Your Business goal, like any other, is to generate revenue — but you can’t do that if people don’t even know you exist. To have any chance of making a profit, you must market your company. And there is no better place to do that in today’s world than online. The Internet provides a plethora of options for reaching your ideal audience, options that your competitors are most likely already utilizing. To stay ahead of them, you should consider developing a digital marketing strategy. However, what exactly is digital marketing for small businesses?

 

What exactly is SMB digital marketing?

Digital marketing is a broad term, but it is simple enough to grasp. Essentially, it is any marketing or advertising that occurs through a digital medium, typically the Internet or on devices such as phones or computers.

 

What is included in SMB digital marketing?

As one might expect, the term “digital marketing” encompasses a wide range of strategies. Some of them intend to reach users through social media platforms, while others intend to reach them through search engines or email. They all have the same basic goal, though: to generate leads and convert users, ultimately increasing revenue for your company.

And, given the prevalence of digital media today, they have a significant advantage over more traditional forms of marketing.

4 top-notch digital marketing strategies

Finally, because digital marketing for SMBs is such a broad topic, talking about it, in general, won’t get you very far. It’s simpler to break it down into some of the individual strategies that make it up. While there are numerous digital marketing strategies available, four, in particular, stand out for their significance and effectiveness. We’ll go over each of these strategies in more detail below!

 

1. Search engine optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization is the first — and possibly most important — digital marketing strategy (SEO). The goal of SEO is to optimize your website content so that it appears in organic Google search results when people conduct searches.

Optimizing your content for Google rankings entails designing it to satisfy Google’s ranking algorithms, which consider a variety of factors when ranking web results. To begin, you can incorporate specific keywords — search terms — into your content so that Google knows which searches your content should appear in. Other things you can do to improve the chances of your content ranking in Google include:

• Earning backlinks (inbound links to your content)
• Optimizing images
• Creating a Google Business Profile profile
• Using HTTPS
• And more!

With a well-planned SEO campaign, you can have your content appear in the searches that your target audience is conducting, introducing them to your company and hopefully prompting them to buy from you!

 

2. PPC (pay-per-click) marketing

SEO isn’t the only type of online SMB marketing that uses Google to reach people. You can appear at the top of Google search result pages with paid advertising, specifically pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, in addition to aiming for the top of organic rankings. PPC is a strategy in which you pay advertising platforms, the most common of which is Google Ads, to display ads for your business above organic search results. The ads resemble organic results except for the “Ad” label in the top right corner.

Then you bid on those keywords based on how much money you’re willing to pay to have your ads displayed for them. When someone searches for one of those keywords, Google will show ads from the bidders based on:

• Bid Amount
• Quality Score (Google’s assessment of an ad’s overall quality)

With the right bidding strategy and some well-designed ads, you’ll be able to reach users in a whole new way through Google. The best part about this small business advertising idea is that you only pay for PPC ads when people click on them, making it a very cost-effective strategy when executed properly.

 

3. Marketing and advertising on social media

Did you know that the average Internet user spends 28% of their time on social media? As a result, social media marketing is frequently an important component of successful digital marketing strategies. You have the best chance of reaching them if you advertise where they spend the most time. Setting up an account for your business on one or more platforms is the first step in social media marketing.

Some of the best marketing platforms are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Snapchat
• Pinterest
• And more!

You can post engaging marketing materials that encourage interest in your brand from your business account. Content ideas for posting include videos introducing your team and infographics explaining how your products work. In addition to organic social media posts, you can also use paid social media advertising. Most platforms allow you to run paid ads on their platform, which are frequently in the form of in-feed ads, which appear directly in users’ social media feeds.

Best of all, you can target your paid ads toward groups that match certain characteristics, like age or location.

That ensures you reach the most relevant possible audience.

 

4. Design and development of websites

Ultimately, all of your online SMB marketing will lead users back to your website. That’s where you’ll make the final push to get them to convert, so make sure your web design is up to par with your other marketing strategies. Several factors contribute to effective web design. To begin, you’ll need to use your website to brand yourself, with your chosen visuals and wording communicating how you want users to perceive your company.

However, you must also optimize a number of technical features, including:

• Page load speed
• Mobile-friendliness
• Clear navigation
• And more!

You don’t want users to visit your site and then feel compelled to leave, which is why it’s critical not to overlook this strategy. SMB digital marketing is all about convincing users that you’re worth doing business with, and your website should reflect that.