For small and emerging businesses, one of the most efficient ways to succeed is learning how to take advantage of digital marketing. The effort of breaking through the barriers of the marketing space is relatively minimized in digital marketing compared to other traditional forms of marketing.
However, creating an effective digital marketing strategy from scratch–and adapting to its constantly evolving tactics—can be extremely challenging, so starting businesses would often rely on having a digital marketing service provider.
One of the key factors that SMEs would need to consider for an effective digital marketing strategy is to be aware of the different channels they can use to their advantage. First, establish brand presence, and then strengthen them with a strategy attained from the results.
Here is a quick guide for businesses venturing towards digital marketing.
Take Advantage of Social Media Platforms
One of these channels, and one of the most used online marketing tactics, is social media. Latest data revealed that more than half of the world’s population (53 percent) use social media as of October 2020. This presents an opportunity for small and medium businesses to have an extensive reach of audience and awareness. Data also showed that consumers often buy from social media platforms that they follow, and often find new businesses through similar brands, products, and services.
Create Engaging Content
The utilization of social media grants businesses a nearly limitless reach, but does not necessarily guarantee engagement. Producing engaging and quality content is important to make your digital marketing strategy a success and help build a deeper, more significant relationship with your target audience.
Content marketing is focused on creating any form of content, such as articles, infographics, or video content, that are published and targeted towards a specific audience. The goal is simple – to attract customers.
Producing relevant, high quality content gives you more foundation to engage with the audience, persuade them to become potential customers, and improve your business’ brand image.
Maximize the Power of Video Content
Studies reveal that landing page conversions increase by 80% if there is video content. Videos are often referred to as the most reliable and effective form of marketing content because people consume them on a day-to-day basis.
One survey revealed that at least 96% of consumers watch videos as their source to learn about a product or a service, and about 84% make purchases after watching a video about a brand’s product. With people’s attention span getting shorter, videos are the easiest form of content to access for consumers. For marketers, this means creating videos that are eye-catching, entertaining, yet concise.
Make Websites Both Desktop and Mobile-Friendly
For small businesses, the main objective is to always find ways to attract prospects and convert them into customers. This means that you need to cover all bases and ensure that both your mobile and desktop marketing are given the same importance.
For desktop, the topmost priority is to make sure that everything is easily accessible and guarantees a flexible user-experience to make users visit your page regularly and stay long enough to convert. The accessibility of your website shows how much of the target audience are engaged and connected. This can help you keep track of the most-visited places on the website and improve its usability for users each time.
Most importantly, make your website accessible on mobile. With people always on the go and smartphones evolving every year, mobile accessibility can provide you with additional leverage.
Run an SEO Marketing Campaign
Search engine optimization is a relevant strategy in digital marketing. Establishing your business’ online presence in the internet sphere is a good start, however, it may not be enough by the number of businesses investing in digital marketing.
The key is to also be visible on top of search engine results by increasing your rankings through SEO. This can help take your business’ visibility on another level and expand your reach as people search for your brands like yours online.
Dive into Email Marketing
Despite having several forms of marketing practices sprouting left and right in the recent years, email marketing is still proven to be one of the more effective channels in reaching prospects. The approach is seen as more direct, personal, and genuine that it would make it easier to engage with your target audience and observe consumer behavior.
In fact, about 55% of marketers still believe that email marketing provides the most ROI compared to other campaigns and forms of marketing. This means that this is still an efficient marketing practice despite being nearly 40 years old in the industry and should not be left out when venturing towards digital marketing.
Digital marketing might appear complicated at first, especially for small and medium enterprises and those that have just started. But the good thing is it’s a vast channel filled with never-ending opportunities that level the playing field for all types of businesses.
