Digital Marketing is the new life blood for new small businesses starting out in 2017. Getting your website and content in front of the right customers can set the tone for more sales and awareness. Below we go over the best digital marketing strategies for small businesses starting out that will work towards gaining new customers over time.
Paid Ads
If you are just starting out as a small business, relying on blogging and content marketing for instant traffic and sales might not be the best strategy at first. Consistent blogging and content curation is a vital marketing method for your small business but those strategies take time and will not give you instant results. PPC is an option to where you can get your brand out to potential customers quickly.
Using Google Adwords can immediately take you to the first page of google and take potential customers to your landing page. This can help you capture peoples contact information and add to your email list for future nurturing. PPC can get expensive so it’s absolutely important to do extensive keyword research and analyze your competition.
Paid Facebook and Linkedin ads can also help you generate a substantial amount of leads. Most of Facebook’s revenue comes from paid ads, so they make it very simple to run ads. They provide sign up forms and heavy targeted options to really make it super simple to put your company in front of the right audience and capture the necessary information.
SEO
SEO is one of the most effective marketing strategies for new companies just starting out. SEO is not a quick fix but a marathon, so it is extremely important to be patient and have a long term strategy. Modern day SEO focuses on targeting keywords in your content, building credibility with Google by having quality backlinks, and using long-tail targeted keywords to get to target more qualified people.
Some of the key SEO touchpoints that can improve your rankings are:
- Site Speed
- Mobile Friendly
- Anchor Texts
- External Links
- Quality Links to Your Site
- Short URL’s with Targeted Keywords
- Targeted Keyword Title Tags
Blogging
Most people have problems consistently blogging due to not having immediate results. But as a small business owner, you have no choice but to do it. Just like SEO, blogging takes a ton of patience. You have to be able to blog 4-6 times a week and expect no results for at least 6 months. If you can keep at it consistent, you will start to see people subscribe to your blog and build a nice email list.
Key tips for blogging:
- Consistency (4-6 Posts Per Week)
- Easy Subscribe Form
- Targeted Keywords
- Longer Posts Ranker Higher Than Shorter
- Try to Include Media In Your Posts (Video, etc..)
- Don’t Give Up
- Images
- Focus on User Intent (Helpful Posts)
Email Marketing
Once you are gaining traction with your digital marketing efforts and you are starting to have people reach out or subscribe, it’s time to start a strategy on educating them through email marketing. Just because someone subscribes to your blog does not mean they are ready to purchase anything. It simply means they are raising their hand on having some interest in what you have to say. Use a marketing automation tool like Mailchimp to get started. It’s free and easy to use.
Unless you keep in touch with your list and work on building a relationship, your potential customers will be lost forever. Nurturing a subscriber is a process and takes a lot of giving rather than receiving. Build a monthly content related email and make it personal. Email out content that brings awareness, builds credibility and nurtures a relationship. Your name and company will be the first thing they think about when they start to think about products related to your company.
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