Quick fixes and big questions - small businesses’ digital challenges

05.01.2022

In December 2020 the University of Helsinki team of EntreFox organised a webinar called Digital Clinic. The idea was to answer questions from small businesses and self-employed people. In this blog post you find a summary of the webinar written by Lari and Tero from Digiapusi Oy. You can find more information about Digiapusi in the end of the text.

The big themes covered this text are websites and online stores, and social media from different angles.

Websites and Online Stores

Things to consider when creating and developing a website

  • Before choosing a platform for where to start building your website, consider the following:
    • Who is your customer?
    • Think about what things a customer should find on your site?
    • What kind of features do you need for this? For example, a blog, an online store, maybe a calendar for appointments
    • websites should be easy to use and clear
    • need to work fluidly, especially on mobile devices
    • Good content, good website technology, such as speed and security, greatly influence how websites are found on search engines

What is the right or best website to start with?

It depends on what the purpose of the website is and how skilled you are or how much time you want to spend yourself working with this.

WordPress:

WordPress is the most popular and the most versatile and affordable of all, but not as beginner-friendly as some other webpage platforms.

Website hosting platforms Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Weebly

Website hosting platforms are designed for those with no previous experience in creating websites and they to make creating websites as easy as possible. Website hosting platforms usually provide everything you need to create and maintain a website.

Website and customers’ data security

6 tips on the security:

  1. Strong password and, if possible, two-step authentication.
  2. Admin users
  3. Keep software and add-ons up to date
  4. SSL certificate (HTTPS)
  5. Security add-ons
  6. Remove plugins you don’t need

If you have an online store or the website collects customer information, for example, a form, this information must be visible on the website:

  1. What information do you collect?
  2. Why do you collect them?
  3. Where do you get the information?
  4. Where do you store this data?
  5. Who all processes this information?
  6. How long is the data kept?
  7. What are a person’s rights to their own data?

Search engine optimization

Well-optimized websites tell search engines exactly what it’s all about. Example: When Google knows exactly what your website is about, your site will rank higher in search engine rankings.

Here are 8 tips to get you started:

  1. URL
    • good example: www.example.com/blog/well-being-at-work
    • bad example: www. example.com/blog/article12345
  2. Internal links
    • good example: Read more well-being at work
    • bad example: Read more
  3. External linking                
  4. Website technology
    • SSL certificate, Quickly on all devices              
  5. Responsiveness and functionality on the phone.               
  6. Keyword
    • Your primary keyword should be at the beginning of the title              
  7. Title
    • One H1 title and at least one H2 title              
  8. ALT tags for images
    • Alt tags for images help Google better understand the content of the images.

Social media

Most popular social media channels right now are: 

More insights from the point of view of small businesses:

Instagram

Instagram for Business – Instagram marketing for businesses is made easier with enterprise tools:

  1. Contact button
  2. Location information on the map
  3. Comprehensive follower information
  4. Advertising tool

How to act on Instagram

  • Be present on Instagram
  • The number of followers is not the main thing, but that they are interested in your content and react to your posts.

Contents:

  1. Instagram feed
  2. Reels
  3. Stories
  4. Live
  5. IG TV

Visibility for content:

  1. #
  2. @
  3. Location marker 

LinkedIn 

The audience of LinkedIn is one of the most lucrative ones.

Professional Linkedin profile:

  1. Customize your public Profile URL
  2. Add a LinkedIn background photo to your Profile
  3. Optimize your LinkedIn Profile for the search engines
    • Language
    • Picture
    • Headlines
    • Summary
    • Work experience
    • Education
    • Skills
    • Network size 

Using Linkedin:

  • Use hashtags. (Example: #helsinki)
  • LinkedIn Profile vs. a LinkedIn Page.
  • Posts of varying lengths.
  • Publishing schedule consistent.
  • Find potential customers or decision makers who order your services or products

Youtube

  • A commonly used form of advertising on YouTube is a skippable video ad, typically 15 to 35 seconds in length, which can be skipped in five seconds.
  • People over 35 are the fastest growing user base on YouTube.
  • When you want more information and practical advice- someone has made a video of it

More about Digiapusi Oy 

We have been working in the digital industry since 2000 in customer service, sales, training and expert positions. The Digiapusi service was established in 2018 We help both consumer and business customers to take advantage of the opportunities offered by digital services, and we are used to working with people at different stages in basic and advance digital matters.

What we do:

  1. We can help you choose and acquire the right equipment and services. We research the equipment and services to the customer needs, and based on this  we can suggest products or services and show you the persons or companies that you should contact.
  2. We guide you in using the services and equipment for your needs We will install these if you wish and we will give you support on the use if necessary.
  3. We build and develop different kind of websites and online storesWe help you choose the technical solutions for your new website according to all of your needs. We analyze the technical functionality and usability of ready-made websites. We will help you with developing customer experiences on your website and purchase path on your online store.
  4. Marketing – Clarifying the marketing message so that the message is easy to understand and that it is  same on every channel that you are using.- Target group planning , how to find the most potential customers and how to reach them.- Helping you at Choosing the right marketing channel

Lari Similä

Tero Lehti

Digiapusi Oy