A Quick Guide on Digital Marketing for Small Business 2019

Landing the first few customers for any small business is not easy. It gets more difficult if your small business or startup has no digital marketing plans. Here is the quick guide on digital marketing for small businesses in 2019.

According to Hubspot, 97% of people learn about local businesses online more than anywhere else.

For many, small business digital marketing may seem obscure and vague. Questions may arise such as:

• Will my budget be able to handle digital marketing expenses?
• How can I make a website and earn from it?
• How do I get my business parallel to competitors?
• How do I rank higher in Google searches?
• Can I afford online paid advertising? Is it worth it for my business?
• How do I reach more people through social media?
• How do I increase ROI? and so on

Being a small business owner, before hiring any digital marketing agency or freelancers ask these questions.

Once you get answers to those questions, check out which digital marketing platform best suits your business.

Some of the most popular and cost-effective digital marketing channels for small businesses in 2019 are:

• Social media marketing
• Inbound marketing (content marketing)
• Search engine optimization
• Influencer marketing
• Voice search optimization
• Branded and live video streams

So you have discovered these channels for the promotion of your business/brand/service. However, you are not going to use all of them. It depends on your target audience, budget and other sources such as production rate and manpower.

Let’s understand why these channels are best for your online presence.

Social media marketing

Social media is not just a platform for people to socialize and have fun, but it is also a very powerful marketing tool for your business.

People spend an average of 2 hours and 23 minutes spent per day on social media. It is the place to find your target audience, share your content, engage with them, making sales and getting traffic to your website.

Inbound marketing /content marketing

Inbound marketing is more of a strategy than a specific channel. It is the process of attracting leads, engaging them to your website content and turning them into clients. It can be referred to as content marketing to some extent. Blogging is a simple way to kickstart content marketing.

Search engine optimization

A perfectly optimized website ranks higher in search engines. Higher the rank, higher the conversion rates, i.e. more chance of selling a product or service.

Influencer marketing

2019 has been influencer marketing dominant. You can leverage the reach, trust and followers influencers have these days on social media. They can be a bit costly but it is worth it.

Voice search optimization

81% of people use voice search in conjunction with their smartphones. One critical element of voice search is optimizing your content with the types of keywords that commonly appear in voice searches.

Branded and live video streams

It is estimated that 82% of web traffic will be occupied by video content by 2021. Video is the best way of engaging people to your brand. A touch of emotion is always triggered by videos when done correctly.

Similarly, a lot of smart small businesses are using live video streams to engage with their audience. People can participate, invite friends and ask quick questions, which is great for building lively relationships.

So by now you have answered your queries and understood which channel suits your business.

But, you may still be confused how do I even get started?

Hiring a digital marketing agency

It is always good to hire a digital agency. You may want to look for their experience, past results, the niche they are used to working and most importantly pricing. Also for better confirmation, you can use references. You can contact to their existing clients and clear your skepticism.

Hiring freelancers:

The level of trust from hiring an agency may decrease as you want to hire a freelancer. But they are mostly budget-friendly and have greater flexibility.

Do it yourself

It could mean two things; hiring a digital marketing employee or doing all stuff yourself. If you have prior knowledge and a lot of time why not. If not it is wise to get started with the above two options.

Final tips for small business digital marketing:

• Identify your buyer persona.
• Use tools such as google analytics to track your website data
• Perform a lot of keyword research-hit the bullseye with the right keyword
• Write content for humans, not for search engines
• Experiment with videos and live streams
• Get highly interactive in social media
• Offer free trial, webinar or free coupons
• Get consulting from experts in this field
• Don’t forget local search optimization
• Use chatbots in your website and social media
• Experiment, experiment, and experiment
• Small Businesses Need a Strong Online Presence

You probably have a long road ahead building the go-to digital marketing strategy. The above bits and pieces of information will surely have a huge impact on your business.

We hope the above tips are helpful when you are building your marketing strategy over the coming weeks and months. Thank you for taking the time to read our piece of content.