by Vicky Drew

Digital marketing encompasses a lot and it can be tricky as a small business owner working out where to start with your online brand presence. How much should we invest in a website? Should we appoint a digital marketing agency? Are we ready to advertise on social media? Are some of the many questions you may be pondering and there are no one-size-fits-all answers – that would be too easy! In this article, I explain the fundamentals of digital marketing and share my ultimate digital marketing checklist for small businesses to help you build a solid digital foundation that will support long-term commercial success.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing follows the same principles as traditional offline marketing but the marketing activities take place in a digital or online space, hence it’s also known as online marketing. Today, it is one of the most popular forms of marketing for small businesses. Why? Most target audiences are online every day to work, socialise, shop, research etc. and wherever your potential customers are your brand should be too!

Let’s define digital marketing:

Digital marketing is the use of websites, mobile devices, social media, search engines, email and other digital channels to promote and sell products and services. It involves all marketing activities that occur online and is a means to connect brands with potential customers.

The benefits of digital marketing for small businesses

Digital marketing is a fantastic way to grow a small business throughout its lifecycle, below are the key benefits you can expect:

– Increased reach and brand discoverability: Once your website, social media profile or advertising campaign is published online your brand is discoverable to many new audiences.

– Cost-effective campaigns: Digital marketing can deliver a strong ROI especially versus traditional offline marketing methods. Plus, minimum spends are low so you can start advertising from as little as few pounds a day.

– Measurable and transparent results: Analytics tools enable easy tracking of all digital marketing channels and campaigns including websites, social media, Google AdWords and more. At anytime you can get a clear picture of your performance.

– Better audience targeting: Digital marketing offers precise targeting opportunities. In advertising, businesses can target users via their demographics, job title, employer and online activity (i.e. interests, previous website visits) and great websites which rank highly on search engines can target users as they search for relevant services or products.

– Increased website traffic: A website is a brand’s most important digital destination and an effective digital marketing strategy will increase website traffic volume and quality, which in turn will lead to more leads and/or sales.

The ultimate digital marketing checklist

The list of digital marketing activities and tasks for business owners, marketing managers and digital marketing agencies is extensive, it can extend towards one hundred quite easily! This elusive “to do” list frequently expands as new ideas emerge or competitor benchmarking reveals another digital marketing essential or must-try opportunity.

A lot of what we do at Hi Digital involves helping our clients identify and prioritise the areas of digital marketing that are the most important for their small business and its goals. Below I share 8 digital marketing efforts that often prove the most effective for small business owners looking to grow their presence online:

1. Define your brand proposition: Can you explain what your brand stands for and what it does well clearly? Your brand proposition is also known as your brand story and it’s a great starting point to get you thinking and communicating where you, your brand, your team etc. add value to your target audiences. Write 3-5 paragraphs summarising what you do, why and how, alongside sharing details of your expertise and reputation.

2. Identify your target audiences: No brand regardless of its products or services is perfect for everyone. It’s essential to define who your target audience is by creating 3-4 audience segments. For example, if your brand is a hotel, consider the types of guest you wish to attract – this may include a business traveller, mature couples, and hen parties. Next, for each segment elaborate on their details to create a profile, this could include; a photo or avatar, age, gender, work/career, motivations/needs, hobbies/interests, online habits etc. Going forwards you will consider each target audience segment for every brand or marketing campaign.

3. Create a bold brand identity: You may have heard the phrase “a brand is more than a logo” – it’s true! Your brand includes a logo, colours, fonts, images, and tone of voice used all brand communications. Within one quick glance from your target audience it should convey your brand’s vibe, tone, culture, values and all of these attributes will strengthen over time. As the business owner, it’s essential to create a brand identity that you are going to love for many years to come. It should also look great online when featured on your website, social media channels, emails, and more!

4. Invest in a fit-for-purpose website: Your website is your brand’s unique digital destination which serves as an online shop window for both service-based or ecommerce businesses. Similar to your brand identity it should create a positive first impression and entice target audiences to want to learn more. A good website serves many purposes, our top three include:

– Creating a ‘wow’ first impression amongst target audiences.
– Guiding potential customers to browse your portfolio and ensure they can purchase or enquire easily.
– Being discoverable on search engines amongst users looking for your brand, expertise, products and/or services.

It’s tempting to create a website as cheap as possible in your business’s early days. However, the phases “pay cheap, pay twice” rings true in the world of website design. Investing in a stylish, custom website is wise when planning for long-term commercial success.

5. Build trust with a good brand reputation: Reviews and testimonials are essential in all sectors as they are an effective tool for building trust between brands and target customers. Including customer testimonials on your website and within digital marketing messages is a great way to impress potential customers, build trust, and boost conversions. Be transparent and showcase what your client’s are really saying about your business! There are many review tools to consider with the most popular being Google Business and Trustpilot.

6. Boost your website’s discoverability with an SEO strategy: Search engine marketing (SEO) makes your website discoverable online amongst users who are actively searching for (or Googling) your brand, products, services, expertise etc. It’s essential to optimise your website with on-site SEO (meta data) so that each page on your website can capture traffic and rank on search engines for a specific target keyword or two. Every new website should have an effective SEO Strategy in place so that it can start building a reputation on key search engines from day one.

7. Advertise to customers who are actively looking for you: Wouldn’t it be great to advertise your website directly to your target audiences when they are actively searching for your brand’s expertise, products and/or services? With digital marketing this is possible. One of the first places we recommend our client’s advertise is on Google via Google Adwords. It’s a cost-effective way to attract quality traffic and leads and it boasts great budget control and data transparency. However, we only ever recommend advertising fit-for-purpose websites as discussed above in #4.

8. Build a brand presence and community on social media: Unfortunately, building a big, engaged community of brand fans is getting harder on social media – especially for “free” or with a limited advertising budget. However, that doesn’t mean these fantastic platforms should be ignored by small business owners. Social media platforms are a great place to showcase your brand personality and bring what you do to life! Your target audiences are likely to be active on social media and will probably research your brand on their preferred platform after discovering your website. With this in mind, I recommend choosing one social media platform to publish content to regularly and focus on building a solid brand presence there rather than a clunky minimalist presence across all of them.

 Does your small business need a better approach to digital marketing?

At Hi Digital, we offer a full range of effective and bespoke digital marketing services exclusively to small businesses. From enhancing your brand proposition with stunning website design to increasing your discoverability online with targeted advertising and SEO – our strategic approach ensures we maximise your brand’s full digital potential.

Please browse our digital marketing services or get in touch and schedule your free 1-2-1 consultant with our team.