Digital Marketing Essentials Every Small Business Owner Needs to Learn About
In today’s overly saturated market, it is quite a challenge to get recognized and to maintain relevant, especially when it comes to small businesses. The competition now is more severe than ever, so all business owners are trying to find new ways to stay ahead of their competitors.
Luckily, the quality of your marketing campaign can largely determine the long-term success of your business. No matter how good your products and services are, without a proper marketing strategy, it is difficult to get noticed, let alone to expand your customer base.
However, small business owners are usually overwhelmed with various different responsibilities on a daily basis, which include accounting, sales, and management, so they don’t have much time left to focus on marketing, even though it is absolutely crucial for their company.
While many business owners still stick to traditional marketing methods such as flyers, billboards, TV ads, and signage, all of which can be quite expensive and time-consuming, digital marketing has proven to be the most efficient and most effective option out there.
Therefore, we have created an insightful guide for small business owners who want to learn more about digital marketing and use it for improving their online rankings, as well as to gather more leads and, ultimately, more customers and profits.
Search Engine Optimization
The first and the most important aspect you need to be focusing on when we are talking about digital marketing is Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short. Not so long ago, this term used to refer to the ways to “trick” search engines in order for your website to rank higher in the search results page.
However, things have changed, and now SEO refers to an absolutely essential marketing strategy that enables your business to become and stay relevant in the online environment. When a person googles something, they are most likely to concentrate on the first page of search results only, so the main goal of SEO strategy is to put your business’s website as higher as possible.
Your presence on search engine results pages (SERPs) will greatly increase your company’s website traffic and thus contribute to greater brand visibility. There are different SEO tactics such as keyword optimization, on-site improvements, and link building to help you achieve this.
Although everyone can learn how to master SEO and put it to a good use, If you don’t have any previous knowledge about SEO, it is advisable to hire an expert who will help you achieve the desired results in the beginning.
Social media platforms
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are one of the best ways to promote your small business. With so many users worldwide, you cannot afford not to be present on these networks if you are looking for more exposure.
Although primarily used for socializing and interaction, these platforms have quickly become very influential when it comes to marketing any kind of business, regardless of its size or area of expertise. Not only that you can advertise your products and services this way, but you have an ability to interact with your potential and already existing customers, get some valuable feedback from them and establish strong relationships.
Moreover, you can target specific audiences based on their likes and interests, bring more traffic to your company’s website, and generate more prospects. In terms of social media platforms, it is important to know the difference between organic and paid social media.
Organic social media refers to using free tools which are provided by every platform for posting content that will be relevant and engaging enough for your current and potential customers on a regular (usually daily) basis. On the other hand, paid social media involves paying some money to display sponsored messages and ads in different formats (videos, images, text, etc.) to users based on their demographics.
Influencer marketing
In the last few years, influencer marketing has gained incredible popularity. The term itself refers to partnering up with social media influencers – people who have a large follower or subscriber base on social media platforms – who can help you get more exposure by sharing details about your products and services to people who are most likely to be interested in them.
Influencers are practically online celebrities whose opinion is quite valued by their followers. If an influencer claims that some product that they have tried is amazing, a great number of their followers will rush to try it.
That is why it is important to find an influencer whose content is closely related to what your business has to offer in order for your influencer marketing campaign to yield profitable results. For instance, if your company produces and sells skincare products, you need to choose an influencer who deals with these kinds of products, rather than someone who mainly focuses on makeup.
In addition, you need to plan your budget carefully, develop a strategy, and do some extensive research before start approaching social media influencers.
To sum up, digital marketing is quite an extensive topic and it requires a lot of research, but the aforementioned areas are the most essential ones you need to pay attention to if you want to develop a successful marketing campaign and they are guaranteed to quickly bring your small business the success you have always hoped for.
