When entering the fast paced digital world, it is important that you have the digital skills and ability to quickly connect with customers, manage a team of employees, and create all the digital assets you need to run and promote your business. When we asked what the number one struggle you see small businesses having when starting out digitally, digital professional Maria Elena Duron answered:
“Defining and measuring what they want each platform to do and how to measure success in that platform. Too often they jump onto a platform or create a website hoping to get business or because their competitor is there without any clear vision and path to how this will deliver success to them,” explained Maria Elena Duron.
The Women’s Business Center talked with KLI Brand’s Maria Elena Duron about the five key assessments to think about when expanding your business’ presence online.
There is so much opportunity for visibility and reach in the digital space and it’s easy to get lost in the variety. Here are the key assessments that are important to focus on:
- Know your goals
- Know your target audience
- Use your small business super power
- Understand how to be visible on digital
- Measure your market
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Assessment One: Know Your Goals
Below are a few probing questions to help you uncover the areas you identify as success in your business and online.
Consider these questions when creating your goals:
- What does success look like for you in your business?
- What part of that success is coming from the digital space?
- What does that look like and sound like?
- How will you know when you’ve achieved your goals online?
Duron teaches the importance of knowing your goals and making sure they pass the SMART test (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time Sensitive). The questions above will help you examine your business to create unique goals for your business.
Assessment Two: Know Your Target Audience
It doesn’t mean that you cannot serve everybody. You can. However, if your messaging is targeted to anybody, everybody, and somebody you’ll get their second cousin, nobody.
It’s too broad.
Your content will be too general to get noticed. Content can be text, video, blog posts, email marketing, and photos. It needs to resonate with your target audience and help them feel that you really get and understand them. In the digital space, there are a lot of messages out there. For you to cut through the clutter, you have to make that real connection with your target market.
Assessment Three: Use Your Small Business Power
Just like your small business does not have some luxuries that big corporations have, they can’t do some of the things you can.
The ability to be nimble and to turn on a dime is a great asset that small businesses acquire. Learn and apply faster than any large business can even decide to have a meeting about deciding. Attend webinars, participate in masterclasses, and read. Reach out to mentors who can teach you how to apply what you’ve learned. There is great value in other people’s experience to gain shortcuts.
The faster you apply what you learn the more opportunities you will make yourself visible and available for. Knowledge is not power; applied knowledge is. Use your small business super power and apply what you learn quickly.
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Assessment Four: Understand How to be Visible on Digital
That means knowing how to be seen not only on the social platforms but also on Google and YouTube. Google is the number one search engine in the world and YouTube is number two. So that means creating a Google My Business page is a great idea, or maybe incorporating YouTube videos on how to use your product or FAQs.
It’s important for you to know how to use all the free tools available through Google since it is where the majority of the U.S. searches.
Assessment Five: Measure Your Marketing
One dollar or one minute spent on something that is not lifting your bottom line or making your goals inevitable money and time wasted. In digital marketing, it means knowing how to read and interpret data or “insights” on the social media platforms you’ve chosen to tackle.
Learn how to look at your data to interpret the stories it is showing to you. Your online analytics will tell you a lot about the health and growth of your business and customer relationships.
Maria Duron and KLI Brand
Maria Elena Duron is a professional trainer with Google on the Grow with Google Team. At KLI Brand, Maria Elena Duron helps small businesses increase their impact and income online through coaching and strategy. Duron intimately knows the sacrifices and struggles of running a small business from ideation to implementing strategies for growth. Because of this, she finds nurturing and coaching small businesses and start-ups most fulfilling.
If you are interested in joining your small business with the help of Maria Duron – in-person or virtually, visit KLIBrand.com to learn more about what she can do for you!