s what makes one want to go to the office).
For example, here are the office perks provided by a Poland-based CodeWise startup that serves as a good demonstration of the reasons above.
Any more questions?
Well, to get back to the discussion about outsourcing HR…
A startup meets all of the above three requirements while more conventional companies are not. As a result, the latter need to have HR departments to search for people and make sure that they stay with them for as long as possible.
If your startup challenges the employees and has a positive work atmosphere, there might be no need to have an HR department. Moreover, outsourcing these tasks can reduce the costs of running a company even more.
Final Thoughts
Outsourcing is good for startups. Not only it reduces business costs, but it also keeps the performance of your company at a high level. For many young companies, outsourcing business activities has not only become an asset but a means of survival, because of the lack of talent and limited funding.
If you need to decide which activities to outsource, too, hopefully, this article was helpful by giving you excellent reasons. Make a smart choice and never give up your startup’s competitive advantage.
Bio: Marques Coleman is a blog writer at ClassyEssay and Studyker. He specializes in marketing and copywriting. Moreover, he is an avid traveler and always tries to learn something new.
Thank you so much for reaching out to assist those people in the Reno-Sparks area during this time of need. You have been included in this group email because of the interest that you expressed through Naomi Duerr’s Facebook page in being a part of the effort. We are calling this group Reno COVID Volunteers
This effort is being coordinated with our local organizations in the area, so details may continue to change, and we appreciate your flexibility as new developments come to light.
Here’s how you can help:
1. Please send us your full contact information (do not reply all)
Our hope is to mobilize the volunteers as early as Wednesday, March 18! We will be meeting at Silverada Manor Apartments, located at 1400 Silverada Blvd., Reno, NV 89512.
We greatly appreciate your generosity to help us make sure that no one is left behind during this time. In times of uncertainty, the one thing we always have enough of is kindness. Thank you for sharing yours.
When some folks hear the words “digital marketing”, their minds immediately think about flashy web sites and cool apps. Well, while those are tools that digital marketing agencies (or DMAs) leverage, there’s much more to the industry. And in a bustling and growing city like Reno, NV (2018 census data: ranked 86 out of 700 on a population basis[i]), DMAs are helping give local businesses and entrepreneurs a global presence.
Why Reno needs digital marketing
For decades, the Biggest Little City in the world had an established reputation as an entertainment hub. And Reno thrived and prospered through those years. But with the digital revolution now in overdrive, many local Reno businesses are eager to compete with their peers across the country and, yes- even globally! And how will they do that?
But first, to understand why digital marketing matters, lets stop and think about what happened in a single internet minute in 2019[ii]:
To compete on a national and global stage, Reno businesses can’t rely on community newsletters or local newspaper advertisements anymore. The days of just building a website and (hoping) “they will come” are long gone too. Indeed, in order to survive and thrive, local business need a cohesive digital marketing strategy – one that’ll leverage their local presence to give them national (and global) reach.
Reno’s businesses need a strategy to ensure they are part of those 3.8 million Google searches, or that they are communicating with a global prospective client base as part of the 41.6 million Facebook and WhatsApp messages. Without such a strategy, Reno businesses will:
Remain largely confined to doing business locally
Find it challenging to compete with outsiders who aggressively try to grab market share from local businesses
Become increasingly isolated from the “real” world where digital marketing innovations are bringing competitiveness to millions of small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
In today’s fiercely competitive market, unless local business raise their profiles nationally and globally, each passing day (literally!) will see them fall further behind the competition. And Reno-based DMAs can help prevent that from happening!
To the uninitiated, digital marketing (because it has the word “digital” in it) may seem like purely an “IT thing” – it is not. Everyday, Reno’s DMAs apply a mix of art and science to make local businesses visible to millions of potential new customers beyond Reno’s physical borders.
Yes, there’s technology involved too, but other components in a typical digital marketing agencies day include:
Market research, including competitor research
Audience research
Message delivery
Branding and imaging
Analyzing, building and advising on social media profiles
Micro-influencer research
Content creation and marketing
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and SEO Auditing
Online advertising – including Pay-Per-Click (PPC) strategizing
A comprehensive digital marketing strategy is more than just about creating a nifty website with all the bells and whistles. It involves actively searching for, and then surgically targeting, large pools of prospective clients beyond Reno’s borders. And Reno-based DMAs are helping local businesses and community organizations do just that.
Is your digital marketing strategy working?
Tech entrepreneur Sandy Rowley, Reno Web Designer’s Webby Award-winning founder, has a passion for providing creative, innovative digital marketing solutions to local Reno businesses and communities. Whether it’s online marketing advice you need, or help with a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ad campaign – you’ll get it here. Sandy and her team will even do a FREE SEO audit to give you an idea of how your digital presence stacks up.
You can call or text Sandy Rowley @ 775-870-0488 to learn how your business or community organization can reap the benefits of digital marketing services, provided right here in Reno.
