Whether you’re a new entrepreneur or a seasoned e-commerce business owner, there’s no denying that digital marketing is an important investment for anyone who runs a small business. Since digital approaches to reaching target customers aren’t going anywhere, you should know a lot about the tools at your disposal to ensure that you’re working towards building a strong strategy. Below we will share some digital tips on improving your search engine optimization (SEO), building an audience on social media (SMM), and some best practices for utilizing email.
Don’t put all your efforts into one area
While there are many ways a company can market their potential offline—promotion through relevant events and conferences, business cards and/or flyers, or wrap your car with your business information—digital marketing is a more powerful way to promote a small business. Efforts like SEO, SMM, and email marketing are digital channels that allow you to connect and interact with your target audience with sales and conversions in mind. Since all of these digital marketing strategies provide something different for your small business, be sure to spread the budget around and slowly build up each online strategy over time.
Be smart with data
There are many insights that can be found within your business metrics if you know where to look. With everything from Facebook reach to website bounce rates and everything in between. That said, the best way to move forward is to focus on a particular metric and see how it has changed over time, then you can add it to your list of upcoming marketing efforts to get you closer to your overall goals. For example, if you’re trying to grow your audience using existing email subscribers, you might want to track the number of clicks a paid ad earns to attract brand-new customers outside your current audience. If you have three new subscribers, your data should let you know with confidence where those emails came from.
Interact with your audience in a meaningful way
You don’t need to only focus on social media when looking to connect with your target audience. Other elements like creating new content pages or sending out polls by email are also great ways to directly access your customer base and train them to rely on your platforms for meaningful, engaging messages.
Heavily invest in your SEO strategy
Copywriting takes new heights when it’s sprinkled with snazzy, industry-relevant keywords that are highly sought after on search engines. While it’s important to retain information to ensure your copy speaks to customers in a language that they understand, possessing the right keywords will ensure your digital marketing efforts for your small business don’t go unnoticed, as search engines will point visitors towards your site. Aside from content curation, savvy SEO services should include time spent on securing backlinks, reorganizing page layouts, and ensuring best practices for headers, URLs, and meta tags to keep up your presence in ongoing searches.
Keep Track Of Your Competitors
Whether you own a large or small business, keeping track of your competitor’s marketing efforts should be automatic as it is one of the best ways to gauge how you are doing in the market. This is also your chance to find your edge amongst other small businesses in your niche, therefore getting more pieces of the pie or market share. This strategy will save you tons of marketing budget and time as you can see what’s working and what’s not. Trial and error are expected, especially in digital marketing, but finding ways to gather data without taking risks efficiently is a huge plus.
Keep Trying New Things
What’s cool about digital marketing is the avenue and broad stream of opportunities to gather your online presence. Sure, you have to be consistent in your marketing campaigns, but you shouldn’t be afraid to do things differently from time to time. When the market is bombarded with the same marketing strategies all day long, trying to get the same attention, adding a slightly different touch to your marketing efforts makes all the difference. If you’ve been doing well in SMM for a while, try spending some time on Email Marketing and try your luck. You might be surprised by how many opportunities you leave on the table.
Know Your Audience
Before you make any digital marketing efforts, it is crucial to find out who you are trying to target. As you dabble around market segmentation, you’ll find it easier to know where they are and what type of marketing strategies should be best to get their attention. This increases the accuracy of your marketing efforts, saves you tons of budgets, and allows you to spend your focus where it’s needed. Small Businesses will benefit from this strategy as they tend to have a more focused niche than larger companies. Use this advantage to penetrate those untapped markets.
Add Visuals to Your Content
Most of you might agree that content remains the king when marketing. However, the types of content today are pretty different compared to previous years. You may notice that a lot of visual content is the ones that are taking giant leaps, whether in video format or simply adding related images in blogs. Statistics show that including visuals in your content increases more than 80% of the engagement and 20% or more clicks. Creating content with images makes it more shareable than just plain texts. Think of images as icing on top after writing a very insightful and exciting copy.
Be Consistent With Your Brand
Being consistent with your brand and what you’re brand is standing for is an excellent way to gain and keep loyal customers. Flexibility is essential in Digital Marketing, but your small business’s mission and vision should remain consistent as it grows with your followers. Always look at the bigger picture and create marketing efforts that you think will last the test of time and stay relevant for years to come.
Good Customer Feedback for Social Proof
Have you ever bought a product before without even thinking twice just because your friend bought the same thing? Most of you can probably relate to this. This is the power of feedback. Say you successfully led your potential buyers to your landing page. One of the first things they’ll look for is the reviews. Making efforts to get as many good quality reviews as possible is one of the best ways to grow your business.
Do you have any questions about our digital marketing tips for your small business? Drop a comment below for a prompt response.
Alex Wilks has been working as a copywriter and digital marketing strategist since 2018, with added specialties in social media and email marketing. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Communication, she is a natural content writer with the ability to connect well with her target audience.