Managing a small business doesn’t only mean dealing with core tasks and finances. In the modern business world, understanding digital marketing is one of the prerequisites for successful entrepreneurship. Promoting your business through various digital marketing channels will help you increase your revenues and boost your brand.
One of the greatest benefits of online marketing is that many of its aspects don’t cost a lot. As a matter of fact, some of them can be used entirely free of charge.
1) Work on your Email List
The first and ultimate marketing tool, email stays on the throne of digital marketing at the dawn of the 2020s. It’s simple, it’s user-friendly, and it’s free – what else can you ask for in terms of digital marketing.
As reported by Oberlo, the return on investment rate for email marketing is $42 for every dollar you invest. The same report highlights the importance of personalized emails. If you want people to open, read, and respond to your emails, they need to be personalized. So, avoid sending generic and unspecific emails because that’s just a waste of time. Stay focused and transparent in your emails but avoid sounding too salesy and aggressive. Always offer additional value to your target audiences, such as relevant tutorials or niche-related articles.
Also, start building your email list from the first day of your entrepreneurial career. If possible, get down to populating this list even before you launch your business. Save emails from every client you’ve worked with as a freelancer or employee.
2) Utilize Social Media
Social media are the most widespread channels of digital marketing. Every post that you share on Facebook or Instagram has the potential of being shared and seen by millions of people. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you’ll reach these figures at once, but that’s a possibility.
But before you start publishing business statuses on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, perform a brainstorming session. The main question for which you’ll be storming answers is how you can benefit from these business profiles and posts. Do you primarily want to promote your business that way and streamline users to your website or blog? Or do you want to make sales directly via social media?
Once you define what benefits you expect from social networks, start writing down the strategies for achieving those goals.
One last thing: avoid mixing your business account and private profile because and keep them separated.
3) Write About your Knowledge
Contemporary digital marketing is an extremely dynamic playground. However, a huge volume of this dynamism refers to repetitive content.
On the one hand, it’s useful for your business and your website conversion rates to cover some usual topics from your niche.
On the other hand, Internet users are eager to hear something new, something unique. If all business people keep recycling similar topics, audiences will get bored.
Therefore, write about your knowledge, both on your website and your blog. This doesn’t mean that you need to sound too technical or too academic. On the contrary, try to break down complicated professional terms and concepts into easily understandable bits.
Also, share your skills and things you’ve learned as you acquire them. This can raise interest in your brand and your website, plus it’s an efficient content marketing strategy. As time goes by and such posts keep coming, you’ll form a wide base of regular readers. Some of those people will leave comments and share your posts. As a result, you’ll keep getting more and more followers. This will generate more leads and increase the number of your business clients.
4) Engage in and Create Webinars
Closely related to the topic of the previous paragraph, webinars can help you both share your knowledge and generate more leads.
If you want to create a webinar, define the topic and the scope of the features within that topic. For instance, if you’d like to create a webinar on accounting, think about the type of audience you want to address. The main distinction is whether you want to target business beginners or experienced entrepreneurs. You should adapt the materials accordingly.
As for the technical aspect of creating webinars, you can start with YouTube tutorials. You don’t have to appear in these videos but make sure that the sound and the visuals are appropriately displayed.
Also, there are some practical webinar software tools that can help you put together these educational materials.
This can be a two-direction process, i.e. recommend useful webinars to your audience, especially the ones that you’ve seen or passed.
5) Enable Online Reviews
Business owners need to use the word of mouth and peer-to-peer marketing to get more attention. The first step toward reaching that goal is enabling online reviews on your website.
From allowing comments in the blog section to encouraging users to rate and review your products, everything is helpful.
What’s also important is to respond quickly and politely to any negative reviews. Whenever possible, apply the ‘Customer is always right’ rule. This is especially important when your business is only getting recognition. Negative feedback can ruin months of committed work in a small business.
Moreover, don’t hesitate to express gratefulness to customers who leave positive comments and reviews about your business.
6) Cover Various Website Versions
As the world is going mobile, business owners need to take this trend into consideration. There are several ways to stay ahead of the curve and provide your customers with user-friendly interfaces.
The first option is to order a responsive website from web designers. Such sites respond to all sorts of devices. Your customers won’t experience glitches or problems, no matter if they visit it from a desktop computer, mobile or tablet.
The second option is to build two versions of the same website: a desktop one and a mobile one. The user will see the text depending on the device he or she is using to approach your website.
The thirst option is to launch a regular website and a separate mobile app. As described by the designers from a web design company in Houston, this option is practical for business owners who expect many visitors and buyers. That way, they’ll allow mobile users to order items from their website more quickly.
Conclusion
Digital marketing is rapidly changing all the time. It’s hard for business owners to seize and use all the trends. Still, they need to learn more about some useful things that don’t cost a lot.
From utilizing email and social media marketing to sharing personal experience and providing user-friendly features, there are many frugal features at your disposal.
Therefore, sit down, take a piece of paper and write down what you expect from digital marketing in the first place. After that, follow our tips to reach your goals and start winning over new leads and customers.
