You hear people complain about it daily, but social media has become an integral part of our daily lives. With millions of users worldwide, the many available platforms offer businesses an opportunity to reach a wider audience and engage with their customers. However, managing all of your accounts can be a daunting task, especially for businesses that lack the resources to manage effectively.
Effective management can help businesses build brand awareness, increase website traffic, and generate leads. Marketing experts use various tools and strategies to create engaging content, monitor conversations, and measure the impact of their campaigns. By leveraging the power of social media, businesses can reach a wider audience and build lasting relationships with their customers.
Why Social Media Management is Important
Social media management is an essential component of any digital marketing strategy and a powerful tool for building a strong online presence. If used correctly it allows businesses to connect with their audience on a more personal level, which can build trust and loyalty.
TIP:
Don’t just post- engage with customers that respond. Business pages on social platforms that engage with their audience convert at much higher rates than businesses that only post content.
Tracking Your Performance
This is one that is missed by a lot of small businesses. By analyzing data such as engagement rates, reach, and conversions, businesses can determine what is working and what is not. It’s not only important to collect this data, but to use it.
Consistency is key when it comes to managing your social platforms. Scheduling your posts in advance can help you maintain a consistent posting schedule and save time. There are a variety of free tools to schedule ahead of time, and make sure to post at optimal times for maximum engagement. Be sure to monitor your accounts in case you need to make any adjustments to your scheduled posts.
Outsourcing Social Media Management
Outsourcing social media management can be a great option for businesses that want to focus on their core operations while still maintaining a strong online presence.
Benefits of Outsourcing
Outsourcing can provide several benefits for businesses, including:
Saving time and resources: Managing your different accounts can be time-consuming, and outsourcing can free up your team to focus on other important tasks.
Access to expertise: Agencies have experience and knowledge in creating effective social media strategies and content, which can help improve your online presence.
Consistent posting: Agencies can ensure that your accounts are consistently updated with high-quality content, which can help increase engagement and followers.
Cost-effective: Outsourcing social media management can be more cost-effective than hiring an in-house social media team, especially for small businesses.
Outsourcing your social media can help increase your following.
If you’re interested in exploring what outsourcing social media can look like, contact us today for a free consultation.
Just 15 years ago a local business had no need for a solid website. Nowadays nearly 80% of all small businesses have a website. In the last 5 years especially- digital presence has become the key to getting your message out. When you’re not sure where you feel like eating it’s straight to Google. When your kitchen sink has a leak- “plumbers near me”. Today’s consumer uses digital means to find new businesses that offer needs they are seeking.
A website that is optimized for local search helps businesses attract more customers and increase their revenue. Let’s briefly look at the most important aspects of your website when considering your local customers.
1. Make your site mobile-friendly
Even Local Business needs to consider mobile searches these days
A key aspect of web design for local businesses is ensuring that the website is mobile-friendly. The majority of consumers use smartphones to find local businesses. A website that is easy to navigate on a mobile device is crucial. This means using a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes and ensuring that the website loads quickly.
2. Optimize your site to rank on Google Business
Another important factor is optimizing the website for local search. This involves using keywords and phrases that are relevant to the business and its location, as well as including the business’s address and phone number on the website. It’s also important to claim and optimize the business’s Google My Business listing, which can help it appear in local search results.
There are of course many other things to consider if you want your website to be your strongest marketing tool- but in researching small businesses in the North Texas area, we have found that the majority of them miss the mark in these two areas. Contact Texoma Marketing Solutions today to optimize your site for local search!
Advertising your lawn care business needs to go beyond handing out business cards. Small businesses dealing with local clientele are beginning to realize the value of having an online presence. This is especially critical with businesses that fit the subscription door-to-door model, such as pool cleaners, pest control, and lawn care.
If your lawn care business is failing to expand despite growth in the community, you might need to consider digital marketing. Here are 5 tips for marketing your lawn care business in the digital space today.
Tip 1: Advertise your lawn services on Google Business
A lot of businesses make the mistake of doing the bare minimum on their Google Business Profile. This is the most valuable online real estate you have available to you as a local business. Every section of information you can fill out is an opportunity to put in the keywords you want to appear for in Google searches. If you see that you’re 80% complete or less on your profile, keep going!
Google will tell you if you haven’t filled out your entire profile. Get this up to 100%!
For advertising your lawn care business, rank is crucial. Creating and completing a Google Business Profile will get you on Google, but to outrank your competition you may consider contracting an SEO specialist to set up your business profile. Simply moving from 3rd to 2nd in local rankings could mean huge increases in revenue, making it well worth the investment.
Tip 2: Have a website and optimize it for search engines
A website with proper SEO not only helps your business appear in more search results, but it improves your ranking on the local search results that appear in Google maps. Ensure your website has easy access to the information your potential customers are most interested in. Follow the below tips for some simple DIY search engine optimization:
• Include the areas you service in your footer and in multiple places on your home page
• Identify the keywords customers will be searching to find your business, and include them when possible(without ‘keyword stuffing’.)
• Have a clear path to becoming a customer easily visible on all pages. This could mean a contact form, a phone number-however you want your customers to be able to reach you.
• If using a visual web-design tool like Squarespace or Wix, be sure to fill out the “meta” sections of your page info. This includes your pages title and page description.
• Write blog posts relevant to your industry. Share tips for your potential customers and use these as an opportunity to include common keywords on your website.
Proper design and execution of a website can be complicated if you aren’t familiar with the practice. Market your lawn care services efficiently by doing your website the right way. If you want an efficient website that will rank on Google you can always hire a professional for reasonable rates to do this for you.
Tip 3: Get (a lot of)Google reviews, and respond to them!
While Google’s ranking algorithm is always changing, reviews are consistently a definite factor when it comes to local business rankings. And it isn’t just how many stars you have- Google’s local rankings take quantity and engagement into consideration as well. By engagement we mean responding to reviews. You should strive to respond to most of your Google reviews.
Reviews are also an opportunity to use some of those keywords you’re aiming for. Don’t blatantly keyword stuff, but if you have the opportunity to request a customer mention your “lawn care” services in their review, it can help you in your rankings for that keyword.
Tip 4: Collect email addresses and utilize email campaigns for advertising your lawn care services
With the right tools email campaigns can be your greatest asset to increasing your conversion rate.
Email campaigns for this business model are essentially a method of keeping your brand in the mind of leads that have previously expressed interest in your services. With a tool like Mailchimp you can even track responses and interactions to your emails. This allows you to categorize leads and cater emails based on interest, location or service.
There are a many methods you can use for collecting email addresses. Contests and giveaways on social media are a common tactic. Your website is a fantastic tool towards this goal. A contact form on your website is a must for utilizing email campaigns.
When Texoma Marketing Solutions launches an email campaign for a customer, we always include multiple links in the email body. This allows us to track multiple connection points with the lead in one email. Based on their response they move to a different point in the campaign. For example: an email blast goes out to all leads that filled out a contact form but didn’t close. The email body has a link to a promotional discount and a link to a landscaping services page. The leads that clicks the promotional discount link gets more emails with deals in the future. Those that click the landscaping link get emails with content related to landscaping. The goal is to keep these leads engaged with your company until they convert.
If you’re interested in having us launch a professional email campaign for your company, book a free consultation today with one of our experts.
Tip 5: Encourage word-of-mouth
This is the most common method of marketing for this business model for a reason- it works the best. Neighbors talk to each other. Proximity of customers means more efficiency on your operations. It’s a no-brainer.
While offering a good service is the best thing you can do to acquire word-of-mouth business, there are a few methods you can utilize to encourage your customers.
• Offer a referral discount, and track it! There are many digital tools available online for tracking referral codes.
• Provide customers with print material they can hand to neighbors
• Be active on social media- many referrals happen on social media these days. By having presence you help remind your customers to recommend your services to others
• Ask your clients- if you offer a good product and your customers are happy with you, don’t be afraid to ask for a referral to friends, family and neighbors
In this case study, we will demonstrate what SEO, proper web design, and an efficient CRM did to help this company more than double their annual revenue in just 18 months.
SEO & Web Design
Prior to Texoma Marketing Solutions, you were not going to find this company’s website by searching for their services. A major mistake small businesses make is not optimizing their site for valuable keywords. This means that the only way anyone will find a company’s website is a branded search. A branded search is any search engine query that includes the company’s name. These are not valuable for bringing in new leads. If somebody is already typing your company name into a search engine then they already know about your brand. That is not how you expand your business.
Local Pack rankings in April of 2021
You want to target keywords that your target demographic is searching for. In the case of this company, we targeted keywords that our research indicated had high volume in the target demographic. Our goal was to rank higher on the Google Local Pack for these keywords. In a little over a year, we improved their average local pack ranking tremendously, achieving the golden “Top 3” ranking that local businesses all strive for.
Local Pack rankings in January of 2022, less than a year after Texoma Marketing Solutions
CRM
Texoma Marketing Solutions identified that the growth the company was about to experience would make their customer management difficult. Customer management that was being done on spreadsheets was about to be difficult. Our solution was a custom CRM to help the company track not only every customer that used their service, but every leadthat considered their service.
This not only allowed for easier customer tracking, but allowed for efficient remarketing, leading to a higher lead-conversion-rate. The ultimate result was a higher return on investment for the marketing budget.
The Results
Ultimately, the results for this company were phenomenal. Their annual revenue in 2021 more than doubled what it was prior to utilizing the skills offered by Texoma Marketing Solutions.
Think your company could benefit from a similar service? Book a free consultation today and see what Texoma Marketing Solutions can do for you!
SEO is typically the thing that small businesses can benefit from the most. The primary goal with SEO is to make your website the first thing your target audience sees when searching for your services, not your business. This is a key distinction. If you own”John Doe’s Plumbing” you want people to find your website by searching for “plumbing company near me”, not just your company name.
When considering what will benefit our clients the most, there are two categories we consider when it comes to SEO:
The Google Local Pack
Organic Search Results
Let’s discuss the difference between these two.
The Google Local Pack
The Google Local Pack is an extremely important aspect of SEO for any business that is focusing on a particular region for their business.
The Local Pack is that top section of a Google search you see when you’re searching for a service that is region based.
A Texoma Marketing Solutions client ranking #1 for their keyword in the Google Local Pack
The Local Pack differs based on where you are located. Any business seeking to improve their rankings for the local pack need to first determine what area is most important for their business.
Texoma Marketing Solutions utilizes multiple tools to determine where our clients rank on the local pack to within a 3 mile radius. Our strategy is to begin small and gradually increase. In other words- we take a new client and get them ranking high on their local pack within a 15 mile radius, then move to a 30 mile radius, and so on until we have covered their entire service region.
Local packs generally help regional companies the most, such as brick-and-mortar stores or service-at-home businesses.
Organic Search Results
Organic search results are typically much more competitive than local pack results- but there is a way to use them to your advantage locally.
It comes down to keywords- Ranking high for the keyword “pool construction company” may be extremely difficult, but ranking high for “pool construction in North Texas” is significantly easier.
It all comes down to your keyword strategy.
In addition to keywords, Google does take into consideration mobile users location on certain keywords.
For example- if one were to search “Mexican food” on their mobile device(which is tracking the users location) then Google is automatically going to prioritize websites that Google sees as being in the area of the search.
Take Away
What you should take from this is that there are very particular ways you should set up your website in order to optimize where you rank based on what your audience is searching for. An expert SEO company can help you with this.
Reach out to Texoma Marketing Solutions for a free consultation to see how you can optimize your website for the keywords your demographic is searching.
