Given the fact that we live in the Digital Age, where information spreads like wildfire, it would be logical that it has never been easier to promote a small business. However, many small business owners fail to leverage digital marketing and make the most of it, and only benefits of the internet for limited, small-scale promotions that never reach wider audiences, thus leaving a lot to be desired when it comes to their marketing efforts. The main reason for this is usually their false belief that digital marketing is too complicated and expensive. Here’s an overview of some of the most popular and cost-effective strategies that can have a significant impact on brand exposure, visibility, and awareness, factors crucial for growing any small business.

Email marketing

No, despite rumors that occasionally emerge, email marketing isn’t dead, nor it will be anytime soon. Moreover, this old-school strategy still boasts one of the highest rates of ROI. According to some stats, every $1 spent on email marketing generates $38 in ROI, meaning that it outperforms social media, video, and paid search. Besides that, email is 40 times more likely to acquire new leads than Facebook or Twitter combined, which is extremely important for any startup or small business. If you want to make this strategy work, make sure to use marketing automation, as that will additionally boost your productivity, improve customer nurturing, and help you handle some time-consuming tasks in an efficient way.

Website promotion

Creating a website is a must as your prospects will most definitely want to research you on the internet before they decide to make a purchase. Some small businesses make a mistake of being completely unreachable online, which reduces their overall visibility and credibility. Picking a reliable hosting service and a relevant, memorable domain are among the most important steps. Once your new site is up and running, you need to let the world know about it. There are some simple and yet effective website promotion strategies that will help you catapult your business from obscurity. Teaming up with an influencer from your niche, retargeting, and contributing to popular Q&A websites, such as Quora, can drive a lot of traffic to your website.

Blogging

Now that you have a website, you need to produce relevant and high-quality content in order to attract your customers. First and foremost, your company blog should be helpful and offer your visitors solution to their pain points. Talking about your products and services all the time will significantly affect your traffic, as people perceive it as too salesy and that’s so outbound marketing. When it comes to distributing your content, a surefire way to succeed is following the 10:4:1 rule, which, basically means that, out of your 15 pieces of content you publish on social media, 10 should be sharing other people’s content, 4 should be your own blog posts, while just 1 should be a direct call-to-action.

SEO

So, you have a website packed with useful content, tailored to meet the needs of your target audience, but your reach is still above the average. SEO can come to your rescue. Namely, by strategically placing relevant keywords throughout your content, you will be able to expand your reach and help your audience find you. This strategy is one of the most popular and effective, but it has to be carefully executed, because if you get carried away and oversaturate your content with keywords, Google can punish you by burying your website in search results.

Host webinars

Sharing your experience and expertise with your prospects is an excellent way of promoting your business, as well as establishing yourself as an authority in your industry. Webinars can help you generate qualified leads and engage your audience. First of all, it’s important to do research and find out what bothers your target audience the most, and come up with a compelling webinar topic and copy. You need to offer participants valuable information that will answer their questions and solve their issues. Apart from that, you can also offer them some incentives and prizes. Generally speaking, webinars are regarded as one of the most effective premium content lead generation strategies.

As you can see, digital marketing strategies can be very profitable, and although your initial investment might be a bit higher, it all ultimately pays off.

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