Business owners are too often focused on strategizing for short term success. While it is important to make short term goals for your business, it is equally necessary to set long range goals that chart a path for future growth. The decisions you make now can have a great impact on the future of your business!
Future Growth Starts Here
When your short term goals draw to a close, will your growth stagnate? Developing a strategic marketing plan will help your business continue to prosper. Even if you already have a solid customer base, ongoing marketing efforts are important for your future. A solid, well thought out Marketing strategy acts as business insurance – a guarantee that your business can be sustained for years to come.
Think about your competitors and what types of marketing they are using. What would happen if your competitors started taking market share due to more aggressive or more effective marketing? Don’t get left in the dust – one tool businesses deploy is a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) that can help you to determine how to better tackle your competitors.
So, what types of practices should you implement to support your business’s future? In today’s blog, we will focus on website optimization and online listings.
Long-Term Marketing Strategies
The first step in ensuring your business’ long term success is optimizing your website. In today’s digital age, consumers make snap judgements on business websites – and a poorly performing one could be costing you sales. 75% of consumers say they’ll quickly judge a business’s credibility based on the company’s website design, according to SWEOR. For some ideas on optimizing your website, check out our blog on Improving your Website’s User Experience.
Going hand in hand with website optimization, your business must consider an SEO and listing management strategy; both will strengthen website optimization efforts. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a cost-effective form of marketing that focuses on enhancing your site’s findability through keyword usage. Find tips on leveraging SEO in this DSG blog post.
Once your website is adjusted for optimal user experience and has an SEO strategy to back it, determine how you will manage your online listings. Your listings contain critical information on your business including name, address, phone number, URL, hours, services offered, payment options and much more. Listings appear on dozens of top search, social, navigation, and voice platforms. Accurate and robust listings help your business to be discovered, and keeping them up-to-date acts as insurance so that your customer base will always be able to find you on the web. Listing management doesn’t need to be hard! Check out our blog on the basics of using online listings effectively.
Does your business’s online presence require some extra TLC? Reach out to us at DSG for a personalized professional audit. Let us show you what we can do!
