• FAQs

          Search engine optimization (SEO) helps businesses drive visits to their website through organic search traffic. Given that the top organic search results receive a third of the clicks, a decline in ranking could be detrimental for your business. Implementing SEO best practices on your website will help to ensure that your web content is seen by as many potential customers as possible. The more visitors you have, the better your chances are of converting those visits into sales!

          Local search engine optimization (SEO) helps local businesses gain visibility by optimizing their local business listings for local search. A business that leverages local SEO will include its address, phone number, local opening times, and exact location in the form of a local citation. The goal is to rank for local searches which are usually performed by people in a specific geographical region looking for a business near them.

          We typically see results within the first 30 to 60 days, but when it comes to SEO, there are many factors at play. It's important to remember that SEO is a long-term strategy and results may not come as fast at you wish.


        • FAQs

          Digital advertising uses the internet to send advertisements to customers who are online through different websites and social media platforms like Google, Bing, LinkedIn and Facebook.

          The price for Google Ads management depends on the monthly ad spend. For accounts with $1,000 in monthly ad spend, the price is $550/month. Between $1,000 and $5,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $950/month. For $5,000 to $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $2,000/month. For more than $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $4,500/month.

          The price for Social Media Ads management depends on the monthly ad spend. For accounts with $1,000 in monthly ad spend, the price is $550/month. Between $1,000 and $5,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $950/month. For $5,000 to $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $2,000/month. For more than $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $4,500/month.


        • FAQs

          This depends on the complexity and size of a redesign and if eCommerce is needed. On average, it takes around 14-18 weeks from the web design intensive stage to launch.

          If your website experiences the following issues: it’s not responsive on all devices, has a slow loading speed, the design appears old and tired, users don’t spend long on the site, sales are stagnant, or your business is going through a rebranding - your website needs a redesign to boost your brand awareness and sales.

          Sometimes there’s no need to rebuild a website. Minor edits, refreshing page content and images, or restructuring page layout for SEO best practices can boost traffic and sales.


        • FAQs

          Semantic search launched in 2013 with the release of Google's Hummingbird update. Since then, Google's search engine has become more complex. The integration of machine learning, with RankBrain, and NLP, with BERT, has enabled the search engine to better understand the context of a query and deliver more personalized and targeted results. Semantic SEO is the process of creating machine-readable content using structured data and linked open data to help search engines better understand your content.

          On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page SEO refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO which refers to links and other external signals. From meta tags to page content, website structure, and HTML, on-page optimization services are focused on making your website more visible to search engines.

          Structured data refers to any organized data that conforms to a certain format, such as information in a relational database. When information is highly structured and predictable, search engines can more easily organize and display it in creative ways. Structured data involves using a piece of code that is laid out in a specific format easily understood by search engines. The search engines read the code and use it to display search results in a more dynamic way.


        • FAQs

          An SEO agency has experts in different areas of search engine optimization that may be out of the realm of your marketing team's abilities. SEO can be very complex and time-consuming. Furthermore, as search engine algorithms change it can be difficult to stay current on the latest ranking factors and strategies for improving online visibility. You will likely see a greater return on investment and better results from using a professional SEO agency than you would from tackling this on your own.

          As a digital marketing agency, SMA Marketing provides products and services in four areas: SEO, Local SEO, Digital Advertising, and Web Design

          We focus on building authentic, long-lasting relationships with our clients. We’re goal oriented and results driven and believe in doing good and making a difference in the world.

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How & Where To Find Your Potential Customers

One of the most seemingly difficult things that any business looking to grow online must figure out is where their audience hangs out. With so many channels, from Google search to social media, it can be extremely intimidating to know where to start. In this post I am going to give you some practical advice on how to find where your potential customers live online.

Buyer Persona Review

Buyer personas are supposed to represent who your target audience is and what they are supposed to be like. Before you can find out where your potential customers are, you must first define who they are.

Defining your ideal customer is going to not only help you create great products, it’s going to help keep you focused on your sales and marketing efforts. By simply defining who you want to target, you can begin creating messaging that aligns with their goals.

One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is assuming that their product or service is for everyone. Sorry, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. If you market your product to everyone, you will end up selling to no one.

Just think about it, we like to talk, hang out and do business with people like us right? Well, your customers feel the same way. When you water down your message you alienate everyone and connect with no one. Think about your average politician. They strive to make everyone happy, take no stance, and as a result, everyone dislikes them.

Get Granular

We can segment at a much lower level than ever before. The internet allows for people to connect and create small networks that were not possible before. There are niche communities all across the web that serve very specific needs.

There are millions of communities for things like video gamers, moms to be, farm equipment, honestly, if you can think of it, it probably exists. In fact, internet marketing expert Russell Brunson made his first million dollars selling a DVD that showed people how to make a potato gun.

So what does that mean for you and your business?

Just because you have a website, doesn’t mean that potential customers are going to come flocking to you. This is one area that many in the inbound marketing community seemed to overlook. If you want people to find you, you first need to find them.

Here’s what I mean.

If you have a small business that sells custom pet tags, just having a website and publishing content isn’t going to drive business quickly. By the time your prospects find your site, you may be out of business.

A smarter approach would be to find out where pet enthusiast hangout online and connect with them. You’ll be able to build relationships with people you are creating a product for and you’ll be able to tell them where they can find your product.

There are many tools out there to help you find online communities, but I want to show you a few quick and free ways to get started.

How to Find Out Where Your Potential Clients Are Hanging Out Online

Google Search

Google search is a great place to start. But searching for groups and communities is a little different than searching for products or answers. When searching for groups, you’ll want to modify your search. To make sure you get better results, we’ll use something called an advanced operator. This will restrict what Google will pull and give you better results. In this case, we want to use quotations around our search term. This forces Google to only returns sites that have an exact match of our query.

In the case of our customized pet tag business, we could use the following to find potential groups.

“Pet Community Online”

“Dog Owner Forum”

“Cat Owner Forum”

Using terms like forum or community will also help ensure we find sites where our potential clients hang out and chat.

Facebook

Facebook has more than a billion users. So chances are, there is at least one person on there that would like your product. Because of updates to the way Facebook shows content, it’s harder than ever for a business page to gain visibility. But, Facebook groups are a great place to connect with potential clients.

On Facebook, you can search for groups in two places.

First, you can simply use the search bar. Type in something like, “Dog Owners Group” and they will give you a few options. Now, some of these groups will likely need to approve your membership. If you get approved, don’t just start selling, instead build relationships!

The second way to search groups is with Group Discovery. Login into to Facebook and go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/?category=discover

Facebook will look at your profile, what you are interested in and then suggest groups for you to join. This is a great way to find groups of people that have similar interests as you.

LinkedIn

If you are in the B2B space, LinkedIn is a great place to connect with other business leaders and decisions makers. Just like Facebook, LinkedIn Groups provide a great place to build your authority and create connections with potential customers.

To search groups on LinkedIn, login to your profile and use the search function at the top of the page. Put in a keyword and you’ll see some results start to pop up. Look for results with the “group” label. Check out the groups, see how many people are in the group and join if it’s a good fit.

Twitter

While Twitter doesn’t have groups, it can be a very powerful platform to find potential customers and build your community. Twitter has a great search function that can help you get connected. Search one of your keywords and you’ll find popular hashtags as well as thought leaders you should follow.

Twitter search

By building your base on Twitter, sharing your content as well as content from other thought leaders and using hashtags, you can begin to attract others to you as well. I’ve used this platform myself to build a following of over 28,000.

Move Them To Your Site

Once you’ve connected with your prospects online, your first goal should be to build credibility. People won’t come to your site just because you tell them how awesome you are. You have to show them that you know what you are talking about and that you want to help them.

Whether you’re selling services or products, your approach should be similar. Look for pain points and frustrations in the groups. If your product or service helps to alleviate problems, empathize with the pain and share some content from your site about how you’ve tried to solve the pain.

Twitter search
Twitter search results

You need to position yourself as a trusted adviser or a guide. When Phil Knight was starting Nike, he would go to local track meets and connect with the runners. As a runner himself, he knew their pains and worked to develop a solution to alleviate that pain. As a result, Nike crushed their competition and still maintain their dominance today. They are able to do this because they found their potential clients and solved their pains.

Whether you’ve been in business a while or just starting out, if you want to have success online, you need to find where your potential customers are and then go to them. Share your knowledge with them. Empathize with them. By building the relationship first, when it’s time to sell your product, they’ll be ready to buy.

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