Are you a small business owner in Melbourne who is looking to improve your digital marketing?
You’ve come to the right place! Our blog is packed with various digital marketing tips and advice that will help you get the most out of your current digital marketing strategies.
We want to see small businesses succeed, and we believe that effective digital marketing is key to achieving success in today’s marketplace. That’s why we created this official “Digital Marketing Tips for Small Businesses” blog – to help small business owners like you learn everything they need to know to improve or create digital marketing campaigns and strategies for their business.
Let’s get started…
Utilise Social Media to Create a Digital Marketing Presence
Digital marketing is an important aspect of any business, small or large. By creating a digital marketing presence, businesses can connect with existing customers and clients online, reach a wider audience, and create brand awareness.
One of the most effective ways to create a digital marketing presence is by utilising social media platforms. Not only are they widely used by most brands, but they also offer businesses a variety of ways to connect with their customers.
For example, businesses can post updates about their products or services through short-form content or run competitions and giveaways, and offer discounts for new products.
The following are several businesses and brands that are leveraging social media platforms to their advantage especially when it comes to the features that each platform has:
Overall, social media channels are an effective way for businesses to connect with customers online and are almost always part of effective digital marketing strategies implemented by companies.
By using social platforms correctly, businesses can see a positive return on investment (ROI) in terms of increased sales and conversions.
Of course, in order for your social media marketing strategies to be effective, there are several free tools below (you might need to upgrade to paid plans later) to help you create content and monitor your progress especially when you launch a social media campaign:
- Canva
- Facebook Creator Studio
- HootSuite
- Buffer
Social media is just one of the pillars involved in digital marketing as digital marketing is a broad spectrum that serves as an essential tool for small businesses to promote their products and services online, which we’ll be discussing further in the latter sections of this article.
For now, here are some ways to utilise social platforms to help with your overall digital marketing strategy:
Use Social Channels to Build Relationships With Customers
Make sure you are active on social media and engage with customers regularly, this includes replying to comments and answering questions. This will help you build trust and loyalty with your customers in the long run.
Your brand’s story is what sets you apart from the competition. Share it on your business’s social media accounts, and make sure it is consistent with the overall tone and messaging of your brand.
Valuable content will help you attract new customers and keep them coming back for more. Make sure your social media posts are relevant to your target audience and that you provide useful information or insights.
Create High-Quality Content That Is Both Relevant and Useful
Sharing insightful content is one thing, and creating it is another.
When it comes to content marketing, you’ll need to create content that is both relevant and useful to your targeted customers. In fact, the content you create must be presented in the most ideal formats that support the information you share.
We’ve listed a few examples of businesses that have provided content that their target audience can benefit from:
- Ethereum’s Whitepaper
To create relevant and useful content, you need to first understand your audience.
What are their interests and needs?
What do they want to learn more about?
What content format are they more drawn to?
Once you know your audience, you can start creating content that is specifically tailored to them.
Moreover, your content should also be of the highest quality possible. This means it should not only be of high resolution but also be well-written, informative, and interesting to read.
If you can consistently create high-quality, relevant, and useful content, you’ll be well on your way to having a successful content marketing strategy.
Want to get started with content marketing? We’d be happy to hop on a quick call with you, simply click here to get started!
Invest in Paid Advertising Opportunities
Paid ads allow businesses to attract customers who are actively looking for information about the products or services they offer.
Furthermore, paid advertising also allows businesses to target their ads to specific demographics, interests, and even locations. This ensures that businesses are reaching the most relevant audience possible with their advertisements.
We’ll now move on to discussing the common ad platforms used in most digital marketing strategies by small businesses as well as large ones.
Google Ads
Google Ads is a great way for small businesses to get their name out there. The majority of any local business you know is likely to include Google Ads in their digital marketing efforts.
With Google Ads being highly affordable, you can create ads that appear when people search for terms related to your business, allowing you to reach more people who are interested in what you have to offer. Which is a big help in your overall digital marketing plan.
Just take a look at the different types of businesses that use search ads:
In addition to Google Ads, we highly suggest you create a business listing via Google Business Profile. Your paying customers can leave online reviews and you can add details surrounding your business which helps with local SEO.
So when it comes to marketing for local businesses, Google Ads is a great option. Not only will your business appear on the search engine results page, but your ad can also show up on Google Maps as well as on the Google Display Network and more.
If you’d like to get started on Google Ads, visit our Ultimate Google Ads Guide.
Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads is an affordable and efficient way to promote your small business. By targeting a specific audience, you can ensure that your ads are seen by people who are interested in what you are promoting.
And just like Google Ads, Facebook Ads allows you to track the success of your campaigns, so you can make adjustments as needed.
Although Facebook doesn’t offer a business listing, you can, however, create a Facebook business page, which we highly recommend.
Instagram Ads
Instagram ads are a creative and visual way to reach out to potential customers. Your ads should be visually appealing to really get the attention of your audience, whether that be video content or a still image.
YouTube Ads
YouTube Ads are also very effective, as viewers are often more likely to be engaged in what you offer. This is great for businesses that sell products or services that need to be explained in a more detailed and entertaining way.
Paid advertising on search engines and social platforms can be extremely effective in building brand awareness and generating leads and sales.
As a result, it is highly recommended that businesses invest in paid advertising opportunities on these platforms if they want to maximise their online marketing efforts and grow their business.
We’ve listed a few tips when getting started with paid ads:
Understand Your Customer and Their Needs
Using platforms like social media, businesses can survey their customers to learn more about them, what they want, and what they need. This direct communication can help businesses create organic and paid content that is more relevant to their customers, which can lead to more sales and a stronger customer base.
Know Your Competition
Digital marketing can be a daunting task for small businesses, especially when it comes to researching your competition. It’s important to know what they are doing right, and what you can do better in order to set yourself apart and attract new customers.
There are a few key ways to research your competition online. Start by looking at their website and social media profiles and ask yourself the following questions:
- What kind of content are they sharing?
- Is there a social media strategy they are doing well in?
- How do they market themselves?
- Do they invest in paid local marketing?
- Are they focusing on a specific social media platform for ads?
- Are there some strategies done by them that you can implement to help generate organic traffic?
Finally, it’s important to keep an eye on your competitors’ prices and offerings. If they start offering a service that you currently offer, you may need to adjust your prices or find a new differentiator to set yourself apart.
Create Compelling and Relevant Ads
Creating compelling and relevant ads is key to a small business’s digital marketing.
Here is another set of tips to help you create your ads:
- Make sure your ad is interesting and relevant to your target audience
- Write copy that is clear and easy to understand
- Use eye-catching visuals to engage your audience
- Keep your branding consistent across all of your ads
- Test and optimise your ads for the best results
If paid ads aren’t your strong suit yet, you can outsource to other digital marketing agencies, however, that doesn’t always guarantee that your ads will actually be effective.
Because we’re not just another digital marketing company, we can help you generate optimal results with your advertisements. Click here for a FREE consultation with us today for paid ads!
Referral and Affiliate Marketing
Another way to step up your digital marketing efforts is through the implementation of referral and affiliate marketing, as both are powerful avenues to grow a small business.
Referral marketing involves getting customers to refer others to your business, while affiliate marketing involves paying others to promote your products or services wherein you provide them with an affiliate link. Both can be drivers of traffic and sales.
One of the benefits of referral marketing is that it can be very cost-effective. You may only need to offer a small incentive to your customers in order to get them to refer others. And, since referrals often come from trusted sources, they can be very effective in helping you attract new customers.
Affiliate marketing is also considered to be a very cost-effective way to reach more potential customers. You only need to pay affiliates when they generate sales for you, which means you don’t have to spend a lot of money on advertising. Affiliates can also be a great source of leads since they often have large networks of contacts.
Some of the best affiliate marketing and referral programs we’ve seen are:
Here are several tips to keep in mind when using affiliate and referral marketing:
Promote Your Affiliate or Referral Programs
Don’t just add links to your programs on your website – actively promote them! Share them on social media, include them in your email newsletters, and talk about them on your blog.
Track Your Results
It’s important to track the results of your referral and affiliate marketing efforts so you can see what’s working and what isn’t. Use tracking tools like Refersion and Referral Factory to track clicks, conversions, share rate and other important data.
Stay Up to Date With the Latest Trends
The world of affiliate and referral marketing is constantly changing, so it’s important to stay up to date with the latest trends and changes. Read industry blogs and stay connected with individuals in the affiliate and referral niche to stay ahead of the curve.
Utilise Various Digital Marketing Channels
Whether you’re coordinating a digital marketing campaign or simply trying to maximise your digital channels, either of the two can be difficult to manage and execute.
However, by understanding the significance of each digital channel and how they work together, you can create an effective and successful campaign.
The following are some of the most commonly used digital channels:
- SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) is the practice of improving the ranking of a website on search engines. This can be done by optimising the website content, structure, and on-page elements like titles, metatags, and anchor text (with the help of keyword research).
SEO can also be enhanced through off-page tactics like link building and social media engagement.
- PPC
PPC is all about advertising your product or services through paid means (such as Google AdWords) and targeting these ads to prospective customers or qualified leads.
- Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing (SMM) involves promoting your services or products on online marketing platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and more.
- Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing involves small businesses or large companies partnering with influential people to help promote their products or services.
When combined, these channels can be extremely effective in reaching your target audience. SEO helps you to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), influencer marketing helps you to get your products or services in front of an influencer’s audience, SMM helps you to engage with your target audience and PPC helps to convert your prospective customers into buying individuals of your brand.
By coordinating your digital marketing channels together, you can create a powerful mix that will help you to achieve your business goals.
One company that we believe did well using multiple digital channels is e.l.f. Cosmetics.
The popular makeup brand used a variety of digital channels to promote its new Dunkin makeup collection. Below we’ve broken down two of the digital channels they’ve used to promote their collaboration with Dunkin.
Influencer Marketing
Social Media Posts
Instagram Stories
Instagram Posts for National Donut Day
Coming Soon/Countdown Posts
Use Website Analytics to Track Progress and Improve Results
Using website analytics is important to track the progress of your website and to see what changes need to be made as well as what digital marketing techniques could be implemented in order to improve your results.
By tracking things like pageviews, unique visitors, and bounce rate, you can get a good idea of how well your site is doing and where you need to make changes.
If you see that your bounce rate is high, for example, it might mean that your site is not providing enough information or is not user-friendly. Making changes based on the data from your website analytics can help you improve your website’s performance and bring in more traffic.
A few of the best website analytics tools that help track progress are:
- Google Analytics
- Adobe Analytics
- Kissmetrics
- Mixpanel
- Crazy Egg
Influencer Marketing
With today’s digital landscape, it’s important to stay competitive.
And influencer marketing can help you do just that. Influencers have the ability to influence your followers to take action, so reaching out to them can be a very effective way to get your message in front of more potential customers and establish a strong social media presence. Furthermore, influencers can also help with video marketing on various digital platforms, to drive purchasing decisions and boost your marketing efforts.
Just make sure that your digital strategy is in line with your influencer marketing strategies so that everything works smoothly when establishing your digital presence.
When choosing your influencer, micro-influencers would be an ideal option to promote your small business. They have a loyal following of dedicated fans, and they’re more affordable than celebrities or big-name bloggers.
Here are some tips for working with micro-influencers:
Find Micro-Influencers Who Are Relevant to Your Business
When looking for micro-influencers to work with, it’s important to find ones who are relevant to your business. This means finding influencers who are interested in and knowledgeable about your niche, and who have a following that is relevant to your target audience.
Negotiate a Fair Price for Their Services
It’s important to negotiate a fair price with micro-influencers. Remember that they aren’t as well-known as celebrities, so they may not be able to command as high a price. However, make sure that the price is still fair for both parties involved.
Make Sure Their Followers Are Genuinely Interested in Your Product or Service
It’s important to make sure that your micro-influencer’s followers are genuinely interested in your product or service. One way to do this is to monitor the engagement rates of their followers. If you notice that a lot of their followers are inactive or only follow them because they’re being paid to do so, it’s best to move on and find someone else to work with.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach out to your loyal customers. By sending regular emails, you can keep your customers updated on your latest products and services, and encourage them to visit your website or shop at your store. So make sure to include email marketing in your digital marketing strategy.
Take a look at how these two brands promote their products via email:
To make the most out of your email marketing, here are some tips to help you:
Segment Your Email Lists to Target Different Customer Types
Small businesses have an advantage when it comes to email marketing: the ability to segment their lists more effectively than larger brands. By targeting different customer types with specific content, you can increase the effectiveness of your email campaigns.
One way to do this is by using customer data to create buyer personas. Buyer personas are fictional, generalised representations of your customers. They allow you to target content to specific groups of people, based on factors like demographics, interests, and needs.
You can create buyer personas by studying your customer data or by conducting customer surveys. Once you have a good understanding of your customers’ characteristics, you can start targeting them with content that appeals to them.
For example, if you sell products that appeal to gym goers, this persona would be interested in fitness and working out and might be looking for information about new products or upcoming sales.
You could then target this persona with content like a weekly email newsletter with pre-workout tips, or a product spotlight featuring the latest arrivals. By tailoring your content to specific customer types, you can improve your chances of engaging them with your marketing messages.
Make Sure Your Subject Line Stands Out
Your subject line is the first thing that your readers will see, so make sure it grabs their attention. Try using short phrases that can easily entice the attention of your subscribers.
Keep Your Email Brief and to the Point
Don’t clutter your email with too much information – just include the basics.
You want to make sure that the recipient understands what it is you’re trying to say as quickly as possible. So keep your language simple and avoid long paragraphs.
Include Social Media Buttons in Your Emails for Easy Sharing
It’s important to include social media buttons in your emails for easy sharing. Including these buttons makes it easy for your recipients to share your content with their friends and followers. This can help you expand your reach and grow your audience.
Make Sure Your Email Opt-in Form Is Prominently Placed on Your Website
Since you’re running a small business, it’s important to make sure you’re taking advantage of all the digital marketing tools at your disposal. One of them is your email opt-in form wherein you need to make sure it is prominently placed on your website.
This can easily allow you to capture the contact information of potential customers who might be interested in what you have to offer. It also helps you build a database of potential customers that you can market to in the future.
Send Out Automated Triggered Emails Based on Customer Behaviour
Email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with your customers and keep them informed about your business. But manually sending out emails to every customer can be time-consuming and expensive.
That’s where automated triggered emails come in. These emails are sent out automatically based on customer behaviour, such as when they sign up for your mailing list or make a purchase. This helps you to reach out to customers at the right time and increase sales.
The following are some tips for sending out automated triggered emails:
Target Your Customers’ Needs
When you send out automated triggered emails, make sure that they are relevant to your customers’ needs.
For example, if a customer has just made a purchase, send them a thank-you email with a discount code. Or if a customer has abandoned their cart, send them an email with a special offer to encourage them to finish their purchase.
Personalise Your Messages
Personalised messages have been shown to be more effective than generic messages. So be sure to include the customer’s name and any other personal information that you have about them.
This will help to create a more personal connection with your customers and increase the chances of them taking action on your email.
Conclusion
Digital marketing definitely allows small businesses to reach new customers and grow their businesses. However, it can also be overwhelming and confusing if you don’t know where to start or which areas to improve. But with this blog post, we’ve outlined some basic digital marketing tips that should help you get started with digital marketing or improve your existing digital marketing strategy.
We hope that you find these digital marketing tips for small businesses helpful in reaching your business goals.
Need some guidance on your digital marketing strategy?
