With competition growing every day, it’s more important than ever for small businesses to establish an online presence and promote themselves through digital marketing. In this article, we’ll explore several effective digital marketing for small businesses can leverage to boost awareness, attract new customers, and increase sales in the new year.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
One of the most cost-effective ways for small businesses to get found online is through search engine optimization or SEO. SEO involves optimizing your website, blog, and social media profiles to rank higher in search engines like Google for targeted keywords related to your business and products. Some basic SEO best practices for small businesses include:
- Conducting keyword research to identify high-volume keywords and phrases related to your industry that potential customers are searching for
- Optimizing your website pages, blog posts, images, and videos by including targeted keywords in the title, headers, body text, alt text, and captions
- Linking internal pages together to create an intuitive site structure and passing link equity between pages
- Getting high-quality backlinks from other relevant industry websites and directories to gain authority and trust with search engines
- Monitoring your SEO progress through tools like Google Search Console and SEMrush to track rankings and identify optimization opportunities
With some regular SEO effort, small businesses can start ranking for local and competitive search terms to access a steady stream of free, organic traffic from search engines.
Content Marketing
Creating and sharing helpful, informative content is another superb digital marketing tactic for small companies. Whether it’s blog posts, videos, infographics, e-books or guides – valuable content shows customers you’re an industry expert and builds trust in your brand. Some tips for content marketing include:
- Developing a content calendar to stay consistent with publishing new content at least once a week
- Focusing content around your business’s major products/services and frequently asked customer questions
- Optimizing content for SEO by including target keywords, internal links, images with alt text, etc.
- Promoting and sharing content across owned social media channels and relevant industry groups
- Using analytics to see which types of content and topics are most engaging for your audience
- Looking for ways to repurpose long-form content into shorter social media posts, emails, quotes, etc.
Done right, strong content marketing differentiates your business as a thought leader and education customers about how you can solve their problems – ultimately driving more leads and sales.
Email Marketing
Nurturing relationships with current and past customers through email is exceptionally important Digital Marketing for Small Businesses. With some tools and best practices, email marketing can boost revenue in a cost-effective way. Tips include:
- Collecting email addresses from website visitors who consume your content or make purchases
- Segmenting your lists into groups based on behaviors like past purchases or content consumption
- Sending targeted, personalized messages to each segment instead of mass broadcasts
- Testing different subject lines, formats, calls-to-action, and frequencies to see what works best
- Including compelling visuals, special offers, informative articles and social proof in emails
- Monitoring open and click rates as well as unsubscribe requests to improve future campaigns
Leveraging an email marketing automation platform allows you to run personalized automated email sequences based on someone’s online activity to keep them engaged for the long run.
Social Media for Small Businesses
Connecting with customers where they spend time online through social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn is extremely impactful for small companies. Some social media marketing best practices include:
- Choosing the 1-3 most relevant platforms for your industry/target audience to focus your efforts
- Creating an editorial calendar to plan engaging posts around special offers, behind-the-scenes content, useful tips and your best blog content
- Optimizing profile properties like images, descriptions and link previews
- Using story features and engaging visual formats like infographics, quotes and photos on platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn
- Testing different creative styles, hashtags, video formats, paid promotions, etc. to see what resonates most
- Engaging with others’ posts by liking, commenting and sharing to build relationships
- Analyzing engagement rates to refine posts and respond to audience feedback
Commit to posting consistently and communities will start to recognize and recommend your brand through organic sharing.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
For fast traffic and immediate sales, pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google, Bing and social platforms allow small businesses to promote targeted offers and drive traffic to key pages. Some tips for effective PPC include:
- Executing focused keyword research to identify commercial intent phrases buyers search for before making purchase decisions
- Crafting compelling ad copy highlighting the unique problem-solving attributes of your products/services
- Testing different ad variations, ad formats, device targeting and networks to optimize performance
- Utilizing automated bidding options for more accurate bid adjustments over time based on campaign data
- Closely monitoring metrics like cost-per-click, cost-per-acquisition and conversion rates to stay on budget
- Linking ads to high-converting landing pages optimized for conversions rather than home pages
While PPC requires an ongoing budget, it enables you to draw customers immediately during important sales periods by running promotions for product launches or seasonal events.
Influencer Marketing
Partnering with social media influencers in your industry who have built authentic to Digital Marketing for Small Businesses, engaged followings can introduce your brand to a whole new potential audience. Steps include:
- Carefully researching micro-influencers (1k-50k followers) in your space with aligned target demographics
- Reaching out to potential influencers to understand rates for reviews, sponsored posts or affiliate promotions
- Crafting a sample press kit outlining the product/service features, target audience and types of deliverables required
- Following through with contracts, deadlines, analytics reports and paying influencers promptly
- Monitoring and thanking influencers who generate a positive ROI based on traffic, engagement or sale conversions
Leverage authentic recommendations on appropriate channels to both educate new audiences and drive conversions among their engaged followers.
Video Marketing
Adding video content like tutorials, lifestyle shots, interviews and demos inherently engages audiences better than text or images alone. Tips for video marketing:
- Choose between creating video ads, social media clips, website explainer videos or long-form educational series
- Make sure video content is optimized for search and shares valuable information focusing on benefits
- Optimize titles, metadata and transcripts with target keywords for SEO and accessibility
- Promote new videos across owned social platforms and include in relevant email campaigns
- Analyze metrics like views, shares, comments and click-through rates from videos to refine strategy
Done right, video enables businesses to literally put a face to their brand that customers can relate to in a visual, compelling way.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Tracking customer behavior and communications can allow small companies to offer amazing support and manage ongoing relationships at scale. CRM platforms automate:
- Contact management for prospects and customers across teams
- Online order forms, payment processing and inventory management
- Email, website and social media tracking and lead capturing capabilities
- Automated email workflows and data-driven marketing campaigns
- Customizable contact profiles to track full activity histories
- Comprehensive analytics for evaluating marketing ROI and refining strategies
Investing in a CRM sets the foundation for steady growth by enhancing every facet of operations through actionable customer insights.
Putting It All Together
To succeed with digital marketing as a small businesses, focus on the strategies with the highest ROI potentials based on your budget, resources and goals. Look to develop a strong content foundation attracting hyper-targeted organic search traffic before exploring paid tactics. Combine SEO, content creation and social media into an always-on digital presence consistently solving customer problems. Nurture qualified leads by automating communications through email and CRM tools. Constantly monitor metrics and test new tactics, staying nimble as customers’ needs evolve with new technologies. With dedication to learning and optimizing processes over time, digital marketing enables small companies to compete and win against much larger rivals.
Digital marketing strategies for small businesses:
- Testing and optimization are key. No single strategy will work for every business, so try variations on tactics regularly to see what resonates best with your target audience. Track metrics closely and be quick to adjust or discard approaches that aren’t performing.
- Consistency is important, but don’t feel you need to post on every channel daily. Focus quality over quantity by concentrating efforts on 1-2 top social platforms and publishing 2-3 times per week with engaging, shareable content.
- Guest blogging on other relevant industry sites expands your reach and builds credibility. Reach out and offer to provide a customized article other businesses will value sharing.
- Visual content like photos, videos and interactive formats tend to attract more engagement across social platforms. Experiment with different visual styles like behind-the-scenes shots, tutorials, infographics and lifestyle images featuring product uses.
- Use paid and organic strategies together for compounding effects. As organic SEO and social media gain momentum, use targeted ads to supplement and scale results more quickly by driving traffic to optimized landing pages.
- Respond promptly to any website form submissions, phone calls or social media comments. Quick responses help turn inquiries into loyal customers and reduce perceived risk of doing business with a small company.
- Analyze and act on all available customer data. From website analytics and CRM profiles to reviews and surveys, every customer touchpoint provides invaluable insights to continuously enhance marketing and business operations.
FAQs
Most experts recommend allocating at least 5-10% of your overall budget to digital marketing. Look to spend $500-1000 per month minimum when getting started.
Choose 1-2 that best fit your target customers – usually Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube. Monitor metrics before expanding to additional networks.
Mix up post types including photos, videos, stories, Q&As, behind-the-scenes looks, infographics and user-generated content. Provide value and keep topics relevant to your industry.
Aim for 2-3 times weekly per channel when getting started. Quality over quantity – focus on consistent, appealing posts your audience wants to engage with and share.
Share shorten preview versions on social channels and include compelling calls-to-action. Promote to your email list, work with influencers and optimize posts for search engines to drive relevant traffic overtime.
Conclusion
In conclusion, digital marketing presents enormous opportunity for small businesses to gain exposure and find new customers in cost-effective ways. With strategic planning and continuous optimization, the tactics covered here can help any company establish an engaging online presence and authority in their industry. Most importantly, focus first on deeply understanding target buyers and providing excellent solutions to their unique problems through quality content and communications. Authentic, customer-centric marketing will set the stage for long-term relationships and steady organic growth. Now is the time for small companies to harness technology’s power and compete on an increasingly larger playing field.
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