{"id":1816,"date":"2017-09-15T16:10:08","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T16:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.digitalsuccess.us\/blog\/?p=1816"},"modified":"2023-07-23T10:17:27","modified_gmt":"2023-07-23T10:17:27","slug":"digital-marketing-small-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.digitalsuccess.us\/blog\/digital-marketing-small-business.html","title":{"rendered":"Digital Marketing for Small Business to Gain a Competitive Edge – Why You Can’t Cut it with a Boiler-Plate Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you know? A recent survey revealed that 75% of small businesses believe that internet marketing is \u2018effective\u2019 or \u2018very effective\u2019 at attracting new customers.<\/p>\n

For small business owners and entrepreneurs, every foray into marketing needs to provide return on investment \u2013 and quickly enough to give you an understanding of whether it\u2019s worth it continuing.\u00a0 Market saturation and brand awareness campaigns are rare and marketing spend is judged quickly on its ability to convert into revenue.<\/p>\n

Often the first question is \u201cWhat\u2019s the best digital marketing strategy for my business?\u201d. Unfortunately, there\u2019s no one-size-fits-all answer to that. Each marketing channel (Search Engine Optimisation<\/a>, Social Media<\/a> or Paid Advertising<\/a>) has its own capabilities and limitations, and the right fit for you will be based upon your industry, competition, budget and timeframes.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s take a look at what you need to know about each:<\/p>\n

Search Engine Optimization<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is it effective for small business? Yes! SEO is second only to word of mouth (which is the holy grail of small business marketing). A\u00a0survey conducted by BrightLocal highlighted that of all businesses surveyed 20% find SEO\u00a0to be the most effective channel at attracting new customers<\/a>. In addition, Hubspot shows that 44% of online shoppers begin by using a search engine<\/a>. Those are numbers that you don\u2019t want to ignore.<\/p>\n

But while it can increase your organic traffic enormously, it does takes patience. It may be six or seven months before you achieve a significant return on investment.\u00a0 This is known as \u2018ROI latency\u2019, and it often scares small business away. If you stick it out and do it properly, though, you\u2019ll reap the rewards in the end. After all, search engines are where your customers are \u2013 it\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s involved in SEO? A good professionally-run campaign will involve local SEO, onsite SEO plus ongoing link-building and content marketing.<\/p>\n

Local & Onsite SEO:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the short term, cost effective entry point. Targeting local terms can help your site get first page results within a few weeks, sometimes overnight, for lower competition searches. Although the traffic volume is typically lower, these terms generally still have significant commercial value.<\/p>\n

Onsite Optimization:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A well-organised website is structured into silos, with each silo is targeting different search terms. When you combine these silos with location-based keywords, you no longer compete against giants in your industry. Instead you compete\u00a0with small businesses that are in your local area<\/a>. This is\u00a0incredibly effective\u00a0and should be built into your website design. Don\u2019t focuses on design and styling over SEO \u2013 there are ways to achieve both and if you ignore SEO you\u2019re limiting your site\u2019s capabilities and leaving a tonne of money on the table.<\/p>\n

Content Marketing & Link Building:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is long term & more expensive part of SEO. It involves creating content for your own site<\/a> and other websites while gaining links back to yours. It\u2019s a great way to demonstrate your expertise to potential customers and it also gives a big boost to your SEO.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also important because your potential customers will search in many different ways, and often the term you want to rank highly for is just the start of your customer\u2019s search. Having lots of content allows you to target more customers and catch them at different stages of the buying cycle.<\/p>\n

But generating content can be a time-consuming process, and without interesting (and frequent) content it\u2019s hard to earn the types of links that will confer domain authority & rankings in search engines. This can make it hard to increase traffic and search visibility<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To summarize, you need to think about both these approaches if you\u2019re going to succeed in the search engine competition. While onsite and local SEO can get you to the first page over time, creating content and link building is the best way to lend authority to your site, strengthening your position overall and strive for more competitive industry search terms.<\/p>\n

Social Media<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to compare social media to SEO because they\u2019re two different beasts. Building an audience across social media can be tough, and even when you do, the divide between followers and genuine customers can be significant.<\/p>\n

With that said, social media can be an important part of building your business\u2019 reputation<\/a> and establishing you as an authority within your industry. As Gary Vaynerchuk says, \u201cThere is no sale without the story, no knockout without the setup\u201d, highlighting the importance of social media for building a connection and maximizing brand awareness.<\/p>\n

The thing SEO and Social Media have in common is content. No matter which platforms suit your business, social media relies on consistent, high-quality content<\/a>. For this reason, using content as the backbone of your digital marketing strategy means you can maximise your SEO efforts while also syndicating across social media platforms. From there, track your conversions and establish where your time is best spent.<\/p>\n

As always though, your content needs to be high quality and highly relevant to your target market. Social media is unforgiving when in comes to mediocre content. After all, a single Facebook user is may be exposed to up to 1,500 pieces of content per day<\/a>, so you need to make sure you\u2019re creating something that will stand out. Paying attention to your metrics will guide you on what content is hitting the mark.<\/p>\n

Paid traffic<\/strong><\/p>\n

Potentially the best entry point for small businesses. A well-set up\u00a0AdWords campaign<\/a> can generate inquiries within 24 hours. This can work well alongside your organic SEO efforts to cover that period of ROI<\/a> Latency. Once your organic SEO begins to pay off, you can reduce your AdWords spend. A further benefit of this approach is that it will provide you with data on search terms that can be useful when making decisions about keywords to target in your SEO work.<\/p>\n

To keep in mind\u2026<\/p>\n