Great business plans are more successful when they are paired with even better marketing plans. Every great marketing plan should be tailor-made for the audience it addresses. Today there are numerous, clever online marketing strategies and they provide you with new marketing opportunities. One might get confused with all the technical jargon involved like SEO, SEM, EDM, PPC and the list goes on. You might ask yourself what is the best option for me? Well, it all depends on your target market.

1. SEO

What is SEO and how is it useful for small business owners?  Let’s break it down into simpler terms. For example, if you search “Digital Marketing Companies in Melbourne” the google search engine will display a list of organizations in Melbourne that offer digital marketing services. The list would first consist of paid listings or google ads followed by organic listings.

An average Google user will never look past the top five displayed results and as a small business owner you want your website to be amongst the top results.

SEO is integrated with your website through various methods such as content marketing, adding specific keywords to the website content, Google My Business optimization, or by building a mobile-friendly website. However, investing in SEO is not always suitable as it takes time to build the credibility of your website especially in the case of a saturated industry where you require immediate results.

2. Content Marketing

Whenever you read a blog or an article you often come across various types of products that are mentioned. Now you might not know this, but the blogs are written entirely for the purpose of promoting those products. For example “Top 10 Valentine’s Day Gifts for Him” would suggest some gift ideas that would include products from your store – hence linking back to your website to drive traffic. This strategy is called the distribution of content marketing created for a particular   niche. Linking your website will establish your brand online and improve its SEO – it will appear in the top results. Content marketing, when used properly, can prove to be a powerful tool as it can increase the trust and credibility of your brand in the industry.

3. SEM & Google Ads

SEM is different from SEO as SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing where paid advertisements are used to increase visibility in contrast to organic ranking. The Google Ads campaigns will show the ads in a targeted google search where the customers will be redirected to your website. You will have to pay whenever the customer clicks on your website – which is a great way to channel your spend. The ads are also built around keywords that customers are likely to use when searching for your product or service hence driving the traffic to your website.

4. Organic social media content

Building your brand’s presence on social media is one of the basic steps that almost everyone knows about however it is not as simple as it may seem. You might be thinking that posting frequently will get you the right audience however that is not how their algorithms work and your message may not be delivered to your targeted audience without paying for ads. To understand how you can use these social media platforms to promote your business here we provide you with a basic understanding of each platform.

• Facebook

With over 2 million Facebook users and various ways you can showcase your brand; this platform is the most versatile. You can create organic content through showcasing your service offerings, team members, testimonials and imagery of your past work. It can turn into potential leads and increase your sales.

• Instagram

You can humanize your brand and add a personal touch to it through Instagram by taking advantage of the visual platform to showcase the environment and culture of your workplace. You can show behind the scenes or photoshoots to take your fans through the whole process.

• LinkedIn

You can post clever and thoughtful messages to a wide audience and use this platform for announcements and collaborations.

5. Landing Pages

To generate leads and make conversions, landing pages are the perfect way to capture visitor information in exchange for an offer. Instead of redirecting the users to the homepage you get them to sign up to newsletters, receive free product trials or seminars or enroll in free courses. They work in parallel with Google ads campaigns to capture keywords ensuring traffic for your website.

6. Influencer Marketing

There are tons of influencers or bloggers on social media with a great fan following. They promote your products in exchange for getting free products. For example, if you have a business of sustainable household products then you may use an influencer who makes videos on sustainable lifestyle to promote your product. This way you can ensure that your product is being promoted amongst the right audience and the influencer will know how to promote the best use of your product knowing their audience/followers. However, this varies from influencer to influencer and the kind of followers they have. If you are targeting the sustainability lifestyle market then your influencer must be someone who is known in the industry and must have a huge fan following otherwise, your product promotion will go in vain.

Small business owners need to invest their money wisely when it comes to an online marketing strategy for their business. Content marketing strategies are great for long-term planning but paid ads give you faster turnaround – often proving to be a better option for small businesses. Using landing pages will provide better conversions and leads while influencers will directly target the market.

 

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