Running a small business is certainly no easy task; however, in an increasingly digital world, there are a number of small business challenges to navigate through.
Here is a list of 3 of the most common small business challenges that entrepreneurs are facing in 2015 as well as some proposed solutions to these issues:
Challenge #1: The need to have an online presence
Believe it or not, there is still a large percentage of small businesses without a website.
Considering that 81 percent of consumers turn to the internet for research purposes before making a purchase decision, your business is really missing out if it does not have a website, which is the foundation for an online presence.
In addition to having a website, your business really needs to be using social media to connect and interact with existing and prospective customers.
With 74 percent of online adults using social networking sites, your business has the potential to lose credibility with your audience if you don’t have a social media presence.
The benefits of social media strongly outweigh not having a presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
A third key element of having an online presence is having a business blog.
A blog is a powerful way to position your brand as a thought leader and industry expert.
It’s also a very effective tool for driving more traffic to your website.
Solutions:
You absolutely need to have a website, and for the best results, you’ll want to partner with a web design agency that can build a professional website for your business that best meets your goals and functionality needs.
If you’re a little weary about getting on board with social media, you can enlist the help of a social media marketing agency to best determine which social media platforms you should be on, the types of content that you should be sharing, how frequently you should be posting, and much more.
If you simply don’t have time for social media management, outsourcing to an agency has become incredibly affordable and is well worth it.
Starting a business blog is actually much easier than it sounds, especially if you choose a user-friendly blogging platform like WordPress.
If you find that you can’t keep up with your content needs, consider outsourcing blog writing to an agency with professional writers that specialize in your field.
Challenge #2: The lack of social media marketing knowledge
While social media has been on the rise for the past decade, not every business owner possesses the skills to carry out a successful social media marketing strategy.
Without question, a lack of knowledge about social media is one of the most common small business challenges that entrepreneurs face, and it’s often the reason why some business owners choose not to have a social media presence.
After all, a poorly executed social media marketing plan can actually do more harm for your business than good.
Solutions:
If you don’t feel comfortable with your social media knowledge, there are a number of expert blogs on the internet that you can turn to for guidance, including our small business marketing blog.
Another option is to partner with a social media agency and allow them to handle your social media marketing efforts for you.
Having a team of social media specialists handle this critical aspect of marketing for your business can help to ensure that you are maximizing opportunities to create awareness for your brand, using the right social media channels, and getting results.
Challenge #3: The difficult impossible task of keeping up with constant changes to search algorithms
Just when you think you have a grasp on the type of content that search engines want to see from your business to score a favorable ranking, the criteria for how your content is ranked changes.
We recently saw this with Google’s mobile friendly algorithm update, and there will continue to be many changes and enhancements to this search giant’s algorithm in the future.
But does your business really have the extra time to invest in SEO?
Solutions:
Most reputable social media marketing agencies will offer blogs that you can subscribe to and stay on top of the constant changes to search algorithms.
Again, you also have the option to outsource your SEO, which would take your stress level of trying to keep up with all of these changes down several notches.
While there are many small business challenges that you are likely facing, hopefully, you will find some relief in taking advantage of some of our proposed solutions. To learn more about how a social media marketing agency could prove to be beneficial for your business, please contact us at LYFE Marketing.
