5 Digital Marketing Strategy Essentials to Boost Your Small Business Presence

Today, most small business owners know they need a digital marketing strategy to succeed, even if they’re only serving their local area. After all, entirely, 97% of consumers now use the internet to find local businesses, and 88% of consumers make purchases based primarily on online reviews. Still, because digital marketing is a lot more complicated than traditional marketing, it can be intimidating to people who are just starting.

In the guide below, we’ll simplify some of the best (and most budget-friendly) digital marketing strategies that your small business should be using in 2020:

1. Social Media Marketing

Social media accounts are easy to set up and generally free, so they’re the natural jump-off point for most beginner marketers. However, there’s a lot more to social media marketing than setting up a Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram account and posting occasional discounts or promotions. Ideally, you want to use social media to extend your reach, build your brand identity, and provide customer service across multiple channels. (Almost 70% of people prefer to use social media to resolve issues or pass along positive feedback.)

Before you start posting on social media, sit down and create a social media marketing strategy that includes clear goals and schedules enough time to manage your accounts. When you plan your accounts, start with the basics, like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, then analyze which other platforms will connect with your target demographic. Don’t create an account on every available service just because you can; managing each account takes time, so you want to make sure you’ll get a real return on your investment. 

If your products are visually appealing, concentrate your efforts on image-based platforms, like Instagram and Pinterest. If your business is more practical – you’re a plumber or sell machine parts, for example – focus on building an industry-specific blog, then use Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to distribute your content. Youtube “explainer” videos are also an excellent option for trades-based businesses. 

Regardless of which platforms you’re using, your posts should contain at least 70% valuable content that your customers can use or enjoy, not just direct advertising. Your social media accounts must be engaging if you want to attract and retain followers.

2. Paid Advertising

What’s one mistake almost all small businesses make, regardless of their digital savvy? They assume paid advertising is only for the “big guys.” In reality, certain types of paid advertising are highly accessible, and paid ads are one of the fastest ways to position your business prominently in search results. Depending on how competitive your niche and keywords are, you could pay as little as $1 – $10 per click for Google Ads that guarantee you appear first in consumers’ search results. Facebook ads are even more affordable, starting at as little as 27 cents per click. 

Even if you can only afford to run paid ads for a short time, the investment is worth it. Paid ads will give your web traffic a substantial boost, which will generate new leads and help your organic search engine rank increase. Running paid ads also sends the message that your business is reputable and committed because consumers associate paid ads with large, established retailers.

3. Local SEO

Local SEO is arguably the most important digital marketing channel for any small business with a physical location (as opposed to an online outlet). This type of SEO targets location-based searches, rather than general keywords, which makes it easier to reach those customers who are most likely to use your products or services. This approach leverages the power of local directories, notably Google My Business, along with on-site content that contains targeted local keywords. 

To get started with local SEO, make sure your Google business profile is filled out completely. It should include your contact information and website, opening hours, and professional-quality images of your premises. Having an informative Google business profile ensures that your company will show up directly under Google’s map feature whenever someone searches a relevant term, e.g., “Toronto bakery,” like this:

Once you’ve completed your Google profile, investigate other local directories, like YellowPage and Yelp, that could amplify your reach. Then, give your existing satisfied customers incentives (such as 10% off their next purchase) to leave a positive review. The more positive reviews you have, the more likely it becomes that people will trust your business over the competition.

Next, you’ll need to research local keywords that are relevant to your business. Fortunately, there are several free keyword research tools out there to help you do this, including Google Keyword Planner and Bing Webmaster Tools, along with others. Once you know which keywords you want to target, integrate them into the existing content on your site, paying particular attention to prominent locations, like your site title and subheadings. If possible, you should also regularly update your website’s blog with informative articles that contain your chosen local keywords. Websites with well-maintained blogs have a staggering 434% greater chance of achieving a high search engine rank (as compared to websites without blogs).

4. Email Marketing

Like social media marketing, email marketing requires very little up-front investment, but it’s capable of yielding excellent results. Over 80% of people open “welcome” emails from companies, and incredibly, 90% voluntarily choose to opt-in to email newsletters.

To make the most of your email marketing campaign, make sure your newsletters are loaded with exciting promotions, new products, and links to your latest blog articles and videos. 

5. Micro-Influencers

Micro-influencers are the 2020’s answer to old-school word of mouth recommendations. Micro-influencers are defined as social media influencers who have between 1000-100,000 followers, rather than an audience of millions. 

At first, this concept may seem counter-intuitive – why intentionally target a smaller audience? Reduced advertising cost is, obviously, one benefit of choosing a micro-influencer. Still, the advantages don’t end there: Micro-influencers tend to have more loyal, engaged followers because they interact more regularly with their audience. They’re also perceived as being more genuine than “big name” social media celebrities, so their promotions are typically viewed as honest opinions, not just paid to advertise.

 

Taking the Next Step: Professional Content Marketing

Marketing is essential to the success of any small business, but there’s no denying the fact that effective digital marketing requires serious commitment. Once your business is comfortably established, handing marketing duties over to a professional firm will free up a significant amount of time, letting you focus on creating excellent products or services.

Digital marketing specialists (like the team at AllinBrand) can also produce high-quality web content, like blog articles and videos, to propel your search engine optimization efforts to the next level.

When you’re ready, contact us to learn more about our affordable digital marketing services.