BLOG | Digital Marketing Role of Digital Marketing Plan for Small Businesses

The digital landscape is a great platform for small businesses in establishing their brand and connecting to a broad range of consumers across the world. However, there is a constant shift in the demand and supply of products and services across industries globally. That is why businesses need to be more flexible and knowledgeable in digital marketing and learn more about the economic shifts and how they can cope through technology.

Our team at Proweaver Inc. shares significant information you can use to leverage your business and still be in the competition while meeting your consumer’s needs through digital marketing. Here is a brief overview of what we will be discussing.

Quick Overview

What Is Digital Marketing?
What Are the Different Digital Marketing Strategies?
How to Build Your Own Digital Marketing Plan?
Why Is Digital Marketing Important for Small Businesses?

Read more below for more details.

What Is Digital Marketing?

With digital marketing, small businesses can promote their interests and offers to prospective consumers across the globe through social media, emails, search engines, websites, and mobile applications, among others.

Basically, digital marketing is a shifting, dynamic method of connecting and engaging with consumers on a global scale. It utilizes technological tools and online platforms to promote brands, products, and services to a targeted market worldwide. By tracking which sites and places consumers often visit, marketers can determine what strategy to use, when to use it, and how to use it to effectively interact with their target market, endorse their products, and ultimately, gain sales and profit.

Marketers, especially small business owners, are encouraged to create omnichannel marketing, where they can deliver a consistent brand experience to their potential buyers and existing customers on their own terms across various marketing channels (online or physical store). Thus, it promotes a better customer experience.

Strong omnichannel marketing has been found to increase customer retention by about 89%, while weaker omnichannel marketing strategies can still increase retention rates by about 33%.

Spanning across a multifaceted network of digital platforms, digital marketing is a critical part of growing the business and reaching a broader market across the globe for a positive return of investment, enhanced content marketing, and optimized search engines. So you should consider this when you go online.

Then, What Are the Different Digital Marketing Strategies?

Here are the 6 most commonly used ones:

1. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

   By using social media, a business can reach a broad range of customers wherever they are. However, social media marketing is more than just having active social media accounts. It is about integrating essential factors into your marketing efforts to create various sharing opportunities for as many people as possible.

   Creating and posting engaging, informative, and up-to-date content with relevant images or videos is key to effective social media marketing. The more your existing consumers or prospective consumers are engaged with your content, the more likely they are to share it, encouraging more shares, possible conversions, and increased sales.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

   Applying the latest search engine optimization trends can help your website rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) and reach more audiences. A higher rank on SERPs means more people are visiting your website and that your website has the most relevant information to the user’s query.

   Personalizing your website and adding schema markups can also help you achieve long-term success, better customer relations, and a positive return on investment. It can also help you earn rich snippets, which can drive organic clicks, strengthen relationships with potential customers, and enhance overall visibility.

3. Paid Search or Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

   Paid Search or Pay-Per-Click advertising is where advertisers pay the publisher each time a user clicks on their online advertisements. This strategy relies on tracking the online behavior of an individual. Relevant advertisements will then be shown according to the gathered data. This way, the business can target and retarget their market into visiting their website, purchasing their products and/or services, and becoming loyal customers, generating organic clicks and increasing sales.

4. Content Marketing

   On top of designing a personalized website for your business, adding relevant information that not only informs but also educates, inspires, and engages consumers can build your reputation as a credible source of information. When that happens, users are more likely to visit and browse through your website, encourage their friends and loved ones to do the same, and potentially become valuable customers.

5. Email Marketing

   This marketing strategy delivers commercial campaigns, such as promotions, new arrivals, discounts, infographics, and more through the use of email. If you’ve subscribed to Netflix, Spotify, or other apps, you’ve probably had more than a dozen of promotions or update messages in your inbox.

   Although email marketing is one of the oldest digital marketing strategies, it still proves to be effective up to this day. Through email marketing, you can build a lasting relationship with your customer, which can lead to possible sales and conversion.

6. Affiliate Marketing or Influencer Marketing

   This strategy is about hiring and paying a prominent individual, such as a blogger, celebrity, or any influencer, to advertise your products and services and generate sales. The payment is pay-per-sale. In other words, the affiliated individual will get his/her commission based on sales conversions.

   These marketing strategies should go alongside the five elements to position a business strategically.

   The 5 Ps:

   • Product
   • Price
   • Promotion
   • Place
   • People

But How Can You Know What Digital Marketing Strategy to Use?

Digital marketing is a powerful tool to set the trajectory of your business. But it can be overwhelming. As professionals in this field, Proweaver is here to help you learn the basics in simple ways. To design an innovative and effective digital marketing strategy, you need to consider the following:

1. Conduct Market Research

   Gather all information you can get to evaluate and understand your consumer’s behavior. You may also monitor the latest trends and your competition’s movement.

2. Profile Your Target Market

   Group your prospective consumers based on their characteristics to create a specific and focused marketing effort toward each group.
   Group them by:

   2.1. Demographics (gender, age, educational attainment, occupation, income)
   2.2.Geography (home address, work address)
   2.3. Behavior (their reason for choosing and using your products, the place they get their information about your brand, product, and/or service, usage rates)
   2.4. Lifestyle and Values (hobbies, interests, family situation, children, pets, values in life)

3. Identify Your USP

   USP or unique selling propositions is the business’s best feature that makes it shine from other brands in the market. It is important to define the business’s unique feature and be able to effectively convey it to your target market. This feature can be your skills or knowledge, things you love most about what you offer, the benefit your customers can get from you but not from your competitors, and the aspects of your business that you would likely highlight when talking to a stranger.

4. Develop Your Brand

   Although small, your business needs a brand that speaks more than your color, logo, and tagline. Your brand must be able to connect with your target market emotionally, conveying who you are, what you stand for, and what you can deliver.

5. Choose Your Avenues

   Considering your target market, you can choose to market your brand through the following strategies, among others:

   • Website Development
   • Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
   • Social Media Marketing (SMM)
   • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

   These are convenient, cost-effective marketing strategies that are accessible for small businesses.

6. Set Your Goals and Budget

   Since you have a wide array of options to choose from, it can become easy to overstretch your budget. This is why you need to set your long-term goals and budget to avoid spending more money without getting positive results.

   In setting your goals and budget, you must put into consideration the channel/s you want to use to reach your market, the way you want to spend your time and resources, and the metrics you can use in gauging your digital marketing effectiveness.

   Other than that, your goals should always be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.

   Your budget will need to include website development and maintenance, advertising, promotional materials, search engine optimization, design of branding, and staffing digital marketing professionals.

7. Focus on Your Content

   Digital marketing strategy goes hand in hand with content marketing. Your content can capture or throw potential consumers away. By consistently creating relevant, informative, and up-to-date content, your existing consumers and prospective market can find the value of your business, setting up your brand in the industry.

   A well-built content will showcase your skills, knowledge, and experience in the industry that will resonate with your target market and show why you are the best option for them.

   Other than that, it can help your website gain more organic clicks and rank higher in search engine results.

8. Use Influencers to Your Advantage

   Promoting your brand also means partnering with prominent individuals or influencers who have a huge number of followers. You can negotiate your terms with your chosen influencer to promote your brand online. Make sure to choose an influencer that is effective and proactive in promoting your brand, products, and/or services.

9. Engage with Loyal Customers

   Do you already have loyal customers on your side? Then, be sure to engage with them. Exceptional customer service can highly improve customer retention. If you’re not sure how to engage with your loyal customers, here are some tips:

   • Offer Exclusive Discounts and Offers
   • Accept Feedback and Use It to Improve Services
   • Address Concerns Promptly and Appropriately
   • Provide Relevant Content
   • Train Staff in Customer Service and Basic Sale Processes

10. Monitor Your Progress Through KPI

    KPI or key performance indicators can help guide your marketing efforts. Through KPI, you can know whether or not you are getting your desired results with your current digital marketing plan, such as increased sales, traffic, and conversions, among others.

    Build a strategy that revolves around market research, content marketing, the use of influencers, and metrics to have a solid digital marketing strategy that suits your business’s needs.

Why Is Digital Marketing Important for Small Businesses?

The answer is simple. Modern solutions need modern answers, and since more than half of the world’s population own a mobile phone or any other gadgets one can use to browse through the internet, it has been much easier to connect with your target market via online platforms. So we believe that digital marketing has the following advantages:

1. Measurability

   Through digital marketing, you can track and measure your progress, engagement, and effectiveness through online metric tools provided by search engines. By knowing how many organic clicks you get in a day and where they are coming from, you get real-time data on how to modify your strategy. Therefore, it’s your way of getting to the right people.

2. Global Engagement

   Through online platforms and websites, you can reach a wide range of consumers worldwide without spending too much. You can interact with your current and prospective consumers from all around the world, allowing you to get an insight into your market’s behavior and how you can make your next moves in ensuring this behavior is met for better customer relations and retention.

3. Customer Retention

   One of the goals of digital marketing is to gain conversions and build a strong customer base, where your customers are loyal to your brand and satisfied with their experience with your business. Having loyal and satisfied customers can impact your name in the industry and can even give your brand authority in the market. Customer retention also means generating sales consistently and an effective digital marketing strategy.

4. Affordability

   Digital marketing is critical for small or medium-sized businesses in leveling the playing field with bigger companies as most digital marketing tools are free, such as posting images, videos, and content promoting your brand and offering. Additionally, advertising online is found to be less costly than print advertising. Moreover, you can direct your advertisements and other digital marketing ideas to a specific group of people. It gives you a wider reach and repeats views as well as feedback, which is critical in enhancing your strategy and business as a whole.

5. Personalization

   Your website and social media accounts can be customized, and by linking them to your customer database, you can track your customers’ behavior, refine their profiles, and create a targeted offer for them. Then, you can personalize their experience on your website according to their preferences and needs. Through this, your current and prospective consumers can feel valued and understood and can navigate their way to your brand and offerings more easily.

6. Speed

   Messaging is a lot quicker online compared to traditional pen and paper. It only takes a button to post a status, update a website, send an electronic newsletter, and reach potential customers. Digital marketing has taken over the world by storm due to various digital advancements. And it shows by the number of people who choose to shop online or use the internet every day for a faster and less hassle transaction.

So, How Can Proweaver Help?

Going online may seem easy. But creating a feasible digital marketing strategy involves careful and thorough research, skills, and knowledge. As your source of web solutions, Proweaver helps you build your brand, grow your audience, and strengthen your online presence. Our team of experienced designers, developers, content writers, and customer representatives help you achieve your goals through:

• Custom Website Design

  We start building your online presence by creating an interactive website with the graphics and information smoothly balanced. Proweaver delivers your desired results at a very affordable cost. We also work around your budget and produce the excellent outcomes you deserve.

• Search Engine Optimization

  To help your current customer and prospects find you easily on the web, we apply the latest SEO trends on your website and use relevant keywords. Then, your website becomes more visible and accessible.

• Social Media Management

  We strengthen your online presence on customers by creating content that stands out. This way, you can grow your business through likes, shares, and conversions online. So, you can connect with your online market like never before.

Level the playing field with big corporations by seeking the help of experts. Proweaver can help you stay on top of the competition and unlock your total potential. Are you interested? Then, feel free to call us at +1 (866) 777-8315.