As a small business owner, you’ve got enough on your plate
Small business owners are some of the most driven individuals on the planet, mostly because they have to be.
It takes raw talent, passion, and drive to bring a new business into the world.
First, the idea comes to you. Then you survey your skills and the tools available to you.
The final step is the messiest – bring it all together through blood, sweat and tears to birth a viable, thriving new business.
But while you’re busy bring your dream into the real world, your focus might slip on one of the most crucial elements of a new business – digital marketing.
You can’t afford to ignore digital marketing – 88% of your customer base uses search engines to find businesses, and that number shows no sign of dropping.
If that number sent you into a mild panic because you don’t have your digital marketing objectives outlined, don’t worry.
We’ve got the definitive guide to making you an search engine superstar.
Check out these five digital marketing objectives that are going to make you stand out from the crowd.
Emails: Cheap And Cheerful
You probably send an email every day, so it makes sense to use it as a digital marketing tactic.
In fact, emailing is one of the top two internet activities. (We’ll get into the second one in a moment.)
Luckily, this marketing objective is relatively easy to do and, best of all, will make little to no impact on your marketing budget.
How do you get started? You probably have the tools already at your disposal.
You’ll need to get an email list going to start with. You can do this by going through your Quickbooks or your client list.
Don’t overwhelm your intended targets or they’ll unsubscribe from your list.
Start simple – put together a once a month newsletter for starters.
It doesn’t have to be too long either – keep it simple.
Talk about how your past month went, what you look forward to next month, and maybe some relevant specials.
Email is an extremely effective, easy to accomplish and, best of all, cheap digital marketing objective.
Make Your Site Easy To Find
Remember how we said we would discuss the top two web activities?
The other activity that cracked the top two was searching.
Search handily beats out all other forms of content discovery.
It’s the number one way that customers are going to find you, hands down.
You might think it’s enough to have a website, but you need to build your sites around SEO.
SEO, or search engine optimization, will help search engines like Google lock onto your site and bring in customers.
There are a few tactics you need to bring into play to help you out.
First, consider keywords. Keywords are search phrases that people might be looking for.
Using vague keywords, like “tee shirts” won’t yield the best results. Go specific, using keywords like “vintage band tee shirts” to see a difference.
If you’ve got an online store that features a lot of products, you might be tempted to just copy and paste the manufacturer’s description.
Unfortunately, your page will be punished. Search engines look for original content to rank pages.
Take a few moments and write out your own content description; it’ll make a difference.
Bonus tip: it’s practically common knowledge that Google is the number one search engine. But can you name the second largest?
It’s actually YouTube!
A lot of businesses don’t know that they can boost their rankings with videos posted to YouTube.
Add this tip to your marketing objectives to put you ahead of the rest!
Be Social
Even though social media is a relatively new field, we can hardly imagine our lives without it.
You may wonder how it fits in with your digital marketing objectives, but it’s essential your business has a social media presence.
One in three of your potential customers look to social media to learn more about a business.
Although this might take up a bit of your time, social media is a crucial addition to your marketing objectives.
The first steps you should take are getting verified on Google and setting up your Facebook page.
You can worry about Twitter, Instagram, and the rest later; Facebook and Google should be your first priorities.
Once you’ve got those set up, it might be hard to think of content, but the best thing to do is just be yourself.
Write your content in your voice but make sure it always brings attention back to the business.
You can post behind-the-scenes shots of your team at work.
Let your customers know when you’re having a sale.
Showcase a new product.
The ideas will come to you as you get the hang of it.
One quick note about social media – it’s a great way to be a direct part of your customers’ lives, so treat that with respect.
What we mean by that is take care that you don’t spam their newsfeeds.
Post regularly, like once a day; don’t send out 20 posts all in one afternoon.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Use your social media accounts to engage with your customers too.
If they have a question about a product or service, answer right away in a courteous manner.
It takes a little bit of time but it’s so worth it.
On The Go Info
No doubt you’ve seen people wearing smartwatches or activity trackers.
These are one of the most futuristic, sci-fi devices out on the market and we’ve just scratched the surface of what they can do.
Experts say that wearable tech might be a $34 billion market by 2020.
2016 marks the first time mobile usage surpassed desktop use, a trend that’s sure to continue as tech gets more and more portable.
Get in on the ground floor by paying attention to how to market to your customers with mobile technology.
A great way to get started is to make sure your website is mobile-friendly, especially if you’re looking to attract local customers.
Look into pushing scannable coupons onto wearable technology if you have a brick and mortar store.
Mobile tech is growing year over year; figuring out how to use it to attract business is a must for your marketing objectives.
Content Is King
Content marketing is an incredibly effective tactic to bring in customers, but it’s a little time-intensive.
You’re going to use all of the other digital marketing objectives to enhance the results you get from content marketing and drive engagement.
First things first – set up a blog on your business page.
When creating your content, you’re going to use the same ideas as for your social media posts, just expand upon them a little more.
Use your natural voice and focus on what makes your company better than the competition.
Use your email campaigns, social media, and keywords to drive traffic to the blog for a comprehensive, holistic approach.
While it will take up a bit more time than the other techniques, it’s worth it.
Which Marketing Objectives Are You Going To Use First?
All of these are great tips to get you started but to take it to the next level, consider hiring a digital consultant to give your marketing objectives a thorough once-over.
Now that you’ve got your digital ducks in a row, which technique are you going to try first?
Let us know in the comments and if you have an idea you want to add to the list, tell us!