Samir Sampat

Social media is an essential part of any successful digital marketing strategy. Small businesses often struggle the most with this, either due to a lack of knowledge or resources, but they’re the ones that really need to be taking advantage of all that social media marketing can do. Part of that comes from knowing where you stand so that you can make plans to improve your efforts. Enter the social media audit.

In business, efficiency is everything. The more efficient you are, the less time and money you spend on your day-to-day operations. That means more money goes to your bottom line and more time can be spent on the things that matter. Today’s digital tool market offers a vast selection of resources designed to help you become more efficient in your business, no matter what that means to you specifically.

Social selling is an essential part of every business, or it should be. Today’s audiences are buying more frequently and choosing companies more carefully based on their social presence, as well as things like social proof. No matter what industry you’re in or what your sales team is trying to sell, you have to have a social selling strategy in place. The good news is that there are plenty of tips and insight out there to help you create your own.

More than 25% of all U.S. adults are living with some form of disability. That might not seem like much, but when you consider that could be 25% of your website traffic or 25% of your profit margin, it gets a lot more important to address—and rightfully so. It’s the 21st century and we have access to so many great tools. Every website should have an inclusive, accessible design to deliver the best user experience for all users.

A customer service audit gives you a chance to review all aspects of the customer experience to see what is going well and what needs a little improvement. You may have your own specific objectives for this audit in addition to the general ones, so make sure that all objectives are communicated to everyone that’s involved with the audit process.

The first step to successful business advertising and marketing is to understand your options. That doesn’t mean just knowing the different channels and types of marketing to choose from, either—you should actually understand what each is, what it offers, and whether it’s right for your small business. Some of you have probably used and paid for Google Ads campaigns, but Local Service Ads (LSAs) are still widely under-utilized.

A social media calendar gives you a schedule that you can follow for all of your social media content sharing. This schedule can include posts, re-posts and shares, networking and community building, or anything else that you have planned for your social media channels. Too often, marketers create overly ambitious calendars and don’t have the time or resources to execute them effectively. This results in social media campaigns suffering because they aren’t getting the attention that they deserve.

So many companies focus on marketing, advertising, and digital branding when they’re trying to cultivate leads and bring in new business. While this is important, of course, it’s not the only way to go. Your SEO strategy should be dynamic and unique. It should encompass all of the essential elements that you can use to reach your goals, rank higher in search results, and continue to build your reputation as an authority in your industry.

Keywords are still an important part of your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. However, there’s a lot more to it than just picking a few words related to your industry and adding them to your content here and there. Keyword planning and research is an entire process of its own and it deserves dedicated attention. When you do it properly, you’ll come up with the perfect keywords every single time.

A Google My Business profile (now called Google Business Profile) is a free business listing that appears in Google Search and Maps, showing potential clients your firm's location, hours, reviews, photos, and contact information.