One of the lessons the pandemic taught many local B2B businesses in Calgary and beyond is how important it is to always be growing. As the economy started to slow and collapse, the businesses that were best positioned to survive were the ones that already had a backlog of customers and were positioned well enough to still capture those that were looking for their work.
Deimira Paa Baidoo, who owns and operates a marketing and consulting company in Calgary, believes that one of the main takeaways for small businesses is to start their long-term search engine marketing strategy now, as a way to protect their business from future emergencies.
“When the pandemic hit and marketing budgets dried up, many small businesses had little way to try to replace the lost clients. That put them at a financial disadvantage”, said Baidoo. “But the businesses that were at the top of search engines could essentially ‘turn off’ their marketing budget and would still be able to capture any customers looking for work”.
Deimira encourages any small business to start working on their search engine presence now, because, according to him, “reaching the top of search engines is a slow and ongoing process, and it is better to start early than wait until you need it most”. He suggests that any small business start by using techniques such as:
- Keyword Optimized Content Writing
- Backlinking
- Citations
Backlinking refers to finding ways for external websites to link to your website, while citations are mentions of your business, phone number, and address on other websites and directories (with or without a link).
“Outside of paid ads, online marketing can be slow”, says Baidoo, “the sooner you begin the process, the better your long-term outlook will be”.
