The average person spends nearly 9 hours per day on digital devices [1] so it’s essential for small businesses to not only understand digital marketing but to embrace it and build an effective strategy to connect with potential customers. However, with so many areas of digital marketing to focus upon (everything from websites and e-newsletters to social media, text messaging, blogs, gaming and more), it can be difficult for small businesses to know just where to start. We look at 4 key steps to get you started, which will enable you to build a strong foundation for your digital marketing efforts.

Deliver a great website

A great website is the cornerstone of successful digital marketing activity as it’s where you’re going to point your customers once they click your ad, open your blog or go to get that free game.  So if your website is poor, you’re heading for a digital marketing fail.  Make sure your website is the very best it can be by ensuring it’s well-designed, mobile responsive, easy to navigate, and regularly updated with content that is relevant to your audience.  Ensure your site is SEO optimised to ensure that it ranks well in search results. For a free website health-check click here.

Social media marketing

Social media is a fantastic digital tool and provides an opportunity to interact on a more personal level with potential customers.  Facebook, Instagram and Messenger are among the top 5 most popular apps and Facebook is the third most visited site in the world, after YouTube and Google [2]; social media is just too big a marketplace to neglect.

An active social media profile on these platforms can make a business appear more professional and trustworthy [3].  The key is to communicate regularly with useful information targeted at those people who closely match your target audience.

Video content is a necessity, as this type of content is more than 40 times more likely to be shared on social media than any other kind [4].  Keep your videos short, (60-90 seconds), relevant to your audience and upload them direct to the individual platforms.

Email marketing

Building your email marketing list can be one of your biggest assets.  Companies use email marketing as a way of communicating with their audiences to promote blog content, discounts and events, as well as to direct people towards the business’ website.  Visitors rightly don’t like to give away their information for no reason, so a great tactic to build your list is to provide an incentive for them to sign up, via giving them access to specific resources, tools or training courses but if you want to establish a relationship make it clear that you are interested in them, and not just wanting to sell their information. You must also be careful to comply with legislation on the capturing and storage of personal information.

Pay per click

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising can be a great way of getting your business noticed online.  When your target market use a search engine to find what they need, Google (or their preferred search engine) will give them a list of options.  Some will be ‘organic’ or natural results, based on what Google believes the customer is looking for. Others will be ‘paid-for’ results, where a site has paid to be ranked highly for certain keywords.

Paid-for results are displayed slightly differently and more prominently, normally at the top of the results page. Once the customer clicks your ad, Google will take them to your linked page and charge you for that referral – which is the Pay Per Click. Well-planned PPC activity can be a really cost-effective and intelligent way to market your business – especially for pulling through customers who are already searching for the thing you offer.

Building the foundations

Digital marketing is no different to any other marketing in that there’s no exact formula for success.

Even the most experienced marketers will tell you that digital is always going to be a learning curve, but you can give yourself the very best chance of success by following certain steps and tactics.

One of the best things about digital marketing tactics is that they’re really easy to track and evaluate. So you can instantly see how well your new website is performing or how your email campaign worked out because the evaluation tools – from clicks to conversions – are all built into the technology.  Plough the same amount of effort into evaluating your tactics as you do planning each campaign, and learn from the insights you gather.