Effective Digital Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
It’s a vicious cycle. Without money, there is no marketing; and without marketing a small business has a very small chance of being noticed, selling and surviving in the big market.
A small or medium enterprise (SME) best bet in this case is digital medium that not just gives instant results, but is also cost-effective. This fact any digital marketing company in India will vouch for.
The biggest thing going with digital marketing is that it’s the most measurable medium. Can you tell how many people saw your latest campaign on TV? Or how many people stopped on the road to read your billboard that cost the moon? Or even how many people saw your handbill insert in the #TimesofIndia city edition, today?
At best, the media planner who advised you to use those mediums (TV, Outdoor and Print, in that respective order) can tell you the number of viewers who subscribe to the channel that air your ad; the number of road users where your hoarding is placed; or the number of subscribers of #TimesofIndia city edition — but those figures really don’t tell you whether these people actually “saw” your ad or consumed your media, or do they?
This is exactly where digital marketing for small businesses scores. It gives you exact metric — the number of people who actually saw and clicked on your advertisement; and it’s a far cheaper medium than TV, Outdoor or Print.
It’s a medium whole popularity which is growing mainly because online marketing strategies for small businesses are-not just cheaper, they are also easier to implement. Facebook campaigning, unlike TV campaigning for instance is more like a DIY-marketing.
“Digital marketing offers small business owners a much better, smarter marketing channel that communicates more effectively, appeals to and makes the audience more cost-effective,” says Fehmeez Ahmed, a Digital Marketing Analysts at KAP Enterprises in Digital Marketing for SME’s.
In this blog post, we will discuss four top-secret, no-cost digital marketing strategies for small business owners. No digital marketing company in India will risk losing its business by sharing these tips, but we at Litmus Branding have already believed in open-souring philosophy, so here we go:
Tip #1: Don’t Underestimate the Potential of Facebook Advertising
Given that nearly Two million small to medium sized businesses advertise on Facebook, it’s the easiest and the cheapest way to advertise or sell your products and services to virtually any audiences.
Best of all, it provides a much better Return on Investment (RoI) over traditional marketing efforts. “All digital marketing techniques are simple to track and monitor. You can measure the results of the action of your target audience. The key to successful digital marketing is to generate a steady flow of traffic that becomes a potential client,” says Fehmeez Ahmed, a Digital Marketing Analysts at KAP Enterprises in Digital Marketing for SME’s.
Tip #2: List on Google My Business
Not many small business owners know that Google My Business combines all Google platforms into one central place. This includes their Google Maps profile, Google reviews, and access to data on Google Analytics, Google Insights, and more.
“GMB immediately gives your business credibility and visibility, and as I said before, if you run a local business, it should be #1 on your priority list,” says Ian Blair in his blog post 16 Awesome Marketing Strategies For Small Businesses on Buildfire.
Tip #3: Do Your Own Content Marketing
Nearly 18% of marketers say that content marketing has the greatest commercial impact on their business of any channel in 2016.
Image Credit: SmartInsights
Tip # 4: Start Doing Webinars
Webinars work very well in certain niches, such as for financial service consultants, doctors, counsellors etc.
“With a protracted history and knowledge in your business, sharing your information with blog posts, frequently asked questions, writing in forums, and collaborating in online discussions could be a wonderful activity for you and helpful in gaining business, says Fehmeez Ahmed.
If you still think this may not be up your alley, tune into the following two resources, shared by Ian Blair in his post 16 Awesome Marketing Strategies For Small Businesses
Webinar Marketing: 15 Steps to Revenue Generating Webinars by Georgiana Laudi and How to grow your business with webinar marketing by Ross Beard.
Finally, remember that practice makes the man perfect. As a small business owner, you are already your own Finance Manager, Human Resource Manager, Project Manager, so why not become your own Digital Marketing Manager too?
And if that’s not an option for you, please check out our services on Litmusbranding.com, as a leading digital marketing company in India, we offer all kind of digital marketing help to small and medium businesses.
