Digital marketing helps small businesses reach a wider audience, beyond the constraints of traditional marketing methods, with lower overall cost implications. These features can help businesses expand their customer base and reach new markets.
As digital marketing is a broad and involved aspect of a business, determining how to get started can be overwhelming. Here are five smart tips for getting started with digital marketing to create an effective, sustainable strategy.
Start Small
One of the most confusing aspects of getting started is that many resources tell you to be present through all digital marketing channels. Eventually, you should have several channels and platforms driving traffic to your business. However, expecting this out of the gate is unrealistic and could damage your business.
Instead, start small and scale up as you get into a rhythm with your efforts. Conduct market research to determine which digital marketing channels your target market uses the most. Then, as you get established, you can move on to the next priority channel and the next.
Identify Your Customer Profile
Clarifying and personifying your target market will help you create content that connects with your potential and existing customers. As with choosing a digital marketing channel, it’s better to hone your focus and do a great job with one demographic than to fall flat with several.
Creating a customer avatar can also help this process. A customer avatar is a character that invokes the qualities of your ideal customer. Give this person a name, job, lifestyle, and personality. Then, determine what appeals to this person from a marketing perspective. All of your campaigns should reflect the customer avatar.
Conduct Keyword Research
Many new business owners dive straight into social media without much thought or preamble. SEO and keyword marketing efforts typically get put on the back burner.
Instead, prioritize keyword research and SEO work. There are a few compelling reasons for this prioritization. First, SEO and long-form content are long-term strategies. You plant the seeds today and wait for them to grow and flourish. It’s a slow start; then, they grow exponentially with minimal upkeep or effort. Most business owners who start SEO a few years in have one big regret: not starting sooner.
Another compelling reason to start now is the usefulness of keyword research in other digital marketing applications. You can use this data to determine what questions and pain points your customers are experiencing, then create social media content or email campaigns surrounding it.
Test and Analyze
While having a clear, well-planned strategy is essential, sometimes digital marketing success comes from throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing if it sticks. In other words, there is a luck factor or an unknown niche that you could stumble upon through your creativity.
Don’t hesitate to get experimental, run some A/B tests, and get out there with your content — just be sure to use your analytics and insights to make data-driven decisions going forward.
Be Patient and Persistent
Finally, be patient and persistent. Gaining traction with digital marketing takes time and consistency. By following these tips, you can avoid some of the common mistakes made by new business owners and set yourself on a path to success.
