With the month centered on Valentine’s Day, it’s hard not to feel the love during February. And we love small businesses so much that we’re giving out useful tips to help them grow!

We highlighted a lot of things we loved this past month, and we have collected them for you right here! We looked at web development, from secrets to a great homepage to how you can rank on Google’s search results with structured data. We also looked at which factors to consider when analyzing your email marketing campaign. And we moved from digital into print with why you should go for professional printers.

Check out these marketing tips from February to see how to elevate your small business to the next level!

The old saying of “Don’t judge a book by its cover” doesn’t ring true for a small business’s website. Your homepage is the first impression most potential customers will have of your business. The first place a potential customer will go is usually your website to see what your business is all about. Somewhere between 70-80% of people research a company online before even going there!

So, when you don’t have a whole lot of time to impress people, what do you do? Having a well-designed, clean homepage goes a long way! Web design is important for the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing. You need to re-design or update your website and homepage regularly in order to keep up with the latest trends — like we did!

But how do you create a homepage that get people craving more information?

Fortunately, Joe has the answers! Check out his breakdown of the five things your small business needs to include on its homepage to make it great!

Print marketing creates a dynamic way for your business to advertise. It can be an innovative way of catching someone’s attention. And print marketing should be memorable. People are more likely to remember something handed to them than they are seeing it online. That’s good news for small businesses that like to use print materials!

But are you printing those materials on a standard office printer? If you are, you might want to rethink that strategy. When it comes to marketing your business in print, leave it to the pros. That investment pays off with sleek, professional-looking documents for your customers!

Professional printers know the nuances of printing for a reason. In fact, getting your print jobs to look professional is hard enough. But with a professional touch, your documents will get noticed in no time! There’s an exhilarating feeling of seeing your business come to life through print marketing. Sharing that feeling only occurs when the documents are professional and pristine!

Structured data, also known as schema markup, is a way for Google to read your website or content. It’s strings of code put into your blog posts or website that allow Google to know what’s going on. Google reads this code and knows where to put your content or site when someone searches for something.

Each piece of schema is like a category. All of the major search engines use the same kind of schema, which can be found at Schema.org. You simply mark individual pieces of your content or website with the right category.

Based on how you mark up your content, Google reads it, and then indexes it so it can be called up when a search matches it.

For a more in-depth breakdown of how structured data helps your small business, check out the video below!

Email marketing is a fantastic way to connect with your customers. You can offer them discounts and deals, or keep them updated on your latest services and products. But after you’ve set up your email campaign, how do you know it’s working?

That’s where tracking your metrics comes in. Metrics are how we measure results of something like email marketing.

Two metrics you should be measuring for email marketing are open rate and click-through-rate.

Open rate tells you how many recipients opened the email you sent. Based on that information, you can make adjustments. For example, if there’s a low open rate, then it might indicate that your subject lines need to more enticing. If you see a high open rate on certain emails, stick with that structure for further success.

Click-through-rate means how many people opened your email and then clicked through to go to one of your landing pages. While open rate tells you who is at least looking at the email, click-through-rate tells you about the content you’re offering. And, again, based on this information, you can make adjustments as needed.

There’s a lot that goes into marketing for a small business. Did these tips give you some good insights into the world of marketing? Do you want to know more about how marketing can elevate your small business to the next level?

If you do, feel free to reach out to us! Frontier Marketing uses talented writers and graphic designers to forge a deeper connection between your small business and your customers.

Whether it’s email marketing, website design, or print marketing materials, we’re here to help! We love taking small businesses in the Fox Lake, IL and McHenry County area to the next frontier!