As a Miamian born and raised in a family of entrepreneurs, I always seek out comfort foods from local eateries before ordering fast food, memorize the names of boutiques I drive past to browse online later, and bookmark bars and speakeasies my friends share with me for Friday night happy hour. In my humble “305 ‘til I die” opinion, keeping a running list of new places, experiences, and adventures to try in my city – run completely by small business owners – makes Miami one of the greatest metropolises in the nation.
Unlike the rest of the country, South Florida presents a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs to contribute to the economy in a meaningful way. According to the Florida SBDC at FIU, Miami-Dade has the highest percentage of microbusinesses, representing 81.3% of all businesses in the county, and more than 82,000 small businesses employ 53.3 percent of Miami-Dade County’s workforce. While this makes good news for those who come from all over the country to pursue the American dream, the competitive marketplace requires entrepreneurs to find a balance between science and art to make it in Miami.
THE SCIENCE IN DATA
While many business owners may find analytics too complex, time-consuming, or even irrelevant to their business, understanding business analytics, even its basics, helps organizations reduce risks, make better decisions, and save money.
A local restaurant without a social media presence, for example, may discover that the average session duration (the length of a site visit) on their website is fairly short, under the 2 to 3-minute industry standard. This metric may suggest that users are not engaging with their site’s content, that users don’t know where to learn more about the restaurant including its offerings, and that it may be time to activate a digital marketing campaign to aid in converting these potential clients into paying customers.
Before SEO Smooth’s campaign for SouthFloridaEvents.com, the professional, high-end, catering company had virtually no revenue from digital marketing, which now makes up 33% of their business. SEO Smooth provided a complete redesign of its website to highlight its services, developed written content with testimonials for social media, and provided SEO and paid ad campaigns for the company, converting new customers into a 50% increase in revenue and 323% increase in monthly minimum return on investment (ROI).
Part of SEO Smooth’s complete business solution for South Florida Events was a redesign of its website.
For an entrepreneur who may not be ready to outsource its marketing efforts, advancements in technology and digital analytics make accessing this kind of data available to entrepreneurs of all resource levels, through various social media platforms that host free in-app insights and paid tools like Hootsuite, SproutSocial, and Google Analytics.
THE ART OF CONTENT
This data, combined with unique, creative content, helps businesses tap into the emotion of their audience. At the end of the day, if a consumer is not captivated by the content of your campaign efforts and doesn’t understand the value you may provide to them, no amount of advertising or digital marketing will make them interested to learn more and provide their patronage.
When North Beach Now enlisted Schwartz Media Strategies to create a campaign surrounding the redevelopment of North Miami Beach which required the approval of voters, Miami Beach residents historically always voted in favor of the preservation of their neighborhoods. Schwartz Media Strategies had to approach this challenge with an integrated marketing mix, creating content like “Vote Yes on #82” posters and a campaign website to communicate the merits of the plan to an apprehensive body politic, along with digital marketing, social media engagement, voter outreach, media coverage, and digital advertising efforts.
North Beach Now poster advertising endorsement from The Miami Herald via Schwartz Media Strategies.
The campaign website experienced more than 18,000 website visits over a six-week span, suggesting that the organization’s content marketing strategy captured the interest of the voters, and the ballot item was approved by a margin of 59% to 41% – the first zoning change of this nature to pass in Miami Beach.
AN ASSET TO THE WORLD STAGE
In our globalized society, small businesses remain essential to local and global economies. They foster the health of our neighborhoods and provide opportunities for community members, keeping money within cities and creating intimate, meaningful jobs that lead to greater satisfaction as opposed to jobs within larger corporations.
In Miami, as our ever-changing city prepares for a technological revolution in the coming years, it will be even more important for small businesses to learn the art and science of marketing. This careful balance will ensure that Miami can remain one of the greatest cities in the U.S. thanks mostly in part to our small business owners.
Genesis Cosme is a graphic designer and digital marketer based in Miami, Florida. She has over five years of experience in helping small businesses and startups find their creativity to compete amongst giants. Contact Genesis.
