10 Tips for Small Business Owners to JumpStart 2019

tips for small business owners to start the year
  • Join the Buy Local Trend: People like to support small businesses in their own community. But you need to know local marketing strategies. Read The Local SEO’s Guide to the Buy Local Phenomenon  https://moz.com/blog/local-seos-guide-to-buy-local 

  • Enhance Customer Experience: Build customer satisfaction and loyalty buy prioritizing the needs of your customers over your needs.  

  • Conduct a Social Media Audit: Review all your social media bios, images, links and call to actions to make sure they\'re on message for 2019. https://www.checkli.com/checklists/catherinerussell/5-minute-social-media-audit 

  • Optimize Voice Search: Siri, Alexa and Google are making people more comfortable using online voice search. If your customers and prospects use voice search, your website must be optimized for voice search. 

  • Build Customer Relationships: Personalization is the key to developing a relationship with your customers. Using their name in emails and providing promotions based on their previous purchases and other personalization strategies will help your customers know you\'re listening. 

  • Keep Marketing Simple: Know your target audience, and make your message clear and understandable. Don\'t make your viewers work to understand your message - or they may just scroll on by. If you\'re creating explainer videos, subtitles are a great tool for viewers who keep the audio set to "off." If you\'re designing a special offer, use direct language and uncluttered graphics.  

  • Claim Your \'Google My Business\' Page: It\'s free! https://www.google.com/business/ Google offers a free tool that features your business in search results, and allows you to control the content: images, hours, description, address, posts and specials. But don\'t set it and forget it! Once your Google My Business profile is set up, update it regularly with new posts and offers so Google sees you\'re active and promote it to searchers. 

  • Advertise Strategically: If you\'ve been able to build your business through word of mouth and content marketing, congratulations! But to help your business continue to grow you may decide to spend money on advertising. If you\'re already using paid advertising on social or doing PPC campaigns, are you getting as much out of it as you can? Online advertising options change rapidly but helps attract new audiences. Whether your DIY advertising or outsource it to a professional, paid ads can help boost your business to the next level.

  • Network: You can\'t possibly do it all, and you can\'t possibly know it all. Small business owners should build a source of trusted contacts - either online or in person - that you can ask for ideas, references, support or feedback. MeetUp groups and Chambers of Commerce are great for in person local networking. Online networks for small business owners such as Facebook Groups, The Small Business Bonfire and Indie Hackers let you network with contacts near and far, while Quora is a spot to ask questions to a large global community - ideal if you\'re looking for information at odd hours of the day and night! 

  • Manage Your Self-Care: As the owner of a small business, there is only one of you. Use technology and techniques to help manage your time, your productivity and your stress. An outside consultant can be useful in helping you see things clearly. It may be time to hire more team members. Your current staff may be capable of more responsibility. You can\'t do it all alone - even if you currently do. 

  • Get more tips, resources and tools for small business owners, entrepreneur and sales professionals: http://www.thesalesassassin.com/go/salescocktailmp3-pa002 

This checklist was created by anthonycaliendo

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