Igniting Business Blog

The Group feature is not new to the Facebook platform, but it promises to be more relevant since Mark Zuckerberg's announcement in early 2018 that they're changing what content appears on users' News Feeds. This change includes showcasing fewer organic posts from business Pages and more from Groups and friends. So, while having a business Page on Facebook is still important, it's may also wise to incorporate activity with a Facebook Group as part of your social strategy.

Businesses and consumers will soon see the effects of recent advancements in exciting technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), 5G telecommunications, voice searches, and virtual reality (VR). In fact, some of these are being used right now! In the not-so-distant future, it will seem bizarre that people used to interact with the World Wide Web only using their fingertips. Afterall, who thought smartphones and mobile devices would be as ubiquitous and as widely used as they are today? As technologies such as VR and AI continue to grow exponentially, both businesses and consumers will be presented with a whole new level of interaction with technology, that which is rich in visual stimulation and intuitive, intellectual responsiveness. Any small business paying attention to and investing in these newer technologies, stands poised to move far ahead of their competition.

Online marketing is popular and is where many eyes are focused. Online marketing can be interacted with easily on computers, phones, and other devices via commenting, spreading through social media, upvoting on online platforms, or other means. Some online campaigns even encourage more direct interaction, such as voting, inviting user-generated content, or deliberately starting a conversation.

In the growing age of the Internet and always being present online, it seems like everyone is talking about the advances in inbound and content marketing, drawing people in towards your business. Inbound marketing certainly helps businesses garner success, but strategic outbound marketing never really stopped being viable. Outbound marketing is what people think of as "traditional marketing" of going out to seek attention from your customers. These include email newsletters, trade show features, online banner ads, press releases, direct mail, and more never really stopped being viable. In fact, thanks to the advances made in technology, outbound marketing is better than it's ever been before.

The digital landscape is in a constant state of evolution, just like your brand. Understanding customer needs and finding ways to meet those needs is a good first step in reaching your target market, but nowadays, a small business must do more to stay relevant. Your website and social media pages can be powerful platforms for acquiring and keeping customers, but you'll need to make sure that you're attracting the right visitors. Consider investing in online advertising to even better reach, target, and corner your market's audience if you're seeing any of these struggles when running your business.

For small businesses and bootstrap entrepreneurs, marketing effectively on a budget can be a difficult task. Instead of trying to mimic large companies who have even larger budgets and a whole staff of people dedicated to maximizing ROI, small companies should develop a distinctive marketing plan that strategically sets them apart from their competition and promote their business in an effective way. Here are the three concepts small businesses must hone when developing marketing strategies that really work.

If you have a small business or you're just starting to branch out and build your brand online, consider using social media platforms to promote your company. Users want to be on social media, so it's a great avenue for your business to reach them where they already are. Managing your social media at all times of the day can be demanding though, so consider connecting your new social media platforms to a social media management application/tool to help with scheduling and organization.

Small businesses can get great mileage from promotional products, a creative way to market your company branding in the new year. Start 2019 with a fresh stock of new promotional products to leave a lasting impression on current and potential clients and customers. In today's digital printing world, you can brand almost anything. You can do more than print on pens; everyone already has plenty of those! The key is branding smart and being different. Here are five unique promotional items to help leverage your company brand.

Starting a new year is often a time of personal reflection to determine areas of personal growth for the new year.  Likewise, January is a great time to reflect on areas of growth for your small business.  When it comes to marketing and your small business’ digital presence, you may feel overwhelmed by the variety of avenues, platforms, tactics, and strategies.  Rather than giving up before the year even begins or chasing strategies in (what seems like) 50 million directions, check out our suggestions below to focus your small business on 4 key marketing avenues and successful tactics in each of those avenues. 

When most people consider content marketing, they focus almost entirely on creating the actual content. While that's important, as you need to have quality content to grab and hold your audience's attention, a creator needs to also have a plan for how they're going to get people to pay attention to the content. Otherwise, your message will easily be lost in the shuffle.