[embed]https://youtu.be/FllRxto5xI4[/embed] When I first started my freelancing business building websites for local businesses, I'd tell my clients not to worry about doing many other marketing tactics and techniques. I thought the website was the end-all, be-all. I've got to be honest because I've learned a lot in the last 10-15 years... you need to have a marketing strategy built around your website.

Your Website is Your Marketing Engine

When you build your website. It's important to look at it as the engine that powers your marketing machine. Your website is where your browsers can opt-in to your funnels, learn about your business, and, ultimately, hire you. Your website is an extremely important part of your marketing plan but needs to be the engine, not the entire machine.

Claim Your Google Business Profile Listing and Optimize Your Profile

Google My Business is now Google Business Profile and it is one of the easiest ways to get in front of potential customers with Google search. If you haven't claimed your listing, go through the steps to claim your business's listing so you can take advantage of all the features Google Business Profile has to offer for your company. Your Google listing is where you can share your address, hours of operation, photos, and posts about what you're working on or up to in the community. When someone searches for your business name or category, your listing may show up as an option where they can learn more about you, find your contact information, or read your reviews.

Create a Facebook Business Page

Having a Facebook page helps you get the word out to current customers and potential customers by sharing regular posts, boosting the posts as ads, and even creating engaging contests where you could even bring in other local businesses as collaboration partners.

Utilize Other Social Media Platforms

There are so many social media platforms nowadays like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and many more that I'm missing or that haven't been created yet. I'm not going to go into detail about which ones you should use and why but look into the platforms that make sense for you and create a strategy that makes sense for your company.

Build Offline Marketing Into Your Strategy

When you think of marketing in 2021, it's easy to jump straight to digital marketing. There are so many other ways to grow your business offline that so many businesses have forgotten about. We believe it's great to leverage print media, television, and even radio to grow your business. I started a radio show called The Business Rundown to help grow my business, promote my clients, and be an advocate for small business owners.

Conclusion

As a website strategist and consultant, it has taken a long time to get to a point where I truly believe other marketing strategies are necessary to small businesses. It's clear to me now that a marketing system is an ecosystem. It is something that needs to rely on several moving parts like a website, a newsletter, social media, and even magazine ads. Make sure you diversify your marketing and have a plan every step of the way. If you need help with creating a marketing strategy for your business, and a website that gets results, too, schedule a free call with Imphasis at https://imphasis.com/call.