Looking for tips to get more benefits from your business? Here we have added the top 7 digital marketing tips for small businesses. Running a business is no easy task; making one succeed is a whole new challenge. With the saturated market today, competition is fierce no matter which industry you belong to. Hence, you have to take every opportunity to get ahead in the race.
For e-commerce businesses, this means ramping up your digital marketing efforts. Digital marketing is not only about posting online ads. It is also about providing a seamless shopping experience, addressing issues that drive away customers, and earning customers’ loyalty.
Digital Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
With that said, here are seven digital marketing tips for small businesses to help you achieve the best sales and boost your business.
Optimize Your E-commerce Website
There’s no denying that your e-commerce website is the starting point for generating sales. The first step to digital marketing success is setting up a well-optimized and helpful website and building customer trust.
Ensure your site loads fast, and it’s easy to navigate. In a Kissmetrics survey, 47 percent of the users said they expect a web page to load in two seconds or less. Around 40 percent will leave a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load. Moreover, 79 percent of consumers who are dissatisfied with an online shop’s website performance said that they are less likely to purchase from that site again.
Those numbers show that a slow loading time and a poorly built e-commerce website can hurt conversion rates. Choosing the right platform for your online business is required. So here are a few ways you can improve your website’s performance:
- Improve web page loading time. You can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or Pingdom Website Speed Test to test the speed and performance of your site.
- Test your e-commerce site for any errors or accessibility issues. You can use tools like Pingdom Website Speed Test or Google Mobile-Friendly Checker to run tests.
- Choose a theme that best complements the essence of your brand. Find one that perfectly fits your website with tools like FindtheBest Theme Finder.
- Make sure all pages are properly linked to each other for a smooth user experience.
Offer an easy checkout process by integrating online payment options like PayPal and Google Wallet. Also, make sure to offer multiple payment methods to cater to more online shoppers. - Make the products searchable and easy to find. Your website should be easy to navigate for your target audience.
- Have manuals and guides on how to use your products conveniently available. You can also create video tutorials and post them on YouTube or Vimeo.
Many online users use their mobile devices to browse the internet, find products, and purchase items. Therefore, make sure your website is also optimized for mobile devices.
Address Cart Abandonment Issues
Shopping cart abandonment issues are hurting many businesses. Customers have varied reasons for abandoning their carts. These include expensive shipping or extra fees; a long, complicated checkout process; the website crashing; and questionable website security.
Understand why your customers are leaving their shopping carts without buying, and address these problems. As a rule of thumb, make it easy for customers to browse and buy your products. Display an easy, immediate purchase button that takes them directly to their shopping cart. Also, use clear messaging that explains how to buy the product with just one click on your product home page.
Make it easy for shoppers to sign up for email newsletters and updates about new products. To attract new customers, offer shopping incentives, such as free delivery, complimentary gift wrapping, or free gifts. Provide a special discount for first-time users to convince them to try your products.
Strive to make the shopping experience as seamless as possible, and keep customers coming back with special offers and deals.
Address Customer Service Issues
Customer service issues are another top reason for cart abandonment. You may not completely resolve customer service issues. Still, you can make it easy for shoppers to contact you via telephone, email, and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Make sure you’re easy to reach by listing your contact details prominently on the site. For example, include your address, telephone number, email address, and social media contacts at the bottom of your site. Also, create a dedicated contact page where customers can send their inquiries and concerns.
Consider investing in a live chat feature on your website as well. Customers often only want to clarify some details about the product or service if they can’t find the information they need on the website. They’ll abandon their cart if they have to jump through hoops to do that.
With a live chat feature, customer service reps can answer inquiries and concerns in real-time, so customers can continue shopping without any hitch.
Build Your Social Media Presence
Social media marketing is no longer a trend. It’s a must-have digital marketing tactic that every business should leverage for success. The good news is that it doesn’t cost much to start or maintain your presence on social media.
To start, list your company’s social media accounts on your website and other offline marketing collateral like flyers, catalogs, and brochures. Make it easy for customers to find your social media channels, so they know where to reach you and find more information about your products and services.
Keep in mind that social media is more than just a venue to promote your products. Strike a balance between promotional posts and genuinely educative and engaging content. Post valuable content like videos, articles, images, and infographics.
You want your posts to reach as many people as possible, so give your audience an easy way to share your posts on social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Don’t stop posting content and promotional materials on your social media. Engage with your fans on social networking websites daily to keep them updated on the latest news or offers and build a closer connection with them.
With over a billion users, major social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok are the perfect venues to promote events or promotions that encourage customers to interact with your brand.
Invest in Online Ads
Running digital advertising campaigns is another great way to boost your business. It’s an effective digital marketing tactic that can significantly increase exposure and generate a steady stream of new customers.
That said, you must first create a marketing plan that clearly states your goals, target audience, and marketing messages. When running your ads campaign, identify a specific set of keywords for each campaign. This will help you avoid using too many or too few keywords in your ad copy, which can negatively affect your click-through rates and cost per click.
Google is the largest search engine in the world, owning 86 percent of the search market share. Google also owns YouTube, and the Google Display Network has a group of over two million websites, apps, and videos where your ads can appear. Hence, it only makes sense to use Google Ads if you wish to reach a broader audience.
Google Ads offers various types of ad formats too. Choose the right type of ad format for your budget and goals. You can select from an online search ad, a display ad, a video ad, or a text-based sponsored post.
Choose the right media channel for your digital marketing campaign. For example, if you want to target customers in France, you should run ads in French on Facebook and Twitter to reach the most relevant audience.
Follow these best practices when creating and running ad campaigns:
- Choose short and catchy headlines that can generate curiosity and interest in your product or service.
- Include a call to action in the ad copy that directs customers to take action on your site. For example, say “Get 10% Off Your First Purchase Here” or “Download This Guide Now.”
- Choose the right frequency to target your audience. For example, if you are running an online display ad campaign, you should only run it once a month because people have a short attention span online and jump from one thing to another very fast.
- Measure the results of each digital ad campaign. Analyze keywords, click-through rates, and cost per engagement.
- Identify any difficulties that you are having with any advertising platform. Avoid those pitfalls in your next campaigns.
Starting and managing ad campaigns is a lot of work. From keyword research to creating copy and content for ads, there are a lot of tasks and processes to handle. If your business is not equipped with the knowledge and skills to maximize your ad budget, you can always seek the help of Google Ads experts to run your campaigns for you.
Measure Your Success
You won’t know if your campaigns are working unless you track their performance. Hence, keep a close eye on your business analytics and constantly ask questions about your digital marketing campaigns and their results. Here are some commonly used metrics:
- Click-Through Rate (CTR) — the percentage of people who see your ad and click on it
- Cost per Click (CPC) — the amount you pay each time someone clicks on your ad.
- Cost per Lead (CPL) — the amount you pay for every lead that comes into your business as a result of an online ad
- Return on Investment (ROI) — the amount of money you earn for every dollar you spend
- Lead to Purchase Rate (LTR) — the percentage of people who see your ads and convert to customers who make purchases after seeing your ad or landing page
These metrics are essential in measuring the success of your marketing efforts. That said, track your marketing campaigns and measure their results. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and if you feel that something is not working, tweak it according to your analytics results.
You can always retest your marketing campaigns to make sure you are getting the best results. Once you know what works best for you, you can focus most of your efforts and resources there to get the most out of your investment.
Reward Loyal Customers
To keep customers happy, reward them with special offers or discounts every once in a while. For example, if you are running an online display ad campaign, offer 20 percent off your next purchase via email to all customers who have placed at least three orders during the last 60 days.
Retaining existing customers is much less expensive than gaining new ones, so don’t make the mistake of neglecting your current buyers. Repay their loyalty with rewards. Set up a loyalty program, offer repeat customers exclusive discounts and free shipping vouchers, and let them be the first to know about great deals. Customers love it when brands show their appreciation, not just through words but also through actions.
The Takeaway
Marketing is more than just running ads on Google and social media. It covers everything from optimizing your website to creating loyalty programs for customer retention. Businesses should not focus on only one aspect of marketing but take a holistic approach that considers every issue that may disrupt the customer experience. At the end of the day, the goal of every business is to gain more customers and keep them coming back.
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