1. Avoid trying to do everything at once
The worst mistake a new business owner can make is trying to manage too many new social media accounts all at once. We’ll get to that mistake in the next section.
But for now, the lesson we want you to understand is: less is more. When you’re just starting out, focus and consistency should be your primary goals.
2. Find Your Place in Social Media
As a new small business owner, your aim should be to find your place on social media. This means that in the beginning you should focus only on, at the most, a few social media platforms that you’re already feeling comfortable with.
Now, after marketing on these platforms for a while, note how many interactions you’re getting.
For example, if Instagram isn’t giving you any engagement, then move on and focus on the platform that does!
3. Don’t Underestimate Having an Email List
An email list is probably one of the most valuable and responsive assets you can have.
- Valuable – CRM software company Hatchbuck found that customers who purchase products through email spend 138% more!
- Responsive – according to QuickSprout, email subscribers are 3x more likely to share content on social media!
And unlike your social media followers and fans, you own your email marketing list.
4. When to Rely On SEO
Every small business owner who ventures into the world of digital marketing tips has heard about SEO.
But still, many of them shy away from it because they think it’s complicated and too time consuming.
While both of these things may be true, SEO is still the best way to drive free traffic to your website.
Even something as simple as your business name can influence your ranking in the search engine. According to an SEO company Local SEO Guide, businesses with a strong keyword in their business name rank 1.5 spots higher than businesses without a keyword in their business name.
5. When to Use Paid Advertising
As we touched on in the previous section, many small business owners spend too much of their working capital on PPC. They have the right idea – spend money on paid advertising in the beginning to get some traffic coming in.
But in the absence of a sales funnel and a long term SEO strategy, they begin to rely on PPC to drive most of their sales. This is not a sustainable digital marketing method on its own.
Their mistake is that they end up confusing “more traffic” with “more sales.”
But all they end up doing is getting more cold prospects and no sales. And in PPC advertising where you pay for each click, this can get expensive if you aren’t making conversions from your clicks.
More traffic is a great thing, but without a marketing funnel, you won’t get optimal results.
Instead, you should follow these 3 simple steps:
- Create a relevant and compelling offer. For example, your newsletter or a free eBook.
- Create great website content.
- Create targeted PPC ads to get people to your site.
Remember one of the most important digital marketing tips – traffic isn’t everything.
6. Enhance the User’s Experience
Enhancing user experience (UX) will be the glue that holds each of your strategies together.
The following are common and popular ways to do this. There are also plenty more metrics and digital marketing tips for measuring user experience.
- The content on your site.
- The communication channels you use.
- An intuitive user interface (UI).
- Your website’s loading speed.
- Intuitive menu navigation.
- Chatbots to assist in communication.
- A simple tone for your content.
In order to make the optimal choices for these different areas, you’ll need to learn more about your target audience.