Digital Marketing and Business Credit
Digital marketing is a legitimate business activity that improves your online brand awareness and generates new revenues. Businesses must evolve and compete online to remain relevant to their target demographic.
Digital marketing enables businesses to optimize their online presence in several critical ways:
- Increase online visibility and improve brand awareness
- Drive relevant traffic to your business website
- Increase conversion rates by producing high-quality content
Investing in Paid Advertising Campaigns
Accessing a line of business credit is essential for creating paid advertising and marketing campaigns. Aggressive marketing campaigns targeting specific audiences involve up-front costs. However, investing in the campaign can yield long-term results. The brand recognition factor alone can contribute to the business’s success online.
Content Creation and Marketing
Investing in creating engaging content that informs your viewers is a popular digital marketing strategy. There are significant costs involved in content production, but these can be mitigated through a business line of credit. Producing high-quality, engaging content is necessary because on the internet, content is king.
Quality and relevance are important elements of good content. The content should provide real value, solve a problem and invite the viewer to learn more. Digital marketing success is driven by customer engagement with your content, and the call to action is the last step in this process.
Types of Digital Content
Digital content can have video, graphic and written elements. Video can provide helpful instructions while giving a call to action at the very end, for example. There could also be a text article or blog post to highlight some aspect of the video that merits a detailed discussion.
A business line of credit enables you to hire experts to create the most engaging and informative content possible. Creating videos, writing blog posts and generating relevant infographics can also be done in-house, but it takes up a lot of time. These resources might be better spent to someone who already knows how to create great content and meet your deadline.
Benefits of Online Marketing Campaigns
Once you launch your digital marketing campaign, the goal is to drive traffic to your company website. The search engine results page (SERP) is the main metric for determining how visible your website is to the search engine. Driving organic traffic to your business website can boost your revenues and help you recover the costs of your investment in online digital marketing.
Once your marketing campaign goes live, you will need to monitor the response from viewers. This feedback process takes time, so be patient. Visitors to your website will provide ongoing feedback by engaging with your website. Their interaction with your content will convert some of them into paying customers.
Technology and Tools
Digital marketing can employ a variety of tools, technologies and platforms. Every business owner must navigate these choices and select the most relevant tools for your industry. These tools can help you to track and monitor your return on investment (ROI).
You can use your business line of credit to invest in marketing tools like these to help you succeed:
- Marketing automation software
- Analytics tools
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Tools for audience engagement
Tools can help you measure and track audience engagement over time. However, you will need to separate these activities from your strategy development process. Once you find a marketing strategy that works for your company, the technologies and tools you purchase will become more helpful.
Creating Content
To successfully engage your audience, you need to create content that speaks to the interests of your customers. The content should answer the main question of your viewer within the first few seconds.
- If you produce video content, the audio should be of good quality, and the video should clearly address the viewer’s main problem within the first few minutes.
- If this is text content, it should convince the reader that you can address their main pain point within the first paragraph and encourage them to keep reading.
- If the content is an infographic, it should provide useable information that can be understood quickly.
How to Establish a Business Credit Line
Business credit opens doors to other avenues of funding and other financial opportunities. There are several types of business entities, so you will need to choose a structure for your company before applying for funding.
Regardless of your business structure, you must demonstrate the capacity to establish a credit history that exists independently of your personal credit report. The business registration process is just the beginning; your business must also establish its own credit history.
Build the foundation for your business credit application in five basic steps:
- Select an Appropriate Business Structure
Choosing a business structure is the first step in building the foundation for your business’s line of credit. Selecting the most appropriate structure is an important decision, so you should understand the benefits and drawbacks of each format. For example, research the pros and cons of the LLC, corporation, partnership or sole proprietorship. These are the most common business structures. Once you decide on the structure, register your business with your state.
- Apply for a Federal Tax ID Number, or EIN
Apply to receive a federal tax ID number from the IRS. This nine-digit number will be assigned to your business, and it uniquely identifies your company. This number is used when filing tax returns, opening a bank account and applying for a business line of credit.
- Open a Business Bank Account
Opening a business bank account separates your personal finances from the business. The business is now a legal entity with a distinct identity, and the business bank account should be used exclusively for company purposes. You can also use this account as a reference when you apply for a line of business credit. Lenders can use the bank account information when reviewing your request for funding.
- Establish Credit Relationships
Establish a credit relationship with a vendor or supplier who reports to the three major credit agencies. This will build your business creditworthiness as you apply to vendors and suppliers for net terms. Purchasing materials and supplies on credit will give you a credit history that is recognized by the credit reporting agencies.
This creates a profile for your company, and you can leverage this data in the future when applying for extended lines of business credit. These vendor relationships can also serve as references when you fill out applications for business credit.
- Monitor Your Business Credit Reports
The three major credit reporting agencies keep your company’s credit activity on file. These agencies collect information from a variety of sources, so it’s always a good idea to come up with new ways to generate positive credit activity. However, some of the information might be inaccurate. Since the agencies collect data from different sources, the information might conflict at times. Correcting this information is possible because these agencies provide you with ways to update basic details about your company.
Improve Your Business Credit Report
Improve your business credit report to increase your chances of getting approved for a higher business line of credit. A better credit report will also improve your interest rates, saving you a significant amount of money over the long term. You can also enjoy favorable repayment terms on your loans when you establish and improve your business’s credit history.
Invest Funds Strategically
The funds from your business line of credit can be invested in the most effective digital marketing strategies to increase revenues, repay your business loans and improve your brand awareness online. Hiring a digital marketing expert can enhance your company’s online presence. This is just one example of how to grow your business by leveraging a line of credit. Working capital for other business operations can also be obtained by accessing the business line of credit.
Business Credit and the Credit Report
The credit report is a vital part of obtaining a line of credit for your company. Once you have a plan for how to use this line of credit, you might need to deal with various bureaucracies to obtain funding. For example, a financial institution will only issue a business loan if you provide a credit report and other documents.
One of the major reasons business loan applications are denied is a low credit score or poor credit history. These can also affect things like your insurance rates and the interest rate on the business loan. These are good reasons to attempt to raise your business credit score.
This credit score is used to determine how large a loan your business is qualified to receive. If your credit score is low, you might be able to do specific things to raise it. For example, establishing a good credit relationship with a vendor can raise your credit score over time. This will improve your chances of securing a business loan.
Establishing a good credit history takes time. If your business entity has existed for a while, this might work in your favor. However, new business owners are often evaluated on their personal credit scores. Either way, it takes time to establish the kind of financial history that will get you favorable terms for a business loan.
Obtaining a DUNS Number
Another way to bolster an application for a business line of credit is to apply for a Data Universal Numbering System or DUNS number from the IRS. This is a unique identifier for businesses that intend to submit applications for funding to the federal government or other grant agencies. Acquiring a DUNS number shows that your business plans to remain compliant with federal regulations. This can strengthen your application for a business line of credit from a financial institution.
Most importantly, the DUNS number is frequently used in the business industry for establishing a credit profile. This profile becomes helpful when the business owner applies for a loan. It can also be used when establishing terms for a line of credit from a supplier. Large organizations use the DUNS to conduct a credit and risk assessment on potential partners or suppliers.
Credit Monitoring
Before applying for a line of business credit, you need to start checking and monitoring your credit. The credit score can change over time. Submit the credit application during a period when your score is the highest. This also applies to your personal credit as well; many offers for credit will treat the business and personal credit score as the same thing.
To monitor your credit score over time, start by getting an annual credit report. Business credit monitoring can also be done through one of the major credit reporting agencies like Experian or Equifax. There are also similar smaller credit reporting companies that might offer these credit reports for your company.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is another resource to help people who need to access credit but lack a credit history. The bureau’s Credit Reports and Scores webpage provides information about how to burnish a credit history or improve a credit score. Also, you can check the website of the Federal Trade Commission for tips on how to increase your credit score.
Refine Your Business Plan
Plan for how to invest this capital in specific terms before you apply for business credit. If you plan to use it to negotiate supply agreements or protect your business identity from fraud, draft these plans in writing. You can also plan to invest funds in digital marketing strategies. A written plan is helpful when applying for the business line of credit because it communicates your repayment strategy to your lender.
Business Finance Consultation
A business financing consultant can help you establish a line of unsecured business loans. You can apply for lines of business credit as a startup or an established business entity. For example, American Business Credit can perform a credit analysis if you fill out a simple, confidential form. The application is processed quickly, and the company will analyze your credit report and inform you of your company’s potential borrowing amount.
Other service offered include equipment financing, working capital loans, accounts receivable loans, personal loans, franchise financing and more. Contact us at American Business Credit for details.
