Running a successful small business takes a lot of sacrifice, time, and skill. Small business owners often serve multiple roles. CEO, CFO, and CIO are just a few of the jobs filled by a single person, and that doesn’t even count time spent creating the product or fulfilling the service. Keeping the business running smoothly day to day doesn’t leave much time to complete one of the most critical aspects of operating a company – promotion and marketing.
In addition to the lack of time, it is difficult to determine exactly the best way to market a business. It is no surprise that digital marketing has grown in popularity over the past few years, but even if you have been doing it for a while the sheer number of ways you can promote your business electronically can be overwhelming. The following guide will help get you started, or give you the chance to review your marketing campaign.

Digital Marketing

In today’s digital marketing, your time and money are best used focusing on mobile devices. Take a glance on any crowded sidewalk, and you will see why. Almost everyone has their nose pointed at a screen. To take advantage of the mobile-savvy customer, you need to make sure that your website is fully functional across a variety of mobile platforms, especially smartphones. You are going to frustrate and subsequently miss a lot of customers if your website doesn’t operate on mobile devices.

Search Engine Optimization

As our society has become used to increased data speeds, our attention spans have declined. When customers search for a product online, they typically only look at the first page or two at most for results. If your site isn’t near the top, it will likely get overlooked. To get your site near the top, the content needs to be optimized to be picked up by search engines, especially Google. Good web publishing and search engine optimization (SEO) takes skill, and this is one area where seeking professional services will payoff especially if you have limited advertising budget. There are many agencies and independent web developers that have experience with developing SEO content. Coupled with a mobile presence, SEO is one of the most effective ways to market your small business digitally.

Local Search Optimization

Beyond the more traditional web presence, social media now offers businesses an ideal platform for finding local customers. Specifically, Facebook allows businesses to display ads to potential customers based on their location. Buying advertisements on social media is an extremely effective way to target the exact demographic that your company wants to reach in your geographic location.

Other Social Media Use

In addition to purchasing advertising spots on social media, just having a simple presence will help market your business. Everyone understands how vast the Facebook social network is, so it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see how a friend of a friend of a friend could be easily exposed to your products or services. Using social media opens you to literally millions of potential clients.

Other Tips

Lastly, one final tip that rounds out this brief guide to digital marketing is the use of videos. Nothing has the potential to grab a customer’s attention and hold it like a short, informative video. Videos are more effective than almost any written narrative. An excellent example of a company that has made use of videos for marketing is YETI. Best known for their top-of-the-line coolers, in recent years YETI has invested in developing a series of videos, typically less than ten minutes in length, that tell outdoor stories. These stories always incorporate YETI gear, and they are adventurous – appealing directly to the outdoor demographic that YETI wants to reach. You don’t have to have a massive budget like YETI to reach out with videos. They just need to be short, informative, and have an impact directly related to your goods or services.
This guide only touches on a few of the potential ways to use digital marketing. If you would like to learn more about the best way to put your advertising resources to use in the digital domain, reaching out to marketing professionals is the next best step.