7 Most Important Services for Small Business Development
Being the owner of a small business, it’s important to find innovative ways to grow and stand out from the competition. Fortunately, there are plenty of online services available to help small business owners streamline their operations and help them develop fast. Among these services are solutions to help businesses boost their online presence and make them stand out in search engine results.
Investing in the right online services can save business owners time and money, allowing them to focus on the things that matter. But choosing the right ones is no small feat. The secret is to find the right kind of services with the perfect combination of tools that cater to the niche of small businesses and their unique operations.
Online Services That Can Help Small Businesses Grow and Develop
There are few things as important as having an online presence in today’s business world. Over 4.72 billion people have access to the internet, and this is where they go to find services or products they need. To compete in the online sphere, businesses have to ensure their online presence is well thought through and professional. Let’s explore some of the main online services that can be used to boost small businesses’ performance:
Content Management Systems
Firstly, businesses need to set up a website that represents the services or products they offer to their potential customers. There are various tools available today to assist small businesses in creating a simple, effective website through which clients can explore offerings. WordPress is a popular CMS for beginners and enables them to create a website with ready-to-use templates and guides to simplify the process. Businesses can either follow a DIY approach or hire an IT consultant to develop a website.
SEO Services
SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, helps businesses get noticed online by enhancing their content. SEO is a complex and tricky subject, but fortunately, there is software that can be bought or downloaded to assist businesses in navigating their way through it. SEMRush and Moz are both examples of software bundles that are highly recommended by SEO experts. Some businesses also choose to hire SEO professionals to manage their SEO.
Pay Per Click
One of the best ways to stand out among search engine results is to invest in Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. PPC is a model of marketing in which website owners pay a fee every time one of their ads is clicked. It’s an easy and effective way to reach a larger audience.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing (SMM) uses social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to market products and services. With 4.70 billion people using social media, it is a no-brainer that small businesses should also use these platforms for marketing their offerings. Managing all social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram can be tricky, but it is easy when a social media management tool like Hootsuite is used. This tool can be used for planning, scheduling, and syndicating social posts and tracking their performance.
Google Services
While trying to figure out how to market a new small business via online services, it is important to remember that there is an abundance of free tools out there. Google Services such as Google My Business, Youtube and Google Maps are excellent for marketing a business on the leading search engine.
Analytics Tools
When effort has been put in to advertise a small business online, it’s important to track the results to see what is working and what is not. Fortunately, tools like Google Analytics can shed some detailed light on online marketing success. It works by tracking website traffic, where it comes from, and many other stats, so businesses can easily see which efforts are more profitable and which ones can be let go of or should be paid more attention to.
Customer Relationship Management
Managing the relationship between a business and its clients is probably the most important function to fulfill. This can seem like an impossible task with hundreds or even thousands of customers and can also be very time-consuming. CRM is software that provides trustworthy reporting on customers, improves communication between the business and customers, as well as enhances the efficiency of the business. Many businesses hire embedded systems consultants to effectively implement a CRM system.
Leading Companies That Have Been Using Online Services to Grow
Many prominent companies today have invested in online services during their major developmental stages. Let’s take a look at some of the companies and the type of services they utilized to grow.
Home Depot
When launching its online presence, Home Depot made use of a content management system, WordPress, to grow. The platform allowed them to showcase their products to a larger audience without spending too much capital.
Apple
This tech giant is known to use SEO services to boost its content online. They have invested in SEMrush to do keyword research, track their keyword strategy and that of their competition, run SEO audits of their blog, look for backlinking opportunities, and more.
Converse
To help them stand out online, Converse invested in Pay Per Click services a few years ago. They specifically wanted to increase online engagement with their teenage audience. As a result, they utilized Google AdWords to tap into anything currently important in this unique audience’s culture.
Mint
Banking app Mint was a startup when they started using social media marketing on Instagram. Their strategy was to create a feed full of fun colors and typefaces that instantly catch users’ attention. This helped them to connect to a broader audience and grow their presence online.
PayPal
A few years ago, this financial technology company migrated the scalable applications of its easy-to-use payment platform to Google Cloud. This was a significant shift in strategy to help ensure efficient services for its customers.
Uber
Uber was just a small startup when it invested in online analytics tools, specifically Google Analytics, to find out more about its customers. The tool produced important data that allowed them to transform their service to suit the needs of their customers better.
Activision
Activision is a popular gaming company. A few years ago, they started using a client relationship management system that uses data analysis to study large amounts of information. This allowed them to get better insights about their customers which, in turn, enabled them to fine-tune their products.
The Cost of Online Services for Small Businesses
Investing in the right online services can help businesses save valuable money. However, these services must be implemented correctly to effectively capitalize on them. Let’s explore some of the costs of the most popular online services:
Content Management Systems
The total cost of using a CMS depends on the number of features it contains, such as hosting and payment processing. The more CMS features it has, the higher the price. Small businesses may pay only $10 per month for a CMS, while big corporations may pay thousands. Some businesses also hire a dedicated development team, which costs more than following a DIY approach. Additionally, hiring specialists, such as a chatbot developer, to enhance a CMS can increase the cost even more.
SEO Services
SEO pricing varies largely and depends on factors such as the SEO plan, SEO professional service provider, and more. Most small businesses make use of online SEO tools that start at around $99 per month or SEO consultants that ask between $100 and $300 per hour.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
PPC advertising depends on the amount a business wants to spend. Most small businesses can expect to pay anywhere between $1,000 to $2,000 for an effective PPC campaign.
Social Media Marketing
Just like Pay Per Click advertising, social media marketing depends on the size of a campaign and the size of the reach a business wants to invest in. The cost for a good small business social media marketing campaign ranges anywhere from $400 to $1,500 per month.
Google Services
Most Google services are free to use for businesses. Tools such as Google My Business are designed to help manage how businesses appear in Google search results.
Analytics Tools
Data analytics tools can range anywhere from free up to $10,000.00 or more per year. The cost depends on how a business’ unique needs and the type of insights they want to achieve.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
For small businesses, the cost of paid CRM systems start from around $12 per user, per month.
Trends in Different Online Small Businesses Niches
Today, there are hundreds of small business niches to explore. Different niches can invest in different types of online services. Some of the most popular small business niches in 2022 include:
Digital Marketing
The digital marketing industry is a $14 billion industry. Trends in this niche include creating tutorial videos, using AI content-writing tools, hiring a chatbot specialist and utilizing customer-centric marketing. Top online services for this type of niche include SEO services, social media marketing and analytics tools.
Health and Fitness
In the US alone, there has been an increase of 2.7% in health and fitness businesses from 2021 to 2022. Trends in this small business industry include creating videos and utilizing social media for sharing information. Online services that are most suited for these types of businesses include Google Services and social media marketing.
Personal Finance
In this niche, creating a secure online presence and tracking customer behavior are some of the most important trends. For this, CMSs and analytics tools are the most essential online services.
Technology
This niche is a highly popular one with many businesses competing for the same audience. In fact, in 2020, there were around 1.35 million tech startups in the world. As a result, some important online services include PPC, social media marketing and Google Services to stand out online.
Personal Development
In the personal development field, some trends include innovative communication with customers and sharing information in creative ways. CRMs, social media marketing, analytics and Google Services are some of the key online services for these small businesses.
The Bottom Line
With all the different aspects involved, running a small business can be challenging. But by investing in the right online services, small business owners can quickly develop and grow. The key is to find out which services are best suited to a specific niche and the business’ unique needs.
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by Anastasia Stefanuk
