digital

By Dennis Hung

Running a small business can be tough. You just don’t have the resources that much larger companies have at their disposal. One of these resources is a large marketing budget. An article by the Entrepreneur states that the average small business spends $400 a month on marketing. While this may be nothing to large corporations, it can be a substantial burden for a small business.

This is one of the reasons why many small businesses choose digital marketing solutions. Digital marketing is far cheaper and more efficient than many other options for advertising a company’s products. However, like anything, digital marketing is not easy. With this in mind, below are some strategies small businesses can use to enhance their digital marketing strategies.

Tie in Brick and Mortar

Many small businesses have a brick and mortar arm as well as an online presence. If that’s the case with your company, one way you can use digital marketing to increase profits is to use it to help your brick and mortar stores in addition to your online sales.

Cross promotion in this case can produce strong results. Consider sending out in-store coupons and promotions through the use of your email marketing. You can also offer in-store pickup for products in place of having to pay a shipping charge. This way, those online customers will enter your store and might be convinced to make add-on purchases. A report by eMarketer suggests 80 percent of consumers prefer using the in-store pick-up option.

Localize Your Digital Marketing

Most small businesses have a base of operations in a specific geographic area. They tend to draw upon the people living there as their main customer base. If this is the case for your small business, one way to enhance the effectiveness of your digital marketing is by making it more localized.

One way to do this through the use of content marketing with a more local flavor that has a better chance of drawing in your target market. If people are drawn in by content related to a city, like let’s say blog articles for example, they could be convinced to purchase your products if they are brought up in a subtle way. Keep in mind that 50 percent of local searches result in sales for a local business within one day’s time.

Focus on SEO

Search engine optimization is still one of the most important components of a digital marketing strategy. Not everyone will click through an ad to find your website. A good deal will find it through either Google or Bing.

If your website is not optimized for the right keywords and keyword phrases, your website will never receive the traffic it needs to be successful. Certainly put a lot of thought and strategy into your search engine optimization efforts.

Invest in Analytics

One of the great things about digital marketing is its success or failure can be tracked and reported on a level that is not possible with other advertising platforms. However, to accomplish this, you need the right analytics software.

One option you might want to consider is a business intelligence dashboard. BI dashboards allow a business owner or other high level manager to view visual representations of different metrics and key performance indicators in real time. This can certainly be applied directly to tracking digital marketing efforts.

Implement Personalization

With access to so much data, digital advertising has one extremely significant benefit that sets it apart from print, radio and TV ads. A digital advertisement can be personalized to target a single consumer. This can greatly improve the effectiveness or your advertising. Aim for personalization in your digital ads whether they are in-browser, email or some other form.

Digital advertising is very inexpensive and efficient. It can also be tracked like no other form of advertising before it. Make sure you put a lot of effort into your digital marketing efforts. It can pay off by creating new revenues and lowering marketing costs.

Dennis Hung is an entrepreneur and business consultant. He has spent most of career consulting for businesses in North America on how to improve their business technology, social media and digital marketing.