Are SMEs at a disadvantage compared to large companies? Yes, but marketing can help them
Traditionally, larger companies have an advantage in terms of budget size compared to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), but thanks to Web Marketing the situation can be reversed. In fact, by investing on the web, SMEs can reduce the resources dedicated to traditional means of communication such as TV commercials, billboards and print ads, to allocate them to activities such as email marketing, blogs, social media, video production.
Web Marketing provides the tools to change the way you do business using a series of tools that are often free. This also applies to SMEs , which can expand their user base with a minimal investment.
In these cases, however, the investment is not strictly monetary, or rather not only. The major resources employed will be time and energy . This may initially discourage but, if carried out methodically, Web Marketing strategies can make the difference and lead the company to success.
As an example, we give you the case of Triumvirate Environmental .
The Triumvirate Environmental Case: $1.2 Million in Revenue Thanks to Web Marketing
Triumvirate Environmental is a Boston-based consulting firm founded in 1988 that provides environmental consulting , including environmental safety and compliance, cost optimization programs, waste reduction programs, and environmental sustainability programs.
Mark Campanale , Marketing Manager of the company, declares that thanks to the careful use of LinkedIn , the company blog and Search Engine Optimization Marketing they have managed to obtain surprising results.
Initial disappointment, but they didn't give up
As often happens, the initial approach to Digital Marketing was disappointing: too much time, money and energy spent, little economic return. They did not give up.
The approach was wrong and they were beginners. They limited themselves to using Google AdWords and Pay-Per-Click without having a structured online marketing plan that integrated the platforms.
The goal was to identify potential customers and establish a relationship, a dialogue, with them.
They achieved this by using a variety of targeted web marketing techniques : company blogging, search engine optimization, LinkedIn, newsletters and pay-per-click advertising .
The Triumvirate Blog
The company has created a content-rich blog that covers different topics, divided into subcategories of their industry so that every potential client company could find interesting articles.
Why?
Because each category has a different target and deals with different topics. In fact, some topics are more generic and can attract the interest of a wider audience, while others are niche .
By doing so, they were able to generate traffic both for topics with a low search volume through keywords and for those with a higher search volume.
It is important to write posts related to niche topics because it means that you show yourself as an expert in an industry and have less competition in reaching new customers.
By using such a complete and articulated blog, Triumvirate encourages professionals in the sectors it deals with to subscribe to the Newsletter by entering the category to which their company belongs.
In this way, you can act in a targeted manner, suggesting to customers to read those posts that are related to their business and keeping the relationship with their "community" alive.
Inserting calls to action
Furthermore, after the conclusion of each blog post, a button, a call-to-action, is inserted.
For example, if the topic of the post is " 5 Ways to Properly Manage Your Waste Disposal System ", once the explanation is finished a button will tell us that we can click it to get advice on waste disposal.
If the topic is " 5 consequences of mismanagement of hazardous waste ", the button will inform us that to learn more about the issue, it is possible to register for a webinar .
Another interesting aspect is the link they have established between the blog and LinkedIn : each post can be shared directly on the social network dedicated to the world of work.
Triumvirate also uses social networks as "networks" to bring potential customers to the blog and site.
What resources are needed?
As we have already told you, Web Marketing requires time and consistency to be effective.
Triumvirate employs two marketing staff members and an intern for Web Marketing who together take care of the editorial plan and writing.
However, digital marketing is an activity that involves everyone within the company, albeit at different levels: for example, Account Managers use LinkedIn to promote their professional skills, but also to share a blog post per month.
We decided to delve deeper into the data using a specific program: SEM Rush .
The world's first site for conducting competitive research in online marketing.
As you can see from the figure above, Triumvirate's website currently generates 5,400 organic visits (i.e. from Google through blog posts). This is a good amount of traffic for a specialized business blog.
How can you do it too?
The first action you need to take is to understand what information people are looking for in your industry. To do this, we recommend using Seo Zoom , an excellent tool with a free trial that allows you to analyze both your domain and that of your competitors.
The most interesting feature in this case is for a tool within the software that helps you write your blog posts by taking as a reference online searches on the topic and the pages positioned for the search key that interests you.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the winning strategy proposed here can be summed up in these steps:
Understand what information people are looking for in your industry and write interesting blog posts
Be consistent over time and divide the sending of blog posts by categories of interest through the newsletter
Sharing posts on social networks starting from the company's internal staff
Sponsor Shares
Insert call to action at the end of blog posts or on the same page to maximize the possibility of getting from awareness to visit conversion
This article was written based on research conducted by Kipp Bodnar, Blog Manager of The HubSpot Marketing Team. Here is a link to his work. The HubSpot Website .
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