19 Tips To Grow Your Small Business in 2018

We’re currently in 2018, it’s a new year, and what worked in 2017 will not necessarily work this year. I’m pretty sure that a lot of companies came up with new year’s resolutions that were centered towards growing their small business in 2018.

There is no single answer to how one can grow their business. The answer to this question has many elements and components. A lot of times we want the easy answer, the fastest way to reach our goals. However, it doesn’t work like that, there are no shortcuts in life, you have to do things the right way the first time around. If not, you’re going to spend a lot of your time trying to fix previous mistakes.

Achieving business success takes patience, hard work, and dedication. You must have the mindset that failure is not an option, that you’re not going to give up. In this article, we’re going take a looks strategies that you could be using to grow your small business in 2018.

1. Digital Marketing and Internet Presence

Digital marketing plays an important role in growing your business, and it’s one that is often overlooked. In 2018, most likely if you have your own business, then you most definitely have a website. Your website is a part of who you are, your brand, and what your company stands for. The idea behind digital marketing is to figure out how you can drive more traffic to your website and increase conversions, leads, and sales.

As a small business owner, digital marketing is something that you should definitely keep in mind. Digital marketing trends are always changing, so it’s import that you’re up-to-date with the latest trends and strategies to ensure that you’re getting the best results possible.

2. Using SEO to Grow Your Business

SEO, also known as search engine optimization, is a way to optimize your website so that it performs better in the search engine result pages. Now, I must point out that there are many elements of SEO, which can require expert knowledge to yield the desired results. However, I’m only going to cover some of the basics to help you get started with SEO.

3. Title Tags

A title tag is simply HTML code that tells the search engines and users the title of the page. This is very important because your title is what will be shown to users when they are performing a search on Google. So, you want to ensure sure that your title has relevant keywords to help potential customers find your business.

4. Meta Description

The meta description will provide visitors with information about what the page is about, and it is also what’s displayed in the search engine results page below the title. So, you should ensure that relevant keywords and call to actions are included in your description.

5. H1 Tag

The h1 tag is simply the main and first heading on the page. It should also have important keywords that are relevant to your content. Search engines will actually use the h1 tag to determine what your content is about. The h1 tag is actually one of the most important on-page SEO elements. So, be sure to add it to your page.

6. Alt Text For Image Optimization

It’s very easy for us to see an image and fully understand what it’s about. However, search engine robots aren’t able to read or identify an image. This is why the alt text attribute is so important. The reason why you are able to find an image on google is that these images have the alt text attributes, which lets search engines know what the image is about. Add the alt text attribute to your images can also drive more organic traffic to your website.

7. Paid Search Advertising

Another way to drive visitors to your website is by setting up a pay-per-click campaign with Google AdWords or Bings Ads. Both advertising platforms are essentially the same. However, bing ads are relatively and don’t reach the same audience as Google Adwords. Users on Bing tend to be a lot older, so the audience is not exactly the same. The good thing about Bing Ads is that there is less competition, so you’ll end up paying less per click when compared to AdWords.

Google Adwords, on the other hand, is the most popular paid search advertising platform that there is. So, you can definitely reach a lot more people, but you’ll just have to deal with a bit more competition. Overall, paid search campaigns will put you at the top of the search engine results pages, simply because you’re paying to be there. Whereas with SEO, you have to work your way to the top, which isn’t easy, nor is it guaranteed. So, whichever you decide to use will depend on what works best for your small business and fits within your budget.

If you do decide to try paid search advertising, I would recommend starting with a relatively low budget such as $500 per month. You should also look into utilizing the help of a professional or company that can better assist you with your campaign. I say this because you could end up wasting your money if you don’t know what you’re doing. So, this is just something that you should keep in mind.

8. Social Media Marketing

Social media plays a critical role in digital marketing. There are millions of people on social media sites such Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Your potential customers use these websites on a daily basis. So, it’s important that you’re social media profiles are updated and have regular content about your products and services.

9. Content Calendar

I would recommend creating a content calendar that can be used to create posts based on certain topics, which can then be posted to your social media pages. This will help you build awareness around your company and allow you to interact with your customers. So, this is something that you should take into consideration.

10. Social Media Advertising

If you’re struggling to reach people on social, you should think about using their advertising platform to create ads or even boost posts. This will allow more people to follow you and engage with your posts. I would recommend starting out with Facebook, they have a lot of ways that you can reach your intended target audience.

11. Video Advertising

Video advertising is something that is often overlooked. We aren’t all the same, some people consume content differently. Not everyone wants to read an article, there are some people who prefer to actually watch a video. So, this is just the nature of the beast. You could easily have a mixture of both. You could incorporate video advertising into your digital marketing strategy.

YouTube is the biggest video sharing site on the planet. They have a lot of people who are creating videos that go viral and bring in millions of views. The awesome thing about youtube is that they allow you to create video ads. So, you could easily create a professional quality video about your product and services, which you could then advertise to potential customers on YouTube.

12. Email Marketing

Email marketing is such a powerful way to grow your business. You could easily start growing your email marketing lists, which you can then use to send out newsletters about your products and services. I would recommend using ConstantContact or HubSpot to help you capture more emails and grow your subscriber opt-in lists. You can set up lead capture forms on your site that can be activated when a person first visitors your site or when they try to leave. This is how you’re going to grow your list.

13. Remarketing

Remarketing is a pretty cool way to advertise your product and services to users who have shown some interest in your business. This can be done with Google AdWords or even Facebook. Imagine you searched for sneakers, landing on a website but never actually made a person. Now, every time you browse the internet you’re seeing ads for the very product you just searched for. This is what remarketing is all about.

There are different stages of the buying process. So, people might purchase your product and services right away. However, this does not mean that they won’t sometime in the near future. So, this is why remarketing is something that you should take into consideration when you’re trying to grow your business in 2018.

14. Website Design

Your website is a representation of your company, so you should ensure that it looks professional. Your site should easily convey what your company is about. Also, users should be able to find exactly what they are looking for. So, your site must also be user-friendly.

15. Site Speed

Your site speed can be the difference between making or losing a sale. Site Speed is definitely an important part of the user experience. If your website takes forever to load, your potential customers are going to leave and go somewhere else. So, this is something that you should keep in mind.

16. Google Analytics

Google analytics is a free tool that will allow you to gain valuable insight into your website’s traffic. You’ll be able to know where visitors are from, what pages they are visiting, how long they are staying on your site, and much more. I highly recommended installing Google Analytics on your website. Knowing what’s going on with your website’s traffic is important, otherwise, you’re just wasting your money. This is why the traffic data is important. So, this is something that you should definitely look into.

17. Contact Form

You’d be surprised how many websites don’t have a contact form. You should always have a way for people to contact you. A phone number is not good enough. Some people don’t want to make a phone call, but they will gladly fill out a form to get in touch with you. So, make sure that you have a contact form on your website to capture leads.

We’ve pretty much covered online strategies that can help grow your business, in terms of digital marketing. Now it’s time to look at other aspects of your business that might need attention.

Small business owners constantly have to send out letters, invoices, statements, and more to their clients. This is not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it requires a lot of tedious work. You would basically have to put your employees to work on these tasks when they could be working on tasks more suited towards their skills.

What if I told you that there is an easy way to mail out your invoices, letters, and statements, would you believe me?

18. Printing and Mailing Services

LetterHUB is a company that specializes in the mailing of your invoices and statements. LetterHUB makes it very easy for you to send letters to your clients. The goal is to help you grow your business and make it a lot more efficient and effective. If your employees are busy handling the printing and mailing aspects of your business, then you’re only wasting time and money. The truth of the matter is that the entire printing and mailing process can be streamlined. Why work harder, when you can work smarter? LetterHUB is here to help you accomplish exactly that.

19. Print and Mail Outsourcing

Most small business owners do all of their printing and mailing in-house. So, essentially, this means that they have to buy their own equipment, handle all of the costs. Over time, this can become very expensive, and will only lead to a poor return on investment.

Your best option is to outsource your invoice printing and mailing services. By doing this, you’ll get a much better return on your investment. Outsourcing your print and mail services will take the extra tasks off your plate, allowing you to focus on other important aspects of your business. In the long run, this will definitely help your business grow and reach its goals and objectives for 2018.