So the Christmas decorations have been packed away and we’ve all recovered from our New Year celebrations. Now the time has come to dust off our keyboards and meet 2017 head on! There are a number of areas in modern small businesses that, while crucial to growth, are often overlooked. There have been amazing leaps in technological advances for small business but we often fall back on familiar, manual processes because we either lack the time or the know-how to adapt.
January is a great time to strategise and evaluate your business so you can develop practices that will prime your business for success in 2017.
Here are 3 fundamental business activities that you should explore this year.
Digital Marketing
Being successful online isn’t just about having a great looking website. You need to be consistent in how you promote your brand and your company’s message online. You can do this by creating quality content and using a combination of social, email, affiliate and search engine marketing to promote it. Here is a very basic outline of digital marketing for business:
- Create a piece of helpful content that gives value to your audience
- Post this onto your site or blog, ensuring that you optimise your post with engaging formatting, imagery and keywords
- Broadcast your content to your audience and colleagues via social media, email and affiliate blogging sites.
Read more about how a Virtual Assistant can help you with your business’s digital marketing efforts
SEO
If your business is online you should be investing in some sort of SEO. In plain English, Search Engine Optimisation is an activity that ensures your website can be found in search engines like Google or Yahoo when people search for words or phrases that are relevant to your business. Here are some of the most common SEO techniques that will still resonate in 2017:
- Consistently post and promote keyword rich content to your site
- Using established SEO plugins on your website like Yoast or Google Keyword Planner
- Implementing a quality ‘evergreen’ link building strategy
- Optimising Mobile SEO
For more helpful tips on how to boost SEO for your business check out our suite of helpful articles
Automation
Automating as many processes as possible streamlines your organisation, keeps your business efficient and productive and makes it easier to manage growth.
These days it’s relatively easy for SME’s to access the technology needed to systemise functional aspects of their business. There are many cloud based SaaS applications that can effectively automate areas such as email communications, sales and purchasing, accounts, client management, social media and blogging.
Want to know more about how you can modernise your business for 2017? Schedule an obligation free discovery call with Kristy today to discuss how the right Virtual Assistant can help you.
