In order to be a successful small business owner in this fast-paced, tech-savvy digital world, you will need to do more than just utilize one marketing tool or another and hope for the best. Let me go into detail and explain.
Perhaps, for some reason you haven't set yourself up with a Facebook business page yet. Maybe you don't understand it, you refuse to be on Facebook yourself, you despise social media, you don't have time or you don't believe it works? Now may be the time with some nearly 80% of all internet users across America on Facebook. Also, the fact that your business's Facebook page will appear in search engine results is reason enough! Maybe you utilize your Facebook business page or Instagram account and post to it multiple times a day, or even just once a month, and you're not getting the results you'd like. Try doing a little more social by including, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn and even SnapChat. Include video into your content or go Live with Facebook and Instagram's new Live and Stories features! Have you considered a highly-targeted Paid Social Campaign to reach a much bigger network of customers you didn't even know you had?
Or say you have a website, just to have a website, and leave it sitting there, becoming more outdated as the years go on. An outdated website is the quickest way for potential customers to loose trust in your business. Have you thought about taking the extra step of updating its content with a blog post on a regular basis? Is your site performing well in search engine results? Maybe it's time for you to move your website to a more mobile-friendly, responsive template or look into your site's Search Engine Optimization?
Perhaps you blast out random emails with news and sales to your lists from time to time. Are you getting sales from that? Would you consider a targeted Email Marketing Campaign to nurture new leads, grow your customer base or re-engage past customers?
Are you a business owner claims you don't need to do any more marketing because your, "so busy you're barely keeping your head above water?" Great! That's the goal right? But what if as the business owner that means, you could hire more help, offer your employees more benefits, pay off your business loan faster, take more vacations or won't actually have to work day in an day out? Or, because your business is so successful, you can open another location? Being "too busy" or "not looking for more business" isn't an excuse to not digitally market yourself, it means that you have a huge opportunity and should take full advantage. In our ever fluctuating economy, you never know what the future will bring and you should always be planning ahead by continually growing new customers and re-engaging your past and loyal customers so that they are there when you need them, for years to come.
Maybe you're already utilizing a combination of digital marketing tactics, and that's fantastic, keep it up! However, digital marketing doesn't stop with just the basics everyone thinks of when they hear "digital marketing" (social media, websites, blogs, email marketing for example). There are so many more fun and exciting tools in the box! Don't think that just because you're doing one or two things, you shouldn't be doing more. In this digital world, there's never a bad time for you to discover new ways to reinvigorate your business's growth.
Each one of your marketing tactics, from print to digital, are simply tools, meant to work together to build your business. The reality is, each tool can only do so much on its own. In this modern, internet driven, mobile era, to generate leads, drive sales and fully reach every one of your potential customers, you will need to include a variety digital marketing tools to form a well-rounded marketing strategy.
Here's an infographic from Smart Insights that will help you understand how to plan out your digital marketing strategies.
Image courtesy of Smart Insights, www.smartinsights.com.
Hubspot is one of my favorite go-to quick, down and dirty resources for all things marketing. They've shared an excellent, detailed article about how to create a digital marketing strategy. Head over HERE to read their complete guide!
The key with any marketing strategy is to determining what and how much you can do on your own based off of your resources, personnel, knowledge, skills and budget, and not being afraid to ask for help when you need it. Because digital marketing is so affordable compared to print advertising, and can easily be adjusted to fit any budget, there is no reason to not consider investing in a highly researched, developed and robust digital marketing strategy. I promise, you'll see nothing but growth!
If you're interested in learning more or have any questions, I'd be happy to help! Please feel free reach out!