Welcome to another year of the hustle and grind! Most small businesses would agree they plan to generate more leads and close more deals this year than they did last year. To do that, they will need a digital marketing strategy in place. The challenge is that the average local small business doesn’t have the resources to implement an effective and cohesive digital marketing strategy.
Take a look at these small business digital marketing stats:
- Nearly 64% of small businesses polled say they don’t really have enough time and resources to focus on marketing. (SEMRush)
- 93% of small businesses struggle with common social media challenges. (Visual Objects)
- 46% of all Google searches have local intent, and 47% of customers are viewing the content on a company’s website to make a buying decision.
- 35% of small businesses think they are too small to have a website! (Fundera)
The Importance of Digital Marketing for Small Businesses
It should go without saying that digital marketing is crucial to the continued success and growth of any small business. The good news is that marketing is not just one set of strategies that must be applied to every business. Marketing often means different things to different businesses based on how the company needs to present its products to buyers to get a sale.
For businesses like salons and home decor brands, social media is non-negotiable to establish expertise and help these types of businesses find customers who like what they do.
Other businesses such as residential builders and locksmiths would benefit from publishing articles and blogs to their company websites to boost their visibility and establish credibility with buyers.
Then there are professionals such as realtors who have had to add YouTube videos to their content marketing arsenal in order to keep selling units during a global pandemic that requires social distancing.
Each of the examples above revolves around content creation – whether that content is social media posts, articles, or videos. That’s because content marketing is one of the most effective, low-barrier ways for small businesses with limited resources to launch a #digitalstrategy that converts. That said, here are 3 digital marketing tips small businesses can start using today to boost their visibility and start generating targeted leads.
Digital Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
#1 Find an Agency Partner
Businesses that fall into that 64% of firms that don’t have the time or the team to roll out marketing campaigns will benefit from finding creative partnerships. Content marketing firms like Vervology create high-quality, search-optimized content for brands to use as part of their digital marketing strategies. More importantly, an agency can create a digital marketing strategy to ensure the right marketing activities are performed to produce the outcomes businesses want to see.
A content agency is an off-site marketing team that can help brands close the distance between unreachable marketing goals and hitting all the important KPIs.
#2 Get The Right Tools
Admittedly, the digital solutions that create, track, and publish content can be pricey, but it’s worth it for small businesses to make sure they have access to basic tools. These include Google Analytics and Google Search Console to analyze traffic to the company website, an affordably-priced social media scheduler like Publer or Planoly to automate the process of posting social media content, a digital asset manager that houses any infographics, PDFs, ebooks, guides, or other visual marketing assets the team creates, and a project management tool to help teams keep everything organized and transparent.
#3 Find Which Social Channel Customers Are Using
This is a big one because many brands have the unfortunate misconception that being active on any social media channel is better than not being active at all. The first step to adopting a social media strategy is to know where current and prospective customers are hanging out online. Tailor social media marketing efforts to zero in on the social media platform the brands customers are already spending time. Otherwise, a brand can easily spend tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours creating and posting content that will never convert because it won’t be seen by their customers.
Conclusion
The above digital marketing tips should provide any business owner with a strong start for building out their online presence. If you need help getting your local small business marketing efforts off the ground, schedule a strategy call with our team and see how quickly your business can grow.