10 digital marketing tips for small businesses

 

Stay ahead of competition and kickstart your digital marketing efforts with our top 10 tips, ideal for any small business.

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For any business to remain competitive, a strong digital marketing strategy is essential. Our top 10 tips will help kickstart the marketing efforts of any small business. 

If you’re a small business owner, then a good digital marketing strategy is essential if you want to stay ahead of the competition. As technology continues to rapidly develop, social media platforms grow and online communication booms, you need to ensure your digital presence is the catalyst for business success.

In fact, 63% of businesses have increased their digital marketing budgets in the last year, so by failing to do so you may run the risk of getting left behind. 

If you’re stuck for inspiration, then our list of digital marketing tips will ensure your small business doesn’t miss out and you remain competitive in an ever-changing world. Here are 10 effective ways to kick-start your digital marketing endeavours, with all the tips and tricks you need to promote your brand online.

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Social Media College

Setting Up Your Instagram Profile for Business and Marketing

2 weeks

Business & Management,Creative Arts & Media

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The Open University

Digital Marketing Analytics and Measurement

3 courses

15 weeks

Intermediate

1. Research your competitors

If you want to stand out from your competitors, then getting to know their brands and what they offer is a good place to start. This digital marketing tip is especially relevant for startups that may be new on the scene and finding their feet.

As a local business, you’ll want to showcase additional value in your chosen market, offering your customers something that your rivals don’t. By taking a closer look at a competitor’s business model, you’ll be able to notice missing elements from their service that you could potentially capitalise on.

When you have a good understanding of what your competitors are doing, you can then tailor certain elements of your digital marketing strategy to take advantage of their weaknesses. A good way of conducting competitor research is online, taking a look at how they advertise, their website, social media presence, and customer reviews.

2. Speak to customers and understand your audience

Arguably, there are very few digital marketing tips for small businesses more important than this. Speaking to existing and prospective customers is absolutely essential, as you need to know everything about your target audience. This includes who they are, what they like, what their expectations are, what they want to see, and so much more.

You may think you already have a good understanding of your target audience, but taking a deeper dive into their behaviours and opinions will help to build long-lasting relationships and improve your customer retention. As a small business, you’ll need to know your local target audience extensively, so you can encourage them to buy your products and spread the word.

Interviews, surveys, and customer feedback are great ways of getting to know your audience better. If you want, you can tailor your research methods towards a particular theme or area of your business. 

It’s important to remember that different online platforms will attract different customers. For example, posting a survey on social media is likely to encourage interactions with different people to what you might expect with emails. You’ll therefore want to think about the right approach and what areas of your audience you want to target.

3. Create a Google My Business listing and improve customer reviews

As a small business owner, your reputation could be the difference between gaining or losing a potential customer. This free digital marketing tip provides internet users with important information about your business and also allows them to see reviews. 

Having a Google My Business listing is a great way of improving your visibility online, as your profile will appear in Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Shopping.

By adding your small business, you’ll be able to:

Add your location

Include contact information

Link to your website

Prove your business has been verified

Customise your profile

Add images and videos

Include keywords in your profile

Encourage reviews

Add special features and attributes.

Potential customers will be able to quickly and conveniently access all of your important business information, plus you’ll also be able to easily edit any details to ensure they are always up to date. In total, it’s estimated that 64% of consumers use Google My Business to find contact details for local businesses.

4. Work on your website basics

There are countless ways of improving and developing your website, but getting the basics right first is absolutely essential. Whether it’s ensuring your website has a clear design and is easy to navigate or making sure your website pages load quickly, first impressions are an integral part of attracting customers online, with 94% of first impressions of a website being design-related.

As user experience on websites continues to improve, customers are quite rightly becoming more demanding and expect businesses to get the basics right at the very least. A badly functioning website will not only turn customers away, but it will also impact your chances of ranking in Google and hinder the likelihood of being noticed.

A huge component of digital marketing is about converting new users into customers, and having a fully-functioning website that offers an excellent user experience helps to achieve this.

5. Create interesting content

Content is king. Whether it’s blog posts or videos, the content you produce is one of the best digital marketing tools for you to leverage. Creating innovative and engaging content will help you to get noticed online and also expand your reach. Not only is it good to have on your website, but content is also great for sharing on social media – especially when it comes to videos.

Not only does it help you to form a connection between your brand and its customers, but it also allows you to promote your business in a much more engaging format. In terms of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), having blog content will also allow you to naturally target keywords and improve your ranking on Google.

In an increasingly competitive world, digital marketing tips and tricks like this will help you to stand out from your competitors and put your own unique spin on how you market your brand. Simply put, no digital marketing strategy is complete without it.