Marketing is an important factor for all businesses whether it is implemented online or not, but it is vital for sustainable growth to formulate a strong marketing strategy for your marketing campaigns, even if you are a small, medium or large size company, but especially true for small business. Business marketing for small local companies can include a variety of offline marketing methods, but in today’s world where technology is a part of society, small businesses need to incorporate digital marketing strategies to maximize full exposure to the local market and potential sales.
Small businesses doing all of its business advertising online, need to fully embrace a solid digital marketing strategy.
In digital marketing, there’s five main areas of marketing that should be priority to build a small business. Some may not be as important to local, off-line businesses, but are definitely important and more effective with online business. Most businesses utilise all five strategies and I recommend that you do so as well for your business:
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing (SEM) is absolutely critical for small businesses. SEM gives you the opportunity to compete with the big dogs by being visible in search engines. People use search engines to find what they are wanting…information!. So when it comes to finding information about products and services that relate to your business, it is super important that your company is placed high in their search results, because high visibility in search engines, particularly Google, is the key to gaining high quality organic traffic. Digital marketing professionals offer this service under the name of search engine optimization (SEO) . Proper SEO execution makes your site visible in search engines when potential clients are looking for products and services that relate to your business.
Local Search Marketing
Local search marketing incorporates optimising your website for search results, but it also includes the integration of search engine maps. This is definitely the case with Google. Your small business will be listed with your geo-location, address information, and summary of what your business entails. Your contact phone number and website address will also be listed. This gives prospective customers the information that they need about your establishment.
Content Marketing
Content Marketing is a strategy that involves giving prospective customer information about your product or services. Every business is wanting to sell to you, but only those that provide more informational content are more likely to get your sale. In the past, content marketing was done via print with brochures, flyers and newspaper advertisements. Today, the internet brings a larger spectrum where a businesses can deploy digital information of their products and services on a larger scale.
Content marketing for small business is most effective when incorporating a variety of multimedia such as:
- TEXT – Website content, Blog posts, Social Media content, Forum posting, Comments, Replies
- IMAGES – .Gif, .Jpeg or .Png formats are mostly used for content marketing
- GRAPHICS – Customised website graphics, animated or static advertising banners
- VIDEO – Video sharing through social media with your brand, product or services is priceless, free advertising.
Utilise each of these to promote your business brand and market your content to your potential customers!
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing for small business can be a gold mine, but depending on the type of business you have, it can also prove to be difficult for your company. Each social media network has their own targeted audience.
- Facebook is the social network that is mostly used by the general public of all ages from 13 yrs upward.
- Pinterest is a social network based on image sharing
- Linkedin is the social network for businesses and professionals
- Instagram is a mobile app based social network for image & video sharing.
There are many other social networks out there, all having their own demographic market, so my advice is to choose wisely so that you can get the most out of your marketing efforts for your business.
Other businesses, such as a local restaurant, have seen success using social media by letting customers know of the latest specials and new additions to their menu.
The most important aspect of social media is to use it to strengthen your customer base to achieve repeat sales.
Email Marketing
Email marketing stems from building a list of buying customers and prospective clientele. This comprises from a list of names and emails of people who have an interest in your business products and services. You know this to be a fact because they have freely opted into you newsletter or business promotion. This promotion could be automated, future updates on products or services, or maybe coupons or free gift if they were to sign up.
As your email list grows, it becomes a more valuable asset to your business. Email marketing is considered by professional marketers to be the most valuable small business marketing strategy to have in your arsenal.
Conclusion
If you’re running a small business, try using the above five areas of digital marketing. Using them will drastically improve your
- Online Presence
- Search Engine Rankings
- Local Customer Base
- Email Database
- Sales and conversions both online/offline
Create a marketing plan, and utilise it with these online marketing strategies along with your own marketing efforts. Depending on what your business may be, some of these marketing strategies will be more and effective than others. You can of course acquire professional help if you do not have the resources or the time. Online marketing strategies that can be outsourced for your company can include social media, search engine optimisation, and local search marketing among others, and unless you have the time to dedicate each marketing effort, it is difficult to stay on top of it all, but if ever you feel that you need help on your digital marketing campaigns, BuildMyBusiness is more than happy to assist you.