How to Instantly Improve Your Small Business Presence Online

So glad you stopped by Maggie Writes Copy! You’re in a great place if you want to learn how to optimize growth and sales for your small online business. Amongst this blog are many others that answer all the questions you could possibly have pertaining to your small business. The best part is if you don’t, you can book a free call directly with Maggie! Now onto those tips.

You are a smart independent entrepreneur. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be here now . . . right? You’ve successfully got your business off the ground and you are flourishing. But, now you want more. Are you at the point in your small business where you’re like, “Wow I can’t believe I am here” but . . . now what?

Growing your small business can be a roller coaster ride, I get it. There’s a bunch of ups and downs. In the beginning, it might be a little slow but it is building up all your potential energy for that tip of the hill.

You get to the top, and now you’re racing down! Now this is taking off and you’re getting orders out of the wazoo. Or maybe, your business could have slowed down a little bit. Now you’re wondering what you can do to get the vigor you had when you first started.

In either case, I have your solution. At Maggie Writes Copy I want to support your small online business. Here are 5 must-haves to include in growing your small business online that can ease your roller coaster ride.

1. Why Do Shout Outs for Other Small Businesses?

Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. You should be thinking of this like an advertisement – but for a mutual exchange with no cost to either party. This leads to engagement because collaborating with other creators allows customers to see you are relatable.

This also shows your clients your character when you are supporting other businesses. We all want to feel like we’re putting our money to good people and a good cause.

Shoutouts date back to the beginning of time. It’s the simplest thing you can do but often gets overlooked. What did we do before we had social media? We had newspaper articles, radio stations, and some people would even go in the street and cause a scene with a megaphone. These are all forms of a shout-out.

You could talk about your small business with your coworkers (if you’re working a 9-5 like me until you can quit). Go out and collaborate with other businesses in the same niche as you. Ask them if they could mention your small business in one of their social media posts. Hell, go make a sticker of your social media handle and go put them everywhere in your town.

Shoutouts in a more modern/social media way can be considered like mentioning another brand using yours. Mentions and shoutouts are crucial because relationships are very important. You’re able to express your personality and show what brands inspire you. This will give your audience an inside look at who you are.

You would be surprised how much even a review would mean to certain brands. You could negotiate free products for a review or a case study for certain brands and vice versa. You can write blog posts for brands in exchange for the exposure of being on their website. Not only does this lead to exposure but this can also build your portfolio! A win-win!

2. How to Smartly Grow Your Small Business with Freebies

I understand that you worked very hard to get where you’re at. I understand that you put your heart into every single detail of your handmade craft, e-book, blog, etc. But giveaways can be so helpful with exposure.

Think of it like when you’re at an amusement park. You are walking through the aisles of tents, and seas of people around you. You are browsing the game tents for a prize you want. And then you see it. When you look down the game doesn’t seem too hard, all you have to do is shoot the water into the hole, right? Yay! You did it and you got the prize you wanted. Would you show off that gift to your friends? You would say something like, “Hey guys, look what I won!”

Think of a giveaway as making someone a winner.

You are in charge of the criteria to enter. That can be a shout-out – like I mentioned –, a share, a follow, a re-post, you know the algorithm of what you’re using. Use the algorithm to your advantage. I’ve recently seen an art page do a raffle. Raffles have been around for a while as well. You can make a very high-dollar item and charge people to enter the raffle. Don’t be afraid to change things up a bit sometimes.

Another giveaway/promotional thing you can do is literally give away some of your products. That is if you’re financially comfortable with that. Ask a well-known or popular person in your niche if they like or could use your product. If they say yes, then you offer to send them your product free of charge. Instead, ask them to do an honest review of your products.

A great example I recently experienced of a giveaway for exposure was:

A neighbor made these adorable inexpensive freebie cookie bags with a discrete sticker. It had her social media handles on it. The font was legible with a professional picture of what she does – bake cookies. It came with one free cookie and I saw she had penned it to everyone’s doors around us and the neighboring apartments. I thought it was brilliant. You know what was the first thing I thought of when I got it? Not only, “This is impressive and nice.” but “Wow, she’s trying.”; you know what you get from that? Respect.

3. Create a New Launch for Your Online Store

Everyone gets burnt out. It happens. A great way to take a break is to say that you’re going to be busy working on a whole new launch of merchandise. I know you are hard-working and you are probably doing it all by yourself. Granted, some of us might have a great support system, like parents, or a husband/wife that is there for you but let’s face it. You are the accountant, the marketer, the creator, the social media manager, the receptionist – you do it all. Hunny, that is a big job. That is multiple full-time jobs.

I want to let you in on something that I realized recently. Why even bother worrying about how many followers you’re gonna lose because you take a break? If they unfollow you because they didn’t see you post a picture, you didn’t need them anyway. Take that time and use it to your best advantage to come back with a huge drop. If you don’t take the needed break, you won’t be at 100% and you know what that means? The quality of your content/products will degrade with you.

Slow growth is still growth. Always celebrate even the small things. Those little things will add up to big things before you know it.

4. A Secret Marketing Tip to Growth

Have you ever heard of a copywriter? They’re very useful and not very prevalent in common conversation. However, copy is everywhere. Copy is in your email. Who’s writing all those promotional emails to send out to customers every day? Who’s writing the reminder email that tells you, you forgot some items in your cart? Copywriters can create direct response media, email chains, landing pages, product descriptions, and many many more.

If this sounds like it’s not really feasible for you at the moment, I want to tell you it is an investment. It’s not something you’re going to put money into and it’s one and done. Their copy is yours now. Your landing page for your online business will always be yours. Their goal is to bring more traffic onto your site through their copy and optimize all the things you already have: a shop, a website, products, etc.

Let’s say you needed a copywriter to optimize the landing page of your website for your small online business. You are having trouble with people not staying on your website for very long. If you decide to hire a copywriter they can fix this problem for a one-time fee of let’s say $1,000. But now your sales have gone up by 80%. You’re smart enough to do the math and see how the services pay for themselves.

A wise person once said, “You gotta spend money to make money”.

5. The Three Marketing Principles

There are three top priorities when it comes to small business marketing: Engagement, Relationships, and Relevance.

Engagement keeps your clients from being bored. You want to engage with them and remind them what they can get out of working with you. This will make them more willing to like, subscribe, share, whatever.

Relationships are what builds trust. Who would you be more willing to give your money to pick something up from the store for you: a friend or someone that you just met? Exactly what I thought. You want to make as many relationships as possible. Not only do people open up doors to new opportunities but they also come back.

This plays hand in hand with engagement. You don’t want people to simply engage with you (liking, replying, sharing, etc.), you want to do the same for others. You want to comment and share other people’s content because it gives you a chance to give your brand some of your personality.

Relevancy helps with keeping your business up to date. You want to tell your clients something that no one has told them before. You want to be the first groundbreaking messenger to them – in a way, they could never forget you.

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