When it comes to small businesses and digital marketing, the key is to be creative. You don’t need to spend a ton of money to launch an effective digital marketing campaign. You need to understand what channels to use, how to craft your digital message, and how to create a digital footprint that maximizes the money that you do spend.
Key Benefits of Digital Marketing for Small Businesses
The benefits you get from integrating a digital marketing campaign are significant. Among some of the key benefits are:
• A wider reach. A digital marketing campaign can reach just about anyone in the world. That small startup business has the potential to go global in a concise amount of time when using digital marketing.
• The ability to interact with consumers. Your digital marketing efforts aren’t just about conveying a message thanks to social media. They are also about actually speaking to people, getting feedback, and gaining insights into what they are looking for.
• Save money on advertising. More traditional ways of advertising and marketing tend to be fairly expensive. The average billboard for example can run anywhere from 1000 per month to upwards of 10k or more per month. With certain digital marketing initiatives, the cost can sometimes be free!
• Closely monitor the results of your ad efforts. Analytics makes it easy for any small business to track and monitor the effectiveness of any single ad or campaign. This way, you know what may need adjusting and working well.
As You Get Started with Digital Marketing
Getting started in digital marketing is not as difficult as you may think. Suppose you’re new to this particular advertising/marketing arena, no worries. In that case, there are some things you can start doing now that will help you devise a comprehensive and effective digital marketing campaign for your small business.
1) Check Out Your Competitors
Why not see what the competition is doing in creating their digital marketing strategy. See which competitors seem to be successful in their efforts and find out what is working well for them. Are their social media efforts robust? What types of digital messaging are they using? How about images and graphics? The more you can find out how a competitor is attracting clients, the more information you are now armed with as you embark upon your digital marketing campaign.
2) Be Accessible
Again, one of the critical benefits of digital marketing is more of an interaction between companies and consumers. We mean by this to make sure that your consumers can reach you. Customers like this; they like accessing the “people” behind the business. With social media accounts primarily, engage with your consumer base. If someone asks a question, answer it. Handle it tactfully and with an eye on potentially repairing a relationship. If people leave feedback, respond—even in negative feedback, especially in instances where there is negative feedback.
3) Study Your Audience
This is perhaps one of the main things you need to do to create a results-driven digital marketing campaign. Who are the people buying your product or service? And when we ask “who” they are, we’re talking about more than just their name. The internet and social media allow you to gain insight into your target audience. Study their buying patterns, gather demographic information, use analytics to discover their interests, incomes levels, and jobs. Getting a clearer picture of your core audience is only going to help you more effectively tailor your digital marketing message to them.
4) Increase Your Marketing Efforts
The great thing about digital marketing is that it is relatively inexpensive. Setting up social media accounts is free. Sending out emails and newsletters is essentially free as well. This means that you can do more with less—and when it comes to marketing, this is a perfect thing! Digital marketing allows you to explore a multitude of possible channels. See what works for your niche—test specific messages and images. You can keep experimenting until you find what works for your business.
First Union Lending Stands Behind Small Businesses
We want to see our clients thrive and grow—this is why we do what we do. We offer short-term loans, SBA loans, and equipment loans among other financing types. Even if your credit score is not where it needs to be, we can likely still help. Call today!