Digital Marketing for Small & Medium Size business

Are you a small business struggling to make it in an ever-shifting landscape? Do you feel that your small business is crunched in a catch-22 between increased costs and clients demanding more for less? If the answer to either question is a resounding “yes,” read on.

A recent Thompson Reuters Solo and Small Business survey revealed the 10 greatest challenges small businesses face in today’s. Challenges such as downward pressure on rates, too much time spent on administrative tasks, and cost control ranked high on the list. However, at the top of the list was acquiring new client business. Indeed, 27% of solo and small businesses agree that getting new business in the door was their primary challenge.

Of course, you are likely familiar with the tried-and-true methods for generating new business: networking with other professionals in associations or other social settings; specializing your practice to distinguish yourself in the marketplace; or using traditional marketing techniques, such as print ads, billboards, TV and radio commercials, and flyers.  If, however, you want to be competitive in tomorrow’s Digital marketing, then there is one method you must employ – digital marketing.  Let’s discuss some of the questions you might have with regard to digital marketing for your small business.

What is Digital Marketing?

As you can expect, digital marketing is simply the promotion of your small business on the Internet. The online world is the platform upon which you communicate and provide information to your audience of potential clients. With an audience that is bombarded daily with marketing pitches of all forms, you need to understand the basics of digital marketing to be competitive.

 Why is Digital Marketing Important for My

 small business?

A recent poll showed that more than 35% of legal consumers go online first when looking for a lawyer. That number will only increase as more and more consumer choices for important services will begin with a Google search. Accordingly, smart, effective digital marketing for small business is vital to ensure that you capture the interest of those potential clients.

In addition, studies show that approximately 80% of people in the United States use the Internet regularly. Of those people, approximately 97% use it to search for products that they eventually end up buying.  With those kinds of numbers, it would be wise to make sure your business can be easily found on the Internet. Digital marketing should not be viewed as a secondary, or complementary, form of marketing behind traditional marketing techniques. Rather, it should be a primary focus to improve business.

Are There Different Types of Digital Marketing?

Yes, digital marketing can be employed in many different ways. Here are some popular sub-types:

 1. Email marketing. With email marketing, small businesses will typically send a marketing email to those who are in the business email directory. Such marketing emails should have timely, helpful content that keeps the business name in the minds of those on the mailing list.

  2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Here, the content on your website should have certain keywords that increase the likelihood that your website will appear when someone runs a Google search. As such, the keyword-rich content will increase the visibility of your website.

 3. Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Refers to increasing your website’s visibility with both content-based information SEO and paid advertising.

  4. Social Media Marketing. This type of small business Social Media Marketing refers specifically to promoting your business services on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

 5. Affiliate Marketing.   Here, your business would hire a third party (i.e., an affiliate) to digitally market your small business.

Digital Marketing Sounds Great, But Doesn’t Every small business Have a Website?

You may be surprised to know that nearly 40% of all small businesses do not have a website! You would think that as ubiquitous as the Internet is, every business would have one. Think again. In addition, of that business that have websites, 70% do not have a call to action (i.e., a “Call today” request); 47% do not have organized site content, and a whopping 97% fail to deliver any kind of personalized content.

Indeed, many of the businesses that took the effort to create a website fail to use it for even the most basic purposes: 86% of businesses do not send a response email when a visitor submits a form online; 68% do not have an email address on their homepage, and 27% do not have a phone number on their homepage.

These basic failures to utilize the small business marketing power through digital media leave the field wide open to those small businesses that have savvy digital marketing strategies. You can set yourself apart from the pack with digital marketing techniques that draw interest to your site and, most importantly, draw clients to your business.

 What Are the Benefits of Digital

Marketing?

We have now established that you can gain a competitive edge over the many business that are not using digital marketing effectively.  Now let us discuss nine solid benefits that digital marketing has over traditional marketing strategies.

1. Go After the Big Boys – Leveling the Field. In traditional marketing platforms – print ads, TV commercials, conference participation – solo and small business make often can not match the marketing budgets of big small businesses. Yet, in the digital realm, the playing field is leveled. A clean, professional, organized, content-rich website and effective digital target market strategies can match the digital marketing of any big, white-shoe small business.

2. Metrics . The buzzword for the next millennia is “metrics,” i.e., the ability to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. It is often difficult to quantify whether a certain traditional marketing strategy reached the desired audience, was over-inclusive or resulted in new business. By contrast, digital marketing allows you to measure visits to your website, and the number of people who opened and read your marketing emails.

3. Re-Calibrate Marketing Strategy Right Away. With the added ability to monitor digital marketing metrics in real-time, you can easily pivot to your small business marketing strategies that are working, and pivot away from those that are not. Why engage in speculation about the effectiveness of your paper flyers, when you can see results of digital marketing and react accordingly?

4. Develop Your Brand . The real power of online marketing is that you can be flexible in the content provided, and personalize the content to certain demographic groups. Rather than a single TV spot or flyer that has one shot at promoting your services, a digital platform allows you to provide your audience with a constant flow of substantive content that demonstrates how your business is different from the rest.

5. Allowing Your Audience to Share . It is not often that a hardcopy marketing flyer will be passed from one person to another to expand your marketing reach. However, digital marketing pieces can go viral, since sharing on social media platforms like Facebook is done so easily. If you have some news about a recent case you won, share it digitally. You may be surprised at how many people will be interested and share the news with their friends.

6. It Is, After All, a World Wide Web . A digital platform allows your content to be accessed by anyone in the world, literally. Traditional marketing campaigns do not allow such reach. In addition, with some strong SEO techniques employed in your marketing, your information can be among the first items to appear as a result of a simple Google search.

7. Less Intrusive Than Traditional Marketing. Oftentimes, a person will be less bothered by an email blast after they subscribed to your mailing list when compared to hardcopy marketing. In addition, people can opt-out of digital communications, which gives your digital audience further peace of mind.

8. Active Engagement . Traditional marketing techniques most often require passive engagement from the target audience. In other words, your traditional marketing audience can only receive marketing information from you. With digital marketing, you can engage your potential clients by allowing them to take action, be it visiting your website, rating a certain news article, or giving feedback that other potential clients can see.  An active potential client more likely seeks to become an actual client.

9. Cost! Saving the best for last, digital marketing will save you lots of money. Employing digital marketing strategies will likely take as much time as employing traditional ones, but at a fraction of the cost, if any cost at all. We all know saving money is music to the ears of any solo or small business practitioner.

I’m Sold, How To Get My Digital Marketing Campaign Started?

Using digital marketing is not that difficult, even for the uninitiated, but it requires planning. Here are some suggestions on how to get your small business digital marketing campaign off the ground:

First, define your small business goals. Are you new and need to get clients? Have you begun to specialize in a different area of marketing law practice? Wish to take on cases in that one practice area? Have you been established for many years and want to reconnect with your old book of business? Whatever your circumstance is will define your highest-priority marketing goals.

Second, define your brand. The term “brand” is bandied about quite a bit in the marketing world these days. While your “brand” could mean several things, it generally refers to your unique selling proposition. The thing that distinguishes your small business from the competition. We all know that there are many, many, many small business in the world. Having potential clients distinguish between them is a true challenge.  So, take some time with this step to hone in on what makes you. Your small business is different from everyone else. It may be a challenge, but everyone brings their unique personality to their work.  Finding that uniqueness will be worth the introspection in the long run.

Third, Plan which Digital Marketing Approaches You will Take

As the “types of digital marketing” section above indicate, there are several building blocks from which to choose. Here are some thoughts on the most important:

1. Start with a website. Your business digital presence should be established with a website. Your goal should be to do what it takes to get traffic to your website. So, how do I build one? Consider these three things:

2. Building the actual site . Once you select a web hosting service to host your site, you can choose from many web-builder options. Some hosting services provide their own web-builder tools, or you can outsource the job. In short, you can take the time to create your own website, or you can hire someone to do that for you. The choice depends upon the balance between the time and money you wish to devote to the project.

3. Optimize for mobile.  Even though we all know that the large majority of people surf the Internet on their mobile devices. Only about 33% of small business websites are optimized for mobile devices. As you develop your website, be sure that it is optimized to look attractive on mobile devices.

4. Content . The keystone of all digital marketing, particularly your website, is content. Creating meaningful, substantive, interesting, and updated content is king in order to generate traffic. Many business have a blog that provides short articles and news on topics relevant to the business .

5. Social media.   By 2018, Facebook is expected to hit 2 billion users!  That number is not only amazing but presents amazing marketing opportunities. Further, your “brand” on social media platforms like Facebook just makes good business sense. Moreover, Facebook and other platforms have helpful tools to help you capture more client leads. When it comes to other social media platforms – e.g., Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Be aware of the potential reach of those platforms, and be sure not to spread your digital marketing resources too thin.

6. Don’t Forget Email Marketing . A 2016 McKinsey report indicates that email marketing has an impressive ROI and a return of $44 for every $1 invested. So, building and maintaining a large email address database is an important digital marketing component.

A Final Word – Getting Help For Your Small Business

Digital marketing has many technical aspects, but it is not as difficult as it sounds. As long as you have Internet access, you can begin to create an effective digital presence to bring in those new clients. However, if you want to separate your business from the crowd, consider hiring an experienced digital marketing expert. Oamii Digital Marketing Agency provides its clients with top-notch website design and other digital marketing tools. Allow Oamii to provide you with a comprehensive package of  Digital marketing in West Palm Beach to bring in the clients and cases you want. Our goal is to sync your business goals with your digital marketing approach while minimizing development and maintenance costs.