Today I’m going to be sharing some of the best digital marketing strategies for small businesses. If you’re reading this, chances are that you’ve recently started your own small business (congratulations!) and are looking for ways to get the word out, am I right?
It’s tricky knowing where to start when it comes to marketing a small business, so I’m going to be sharing some inbound marketing strategies that will give you the highest return on investment for both your time and your money.
As we go through this list, you may wonder if all of these digital marketing tactics are really necessary. Sure, word of mouth and traditional advertising can be a great option for local businesses, but don’t you want more?
Of course you do!
In 2021 having an online presence is essential for all business types, regardless of whether you are a local cafe or an online boutique. Why? Well as of April 2020, there are over 4.57 billion internet users, and 3.81 social media users. And these numbers are continuing to grow. Basically, if you want to reach your audience, you can find them online.
Screenshot: Statista
All the strategies we are going to talk about today are accessible to anyone, and they won’t blow your budget, but the key here is consistency. You need to take action, and when you do, you will see consistent results.
Sound good?
Let’s dive in.
Digital Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
This article may contain affiliate links. This means that if you purchase a product I have recommended, I may earn a small commission (at no cost to you). Commissions I earn keep this blog running without using Ads, and enable me to provide valuable free content to my readers 🙂
Blogging
Every business needs a blog. Yes, that’s right; Jewellers, pubs, restaurants, personal trainers, DIY stores, make-up artists, business coaches, you name it. All business types can benefit from a blog.
Why?
- Having a great blog positions you as an expert in your industry
- Blog content can be shared on social media, which will help your business reach a wider audience, and earn you more backlinks
- It can help improve your SEO, as Google LOVES fresh content (more about that in a minute)
- If your customers find it useful, they will come back for more
It’s easy to start blogging, and you can either write your content yourself or outsource it to a professional content writer if you’re short on time, or writing isn’t your thing.
You can use a keyword research tool like SEMrush to find keywords with a high search volume and low competition. Using the right keywords will give you the best chance of being found on the first page of search results.
Click here to download the ultimate content marketing checklist from SEMrush.
SEO
SEO is one of the most important digital marketing strategies for small businesses. If you want to be found in Google, you will need to put some effort into your SEO. It sounds scary at first, but don’t worry- the basics are quite easy.
The first thing you should do is start a ‘Google My Business’ page on Google. You should also start social media accounts for your business, with links back to your website, and have a blog, as we mentioned in the last point.
The reason a blog is so important for your SEO is because it gives you the chance to link internally to your key pages, as well as giving you the chance to include long-tail keywords in your content. Long-tail keywords (keywords or phrases containing 3 or more words) are important, as although fewer people will be searching for them, they are usually highly targeted, with better conversion rates, and you will be far more likely to rank for them in Google.
You can use keyword research tools to perform competitor analysis. This will show you exactly which keywords your competitors are ranking for, enabling you to look for gaps and see opportunities to outrank them.
This Free SEO Toolkit will give you guidance on how to do keyword research, competitor analysis, link building, and on-page and technical SEO.
Email List
Having an email list is, without a doubt, one of the most important marketing strategies out there. Aside from having a massive ROI of 4200% ($42 for every $1 spent!), email marketing is still most people’s preferred way to receive communication from businesses.
Almost everyone has a smartphone these days, which means people have their inbox in their pockets, allowing them to check their emails on the bus, train, plane, even in bed. And because of GDPR regulations, if someone is on your email list these days, it means that they have actively signed up and they actually want to hear from you. If not, they can simply unsubscribe. Easy peasy.
The great thing about an email list is that it is 100% yours. Sure, you may have a huge following on Facebook or Instagram, but what happens if the algorithm changes and people stop seeing your posts? Or if your social media profile or even the entire platform just disappeared one day and you suddenly lost all your followers?
See what I mean? You have no control, as you don’t own the platform, and changes can be made at any time.
When you have an email list it’s all yours. You can contact them at any time. You have full control.
It’s surprisingly easy to start an email list. If you’re unsure at first, or on a budget, then you can choose an email service that offers a free plan. Many email providers allow you to have your first 1000-2000 subscribers for free, and once your email list grows above this and you start seeing an ROI, you can upgrade to a paid plan.
I recommend starting out with Mailerlite. You get your first 1000 subscribers for free, and after that, it starts at around $15/month (£12/month).
How to get people to sign up to your email list
Once you have signed up with an email service, you will need to get some subscribers on your list. A great way to do this is by offering a small discount on their first purchase. Alternatively, you could offer some kind of freebie (known as a lead magnet) when they sign up. Great ideas for lead magnets include:
- Free email course
- E-books such as a recipe book or a ‘how-to’ guide
- Free online course on a free course platform like Teachable
- Printable downloads such as planners
What can you send your subscribers once they have signed up?
Well, anything you like really, as long as it is either interesting or useful to your target customers, such as:
- Newsletters
- Special offers
- Round-ups of your latest blog posts
- Upcoming events
- How-to guides
- Seasonal promotions
Social Media
Social media is a great place to engage with your followers and potential customers, keeping your brand at the forefront of their minds.
You might think that social media isn’t important, but let’s look at some of the statistics:
- Nearly 50% of the world’s population is on social media, that’s over 3 billion users worldwide!
- Instagram now has over 1 billion active monthly users
- 1.6 billion Facebook users are connected to a small business on the platform
- 93% of people use Pinterest to plan a purchase
- In 2019, Twitter averaged 330 million monthly active users
- Facebook is the most popular social media platform, with around 2,498 million users as of April 2020
- 321 million new people joined social media in 2019, which brought the total from 3.48 billion to 3.8 billion social media users (an increase of 9%) in 2020
Most Popular Social Media Platforms in 2020, Ranked by Numbers of Active Users in Millions (Statista)
So if you want to reach your audience quickly, social media is a great place to start. There’s no need to be active on every platform, but you should pick at least a couple of platforms that are most relevant to your target audience.
Social media can be done badly, and it’s worse to have a bad social media presence than no presence at all. If you or your team members aren’t familiar with social media best practices and growth tactics, it’s worth paying for social media management services or taking a course to upskill yourself or your team.
Online Communities
Online communities are a great place to engage with your target audience. Find out where they hang out (Facebook groups, Forums, etc.) and engage in conversations offering useful advice without asking for anything in return. This will help you build genuine relationships, which are key for building brand loyalty.
Online Marketplaces
If you run an eCommerce business, online marketplaces can be a great way for you to reach a ready-made audience. Places like Etsy and eBay are perfect for finding customers who are ready to buy. Sure, you will have to pay a small commission on each sale you make, but all of the work of advertising and finding customers has already been done for you!
If you make a sale on a marketplace website, you can include extra leaflets when you pack your product, so that the customer can follow you on social media and easily find your website for future purchases.
Guest Blogging
One of my favourite digital marketing strategies for small businesses is guest blogging. Guest blogging is a great way to build relationships and establish yourself as an authority in your niche. Guest blogging is when you write an informative article to be published on another relevant website. You can usually include a backlink to your own website in your Author bio, which can be great for your SEO!
You may have heard that guest blogging doesn’t work in 2020, but that’s not true at all. Not if you do it properly. Paying for backlinks on spammy websites can get you penalised by Google, but if you do it properly, it can work wonders.
How to Make Guest Blogging Work For You in 2020
- Choose high-quality relevant sites to submit your articles to. You can find high authority (DA) sites by using the Mozbar Chrome Extension. This extension will show you the domain authority of websites on the search engine results page (SERP) so you can decide who is worth targeting. The higher the DA, the better the site.
- Type “Your Industry + write for us” into a Google search with your Mozbar Chrome extension activated, and you will see a list of all the sites that are accepting guest post submissions. You can target the ones with the highest authority first.
- Write well-researched, good-quality content focused on your industry, with a catchy title.
- Focus on quality over quantity. You want to aim for high authority sites, ideally with a DA over 20, but the higher the better, so a couple of links on sites with a DA of over 50 if better than more links on lower authority sites.
- When your posts are published, share them with your own audience on your social media channels to get more eyes on your work, and more traffic to the site that published your article.
Although these are some of the best digital marketing strategies for small businesses, there are of course many more strategies you can use to grow your business online. Please add your favourite marketing strategies in the comments, and let me know what has been working best for your business, I would love to hear from you!