Intro To Small Business Digital Marketing

Guess what? Old-school marketing methods are driving less and less traffic for businesses these days. Consumers are thinking differently, and your strategies have to keep up. Out with the old, in with the new! For a small business, digital marketing can seem daunting. Whether you’re doing it alone or partnering with a marketing agency, you should understand how and why things work the way they do.

What is Digital Marketing?

Using the internet to reach new customers and increase brand loyalty/sales with current customers puts the “digital” in digital marketing. See how easy we made that sound?

In reality, there are several different types of digital marketing. It is important to choose the methods that work for you based on your goals and where you’re at with building your small business.

If you want to connect with your current customers, you might lean toward email or social media marketing. If you’re launching a new product and want to build hype around it, you will need a more robust approach that includes email, SMS, social media, and website development.

But, where do you even start? Here is where small business digital marketing starts to sound complicated, but it doesn’t have to be.

Creating a Presence

For any small business, the first step is getting online. We always recommend you start with the big name in this area…Google. If your business has a physical location, you can create a business profile with them that will magically make your business’ information appear in local search results.

After you’ve made yourself Google-able, take it even further by signing up with review sites like Yelp and networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook.

Email/SMS Marketing

Studies show the amount of time spent reading an email has declined to about 9-10 seconds each. If you ask us, that’s plenty of time to make your pitch! If you know how. In a time when people consume information at lightning speed, getting straight to the point in an entertaining way is the name of the game when it comes to small business digital marketing.

Some of the largest brands use email and SMS marketing to connect with new and potential customers. When you get a potential customer to give you their info, your odds of them becoming paying customers drastically increase. If you’re regularly in the ears of current customers, they’ll think of you more often when making purchases.

Social Media Marketing

There are so many social media platforms out there! Don’t get bogged down with every. single. one. Pick the platforms your target audience spends most of their time on to get the best bang for your buck.

If you’re new to this, we recommend starting with Facebook and Instagram. These two platforms are fairly user-friendly, easy to learn, and can be linked together, which is convenient.

Website Design & Development

Once people find your website, the goal is to keep them there for more than 50 milliseconds, which is about how long it takes for someone to decide if they trust it. If your website doesn’t look right, most people will bounce without so much as a “bye, Felicia.”

Creating buzz-worthy videos, blogs, captions, descriptions, greetings, and calls to action is essential! Everything on your site should be fluid, cohesive, eye-catching, professional, entertaining, and informational. Everyone’s a critic, literally!

But, design isn’t the only important thing. Having a website that works when your customers use it is crucial to your businesses success. Before you go installing every plugin that sounds rad or ignoring that issue on your contact page, think about your user’s experience.

Can your customers easily take action on what you want them to do? If the answer is no, that’s where web dev swoops in to save the day.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

You’ll hear this often when it comes to digital marketing. It’s just industry jargon that basically means, “Try to get your website to the top of the search results list.” 

Climbing the ranks of the search results list takes two things: a well-made website full of high-quality content and an understanding of what search engines *cough – Google* want. (Let’s be real; they hold the lion’s share of search engine inquiries across the globe.) The real trick to small business digital marketing is making content that appeals to both consumers and algorithms.

Why Digital Marketing is Important

When consumers are looking for a product, service, or resource, they’re looking online! A survey of 500 U.S. consumers showed that 76% of people search for a business online before deciding to visit it. If we were betting people, we’d wager that number is trending up, not down. If you want your small business to last, digital marketing can’t be ignored.

Local SEO

Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can help you outperform your neighbors, uhh.. competitors, online and get in front of more customers. The closer you get to being in the top 3 results for searches in your area relating to your business, the more people you will see walk through your door. For small businesses, digital marketing can be one of the most impactful and cost effective ways to advertise.

Engage With Customers

Connecting with your customer base on a more personal level can increase brand loyalty and your Return on Investment (ROI). The more your customers care about you and your business, the more likely they will support you.

Some estimates say that up to 90% of purchase decisions are driven by emotion, which makes total sense. We are all human, even when we’re behind a computer screen.

Getting to know customers as a marketing strategy is nothing new. It’s known by many names, like “Relationship Marketing” and “Customer Engagement;” some simply call it “Excellent Customer Service.”

Whatever term you prefer, it’s a cornerstone to building a returning customer base. People buy products and services from businesses that make them feel good. The more you can invoke that happy feeling, the more often you’ll see your customers.

Online Marketing for Measurable Results

Digital Marketing effectiveness can be quantified! In years past, it was hard for a small business to know which of their marketing strategies were working. Was the influx of foot traffic last month from the billboard or the local VA raffle sponsorship? Why did people respond to last year’s Holiday promotion but not this year?

With digital marketing tools, you can track what people are responding to and what they’re ignoring, making it easier for businesses to make data-driven decisions. When you use online marketing tools or partner with a digital marketing agency, you gain access to essential data about your ad campaigns and how to improve them.

How to Market Online

Okay, so we’re on the same page, right? You know your small business needs online marketing, and now you’re ready to figure out how.

Online Marketing Basics are Easy

As a strong, capable entrepreneur, you don’t need a digital marketing agency for everything. Listing your business on sites like Google and Yelp is pretty simple. But remember to keep your information current.

World’s most annoying thing as a customer? When you can’t find the phone number or email.

Define Your Brand

Before introducing your business to the online world, ensure you have a brand identity! This includes brand colors, fonts, brand voice, logos, email signatures, and much more. Everything you need to create your website, social media profiles, and even physical things like letterhead and gift cards, the applications are endless.

Not having a clear brand identity is one of the fastest ways to fail. Today’s consumer wants to know who they’re dealing with and what they’re supporting. If you gloss over this, gaining brand loyalty is next to impossible.

Some find it helpful to hire a digital marketing agency to help them put together their website and brand package. A collection of images/logos, custom fonts, color combinations, mission statements, and captions to help you express your brand identity to your audience.

Identify Your Audience

For a small business, identifying your audience allows you to compete with larger brands for those consumers. It helps you target your advertising dollars in the best, most effective way possible.

When you identify who you’re selling to, it’s much easier to learn what your consumers want and give it to them. Knowing what your audience enjoys will also play a significant role in your small businesses digital marketing strategies.

Email/SMS Marketing

Gather email addresses and phone numbers from your current and potential customers. Offer incentives such as promo codes, trial memberships, or exclusive access in exchange for newsletter or text sign-ups.

Separate your contact lists into different target groups. Track which emails are getting opened and which are getting engagement. Use snazzy subject lines and be clear with your message.

And remember to track your deliverability to ensure your emails are actually landing in the inbox.

Research Your Competitors

Take note of what your competitors are doing with a visual audit. Click on everything, watch their videos, read their posts and customers’ comments/reviews. Then, use online tools to analyze your competitors’ online presence.

Look at what keywords they’re using, where their customers are coming from, and how long people stay on your competitor’s websites. This information will help you learn from their mistakes, saving you time and money.

Optimize For Mobile

You can pry my laptop out of my cold, dead hands. But what do I carry in my warm, alive hands all day? My phone. When the urge to search strikes, most of the time, we’re reaching for our phones to do it. It’s important to keep this in mind when designing your site, emails, and socials. If your digital marketing doesn’t look good on mobile, it doesn’t look good for you.

Keep Up With Digital Marketing Trends

Subscribe to industry-leading blogs, podcasts, channels, and social media accounts. Regularly review and analyze marketing campaigns that catch your eye to understand why they work. Or consider partnering with a digital marketing agency or freelancer to do this part for you. Be willing to try innovative ideas and tools to stay ahead of the competition.

At M30, the tools we love using are SEMRush, Google Alerts, Klaviyo, Shopify, and Zapier. Although these tools and services cost money, they’re reliable resources that offer a ton of value.

Hire Help

At some point, many small business owners reach a place where they can’t do it all by themselves. And that’s a good thing! It’s a huge indicator that the business is thriving. A good business owner understands their strengths and isn’t afraid to call in backup to help when things get crazy.

If art is not your thing, look for a graphic designer to create your digital logos and designs. If you fumble with a camera, hiring a photographer or videographer to capture your idea can be a good investment. For those who don’t like staring at analytics, reports, and reviews, there’s a digital marketing agency out there with employees who love it!

Rock Your Digital Marketing

You know your small business does it better than the rest. Now it’s time to make sure everybody else knows it, too! With digital marketing, you can make that happen. Just make sure you stay up to date on marketing news and trends.

Comment below to tell us about the most inspiring ad campaign you’ve ever seen or created! And if you need an amazing digital marketing agency to help you make the NEXT greatest ad campaign ever – give us a shout!