7 Ways Small Businesses Can Improve Their Digital Marketing

Research says 83 percent of small businesses say their digital marketing plans work. Learn how you can improve your own digital marketing strategy.

The economic landscape has become increasingly volatile throughout the past year because of the looming health crisis. However, small businesses have made an effort to remain afloat through various means. Many companies have transitioned to operating from online platforms, like Shopify or Facebook Marketplace. One other way small business owners have adapted to the new reality is by using digital marketing.

Even in prior years companies of all sizes have been utilizing digital marketing techniques like search engine optimization and content marketing to boost their businesses. A survey revealed that 83 percent of small business owners believe that their digital marketing strategies are working.

Whether your small business makes boutique desserts or is a hole-in-the-wall shop for window security bars, your digital marketing techniques need to evolve. Below are 8 techniques you can use to make sure your small business's digital marketing strategy doesn't get stale. Learn them and you may increase your company's profitability.

1. Ask Your Market

Information is the foundation of all great campaigns, from the military to marketing. And you can't have good, actionable information if you don't gather it with the right tools. Study your small business's market with various tools and get the data you need to craft compelling and effective digital marketing campaigns. The tools you can use in this effort include an online poll survey or an email questionnaire.

2. Focus Your Social Media

Many small businesses have turned to the dizzying world of social media to expand their online reach and routinely generate post after post. However, as the adage goes, chasing after too many rabbits can lead to catching none at all. Instead of making accounts for your business on every social media platform, focus on one or two that your targets participate in the most. This will mean less work and more effective posts.

3. Analyze, Analyze, Analyze

Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing has the advantage of having measurable effects. You can see how many people click your online adds, subscribe to your newsletters or buy from your website. However, that information is useless if you don't employ great analytic tools and process it. What do the numbers mean? What does it say about your buyers? And how can you change your strategy to improve your campaigns?

4. Don't Forget Email

There are so many digital marketing techniques, including pay-per-click and SEO, that you may have ignored direct email marketing. However, email remains a powerful communication channel. Find a way to include it in your current campaign. Perhaps you can publish an online newsletter or share coupons to your customers or potential leads via email. Depending on your campaign strategy, you may find it an effective method for turning leads into actual buyers.

5. Invest in Great Content

Digital marketing doesn't just mean getting a website or improving its design, it also means making great content for your users. Great content includes blogs, appropriate copy in your website and blog posts. Aside from boosting your site on search engine results pages, great content can also lead to more users visiting your site. It can also be a good way to convert casual users into leads. By generating good content on a regular basis, people have an incentive to visit your site.

6. Make Videos

Another way you can increase your small business's audience and online reach is by publishing videos. Although they're more expensive and complicated to make than articles, videos have the potential to be shared and viewed more. People like easily digestible content, and videos are the perfect vectors for it. Determine what kind of information your users would want to learn from you. Make sure you have the expertise and experience needed to make your video and authoritative source that could draw new viewership and customers.

7. Aim to Convert

Finally, to many small businesses aim to increase their leads, or potential future customers, rather than aim for conversions. This is most likely because having a high lead acquisition rate looks more impressive on paper than the relatively lower conversion rate. However, conversion is the true measure of a digital marketing campaign's success. Learn what's holding back your leads from clicking the purchase button or making a phone call to your business. Perhaps the instructions are confusing, or your product pages don't have the right language. Identify the issues and remove them.

Effective digital marketing requires constant evolution, whether its for large companies or small businesses. You should always be looking for ways to improve your digital marketing campaigns to avoid getting left behind by the competition.