Top Challenges for Small Businesses-Part 2

If you have already read “Top Challenges for Small Businesses- Part 1”, you’d know that we discussed a few challenges a small business faces. The basic difference between a small business and a large enterprise lies in the functioning of the business & the challenges they face.

Here are the problems encountered by small business owners:

Finding a sponsor

Getting a sponsor who can promote your business is always a task for SMEs. Due to budget constraint, small businesses are unable to get sponsors.

Being a small business owner, it is very difficult to convince a sponsor for investment because of the risks involved with an SME and its reputation in the marketing world.

Finding content for the audience

Very often, businesses find it difficult to identify the kind of content that their audience likes to consume. This is a problem since starting on the right foot requires gathering suitable content which is liked by your target audience. If you knew exactly the kind of content that your audience likes, it is easier for you to create similar content for the future.

The reports from analytical tools give you a clear evidence of what content is liked by the audience and to which demographic do they belong. Online marketing tools help businesses create good quality content. But these are often the paid versions, and SMEs choose not to invest in something more important. Ideally, SMEs should try keeping aside a budget for such tools. They might require capital but will help your business create good quality content and grow.

Supervising the website

A business website is the representation of your business online. This calls for a regular check on your website.  

Does your website attract online visitors? Is your website design good enough? How is your website speed? What is the look and feel of your website?

However, having a business website is not enough. To have an excellent online presence, you must focus on the complete branding of your website. This includes how responsive your website is, whether your content is optimized, how many link backs there are to your website. The overall functioning and appearance of your website decide whether or not an online visitor will continue surfing through your website.

Choosing social media platforms

Many businesses believe that having an online presence on every single social media platform will help improve your online visibility. This is not true!

As a business, you must focus on establishing a strong presence on social media channels that are aligned with the nature of your business. You must filter out social media platforms that are of least importance to your business.   

For this, your business might need a social media professional who is well aware of which platforms are meant for your business. A common challenge that a small business enterprise faces are identifying the appropriate social media channel for the business.

For example, a business dealing with beauty products does not have an Instagram presence but is quite active on Twitter. For many people, this doesn’t add up! This is because you would expect a beauty brand to be present on a platform like Instagram.

Marketing and strategies

For a business to succeed, it needs a planned marketing strategy. A business must formulate a strategy and abide by it. It is also wise to split test various different strategies. Finding right technologies for your business that will enhance your business performance is mandatory.

Not every business requires technology like artificial intelligence and virtual reality. But what is important is the ability to identify the right technology that your business will benefit from. This will help small businesses analyze what interests their readers the most.

Finding appropriate customers/clients

Businesses should realize that not every online user is your prospective customer. It is up to a business to identify a prospective customer and define its target market or niche. This can be done by going through business analytic reports that show which domain your prospective clients belong to.

Your business is meant for the specific type of people who are in need of your services/products. The analytic reports will help you find your prospective clients.

For example, Twitter analytics shows to which domain your audience belongs to. For example, for RedAlkemi, 70% of our organic audience belongs to Technology & Technews.

Very often, businesses are unable to identify their target audience. This is where online marketing tools help in pinpointing the prospective customers.

However, with large enterprises having no budget constraint, it is easy for them to opt for paid online marketing tools, well to their service. However, small businesses cannot spend huge amounts on buying online tools for their business. They then rely on free tools like Google analytics and analytics of individual social media channels, like Twitter analytics or Facebook insights.   

We hope we helped you get an insight into challenges that a small business faces. If you think we missed out on anything, let us know in the comments below!

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