The first goal when a person opening a small business is basically the same for everyone – creating a brand that will lead that first wave of consumers straight to the door or to a homepage and convert this visitor into a buyer or a customer. For those entrepreneurs that opened up their small businesses more than ten years ago, the solution and all efforts were into traditional marketing channels such as handing out business cards and running commercials.
But starting and /or running a small business these days is no longer as simple as it once used to be. The competition has increased in almost all niches or industries and small business owners need to follow the trends and a much more efficient way to generate more leads and customers and, consequently, more sales – and the implementation of digital marketing solutions became almost mandatory.
Here are 7 digital marketing strategies that every small business owners must have in mind:
1) Voice search
Good general SEO (check bellow) will help you rank high but you can additionally optimize for voice search using keywords and phrases that sound the way people talk (“What Brazilian restaurants are open right now?”) rather than the way they’d type into a search engine (“Brazilian restaurants open now”). Creating an FAQ page on your website that answers questions people might ask about your product can also help optimize for voice search.
2) Business website
A website is the digital “home” of any business and it’s the online spot to showcase your business offline or online. Your website doesn’t have to be fancy, but it does need to be mobile-friendly, have impressive visual communication, fast loading, and security certification (SSL) – even those websites that not sell anything these days must consider it for better rankings.
3) Search engine optimization
As we mentioned above “better ranking”, we would like to remind you that any website owner need to have their website optimized and search engine optimization (SEO) helps in the process of increasing website traffic using the organic (non-paid) search results on search engines. There are many moving parts to SEO, including using the right keywords and references to your website from external links, social media presence, and much more.
4) Local search engine optimization
Same as above (SEO) but in this case, the optimization is in particular to local businesses looking for attracting local customers. Many of those online searches are done while users are “on the go” looking for local businesses or people living nearby looking for a specific thing – like a florist or iPhone repair. Besides optimized for local search by including location information and location-related keywords, the businesses needs to be listed in a variety of local business directories such as Google My Business and MapQuest.
5) Email marketing
It is not a thing of the past and nearly 7 in 10 businesses using digital marketing have implemented email marketing as a tool to reach customers and keep them updated with sales and promotions. It’s good to know that 47% of people across demographics check their email on a mobile device and 81% of those use their smartphones.
6) Social media marketing
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and all these platforms out there have an important role in the digital marketing scenario. There are many platforms these days and every year we see a new one that can be the new boom, as Tik-Tok in 2020 and Clubhouse in 2021. Not have too much time? Focus on one or two and observe where your public target is.
7) Content Marketing
Content is king in organic online marketing as search engines as google gives better rankings for those websites with relevant and rich content – blog posts, ebooks, white papers, infographics, videos, etc. For small businesses, the goal is to attract users to view their content and take the desired action or to educate the customer about their products or services.
8) Reviews and online ratings
We left the review and online ratings for last on the list because many of you who are reading this article may not think of the business online review as a digital marketing strategy, but they’re a major factor in how prospects form an opinion of your business – 86% of consumers, and 95% of those are between 18 to 34, read reviews for local businesses. Optimize your listings on review sites the same way you would on Google My Business (part of Local SEO strategy) is essential to attract customers. Keep them current and add photos, descriptions, directions, and offers. Monitor your reviews regularly and respond to negative reviews quickly (and politely).
Hope you have enjoyed this article. Remember that we can help you, professional and small business owner, with most of these strategies as well as video producing and visual communication implementation.