Digital Marketing Ideas for Small, Local Businesses

Digital marketing is a beast in and of itself. The industry has grown to massive size in the past decade, and its only going to continue growing as things such as social media and advertising become increasingly a part of our everyday lives. For the smaller businesses, ones with a local founding and maybe not the best idea of how digital marketing is accomplished, this world of social media advertising and content creating can seem alien and intimidating. Thankfully, we have some great tips, ideas, and plans your business can take awareness of so you can finally stop neglecting your online presence and start making the most with digital marketing for your business.

Optimize your Website for Mobile Users

First on our list is the important optimization of your website. It’s not enough for you to simply have a website anymore, your business should also focus on keeping your website modern, updating it to function with the latest design norms and industry standards. This means optimizing your website for mobile users is a must, as they currently make up the majority of search engine users. In fact, optimizing for mobile users is so important it can affect your Keyword ranking. If your site isn’t designed with mobile in mind, your rankings in search engines will suffer. Additionally, slow load time and unattractive sites also suffer in SEO rankings.

Use Keywords to your Advantage

Keyword research should be a critical aspect of your digital marketing strategy. Not only can you utilize keywords in your own advertising and content writing, but it also gives you an idea of what your customers are searching for and what your competition offers. Setup Google Adwords, Google Trends, and Keywordtool.io, you can get an idea into the minds of your consumers; and also utilize these same keywords to boost your SEO ranking by using them appropriately on your website.

Ask for your Customer’s Email Addresses

Email marketing campaigns are another great way to reach large amounts of customers at any given time. Consider collecting email addresses on your site, whether its in the form of a newsletter, discount offers, or other customer incentives. Whatever you decide to offer your customers, its important to get their email addresses with their consent. From there, you can use it as another channel for advertising and reaching your customer base.

Use Reviews Pragmatically and Protect your Reputation

Reviews help us make up our opinion on a business or service long before we use them. For this reason alone, reviews need to be taken seriously even by the smallest of businesses. While you may think you can get by on ignoring the occasional bad review as a local business, the inverse is actually more true. Bad reviews hold a particular weight for smaller businesses, so you should always use your negative feedback as a way to improve your business and protect its reputation. While you might get faulted for making a mistake, no one will fault you for trying to fix and solve it.

Link your Social Media and Utilize your Content

Social media is another important tool in the world of digital marketing. Several brands have made a name for themselves by using a unique mix of social media marketing with viral content. Think of brands like Old Spice. You should aim to try to have that same sort of market recognition, where immediately upon seeing your product or service, customers are aware its your company. Social media and content are some of the best tools for creating brand recognition among your customers, and you should work to develop graphic designs which can be widely used by your brand and become memorable in the mind of your consumer.

Attract Investors and Customers with Events

Hosting events for your business is a great way to build buzz around your brand. You can utilize sites such as Facebook and Eventbrite to host and sponsor your event, allowing you to reach and invite customers with ease. You can also share your event with all your followers, and it will show up in the local events section for consumers who don’t even follow your business. This is why events are so important for digital marketing, as they expose you to a previously unknown segment of your market.

Try out Live Video

Live video is a great way for fans of your business to get behind the scenes and see how things are done in the day-to-day. It helps to humanize your business and allows you to connect with customers on a personal level while still promoting your products and services. Additionally, using live video helps out with your reach and online engagements; as going live on Facebook and Instagram sends notifications to your followers to let them know you’re broadcasting.