Digital Marketing for Small Businesses
In the digital age, marketing a small business has become more challenging than ever. In order to stay afloat in this competitive landscape digital marketing is necessary. With an effective digital marketing strategy, you can help your customers find you online and increase brand awareness which will lead to increased sales.
While digital marketing for small businesses can be a complicated topic that requires time and effort to learn about, the good news is that there are some digital marketing strategies that you can begin using today. In this article, we will go over those digital marketing strategies as well as how they specifically apply to generate more clients with your service or product.
Here are some steps that you can take when creating a digital marketing plan for your small business:
Pay Per Click (PPC)
One of the biggest digital marketing strategies out there for generating new customers online is pay-per-click advertising which is also known as PPC. These ads typically appear on top search engines like Google and Bing. If you have not used either of these services before I would recommend for you to explore them
Google Ads
Google Ads is an online marketing platform created by Google. Google Ads allows advertisers to create digital ads for their product or service which will then appear alongside search results, on websites across the internet, and even in mobile apps. These advertisements are targeted to users based on location, device type, time of day among other things. Google Ads is an extremely powerful tool when it comes to digital marketing because you can target specific audiences.
Bing Ads
Bing Ads is an online marketing platform created by Microsoft. Bing Ads also allows advertisers to create digital ads for their product or service which will then appear alongside search results, on websites across the internet. Bing Ads is a strong digital marketing tool because it can help you reach your target audience with ease. Although it does not have the same reach and volume as Google Ads, it typically has a lower cost.
Social Media Marketing
Another digital marketing strategy that a lot of small business owners are not leveraging is social media marketing. Social media has become very popular these days that allowing businesses like yours the opportunity to interact with current customers as well as find potential ones. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and LinkedIn can all be used to generate new customers for your service or product by following the right digital marketing strategies on their platform.
Facebook is a social networking site that allows you to connect to family, friends, and even potential clients online. It is a great digital marketing tool for businesses because it allows you to post updates about your product or service and even allows potential customers to ask questions that they may have. These posts can be shared with friends of users who are interested in your business, which would mean more brand awareness!
Facebook also has Facebook paid advertising. Facebook paid advertising allows businesses to create Facebook ads that will be seen by a specific audience such as users in the same demographic, or who have similar interests. This can help your business run digital marketing campaigns more effectively and allow you to reach the exact customers you want!
Instagram is a social networking site focused on pictures and videos. Instagram allows you to share your digital marketing content, including text, videos and photos. Businesses can also run paid campaigns on Instagram that allow users to view business profiles or follow companies easily!
Twitter is a social networking site where people communicate via tweets. Tweets are short messages (microblogging) that are limited to 280 characters or less. Like Facebook, Twitter also allows digital marketers to run ads and increase their exposure.
YouTube
YouTube is a social networking site focused on video sharing. YouTube is one of the most popular websites with billions of videos. Just like Instagram and Twitter, digital marketing on YouTube is a great way for businesses to reach customers!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Another digital marketing strategy that you need to know about which will help you out is search engine optimization (SEO). Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines. A high percentage of users search via a search engine so this is a critical strategy
SEO helps improve how high your website ranks in organic searches so make sure if you have any web content up online already then go back through it and optimize them using keywords related to what services or products do offer.
Search engine optimization is a long-term strategy. The Search engine algorithm looks at over 200 factors when ranking websites, and digital marketers have been playing a cat-and-mouse game for decades to try and outsmart the search engines.
Creating good quality content is key. Google refers to this as E-A-T. Expertise, Authority, and Trust. Keep this in mind as you create or update content.
Email Marketing
Email Marketing is another digital marketing strategy where you can grow your business and get more clients by sending out email newsletters to people who have opted-in for them. This way, whenever you post something new on your blog or want to send anything special over they will receive it in their inbox. One of the great things about email marketing is that it is typically low cost.
There are many choices when choosing email marketing. Some of the major players are Mailchimp, Hubspot, active campaign, infusionsoft, and Aweber. Email marketing can be used for many different things such as digital product launches or sending out special promotions to your existing clients that you want to encourage them to come back.
In Conclusion
With digital marketing becoming more popular, there are many different options for businesses to leverage digital channels. Social Media and Search engine optimization are strategies that takes time to build, but can have big rewards. PPC advertising takes less effort than SEO, but it will cost you some money if you want your business to be seen by everyone who searches quickly. And email marketing is a great way to interact with existing leads and customers.
Digital marketing for small businesses is essential for online success. While there’s no such thing as a quick fix when it comes to digital marketing, using these strategies can help you begin the process.