Small to medium-sized businesses should be utilising all key digital marketing techniques to expand their online presence and help grow their business.
In this extremely competitive world, it’s important to know the top digital marketing techniques to promote your small or medium-sized business online in order to get closer to your prospects. You need to think of digital marketing as a way to build your online presence so that you not only attract a much wider audience but also get to know and connect with your potential customers. Digital marketing is actually one of the most cost-effective forms of advertising as it enables you to harness a large amount of media attention even when your budget is tight.
So how can you stand out in a crowd of competitors and make yourself more accessible to consumers? Let’s take a look at some of the key digital marketing strategies for SMEs.
Website design and development
For your business to generate more business and be successful, you need a website that appeals to your target audience and turns traffic into leads or sales. That’s where web design and development come into play. If your website is complicated and difficult to use, your prospects will quickly go elsewhere. But if your website is attractive, easy to navigate and optimized for mobile devices, you’ll make a great first impression on visitors and increase your chances of getting them to stick around.
According to digital marketing agency Cayenne Red, implementing good SEO (search engine optimization) is a proven way to improve your search engine ranking, attract more people to your website and enhance the user experience. For long-term SEO success, you should focus on link building and creating engaging content – which leads us nicely onto our next key strategy.
Start blogging
These days, people love to consume interesting content, whether it be on a website or on social media. This is great news if you’re an SME business owner as it gives you the opportunity to share original content with your target audience to help expand your reach and establish yourself as an expert in your field. You must, however, make your content valuable for readers and ensure you create blog posts that are relevant and helpful without being too self-promotional.
Blogging is, in fact, one of the most powerful digital marketing strategies because it provides you with an easy way to add fresh content to your website, which can positively impact your SEO. Publishing your blog posts on social media is key as well.
At the end of the day, you need to think of your business blog as more of a social blog and write about things that will encourage others to interact with you online to expose your brand to new individuals.
Leverage social media
If your business isn’t already using social media, then you need to start now. In addition to being the best online tool for marketing your business, social media can help to drive more engagement and influence the buying behaviour of customers.
You should start by finding out where your targets like to hang out. For example, if your prospects spend their time on Facebook and Instagram, then you’ll need to exploit your content on these platforms. Also, be sure to pay attention to your competitors on social media. Look at the type of content they are using and how often followers are engaging with their posts.
It doesn’t cost a penny to set up a social media account but you do need to put together a plan before you start posting because there’s a lot more to running a page than just sharing content every now and then. You need to post frequently to keep your business visible and engage by responding to user comments to help humanise your brand and build trust with customers.
Email marketing
Not got a subscriber list made up of customers that have signed up to receive your emails? Then now is the time to put an opt-in form on your website. If you already have a list of subscribers, start emailing these people updates and information about your business. Remember, they have chosen to receive emails from you, so it’s up to you to give them what they want.
To be successful with email marketing and build a relationship with your audience, you need to mix things up a bit. There are all sorts of emails you can send, such as a:
- blog post
- limited-time deal or offer
- survey or feedback request
- new product update
- business announcement
- weekly or monthly newsletter
It’s surprising how few small to medium-sized businesses leverage email marketing to communicate their brand. Email marketing is still as strong as ever, mainly because people use email more than any other platform around today.
Bonus tip: Make sure you optimize your emails for mobile traffic to provide a seamless customer experience. If you disregard mobile users and send emails that do not display your content properly, your readers will ignore them completely or put them straight into the trash folder.
Final word
Digital marketing is all about gaining more attention for your brand, and your efforts should pay off provided you always keep your target audience in mind. You also need to remain consistent, really get to know your prospects and win their trust to get the results you’re looking to achieve.
Now that you’re armed with the knowledge you need, you can tailor and test your digital marketing strategies to help you figure out the best techniques for your individual business.