"Use the web," they say. "Digital marketing is a must," they tell you. That's all well and good, but how exactly do you market your business online?
The beauty of a digital marketing strategy (or the overwhelming part, depending on how you see it) is that there are many tactics you can use. The web is full of ways to build your brand awareness if you know how to use it.
Start with these essential strategies for digital marketing for small businesses.
1. Web Design
Your website is the most crucial aspect of your digital marketing because it's your digital home. The goal for most of your digital marketing strategies is to get people to your site so your site can convert them to customers.
That means your website has a big job to do. It should give customers a clear picture of who you are and what you do. It also needs to have well-crafted content that gives leads the incentive they need to become customers.
On top of all this, you need your site to give users a positive impression. It needs to make you look professional, organized, knowledgeable, and up-to-date.
Building a great website should be the first step in your digital marketing strategy. From there, you have a framework that makes all your other strategies more effective.
2. Search Engine Optimization
You probably use Google several times every day, but have you ever thought about how Google decides which pages to show you in the results? It all comes down to search engine optimization or SEO.
SEO is a collection of tactics you can use to show up more often in Google results. Your overall goal is to help Google recognize the content on your pages and to show Google that your site is reliable and valuable for readers.
There are two key types of SEO: on-page and off-page. On-page SEO involves improving your own site to make it more search engine-friendly. That includes having a strong catalog of informative content, using links in your content wisely, adding HTML tags that categorize each page's content, and more.
Off-page SEO strategies are tactics that involve other sites. For example, claiming and optimizing your Google My Business profile shows Google that you have a legitimate, concrete business. Another off-page strategy is to get more backlinks: links from other sites to your own site.
The key with SEO is using a collection of both on-page and off-page tactics that give you a robust digital reputation.
3. Social Media Marketing
Social media is a great tool for digital marketing. Using these platforms to interact with customers and new leads will help users form a connection with you and develop trust for your brand.
Not all social media platforms are worth your time, though. Different platforms are more popular among certain demographics. For instance, Instagram and TikTok are popular with young adults while older adults are primarily on Facebook.
The trick is to check out basic social media platform demographics and choose the platforms that have the most overlap with your target audience. From there, build a robust profile and post on a regular basis as you interact with fans and customers.
4. Video Marketing
People use videos all over the web for demonstrations, Q&A sessions, informative explanations, and so on. Those videos are also a great way to market your business.
Videos on your site as well as on YouTube and social media platforms will capture new audience. They garner more engagement on social media too. For instance, tweets with videos get ten times more engagement than video-less tweets.
A solid video marketing strategy involves producing a consistent series of informative, search engine optimized videos and promoting them on your site and other digital marketing platforms.
5. Pay-Per-Click Ads
When you search on Google, you'll see that the first few results have a little "ad" icon on them. Those are pay-per-click search engine ads.
As the name suggests, pay-per-click or PPC ads are ads that you pay for each time someone clicks through. They show up for relevant searches depending on the keywords you choose. You also have to bid on those ad placements, and your bid and your keywords will affect whether you or your competitors' ads appear.
PPC ads have strong track records of success if they're well-written and well-targeted. For success, you also need the ad to link to a dedicated landing page on your site, catered to the customers your ad is meant to capture.
6. Email Marketing
Email marketing is unique. Instead of focusing on reaching new people and spreading brand awareness, it focuses on nurturing existing leads and converting them to customers.
You need to have a noticeable call-to-action on your website to encourage people to sign up for your mailing list. Once they're there, you can send out email blasts on a regular basis to tell them about your business, provide valuable new content, and incentivize them with sales.
7. Content Marketing
Content marketing is a strategy that pairs well with the other tactics on our list. The concept of content marketing is that you put out content that focuses on informing and helping people, not directly selling to them. This could come in the form of blogs, videos, social media posts, and more.
Content marketing builds trust between you and your audience. The audience gets to know you as a knowledgeable professional who's happy to lend a hand. They also get exposure to your brand so you feel like a familiar and trusted choice.
All that paves the way for those readers to become paying customers. This is effective whether you're producing content on your own site or on other sites by writing guest blogs, posting YouTube videos, and so on.
Top Digital Marketing Strategy Tactics for Your Business
Building a digital marketing strategy is all about using a collection of tactics to build an overall cohesive, strong image that brings in business. The tactics above are a great start for developing a diverse and effective plan for digital marketing for small businesses.
To jumpstart your digital marketing, call our digital marketing specialists today.
