Family businesses are the heart of America and affect over half of the workforce. Eighty-seven percent of American businesses are family-owned or controlled, representing 54% of the U.S. GDP and 59% of employment according to Fortune.
If you’re one of the approximately 32.4 million family-owned businesses, you’re likely experiencing much of the same stresses we’ve all encountered. Whether things are up or numbers are low, there’s no better time than the present to polish up your digital marketing strategy. Working with small family-owned businesses over the years, we’ve found the following six digital marketing strategies are essential for marketing online in 2024.
Optimize Online Directory Listings
Go beyond your Google Business (previously called Google My Business) profile and take the time to find and update any online directories listing your business. If you haven’t already, you can claim or update multiple listings at once using a service such as Moz Local, SEM Rush Local, or Bird Eye.
If your business is not already listed, it’s FREE to list on the following online directories:
If you belong to any associations or professional organizations you will also want to ensure your profile or listing is up to date. This could include:
- Trade Associations (typically industry-specific)
- Certifications or Licensing (typically trade-specific)
- City Chamber of Commerce
- State Chamber of Commerce
If you’re tourism or travel focused, you may also want to check with your city and state for visitor websites. An example we utilize locally is the VisitHermann.com and VisitMissouri.com website(s) for tourism-focused brands. Some others that are national or global booking sites include:
- TripAdvisor
- Expedia *Free to list, takes a commission
- Airbnb *Free to list, takes a commission
- VRBO *Free to list, takes a commission
See our article here about best practices for optimizing your online directory listing.
Strategic Social Media Accounts
Utilizing social media is perhaps one of the most important things you can do as a small, family-owned business. The more traffic you can drive to your website, and eventually your business, from platforms like Instagram and TikTok, the less time and money you will have to spend on other avenues of outreach.
Many family businesses underestimate the impact that content marketing can have on their success. While you likely don’t have a dedicated marketing team or even just one individual to take this on, it should be something your business dedicates resources to.
No matter what industry you are in, you can utilize the big 3 platforms that prove successful for organic marketing:
- Instagram – a wonderful resource for showing off product photos, behind-the-scenes, before and afters, and more. With 2 billion monthly users and integration with Threads, it’s a great platform to reach 20-45-year-olds.
- TikTok – perfect for behind-the-scenes videos, photo slideshows, and showing off products. With exponential growth in popularity over the last few years, at over 1 billion monthly users, you’ll be able to reach your target audience regardless of whether they are 12 or 47.
- Facebook – the best place to repurpose videos from TikTok and Instagram, along with small business updates and creating a sense of community among your audience. With over 3 billion monthly users, this is best for reaching an audience of 30-60-year-olds.
Here are some ideas of the kind of content you can focus on easily creating and sharing across social media:
- Behind the Scenes
- Give your audience a peek into your day, from behind a bakery counter to a silly photo or video in the office. This will personalize your business and leave customers feeling more invested in you and, by extension, your product or service.
- Utilize Trends
- Look at what types of videos you are seeing online, and think about how you can adjust one or two to your business’ niche.
- Aesthetic Content
- Everyone loves a pretty photo or a short video of what you have to offer. Tip: Use trending audio and a few hashtags to push your content into the algorithm!
If you’re ready to take your social media strategy to the next level, here is what we suggest.
Engaging Email Automations
Outreach comes in many forms, and emails are a great way to reach current and potential customers alike.
In a world where social media can be overwhelming and lead to user burnout, email marketing helps to fill in the space between mindless scrolling and intentional online research.
A very important note, though, is that your automated emails should be engaging. Offer your subscribers something to look forward to that doesn’t involve dragging your email to the trash folder.
Engaging email automation should include at least one of the following components:
- Tips and Tricks
- Funny Anecdotes
- A Personal Note from You or Your Team
- Bonus: A CTA to Visit Your Site
Exceptional Customer Experiences
One thing that marketing simply cannot replace?
An experience that leaves your customer coming back time and time again!
Here are a few ways to nurture your customer experience:
- Set expectations and exceed them
- Always look for ways to offer better services, products, and methods of communication.
- Automated appointment reminders
- Make things easy on your customer, remind them of appointments and tours, or update them about their product’s shipping status.
- Consistency in tours, wait times, or a product
- The more reliable, the better. Customers want to know that they can count on you for a successful service, above all else!
Going above and beyond for your customers not only helps create trust and appreciation, but it can also lead others to your business.
How is that, you might ask?
Regular customers can turn out to be some of your best supporters. They’ll bring up your business in conversation, post about it on social media, and leave reviews that could just find you a new set of customers.
Increase Reviews & Testimonials
A focus on exceptional customer experiences will naturally help give you more positive reviews and testimonials. You can feature these on your website and social media platforms, not to mention the traffic they can help drive from customers who may find you on online directories.
If you wish you could get more testimonials, offer an incentive!
This could look like a free beverage in exchange for a positive Yelp review, 15% off the next appointment to be featured as a model on your social media page, or a discount the next time the customer comes in and shows a Google Business testimonial. Learn more about how to ask for reviews here.
Focus on High Impact Keywords
SEO strategy, the way that you optimize your standing on search engines like Google, may seem overwhelming. The truth is that high-impact keywords are crucial in leveraging your exposure.
Contrary to what you may have learned, SEO is for more than just websites. You can implement high-impact keywords in your social media captions, onscreen text, and even by using audio on videos that relate to your business.
Using keywords will help to cement your brand, allow new customers to find you within the vast expanse of the internet, and help to define what exactly your impact is.
So, Where Should I Start?
Although all six digital marketing strategies can greatly benefit any (& every!) family-owned small business, some may have a greater impact faster than others. When we work together we’ll not only help you evaluate where you are with your marketing efforts but also advise on what strategies and resources will be best allocated and aligned with your business goals.
For example: If you have time, but are lacking in the budget department, we may advise a Social + Strategic coaching program to give you ongoing support at a bootstrap price. If you’re short on time but have some budget, we might offer to take on your social media management or email marketing efforts to free you up for other initiatives.
No matter what your current situation is, we’re here to help your tiny team build a bold brand. It all starts with a free discovery call. Inquire to schedule yours today!
TLDR:
Discover 6 essential digital marketing strategies for family businesses in 2024. From utilizing social media platforms to focusing on exceptional customer experience, transform your marketing strategies this year! Follow for more business wisdom and reach out to Neat + Nimble to turn these lessons into actionable strategies for your brand’s success.