Top Benefits of Digital Marketing for Small Businesses

If you’re a small business owner, you know it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to keep your business running.

You may be familiar with the importance of marketing your business to attract new customers. But what type of marketing is right for your business?

Suppose you’re not sure or looking for ways to expand your business through marketing methods. In that case, digital marketing may be the perfect solution for you.

Typically, when small businesses start, they often struggle to maintain a consistent clientele, lacking an understanding of implementing marketing services and staying on top of it.

As a result, many small business owners return to traditional advertising methods, such as print ads, coupon mailers, direct mail, or even outdoor advertising on billboards.

At the same time, your savvy competitors use web technologies, social media, and digital advertising to establish themselves and grow quicker.

And while traditional marketing techniques still serve a purpose and produce results, understand that consumers have changed their habits, and so should you.

According to a survey by Trinity McQueen and Google in early 2021, the shift in shopping behaviours between in-store purchases and online shopping has increased.

These findings are expected as we deal with a COVID-19 pandemic that has led to new in-person shopping experiences and influenced more people to shop online.

But the pandemic isn’t the only driving force.

For example, 18-34-year-olds beauty shoppers say they choose to shop online because it is easier to buy a specific product. While 40% of people aged 35-54 say shopping online is more convenient for them.

In the older demographics, 55+-year-olds, 54% say they don’t want to visit the store because of COVID-19, which is understandable. 41% said they can have their products delivered to their home, and 27% of that group say it’s cheaper to shop for beauty products online than in-store.

What can we learn from this?

Google’s recommended action points for marketers are to cut through online in engaging and flexible creative formats, like smart shopping campaigns, and embrace automation.

By doing so, you can plan and act based on real-time consumer insights and deliver real-time customer service.

We should re-evaluate how the physical store complements, rather than competes online.

Retailers may need to rely on older demographics for footfall and in-store purchases. For example, “providing a destination to ‘experience’ and be entertained.”

That said, businesses and brands need to be present and visible in the online places where your customers are looking – such as generic searches, YouTube and social media channels.

In a world where generic searches are increasing faster than branded searches, challenger brands can make their mark by investing in channels previously only associated with the end of the purchase journey.

Today, business owners have access to a variety of digital marketing methods that can be tailored to suit their objectives, budgets, or industries.  

Understand how your investment in reaching audiences during inspiring moments online affects store outcomes.

Using first-party data effectively is key to assessing this evolving relationship. Getting customers to engage online is vital if retail sales are your goal.

According to research, the shifts to online are here to stay. Therefore, a well-structured strong digital marketing strategy and services will be more important for your small business growth than ever before.

These findings indicate that online retail and in-store experience can contribute to an effective omnichannel strategy.

More on omnichannel later…

No matter how new, any business should look at digital marketing techniques to communicate, generate leads, and convert interest into customers.

Take ideas from big retailers, big brands and larger corporations, technological advancements and insights on the shifts in consumer behaviour, because it trickles from the top and across different industries.

In the end, it’s what consumers expect, and they will put their money where their mouth is to businesses that give the best value and the best experience.

And any business owner worth their salt knows that change is necessary to move forward and survive.

Acting sooner rather than later will be better for you. The longer you wait to make changes, the farther your competition will get ahead of you.

As part of this blog post, we will specifically examine the meaning of digital marketing and the benefits of digital marketing for small businesses.

So, let’s begin by understanding the definition of digital marketing.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing can be defined as using online channels (such as your company’s website, social media and online advertising) to promote products or services.

It involves techniques such as search engine optimisation (SEO), content marketing, email marketing, influencer marketing, and paid advertising services.

It is not a problem if you are unfamiliar with those terms. We can explain them to you.

Using the internet and digital channels, you can promote your products and services to your target audience, while building your brand reputation and enhancing communication.

We will begin with an example of a digital marketing channel:

• Email marketing
• Content marketing
• Chatbot marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Search engine optimization
• Search Engine Marketing
• Pay-per-click advertising
• Display ads
• Affiliate marketing
• Mobile marketing
• Instant Message Marketing
• Influencer marketing
• Podcasting
• Digital radio advertising
• Television advertising
• Video marketing
• Omnichannel

For the smallest of businesses on tight budgets, it is possible to reach customers by sending them emails, appearing on Google, engaging them through Instagram and Facebook, etc.

This kind of multi-channel digital marketing has a minimal cost. It can be done in-house with the correct basic understanding, committed effort, plans, and strategy.

Implementing your digital marketing might require outsourcing, because it generally requires digital marketing tools.

Here are a few digital marketing services:

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Content Marketing
• Social Media Marketing (SMM)
• E mail Marketing
• Online advertising (Google Ads)
• Online Reputation Management.

These digital marketing skills must be thoroughly understood to pick out the best parts from each and form a solid digital marketing strategy.

In a sense, the advantages of digital marketing over traditional marketing have revolutionised the best way businesses connect and engage with customers. You only have to look at the smartphone statistics, whereby 82% of people use their phones to search online before purchasing from a store.

So even if you’re a brick-and-mortar business that relies on footfall, digital marketing plays an essential role in consumer behaviour, as we have already discussed.

For small businesses, digital marketing has proven to be beneficial.

These techniques effectively target, communicate, and keep your brand relevant.

As soon as Google introduced AdWords in 2000, advertisers poured money into online advertising.

There are currently 4.66 billion internet users worldwide, thanks to digital marketing.

Did you know that search engines drive around 93% of all website traffic, and businesses in the UK spent 62% of their marketing budgets on digital advertising in 2020?

Similarly, a Clutch survey found 81% of advertisers use social media, 78% use web marketing, and 69% use email.

How’s your marketing budget divided?

Whether you are a brand new company or a business that needs a fresh perspective, read on as we explain more about digital marketing in these beginner 101 posts.

Now let’s examine how digital marketing benefits small businesses and helps them establish themselves.

Digital Marketing 101: 7 Benefits of Digital Marketing for Small Businesses and How It Can Help You Reach Customers Worldwide

1 – Accessibility to different online platforms

Digital marketing campaigns are part of a larger digital marketing plan to reach potential new consumers.

Keep in mind that potential customers will search for you on Google, sites like TripAdvisor, social media like Facebook or Instagram, and many other social media platforms.

Having a website and social media presence is expected from customers in today’s digital age, regardless of how big or small your business is.

Here, your business may not appear legitimate to a potential customer if they can’t find you online.

Many of these prospects will not take your business seriously and move on to the next option.

Therefore, you need to be visible through multiple mediums to attract potential customers and help build a brand.

Having a website is necessary. It is your central hub where you can build your business online.

Since billions of people access the internet from their mobile devices. Your website must be optimised for smaller screen sizes and desktops for mobile customers.

A survey of 200+ web designers and freelancers found that not having a responsive design is one of the top reasons visitors leave a website. Poor navigation, slow loading times, and lack of content are other reasons visitors leave a site.

Suppose you are a customer facing local business or local service business. In this case, having a Google Business Profile is critical.

By creating a Google My Business Profile for your company, you can manage your online presence across Google’s entire platform.

As soon as you create and claim ownership of a Google My Business profile, you can access and edit all the information that appears on the listing – from your business hours, location and photos. Plus, customers can leave reviews.

2 – Access to multiple networks

A significant advantage of digital marketing is that you have various platforms to reach your consumers.

Not only can you use Google, but you can also use Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Bing, eBay, Amazon and even TikTok to reach new consumers.

Understanding where your customers spend their time? They are likely to purchase and research services and products similar to what you offer.

It helps stay up to date with trends and attracts customers. Small business owners should target platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram to reach the broadest audience possible on the internet in the UK. YouTube and Facebook are the two most popular social networks in the UK, with 78% and 73% of internet users using them, respectively.

Instagram is the 4th most-used social platform. Among the top three networks in terms of daily active users, only Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp beat out Instagram. However, Instagram is the only site with 1.3 million daily active users.

The average Instagram business account gained 1.69% of its followers every month. Even though every business account and brand is unique, knowing the general benchmark for growth is helpful.

This is especially true if that’s part of your brand’s social media platform goals.

On eBay, 96% of small businesses export to 17 countries on average. eBay entrepreneurs sell to customers across at least four continents six out of ten times. In contrast, 1% of traditional businesses sell to four countries. If you have products and services for a global audience, consider eBay.

Cross-border eCommerce is booming, so eBay sellers who can introduce their products on international markets have a great opportunity to expand their customer base.

Last year, UK small businesses sold 750m products through Amazon, an increase of over one third.

Throughout the pandemic lockdown, the number of small businesses selling through Amazon increased by 20 per cent to 65,000.

The company reported that around 60 per cent of all physical product sales in its UK stores came from independent sellers, most of whom were SMEs.

We know small businesses have limited resources and time. We’re one too!

Twitter’s primary benefit for business is that it allows you to share information quickly and start conversations with your target audience.

As a result, your audience will find your Tweets and content valuable. Perhaps even share them with their friends.

You can use hashtags to reach a global audience interested in a particular topic or location.

3 – Easier to measure performance

It’s much easier to measure the effectiveness and return on investment of digital marketing campaigns than traditional marketing methods.

Digital marketing, metrics, and key performance indicators (KPIs) are values used by marketing teams to measure and track the success of their digital marketing campaigns.

Businesses use various tools to promote their products and services in the digital world. Tracking the results can sometimes be challenging. You can easily determine performance targets and goals by tracking specific KPIs in a dashboard.

Suppose you’re not sure how you’re performing on a specific marketing platform. In that case, you can check your web Google analytics to find out how many times people have clicked on your ads, visited your website, or shared your content. This will help you improve your understanding of your audience and tailor their future communications to these individuals.

The Net Promoter Score is not measured for most small businesses, but it should be. When measuring customer satisfaction with your product or service, the Net Promoter Score is a great tool.

What is the likelihood that a client will recommend your product or service to a friend? According to Net Promoter Network, there are three levels of customer advocacy:

• A promoter (9-10) is a loyal customer who promotes your company to others and drives your sales
• Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied, but unenthusiastic customers who leave when a better offer comes along
• You can damage your brand image by having detractors (score 0-6) spread negative information about your business.

Using an NPS survey will help you discover who your customers are, how they feel about your service, and how you can improve it.

What’s not to like? 👍

NPS forms are part of your online reputation.

Another aspect of establishing an online reputation is through reviews.

Businesses are using reviews to drive growth, and your business should, too.

Small businesses need to embrace reviews in today’s digital world.

It means getting your customers to leave reviews, keeping a close eye on them (monitoring your reputation), responding to customers, and sharing your best reviews on social media.

Online reviews are important, because nearly 70% of consumers are influenced.

People read reviews from competitors before buying a product, eating at a new restaurant, or doing business with a company.

That said, there are several digital marketing metrics that every business should pay attention to, which can include:

• Web traffic sources
• Brand awareness
• Cost per lead
• Website Traffic Leads
• Bounce Rate
• Returning visitors
• Online conversion rates
• Rate of return
• Lead conversion rates (conversion rate optimisation)
• Click through rate
• Customer lifetime value
• Social engagement

4 – Targeted and cost-effective using a strong digital marketing strategy

The benefit of digital marketing ads is that it allows companies to reach potential customers at a lower cost.

What this means is that they can target specific audiences by selecting keywords relevant to their business.

With paid search advertising, you can reach customers interested in your business or product. You can drive more leads, phone calls, appointments, visits, and purchases to your small business.

Digital marketing ads are exceptionally targeted.

Google Ads (formally Google AdWords), YouTube’s TrueView, Facebook’s ad platform, Microsoft Advertising Network, LinkedIn ads or any other type of platform can target a specific audience. – Age, geographical locations, time of day, previous purchases, likes, or web history as an example.

You can drive traffic to a site, service, or product, increase your conversion rate, and ultimately, your profits by running online ads.

You only pay when someone clicks on your ad (PPC). This makes online advertising cost-effective for all budgets and digital strategies.

You can also start, stop, and pause your ads at any time, so you’re always in control. But once you find your sweet spot, double down on your ad investments to boost sales.

Your website can indeed be an amazingly effective marketing tool – but only if your customers can find it.

You can take advantage of search engine optimisation by making your website search engine friendly.

If you invest in SEO, you can optimise your website to rank well in search engines, like Google, for searches related to your products and services.

An SEO strategy involves using keywords related to your products or services on your website. This is so that when users search for those keywords in Google, relevant pages appear in the results.

Find the most suitable keywords for your page, as simple as keyword research, to see what your target audience is searching for and which keywords your competitors are using. The keywords you choose should be relevant to your target audience and attract them to your website.

For example, this blog page I’m writing targets the keyword “Benefits of Digital Marketing for Small Businesses”. The page is structured to answer that keyword’s intent, which is “information”.

My aim here is to provide you, the reader, with helpful, valuable information.

Did it work?

SEO, unlike ads, takes time and can be overwhelming with the vast amount of content you need to rank well for your target keywords.

But overall, SEO has cost benefits compared to ads. However, I’m not suggesting you should choose one or the other. My personal recommendation is to do both.

Besides publishing original content around your target keywords, you can improve your site’s SEO by earning links from authoritative websites.

Enhance your rankings, generate more traffic, and increase leads and conversions with the right digital marketing strategy.

Bottom line, regardless of your industry, it is a competitive world.

Digital marketing strategies are needed if your small business is to survive.

5 – Save time

Digital marketing campaigns are relatively easy to manage, which allows you to focus more time on other aspects of your company.

The power of marketing automation is now readily available, even in lower-cost email marketing solutions like MailChimp. For example, pre-written emails are sent to specific individuals at the right time when they perform a specific action.

Using automation, you can create a successful marketing machine that communicates and nurtures customers until they are ready to buy.

Automation can shorten the sales cycle, highlight potential sales ready leads, or is effectively used in eCommerce businesses.

Marketing automation has been used by 79% of top-performing companies for over 2 years, and 91% of these companies claim it helps them function properly and efficiently – Gleanster Research.

Nearly everything in your small business can be automated.

And no, I’m not joking. And I’ve not even mentioned Ai…

Whether it’s answering customer support calls, sending follow-up emails, writing content, remarketing to customers who visit your website or upsetting your product.

Here are some functions most businesses automate:

• Posting on social media
• Sending out emails through targeted campaigns
• Added dynamic content to website widgets
• Mass SMS and phone calls
• Adding ads to the website
• Data Management
• Analysis of data, etc.
• Data gathering (scraping)

On the spectrum of digital marketing advanced techniques, ensure marketing automation is towards the higher end. It takes time, effort, and budget to implement first, but it comes with significant benefits when building your business.

By outsourcing your digital marketing needs to a competent company, you can take time to focus on other projects.

Business growth opportunities are abundant when you have a robust digital marketing tactic.

6 – More engagement than ever before through online marketing

In most cases, engagement is not designed to generate new sales, at least not immediately.

With the help of social media tools, you can maintain your business relationship with the market, build customer trust and confidence, and increase visibility of your products and services, all of which can lead to more sales for your business.

Consumers don’t want to be sold too constantly to be more engaging. Companies that give them the information they want are more likely to get their business than those that give them the information they want.

Social media is an excellent way for customers to engage directly with brands.

For this reason, you’ll need to have an active presence on social media.

It is clear that marketing has always been about listening. Many marketers use surveys to find out what their customers want.

Traditionally, marketing has included everything from phone and postal mail surveys to focus groups.

Nowadays, you can post a survey on your website, use social media advertising, or send an e-mail survey.

And that won’t change anytime soon – on the contrary, as more and more data becomes available through smartphones, smarter devices and wearable tech, online marketing will become even more challenging.

When we talk about engagement, we’re also talking about action. Action is motivated by marketing.

Use digital marketing networks and tools to ask for customer feedback. This type of engagement will give you a deep understanding of your customers’ needs and willingness to engage with their problems.

Engage with customers through email.

A company email newsletter is a wonderful way to communicate and provoke engagement.

Personalising your communications is one of the key benefits of digital marketing.

Using email marketing and your mailing lists, you can segment your customers and personalise your messages in their simplistic form.

The personalisation of these messages will help them stand out among generic messages, and they will be more likely to remain loyal in the future.

Engaging customers on a deep, meaningful level requires discarding most of what you know about traditional methods of marketing. 

Instead of assuming that if a buyer fits a particular profile, they will be interested in a specific product, we can now target individuals based on their behaviour.

Then, you can use the behaviour on one channel—such as a Facebook interaction—to inform marketing on another channel, like a message that appears when the person visits your website. 

Your revenue will grow by engaging with customers, creating trust, and building brand preferences.

• Engagement marketing builds trust. More than 85 per cent of consumers trust solutions that walk them through different paths toward decisions, rather than just giving back them an answer outright. 
• Engagement marketing drives clicks. Compared to non-triggered emails, triggered emails have 71% higher open rates and 102% higher click rate (Every Cloud). 
• Marketing engagement leads to measurable results. 87 per cent of marketers report a measurable lift from their personalisation digital marketing efforts. (Evergage).

Engagement marketing is an omnichannel strategy that requires planning, implementation, optimisation and maintenance.

OK, so what is omnichannel?

I’ve mentioned omnichannel a few times in this post, so here’s a quick overview for those who don’t know.

Therefore, as a business, you offer multiple, integrated ways in which to interact with your service or product. This is essential to Omnichannel, both in terms of support, as well as in terms of marketing and product development.

This is a novel approach, as opposed to just one or two distinct methods of interaction, such as over the phone or via email (as opposed to single channel or multichannel support).

It is much more convenient for your customers to reach out to you via the following channels: social media, live chat, phone, self-service, screen sharing, email, etc.

What is even better is that everything is fully integrated. Instead of bouncing between siloed channels, they don’t have to be redirected to another platform or sent a new email – everything happens in one place.

For example, if you might have issues with your Sky TV, you can contact Sky via email from your laptop. You may then pick up the conversation with our support team via an online chat on your phone and within that chat you will be able to see your previous email. Once the chat ends, you may receive an SMS message from Sky to complete your support query via SMS.

So in that instance, you interacted with Sky via multiple methods, and Sky was able to keep track and communicate with you via various options – email, chat, SMS. 

Omnichannel marketing eliminates methods of communication like phone calls and emails, but keeps the functionality for the customer, such as picking up right where they left off when switching between their phone, tablet, and computer.

7 – Digital marketing helps increase your brand awareness

The goal of brand awareness is to help audiences understand, remember, and become familiar with your brand and the products you offer.

Ensure your brand is top of mind when consumers are ready to research and buy when they are familiar with your brand.

Make sure your brand is heard as loudly as possible.

Did you hear me?

WHAT ABOUT NOW?

I know that would work 😉

Look, it is important to create brand awareness among people in your area. It is especially important if you are a local business. To do so, optimise local directories such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Business Profile, and Yell Pages.

Digital marketing can increase your brand loyalty and amplify your messages.

This can be done by focusing on your SEO strategy, content marketing, starting a referral program, brand partnerships, or posting on social media.

In summary, your small business can transform its marketing capabilities

This 101 beginner’s guide to digital marketing for small businesses offers many benefits, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

As we conclude, it’s important to readdress savvy competitors using web technologies, social media, and digital advertising to establish themselves and grow faster than you can imagine.

Using digital marketing services makes it easy to reach out to your potential clients.

Consumers have changed their habits, so should you. Businesses need to be present in the online places where customers are looking for them.

It’s important to keep your customers engaged with your brand; provide them with the best value and experience you can! For example, businesses need to be present and visible in the online places where their customers are.

The advantages of digital marketing over traditional marketing have revolutionised the way businesses connect with potential consumers.

Your business may not appear legitimate if it’s difficult for clients to find information about what you offer on search engines like Google or Bing.

We’re here to help ensure this doesn’t happen by providing services and solutions tailored specifically towards your needs. If you are struggling to get started, contact us today or leave some questions below. In the meantime, get your free small business local SEO report, which is a great way to start and see how your business is seen online. 

By learning more and investing in digital marketing, you can reap the rewards, from growing your small business faster to supporting your customers anytime and building customer loyalty.

With technology, support, training, & consultancy services, we help small-sized businesses improve their business efficiency, sales & digital marketing.