Often small business owners find online marketing to be a cheap and easy way to market their businesses. It's a modern approach to getting your business ahead that lets you learn and interact with your prospects while tracking the effectiveness of your efforts.
We asked entrepreneurs how they use digital marketing for their business and here are the responses;
#1- Several ways
I find that leads from organic search are often high-quality, so I've been focusing on optimizing my site for Google. I use a couple of affordable SEO tools to help with keyword research and content creation for my own site, and then I also aim to contribute regularly to other websites as a guest writer. Specifically, I try to pitch relevant sites that have a lot of traffic and engagement. Aside from the referral traffic, I often get a link back to my site that increases my own site's authority.
Thanks to Chloe Brittain, Opal Transcription Services!
#2-Brand voice copywriting and persuasion strategy
Digital marketing has allowed me to share value, stay top-of-mind for potential clients and have a virtual salesperson…24/7. While I am writing a website for a client or crafting a brand's new email sequence, my website and content is providing value to dream clients…and selling ME as an expert (without me having to be there, in that person's home office or workspace). With digital marketing, I use platforms like Instagram stories to share insights and tips – which brings in leads I never had to cold call or cold email pitch.
Thanks to Allison Gower, Allison Evelyn, Inc.!
#3- Paid ads and organically
I have dabbled in paid advertising on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube but I much rather prefer doing everything organically and not paying for ads. I organically grow my business on YouTube and social media. Providing my fans with content that gives them value, replying promptly to their questions and sharing funny content (mostly memes) are my tactics. I upload YouTube videos that I know will get a lot of views and comments. I can directly advertise ways to generate more revenue on those videos (selling books, courses, merchandise, services, etc.) or I can just choose to let that video grow my fanbase and audience to make the next sale that much bigger. When I want to grow on Instagram, I use the search function. I search hashtags relevant to my niche and like & comment on recent posts. This organically promotes my Instagram account and engages in conversation with the community. People who have never seen me before, now see my Instagram account, and that's huge. If you're a local business, then you can use the same tactic but search for nearby locations instead.
Thanks to Huseyin Aksu, Fantasy Couch!
#4- SEO
We conduct SEO as the main form of digital marketing for our business. We focus on local keywords which have search volume and are relevant to the services we provide. We also optimize our blog posts for search engine traffic, focusing on topics which are relevant to the industry and provide helpful tips to our readers. Our website SunlightMedia currently receives about 8500 unique visitors per month and is consistently growing week by week.
Thanks to Angelo Frisina, Sunlight Media LLC.!
#5- Content strategy
GlobalVision relies on a content strategy for its digital marketing. SEO tools are used to identify the proper keywords to use. Blog posts are published weekly and shared on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. They are also published on a professional group on LinkedIn where we interact with followers.
Thanks to Nabil Freij, GlobalVision International!
#6- Competitor analysis
As Founder at a Northern California Web Agency, one of the most important digital marketing tools we use for our clients today is the competitor analysis that SEMRush allows us to perform to target vulnerable keywords. It identifies valuable terms that our client’s competitors aren’t effectively holding. We can then target those terms and increase search visibility with the lowest investment of time and effort. Once these terms are identified, we prioritize them in our upcoming content calendar, our backlink construction and our on-page optimization efforts. By starting with competitor analysis in addition to our ordinary keyword research, we are able to not only target terms with good traffic and relevance, but also those that our client’s chief competitors are currently appearing for in search results. This not just not expands our client’s visibility but also increases their competitive edge with their key rivals for organic traffic.
Thanks to Garrett Perks, EvenVision!
#7- Advertise our store to local couples
Our family owns an online website, as well as a brick and mortar store. We use digital marketing for both, but lately more for our retail store. We use social media to advertise our store to local couples that are in relationships, we use email marketing to target and thank our customers that have purchased within our store, and we use Google My Business to help increase trust in our store and get people finding us when searching on Google. Overall digital marketing has been a huge help in growing our brick and mortar store online.
Thanks to Jeff Moriarty, Moriarty's Gem Art!
#8- Generate leads back to my website
Digital marketing is a must nowadays because we live in such a digital society, so that's why I'm constantly making videos for my business and what it is that we do and also posting content on different social media platforms with links that lead back to my website. Staying engaged with your audience is very important when it comes to digital marketing, and I also have blogs that are written and scheduled for different days to be published and made live through my optimized website.
Thanks to Chris Waits, WeBuyFtWorth.com!
#9- Four ways
To tell the brand story; specifically through founding videos 2. Build community. We often use digital marketing strategies across a number of platforms to build a real community. This isn't just building following this is building an affinity or love towards a concept. For example: If a brand is focused on selling jeans to tall women, we would build a campaign around confidence encouraging every tall woman to be herself. The beginning of the campaign may focus on revealing stories of the brand but later the campaign may ask followers to send in their own stories to share as well. New stories are shared over time and the community is nurtured through engagement and support. 3. Furthermore, to let our community know we are grateful (aka customer appreciation and retention strategies). Based on behavior we implement email marketing or direct messaging techniques to show how much we appreciate them. One example of this is sending special coupons or free items to people who liked, commented, or shared content 4. Advertising specifically on social sites and search ads helps to reach more people. This advertising is centered on being the feeder to all of the content marketing previously mentioned.
Thanks to Urina Harrell, Vox Pop Branding!
#10- Help customers find us and keep them upto date
My marketing strategy is almost exclusively digital. After purchasing Elma Wine & Liquor about six years ago I initially dabbled in ads through local print publications, but quickly confirmed their lack of return, especially relative to the reach I could attain through organic and paid social media. Now I rely primarily on Facebook and Instagram – with a secondary focus on Twitter and YouTube – for keeping existing customers up to date and allowing prospective customers to find us. I also use a highly cultivated email and SMS lists. While I do have an E-Commerce website, my marketing focuses on driving customers to the physical store with free tasting events and other promotions. I use events and new product posts as advertisements on Facebook and Instagram against custom and lookalike audiences to raise brand awareness. In addition to ads, I post daily wine review videos across all social platforms using #OneMinuteOfWine – many of these videos feature products we do not even stock in an effort to build trust with our community. These are meant to be honest reviews, not product sales pitches. Because my digital goals center around driving in-store traffic I do not measure specific return on our digital marketing, but I can see from sales and from anecdotal evidence that it works.
Thanks to Tim Delaney, Elma Wine & Liquor!
#11- Develop relationships with customers and drive traffic
No business owner or entrepreneur can deny the importance of digital marketing in the 21st century. For us at Mashvisor digital marketing is at the core our marketing efforts because of the nature of our business, industry, and customers. We offer an online platform which helps mostly part-time, beginner real estate investors find lucrative properties to invest in. Our main marketing tool is our blog, where we publish high-quality content of value and use to our users – real estate investors and agents – on daily basis. All content we create is assured to be both desktop and mobile friendly as mobile marketing is establishing itself as the predominant marketing strategy globally. This allows us to drive the majority of the traffic to our website organically. Of course, we also share our content on various social media channels, where we are able to cater to and attract a different type of audience and users. Email marketing is also very important for us as it allows us to retain our users, develop a long-term relationship with them, and convert them into customers.
Thanks to Daniela Andreevska, Mashvisor!
#12-Educate Consumers
Our brand image is predicated on our dedication to being cruelty-free, natural, and sustainable – We strive to not only to provide products with this mission in mind but also to educate consumers in regards to the importance of cruelty-free and sustainable personal care as well. We accomplish this through our blog, as well as the products we produce. The way we see it is that the more aligned with your mission the better your customers respond.
Thanks to Nate Masterson, Maple Holistics!
#13- Three main digital marketing approaches
FB ads. I love how targeted you can get with your audience. If you’ve defined your ideal client and understand them, you can set up ads that will appeal to them, increasing your visibility. 2) Website. Most my clients come through my websites. SEO is becoming easier to manage yourself if you don’t have the money to outsource just yet. 3) Email Marketing. You own the data so, as long as you’ve followed all the relevant rules, you can nurture your list while growing it. Having an email list is a must these days. It is a great way to get feedback on services and ideas from your ideal clients. Keep the platforms you use to a minimum. We can get caught up in it all, but it’s better to do one platform well than trying to manage several and doing a mediocre job. We need to show up consistently on the same platform, deliver a clear message and add value not just sell.
Thanks to Mary Cushen, Mary Cushen Coaching!
#14- Build trust and awareness
We build remote teams of developers and designers for our clients. As this service is a long-term commitment, potential clients need more time to weigh all pros and cons to make a thoughtful decision. So, we use digital PR, content marketing, reference and review platforms. The main purpose, in this case, is to build brand awareness and trust. We also make one-time projects (e.g., develop web-sites or applications). For this type of services we widely use SEO and PPC (both Google ads and social media ads). These digital marketing tools are very effective for traffic generation and bringing quality leads to our website. We also use social media to share our values via content and build community.
Thanks to Andreas Flodström, Beetroot!