Igniting Business Blog

Online advertising is constantly transforming. It started as text-based ads with hyperlinks, then became static, clickable images. Soon it evolved to videos, recommendations from trusted content creators, and reviews. The full range of what online advertising means is growing every day, and every avenue leads to more exposure and more recognition. If you have a small business and you're wondering if the time is right to start advertising, here are three indicators you likely should invest in online advertising:

Social media sites commonly make small tweaks and adjustments to their interfaces in an attempt to find the best ways to keep users engaged and scrolling. While these changes are usually geared towards revamping the user experience, these features can also help small businesses keep their followers engaged. Here are some recent changes Facebook has made to its News Feed that small businesses can use to keep up with their audience.

Making the choice to advertise online is a big one. You need to decide your budget, look for the right ad platforms, hone in on your targeted audience, and create effective campaigns that will get you the results you want. You also must consider whether or not online advertising is the right strategy for your business, which involves looking at your current sales, your profit margins, and your competitors through a variety of strategic lenses. Just as important, though, is doing the prep work on your own site so your campaigns direct traffic to a place customers want to go. Below are four areas to consider before deciding your small business website is ready for online advertising:

You can drive traffic to your site with good content. No matter what business you're in, every article, brief post, and description on your website gives search engines more information about your business and gives potential customers a reason to keep exploring your site. While originally intended for Google AdWords planning, Google's Keyword Planner can be a great tool for planning content on your small business website as well.

Social media pages are evolving to be a continuous, scrollable presentation of content. They're designed to always offer users something new to look at, so they pull from more and more sources to fill users' homepages and timelines. While that means you have a wider audience for your content, it also means it's easier to get lost in the mix and for users to scroll past your specific post. 

You have done the research, chosen your niche and have the capital to get started. You are passionate about your work and excited to get started launching your business. For a last check, walk through these five marketing tips for small businesses to launch your business with impact to ensure that you are ready to go.

Marketing is about getting attention, but if audiences expect a banner ad or a commercial clip, they may easily ignore it if there are other things to watch. That means providing interesting content when there's little competition is a good way to advertise; an easy way to do that is with a vehicle decal.

Did you know every minute there are 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube? Because of all the “clutter,” videos advertising products and services often have an uphill battle to cut through the noise.  With a few additional steps, you can match your videos to the audience you’re targeting.

Content marketing offers tremendous opportunities for getting your message in front of potential customers.  However, when done poorly or inadequately, content marketing can result in nothing more than wasted time. Here are four common mistakes that can torpedo a small business' marketing efforts.

In the third part of our video marketing series, we mentioned the idea of educational videos. Edutainment has always been a big hit in the visual media world. People love watching how to make or do something, even if they have no intentions of making or doing it themselves, and even if they don't really recall the video later. This video marketing trend is growing more and more apparent on platforms like Facebook, where people scrolling through their feed will pause to watch a thirty-second recipe video if the finished product looks good. So, what are others doing that you can do just as well?