- Benefits of digital marketing for small businesses and startups
- How digital marketing agencies could help your business stay ahead of the competition
- Importance of audience targeting and increased search visibility
Hundreds of companies are “killing it” with their digital marketing campaigns due to the help and expertise of experienced digital marketing agencies.
When done right, digital marketing is the best way for small and medium-sized businesses to gain a competitive advantage. And with the rise of tech-savvy, smartphone-dependent consumers, investing in digital marketing strategies is the only way to remain competitive.
Although the internet is flooded with authoritative sources providing insight into digital marketing, small businesses might have limited resources and, as such, would benefit from the help of a digital marketing agency that has the time and resources to increase ROI. We’ve written a comprehensive guide on how to start an online business, for those currently in the ‘idea phase’.
Major players such as Etsy, ASOS, and Microsoft have all used digital marketing agencies to help their business grow. The accelerated shift to online has also seen more small businesses invest in the help of marketing professionals.
The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation, increasing online competition and bringing about new challenges. In 2020 alone, online retail sales growth in the UK skyrocketed by 26.2% to £100BN from £76BN the previous year.
Separate statistics have also shown more than 4 million applications to open a new business in the US. Despite the intimidating figures, COVID-19 has given rise to new opportunities, and as a result, it’s become more important than ever to stay on top of digital trends.
In fact, digital marketing has fast become the most effective way to grow your online business, which is why so many companies have embraced it so fervently. It also allows brands to connect with their customers across multiple platforms, thus expanding their reach.
Consumers can connect with companies via different media channels, such as social media and e-commerce apps, to name a few.
As technology advances, companies should make it their responsibility to follow in the same direction. Employing the services of a digital marketing agency could help you position your e-commerce business in the best way possible to expand.
What are the Benefits of Digital Marketing for Small Businesses?
Digital marketing is about the promotion of services and products through an omnichannel lens, using communication mediums such as:
In today’s technological world, connecting with customers is the key to rapid business growth, but businesses need to develop effective digital marketing strategies to remain competitive. This is especially true of startups and small businesses, which will require a more comprehensive digital marketing plan to compete with big brands.
A high-level digital marketing strategy will immediately help your business appear more credible. It will also make it easier for small businesses to reach out to potential customers by learning their habits and providing them with a means to increase their search visibility.
That’s just a basic overview of how digital marketing could benefit your business. If you want to learn more about the specific benefits of a digital marketing strategy, we’ve expanded on the advantages of digital marketing for small businesses.
Increase Search Visibility
While you don’t need to rank first in search engine results pages (SERPs) to establish a solid online presence, appearing in the top ten results on search will certainly help users find you and increased visibility means higher conversion.
Engagement is one of the most fundamental aspects of any successful digital marketing strategy.
Most digital marketing agencies start by setting up accounts that adhere to best practices and defining your target audience by learning their behaviour, pain points and intent. For example, suppose you’re an independent retailer, a digital marketing agency may set up accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Google My Business if these are sites that your customer base visit regularly.
Digital marketing agencies will also optimise your content for search to improve visibility and make it unique to avoid being penalised by algorithms. Search engine optimisation (SEO) includes keyword research, link building, internal linking and creating search and user-friendly content for multiple platforms.
Drives Conversion Rates Higher
For many businesses, the ultimate goal of digital marketing is to convert.
What is conversion? Conversion focuses on encouraging qualified leads to purchase your business. Since your revenue cannot grow without conversions, if you’re struggling with this, enlisting the help of a digital marketing agency could weed out your challenges.
These domain experts can help you achieve your desired goal relative to the total number of visitors by optimising your website and expanding your operations to reach a broader target audience.
Conversion optimisation or conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is a crucial part of digital marketing – and there’s always scope to improve this area of your business and increase the number of people entering your sales funnel.
One effective tactic is to use a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising model, which refers to the process of placing an ad on a website or in search and paying a sum to the owner each time a user clicks on that ad.
Essentially, you’re paying for users to visit your website, but it is an effective method, given that recent research shows that more than 60% of online users click onto Google ads when browsing the net.
If you’d like to learn more about PPC or need to see effective results quickly, our expert PPC team at Soar Online could help improve your conversions and boost sales.
Audience Targeting
If you don’t have insight into your target audience, chances are you’re going to fail before you even start.
Why is defining your target audience so important? If you haven’t defined your audience, your brand could be reaching people who have no interest in your product or service.
With audience targeting, you’re more likely to reach customers interested in or searching for your product or service. Audience targeting will also stop you from wasting ad spend on people who are not going to convert.
Data management is the key to audience targeting, but knowing where to start can be a challenge for startups and small businesses. Even large companies enlist the help of a digital marketing agency when it comes to audience targeting as the experts know what strategies work best to help your business connect with more of the right people.
Many businesses make the mistake of mixing channel optimisation and target optimisation, but you should focus on the latter. Digital marketing agencies will analyse your current situation, consider the ultimate business goal, and devise various strategies to develop the most profitable plan for your business.
Some audience targeting strategies include:
- Content marketing
- SEO
- Retargeting ads
- Keyword research
- Email marketing
With technologies rapidly changing, the experts will keep looking forward and finding new revolutionary ways to target audiences and create new avenues for business growth.
Make Your Business Profitable and Scalable
Whether you’re a small business struggling with building brand awareness or an entrepreneur having difficulty increasing sales conversion, digital marketing agencies exist to help you achieve long-term success.
One of the most desirable scenarios for small businesses is marketing with minimal cost and higher revenue. While large corporations can fund expensive marketing, startups and small businesses need to keep costs low to profit.
Most digital marketing agencies will be more than happy to negotiate a cost-effective plan for your business that ensures favourable sales outcomes. Over at Soar Online, we’ve also launched the 500 Club marketing package specifically for small businesses to help them make an impact on the internet at a pace that suits them.
For just £500 a month, your business receives five excellent benefits:
- An individual hosting plan to give your company the spotlight it deserves
- A Google review snippet to help your business stand out from competitors
- Marketing support tailored to your business needs
- Website management, including site speed optimisation
- One piece of SEO content a month – and we all know how much search engines love content!
Remember to choose a digital marketing agency with a sizable portfolio and a list of past clients, as this will demonstrate their expertise. It might also be worth assessing whether their core values align with your company’s, as doing so will ensure that the agency meshes well with your team.
Obtain Measurable Data
Although traditional marketing methods such as direct sales, print advertising and television can be effective, they are not always measurable. For example, there is no way to assess TV viewership and billboard drive-bys fully.
To effectively track the source of your leads and measure success, you’d need to contact every prospective customer and ask them how they heard about your business.
Traditional marketing can also be more expensive than digital marketing, and customised marketing is not possible. Why? Well, there is no way to look at what your customer is looking at in real-time and offer recommended products.
Digital marketing gives web administrators access to tools such as Google Analytics and SEM Rush to generate quantitative data on web page performance, visitor engagement, web traffic and conversion.
Google Analytics is handy for tracking website performance and collecting information on user behaviour. It offers data on how many users visited your site within a specified period, average session duration, bounce rate, type of device used and demographics.
With online competition increasing, businesses need to find a way to measure their efforts to maximise their return on investment and improve their campaigns.
Not only that, but most people tend to ignore traditional media as it is a more intrusive form of marketing.
Provide Real-Time Customer Service
Small businesses that want to offer real-time customer service need to move away from traditional marketing and reap the benefits of digital marketing.
Digital marketing can enhance customer satisfaction, which is essential if your aim is to dominate the market. Establishing a customer-centric brand can make a massive difference in the consumer’s eyes, with data showing that nearly 60% of customers are more likely to shop with a brand that knows them by name.
It can be easy to forget that each time a customer interacts with your brand, they develop a perception of your business. Offering a seamless, integrated buying experience across the channels you operate will ensure continued engagement with your brand.
Real-time customer service is also one of the most profitable digital marketing concepts, offering high returns for businesses of any size. When customers have a query or problem, they want to be answered immediately, and digital marketing provides a real-time solution.
Remember that quick and easy communication will make your brand more credible and trustworthy and encourage customers to share your business with others, creating more revenue opportunities.
If your business lacks resources, a digital marketing agency could help by setting up chatbots and automated reply messages to meet customer support expectations.
Conclusion
So, while there is no one-size-fits-all approach to digital marketing, enlisting the help of industry experts could help you enhance communication with potential customers and meet business objectives.
Remaining competitive means staying ahead of the curve and up-to-date with the latest digital marketing trends. If you’re a small business or startup and lack the resources or time to invest in a digital marketing strategy, hiring a digital marketing agency could help you achieve your long-term goals.
