The world is changing rapidly, and every day it becomes more and more technologically focused. As hard print newspapers that once could be found on every street corner disappear, online news sources have multiplied. As iconic brick and mortar stores, such as FAO Schwarz, have been forced out of business, ecommerce sites have become a main outlet for shopping.

Successful businesses, no matter the size, have two things in common – their achievements tend correlate to the hard work and dedication they put into their mission. As the millennial generation comes of age, it is important that businesses are aware, and adapt to, the changing business climate. What this means is that small businesses have one more thing to deal with and no additional time to allocate towards it. While it is important for small businesses to have a web presence, it is equally important for them to do so without compromising their current business successes. With no extra hours in the day, small business owners must be very smart with how they spend their time. Here are five tips for how you should go about creating your website that can help generate views:

When I was younger, there were several times when I had to fundraise, whether selling frozen pies for Thanksgiving or local discount books, I knew where 90% of my sales were going to come from – family friends and neighbors. Most semi-willingly purchased what I was offering, not because I had oneof-kind frozen pies, but because they knew me. Whether they purchased out of guilt or because they genuinely wanted the pecan pie was irrelevant to me, the sale was done. For small businesses, communicating their story is one of the most important factors in succeeding. One of the benefits of owning a small business is that owners have the opportunity to easily connect face-to-face with their patrons. Similar to student fundraising, small businesses’ most loyal customers are often people who they know. In today’s technology driven world, small businesses can benefit greatly by creating a sense of community and sharing their own brand story.

That being said, often times these small companies are competing with large corporations that spend thousands of dollars to develop and maintain their web presence. While it is not necessary for small businesses to have an independent marketing department, it is integral to their success that they communicate their story. By leveraging the internet and developing a social media presence small businesses can actively and easily communicate with their clientele and have the opportunity to grow their allegiance. Large companies have an advantage when it comes to cost of production and sales, but in today’s day and age, small businesses should excel in user experience by maximizing human interactions. By utilizing Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Small businesses like yours can develop genuine relationships with customers and build a reputation in the community by utilizing the free tools at their fingertips via the internet.

Call it the “S4″ if you’d like, but for service-focused businesses the secret to success lies in the ability to retain customers. Again, the secret to success in service-focused businesses is to RETAIN customers. Economically speaking, it gives your budget a lot of room to breathe, said room being about the size of a condo. If we take a look at the numbers, studies have shown that:

• Getting new customers can be 10-times more costly (and likely more difficult) than retaining current ones.
• A 2% increase in customer retention can actually decrease your expenses by as much as 10%.
• Familiar customers spend more than 60% more on average than first-time customers.

Therefore, these stats would show that if you have 2 customers, a first-timer and a third-timer, it would be advantageous to you to put more effort into retaining that third-timer than trying to convince the first-timer into your services. How can you do that?

So there you are, with your fantastic and amazing self and your even more fantastic-er and amazing-er brand. You have the greatest business idea ever, the most unique service ever, or even an almost-mystical product that would sell like hotcakes at retailers. However, for some reason, you’re not seeing a lot of success selling your brand to others. Customers, consumers, and users are ignoring your magnificence, and at worst, they think you’re a snake oil salesman.

However-however, what if I told you there was a way to turn all of this around? It’s simple, so simple it’s almost like a magic trick. Enter the world of “Content Marketing.” See, the secret to your upcoming success lies in-between those two quotation marks. What is content marketing? Simply put, content marketing is the latest style of marketing which focuses on providing valuable content to be published and shared for the benefit of the customers.