If you are putting off investing in an online presence for your small business—here’s how digital marketing can give you a boost.
For small businesses, it can feel overwhelming to go up against companies with more established digital marketing approaches. It may even feel a bit hopeless to compete with the SEO tactics of, say, Amazon—especially if your focus is local, or if you manage marketing for your business on your own.
Many small business owners may hesitate to fully commit to more in-depth digital marketing plans because they don’t have the time and money for it, or feel as though truly impactful digital marketing is out of their reach.
However, if you are putting off investing in an online presence for your small business, it’s critical to consider how digital marketing can benefit small businesses specifically—you can reach a wider range of customers while expanding your brand in an efficient, cost-effective manner.
Digital marketing strategies can help level the playing field by giving small businesses the power to manage their online outreach. Here’s how:
Reaching your Customers
Digital marketing is one of the easiest and most commonplace methods of proving to your customers that you are 1) available and 2) the right fit for their needs. But digital marketing isn’t simply requisite—it’s a powerful, customer-focused way to strengthen your small business.
For small businesses especially, accessibility is not just about people being able to walk in through the front door—customers need to be able to both verify the legitimacy of your services and come to the conclusion that you are what they’re looking for in a sea of competitors. 81% of potential customers for your small business will engage in online research before purchasing, and in that space, your online presence can act as a crucial—and convenient—sales pitch.
After all, digital marketing does more than just display information to the audience—basic SEO strategies, blogging, and social media marketing all engage with your consumer base in a way that increases the chance of a sale. Anything more involved than a simple website also separates you from the competition; digital marketing can be used to emphasize how your company is unique as well as fitting for what your customers need.
Personalized digital marketing efforts are essential for making a connection with customers that might have otherwise passed on by. Targeted marketing online is an especially important example of the way that digital marketing can be adapted to fit the needs of your small business—you don’t have to reach everyone, but through digital marketing, you have the ability to appeal to a significant audience that your small business might not have cornered offline.
Now, you can utilize these marketing tactics in order to broaden your range of consumers, sure—but beyond being just accessible for your customers, digital marketing is also critical for establishing branding and making room for professional growth.
The Importance of Exposure
Effective digital marketing isn’t a one-and-done deal—though making a website is an essential first step, more in-depth marketing maneuvers involve active conversations with your audience that build up to form a trustworthy, popular brand for your small business.
Through elements like social media, surveying, and content generation, small businesses can continuously put themselves out there and gauge what their audience is looking for. A well-thought-out marketing approach demonstrates that your business is capable of adapting to both competition and changing customer interests—all while cementing your brand.
Going one step further in your use of digital marketing puts you on a track towards long-term growth; according to Fundera’s stats on small business marketing, around 90% of small business vendors point to social marketing specifically as increasing exposure for their business. And increased exposure through online traffic contributes directly to financial growth as well.
In this way, digital marketing empowers small businesses to foster a sense of familiarity with their consumer base and prime themselves for future advancements. Committing to a digital marketing plan that requires more upkeep than the website essentials may seem daunting, but the long-term benefits are imperative for small business growth.
It’s clear that digital marketing makes a definite impact on increasing the number of customers and completed sales. However, there’s still that hurdle of making digital marketing work for a small-business budget. Ironically, this financial barrier is the best reason why small businesses should start increasing their investment in their digital marketing approach—particularly because of the value of digital efficiency.
The Power of Efficiency
There are brands that spend an amount in the billions on their digital marketing. Comcast, for example, spends over 5 billion dollars on their advertising outreach, which can be explained by the amount of brands under their umbrella.
But just because marketing online is a lucrative industry doesn’t mean that the tools of impressive digital marketing are out of reach for small businesses—in fact, the efficiency of digital marketing makes it a critical method for small business owners to compete in the online marketplace.
Digital marketing is actually comparatively cheaper than traditional forms of marketing, such as physical advertisements. Through elements like data and analytics, owners are able to directly track how their marketing efforts are benefiting their business, and the high conversion rate of digital visitors to completed purchases shows how cost-effective this investment really is.
The ability to track the exact number of customers gained solely through digital marketing demonstrates how efficient customer targeting and branding are for small businesses. Even the simplest digital marketing moves (like updating your website or familiarizing yourself with e-commerce) eventually pay off for your small business in the form of increased brand recognition and an expanded consumer base.
Optimized and personalized digital marketing is meant to maximize the ROI for small business owners—an advantage that creates an outsized impact for your business’s growth.
In Conclusion
Small business owners shouldn’t see digital marketing as a hurdle to overcome—it’s actually an effective tool meant to make things easier and quicker, no matter what you’re selling. So ask yourself—are you taking full advantage of one of the most powerful methods at your disposal for connecting with potential customers?
Regardless of your answer, reach out to us to talk about how to develop your digital marketing approach!