Small businesses often find themselves caught in a loop of negative feedback.  Something happens, which negatively impacts their sales.  In order to save money, they cut back on costs.  One of the first areas of the budget to be targeted in many instances is the marketing strategy.  So, the business attracts even less customers in the future, leading them into a vicious cycle which can ultimately end up closing their doors.

So how should you go about avoiding this?  In short, you need to make sure that you have a coherent marketing strategy, no matter what the size of your business.  In past decades, this may have meant making sure you are listed in the yellow pages, and advertising every once in a while in the church circular.  These days, it’s a bit more complicated.

One thing you will definitely want to do, no matter what size your business is, is make sure you have a well-optimized website.  This involves hiring a talented designer and copywriter, who can help you can conversions, a talented coder or developer to implement and maintain the site itself, and an SEO/SMM specialist to run a modest campaign for you.

You will find that your marketing strategy has a great deal more fluidity these days, because, despite sounding intimidating, all of those steps above have a lower cost than most of the things you did back in the olden days.  Most of your site costs, static copy, design, and coding, are fixed, one-time affairs.  Ongoing SEO and SMM needs to be seen as a cost of doing business; if you don’t engage in these services, your competitors certainly will.

It is already the case that more consumers find businesses over the web than they do using their phones.  Within two or three years, the amount of commercial traffic that crosses over smartphones and tablets (mobile devices in general) will exceed that of desktops and traditional web devices.  Ignore these trends at your own peril; speak with a qualified business coach about developing a modern marketing strategy that can help you take advantage of the realities of the new marketplace.