There are few things more essential to the success of your small business than an effective marketing strategy. You might have a great product, but if no one knows it exists, you’ll never get off the ground. With that in mind, here are six tips that will help you build the most successful digital marketing strategy for your small business.
Set your KPIs
Diving headfirst into a digital marketing strategy is never a good idea, especially if your business is new or operating on a limited budget. To achieve great things, you have to know what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it. Setting marketing KPIs is the best way to do just that.
Your KPIs might be geared towards how much traffic you want to get, the conversion rate you want to hit, or the number of keywords you’d like to have atop key search engine results pages. Whatever they are, ensure they’re relevant to what you do and give you direction.
Leverage content marketing
Content marketing is crucial in a digital world driven by search. With effective content marketing, you can attract more of your ideal consumers to your blog or website without having to push the hard sell. Do this by offering value in every piece of content you publish.
This approach is effective and affordable, particularly if you employ in-house content writers. However, it does require a pretty sizable investment of time. So, to maximise that investment, ensure your content responds to questions your customers are asking and situates you as a thought leader. Then, share it across your various social channels to maximise reach.
Find your ideal channels
Speaking of social channels, it is recommended that you get set up on a select few, ensuring that they’re the ones where you’re most likely to find your ideal customers. Say, for instance, that your target audience is made up of middle-aged, career-driven men. You’re unlikely to reach very many if you attempt to target them on Instagram and TikTok.
Once you’re active on the right platforms, aim to make use of as many features as possible. As an example, Facebook offers its free Facebook Live feature while several social media sites allow users to post stories.
Make use of visuals
The online world is full of new information and interesting articles, so it’s easy for users to switch off and find something else to read. So, incorporate visuals into your content to keep your readers engaged.
From informative infographics to eye-catching photos, graphic content is becoming increasingly important to businesses that want to hold their audience’s attention. As such, 71% of marketers believe visual content is either quite important or very important, while none believe that it isn’t important at all.
Monitor key data
It is far easier to maximise your successes if you track and monitor key data. If you don’t, you’ll struggle to identify the areas of your digital marketing strategy that are working as opposed to those that are not.
The main things you should seek to track are customer habits, how well your brand is performing and hitting KPIs, and how successful you are at targeting people with messaging they want to see. By taking what you find and analysing it, you give your business the best chance of driving and maintaining an effective marketing strategy.
Put a backup plan in place
Unfortunately, it doesn’t necessarily matter how you approach your marketing strategy. In business, sometimes things just don’t work out and it’s not always easy to put a finger on why. You’ll need to put a contingency plan in place to give you a safety net should things go wrong.
Having a financial cushion to break your fall is all that some companies need. For others, voluntary administration is the only choice they have to save their business. Make sure you’re prepared for all eventualities now so you know exactly what to do when times get tough.
Final thoughts
With a top-notch digital marketing strategy, your small business can widen its reach and convert more customers, and this will lead to increased sales. It’s important to be smart about your strategy, though. Given limited resources, it will be up to you to take the platforms, tools, and trends available and really make the most of them.
By contributing writer: Luke Fitzpatrick – freelance business journalist (published in Forbes, Entrepreneur & Tech In Asia) & guest lecturer at the University of Sydney, lecturing in cross-cultural management and the pre-MBA program.
