Resources and tips for small business owners on managing and growing their ventures. 

Small Business

We’ve seen social media change the way we go about marketing and advertising our businesses to the world. Social media is an incredible avenue to maintain top of mind awareness with your shoppers.

Influencer Marketing has taken the internet by storm. While it was once a trend, it’s more common than ever before. Influencers are typically experts on the platforms you see them on, they already have an engaged audience, they know what kind of content their audience is interested in, and they know that they can influence their audience with the information they put out.

Many micro-influencers have a relationship with their audience that mimics the “regular guy/gal” brand archetype, making them more relatable and leading their audience to trust their opinions and recommendations. This is a great way for a business to leverage brand awareness and grow their audience even more.

Short-form Video Content will Continue to Rise

Many of us heard of TikTok at the start of the global pandemic and vowed to ourselves that we would never download it. As we’re over a year into the global pandemic, many of us can’t stand by that statement anymore. We’ve been consumed by the hilarious, relatable, and educational videos that are widely spread across the internet.

Short-form video content takes less time and space to create and it also falls in line with the current fast paced attention spans of online audiences. Long-form videos can offer much depth about a product, brand, or service to your audience but ask yourself….who has time to watch one five-minute video when they could watch 15 short videos in the same time and take in MUCH more?

Mobile Optimization will be EVEN MORE Critical

Consumers spend more and more time on mobile devices every day. As buying power continues to grow amongst Millennials and Gen Z audiences, mobile friendly websites will generate more revenue than slower, non-optimized online stores.

Mobile optimization not only encompasses your website, but also things like email marketing, for example. Consider ways that you can deliver a mobile email experience to subscribers.

Social Responsibility will be Prioritized

We are all aware of the global pandemic that started in 2020. This along with other world events, caused social responsibility, ethics, and transparency to matter much to consumers more now than ever before. Consumers care about brands that care about them, their employees, and shared causes.

You may see that some businesses have already begun to shift their social media marketing strategies to focus more on inclusive initiatives, promotions and offerings all while highlighting causes or missions they support.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to how discoverable your website and content is. SEO is not new in the slightest, but you can expect to see SEO be ingrained within much, if not all of your marketing tactics and strategies.

We’ve had the entire year of 2021 to work through the kinks of what business will look like in 2022. As we saw many virtual events in 2020 and 2021, 2022 will be more of a hybrid approach. Expect to see businesses using more physical opportunities for their audience in 2022. Although there may be less virtual events, that DOES NOT mean that virtual events are null and void.

Social Media Marketing & eCommerce in 2022: What to Expect

Properly merchandising your online store is just as important as merchandising a brick-and-mortar store. Having a well-merchandised store can lead to increased conversion rates and higher average ticket sizes.

Online merchandising is, at its most basic, a way of displaying your products that entices your customers to make a purchase. There are a myriad of different ways and methods to properly merchandise your store. We will take a look at some of the most important.

Make sure people can easily find what they are looking for. 

 This includes proper categorization of your inventory. A store with poor categorization can be a nightmare for your potential customers to navigate through. Make sure your navigation is clear and easy to follow. The fewer steps a customer needs to take to get to the product the better. Make sure your store has a search function.

Writing your own product descriptions is more important than having your own product photography. Using the same generic product description is going to hurt your SEO as Google will see it as 

, and you will be lucky to make it on page one of the search results. Writing your own compelling product descriptions will give you the opportunity to include any important keywords that the manufacturer may have missed. It also allows you to optimize the content to your customers and fit within your store’s culture.

Use high quality photos and product descriptions not provided by the manufacturer. 

 This may seem like a no-brainer, but many stores just use the product descriptions and photos provided by the manufacturer. Using the same photos and descriptions as your competitors will not set you apart from the crowd. If possible, hire a professional photographer to take product photos for you.If professional photography is out of the budget, take your own photographs. You should only take your own photographs if you can match or exceed the quality of the photos that the manufacturer supplies. Poor photography shows a lack of attention to detail and makes your business look like an amateur operation. Make use of alternate images by showing different angles of the products or a close-up of important details.

Make sure any promotions you are running are prominently featured

. Use attractive banners with compelling graphics on the home page to draw attention to your promotions. If you run promotions that are category specific ,don’t forget to add banners to the category page as well. Feature your best selling products or newest items on your home page. And don’t miss the opportunity to cross-sell and up-sell by adding related / alternative products and accessories on your product pages.

Make it easy for your customers to make a purchase from you. 

 You have done a good job of merchandising your store, you have killer photos and product descriptions, cross-sell and up-sell is properly set-up, and promotions are prominently featured. All this hard work could be wasted if it is difficult for your customers to make a purchase. Make sure your buy button is prominently featured and easy for customers to see.The checkout process should be as streamlined as possible. Do you force customers to sign up for an account before they can buy from you, or can they check out as a guest? Remove any obstacles that may prevent a guest from completing the checkout steps. Do you offer PayPal as a checkout option? Many consumers are reluctant to give credit card information to merchants they are unfamiliar with, but they will use PayPal since that information isn’t passed on to the merchant and it gives the customer a degree of better security.

Resources for Success

Learn Small Business

Social Media Marketing & eCommerce in 2022: What to Expect

5 Tips for Properly Merchandising Your Online Store

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