Digital Marketing

Simply put, digital marketing is reaching people over their phone, tablet, laptop, or other device in order to communicate with them. This is a really broad topic, and can take a variety of forms.

Cost effective

Digital marketing has been proven to drive cost-effective leads and sales for businesses of any size.  In fact, digital marketing is especially geared towards small businesses as it can be bootstrapped from the ground up with minimal investment.

• Average digital marketing spend is between $500 and $600 per month for small businesses, putting it right in the middle of everyone’s budget/
• The ROI for digital marketing is 5:1, making it an essential piece of any strategy. (SEO is the biggest ROI ar 22:1.

Allows you to compete in bigger markets

This is critical to small local businesses that need to compete with each other and with much larger brands.  Digital marketing is by nature more fair than other marketing channels allowing small business to compete with big brands.

• Website Design – the overall design of your website including the look and feel and branding.
• Content Strategy – the useful and relevant content you provide to your audience.
• User Experience – the experience users have in visiting, navigating, and answering the questions they have.
• Conversion Optimization – the process of making it easy for users to find you and complete a purchase.
• SEO – how well your site can be found and interpreted by search engines.
• Paid Per Click Ads/Paid Ads – paid advertisement on a variety of platforms, such as google or social media.
• Social Media – the platforms users use to connect with one another and with businesses that add value.
• Email – the process of sending your interested users relevant and helpful information via email.

Having a plan will help you maintain focus and help keep you moving in the right direction.  If you have never done any digital marketing, consider the following to get you started.

Identify your goals.  

Getting started with a topic as big as digital marketing can be overwhelming.  Identifying your goals up front will help to focus early efforts on what matters for your business.

• Why are you looking to connect with more people?  Yes, sales can be an answer but you also might consider brand awareness or overall perception of your company.
• What would success look like?  If everything works as planned, what would you hope to accomplish?  Make sure these are realistic and relevant to your business.

Assess your skills

Understanding the skills you (and your employees) have will answer a key question: do you have the skills for digital marketing based on your goals?  For example, if your goal is to rank #1 on Google for your local business results, do you know SEO best practices and have technical expertise?  

If you evaluate you don’t have the skills within your business, start looking for a trusted outside partner to help.

Take strategic action and get started

Strategic action means starting on the task that will lead to the quickest and highest value results.  For example, if you have a nice opt-in email list from your customers but do not currently engage in email marketing, that is probably the best first place to start.  

Be strategic about your time as well.  Is digital marketing the best thing you can be doing with your time?  If not (and you can’t delegate) consider other resources to help.