7 Digital Marketing Tips for Small Business Owners in 2018

Updated: December 28, 2020

Want to take your small business to the next level? Try these digital marketing tips

Small business owners are individuals who privately own a business entity with the primary aim of getting profit. They also have the advantage of qualifying for preferential tax policies depending on the industry and mostly the country. Moreover, they can easily apply for government support.

However, like any other business, small business owners need a marketing strategy for the prosperity of their entity. You are probably wondering what these marketing strategies are. Well, first, you need to realize that marketing is the process of convincing your customers that your product is better than the same product being supplied by your competitors.

Now that we have that cleared, there comes the term digital marketing. There are various marketing strategies and one that has brought ease among many businesses today is the digital marketing. It uses digital technology hence involves the internet or any other digital medium including mobile phones.

Small business owners using digital marketing strategies have witnessed tremendous growth in their businesses. So, are you a small business owner eager to make some profit? Check out the digital marketing tips aligned below to get you started.

1. Use SEO (search engine optimization) rich content

Digital marketing enables you to think big without necessarily spending a lot of money. For instance, when inserting blogs on your website, they ought to be both interesting and relevant to the consumers. Search engine optimization makes users aware of the product your business supplies. With the right keywords, your business is sure to appear in searches when clients are looking for goods or services you offer. Therefore, using SEO rich content helps in putting you among the first in searches hence able to generate more sales.

2. Build compelling content

With the continued decrease in human attention to an average of about eight seconds per second, building content which is captivating is a big win. A majority of people including you get bored when they see a cluster of words on their screen from top to bottom. In fact, only a few of the people will even bother to read the first part of the cluster.

However, the use of imagery or video graphic material tends to capture the consumers’ attention as they scroll through the page. For example, you could combine a small description of your product, business or even service with an image. This application of imagery and video graphic could be on the social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter or Facebook or even your business website.

3. Create and enhance your business profile

Your business, just like you, needs to have a well-established profile. Many people have personal profiles on the social media platforms. Just like that, your small business also needs to have a personalized profile. First, having a polished profile picture to highlight your company dealings is quite essential. A profile helps people to easier relate to the various services or products your business is offering. Moreover, having an enhanced profile helps people realize that your business is real and very much existing.

Also, with social media marketing, you need to make regular posts. These posts act as an update to your customers on what you are currently giving.

4. Permission marketing

Permission marketing is the process of requesting your digital audience the permission to send those updates personally. It is quite mannerly and admirable when you perform permission marketing with both your existing and upcoming clients. You could be sending information via e-mail, text messages, and newsletters.

When you ask your customers for permission before sending them the push notifications of your business, you subsequently get respect from them. Therefore, only send it to those who agreed to the notifications as you leave out the ones that did not agree. Also, there is nothing as pleasant as a widely respected business. So, your business growth and profits are sure to increase in a lump sum.

5. Engage in online public relations

Online public relations involve various online platforms which you can use to market your small business. For example, video advertising is one marketing strategy which various small business owners can use to boost their business entity. Video advertising is readily available on platforms such as YouTube. In such platforms, video advertising comes in three various stages. These are; pre-roll which come at the beginning, mid-roll which come in the middle and post-roll which come at the end of the videos. Each stage of roll advertisements has various impacts on the marketing of business.

However, the most surprising advantage about the video ads is that they sort of forcefully prompt the consumer to view them.

6. Email marketing

Emailing remains one of the most cost-effective and efficient marketing tools for many business owners. It is also the best digital marketing tip when looking to gain some brand loyalty. Email marketing is also a good resolution when seeking to do some new business. With the right sign-up incentives, not only bring in new client but also re-attract the existing customers. While building the emails could be in most cases time consuming, you can do the marketing for low prices. In some selected services, you can perform email marketing for free.

7. Focus on the local market

With a small business, it is sometimes if not in most cases advisable to concentrate on the domestic market. With digital marketing, this means focusing on the neighborhood, street name and even the zip code of your target audience. This strategy sprouts the feeling of great care for their needs. Marketing in your local area of business is easy as you greatly understand the people living there. You know what they want, how they want it and their reaction when it's more than they expected. Moreover, if your business caters delivery services, then it also becomes affordable to deliver the goods or services you offer. This is because you are focusing on the zip code area of your business, and its neighborhood.

There are a couple more digital marketing tips like using data to personalize offers and improve customer wants. Also the option of using buy buttons on your businesses’ social media. For instance, your customers can complete purchases without necessarily leaving the social media platforms. This kind of strategy (buy buttons) significantly generates profit probably more than you could imagine.

Digital marketing has proved to be more effective and efficient in our world. With the fast growing technology, your business needs to be on par with the trends. With the right hand at digital marketing, your small business can soon become a big business. So, what does it take to be successful in digital marketing? Well, I’ll give it to you. Let your digital marketing be Precise, simple and determined to attract new consumers each and every time. Moreover, you need exactly what the audience wants. And most importantly, always be one step ahead of your competitors if not a couple more steps ahead.

With the highlighted above and these tips, try that which works for you depending on your business industry and target market. Just remember that not all that works on someone else’s business is a guarantee that it will work on yours.

About the Author:

Elena is a marketing manager at Keen and an avid traveler. She runs Keen digital strategy and aims to help small local businesses grow and succeed online. She’s all about self-improvement and healthy living.