8 Digital Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

Where should you put your efforts into marketing your small business? Start with these 8 digital marketing tips.

Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash

As a small business, the most valuable tool at your disposal is digital marketing – and this guide is here to tell you all about it. 

What is Digital Marketing?

If you don’t already know, digital marketing is marketing that’s done over the internet. 

Basically, whenever you encounter an advert when you’re browsing your smartphone or desktop computer, that’s digital marketing. 

In the modern era of business, almost every company is reliant on digital marketing, especially small businesses. 

If a small business nails its digital marketing, then they’re going to experience growth and success: it’s that simple. 

So, if you’re a fresh startup or a small business looking to make some big steps forward, then you’ve come to the right place. Inside this guide are a total of 8 digital marketing tips that will help to steer you in the right direction and get you some serious brand recognition. 

Let’s take a look. 

1. Use an SEO Strategy 

SEO – which stands for Search Engine Optimization – is key to increasing your website traffic and modernizing your internet presence. 

At the heart of your SEO strategy should be something called white hat backlinks. Basically, this involves other high-quality websites including links to your website. In turn, this will boost your site up Google’s search rankings and get more eyes on your website – which is what you want, right? 

If you’re unsure where to start with this, don’t worry, you can work with an SEO specialist. These kinds of services allow you to obtain white hat links and start building your SEO strategy. 

2. Launch a Mobile App 

Next, it’s important for your small business to launch a mobile app. 

Your loyal customers will then be able to download your app and use it to buy products, get updates, and stay in contact with you. Plus, if they have notifications turned on, you’ll be able to ping your customers at any time with a message. 

However, the hardest part is getting your customers to download the app. To get them interested, you should:

• Optimize your app for the Google and iOS App Stores 
• Promote the app through your website and social pages
• Encourage customers to download it when they purchase items from your store
• Include app incentives (e.g., purchase products through the app and get a 10% discount) 

It’s also important to bring your attention to this interesting trend: by 2026, 70% of total ad spending will be generated through mobile. 

Essentially, what this means is that mobile marketing is going to be more important than ever as society moves forward – so you need to stay one step ahead by having a mobile app made as soon as possible. 

3. Post Lots of Content to Social Media

Social media is a big part of modern-day digital marketing. 

In 2020, there were over 3.6 billion registered social media users worldwide – a number which is projected to reach 4.41 billion by 2025. With this in mind, it’s hardly surprising that companies are ramping up their social media strategies. 

As a small business, you should start by posting lots of content to all the major platforms, from TikTok to Facebook. Your content should range from company updates to visuals of your products and services. 

On top of this, you should also conduct giveaways via social media, as this is a great way to capture the attention of new, potential customers.

4. Add a Chatbot to Your Customer Service

Back in the old days, customer service was provided to customers either in-store or over the phone. Now, though, digital marketing is changing all of that. 

Through their websites, many companies are now utilizing ‘chatbots’. A chatbot is a bot that uses artificial intelligence to learn and answer basic customer questions via a chat in one of the corners of the website. 

For example, you might visit a big brand’s website and be immediately greeted by a chatbot in the corner. From there, you can ask a question (such as “What are your store’s opening times?”) and get an instant answer. 

Interestingly, chatbots are great tools for marketing, as you can promote your products during and after the conversation ends. Also, if a customer provides contact details to a chatbot (such as their phone number or email), the chatbot will be able to send them an automated message with marketing content in it. 

5. Build Email and SMS Marketing Lists

Over the coming months and years, you need to make building email and SMS marketing lists a priority. This is because a large portion of digital marketing is now done through emailing and texting customers. Naturally, though, this is only possible if you have contact lists to use. 

You can build your email and SMS lists in various ways, including pop-up forms on your website and competitions on social media that require customer contact details to enter. 

6. Create a ‘Google My Business’ Profile

If you want consumers to discover your business online, then Google is going to be your trusty partner. 

You must first create a Google My Business profile. This will make your website more visible in the search rankings while highlighting important information such as your opening and closing times. 

It’s easy to create a Google My Business profile – you could even do it today. 

7. Hire a Photographer to Capture Some Visual Content

On your website and social media pages, visual content is key.

Therefore, it’s a good idea to hire a photographer to come into your office and capture some high-quality visual content of your staff and the premises you work in. After, you will be able to use this content for branding purposes as well as profile and cover images on your social pages. 

Plus, your photos should also be a big part of your business website. Remember, the photos provide a face to your brand, enabling a friendlier and more personalized customer perception. 

8. Encourage Customers to Post Online Reviews

Lastly, you should encourage customers to post online reviews after buying your products. Many businesses now use automated marketing software that sends surveys out to customers a set number of days after they purchase a product. For example, five days after buying one of your products, you could program it so that a customer receives an email with a super short survey asking them for their thoughts and opinions. 

 

There is no shortage of strategies and tactics a business can use for marketing, but these 8 digital marketing tips are the foundation for every startup to market successfully. Looking for more marketing strategies, click here.