Your digital marketing plans for 2024 should be considered like a road map.
Having a digital marketing strategy for small business is now essential. Marketing, but especially digital marketing evolves constantly. Therefore, to have a marketing plan in place for 2024. You need to adopt the most relevant strategies for your business. By having a robust marketing plan in place at the end of what has been a rubbish year for most businesses. You will be in a better position to allocate your time, money and other resources. You will be more prepared in a business sense and also be able to make your company stand out from your competitors.
YOUR MARKETING PLAN SHOULD BE CONSIDERED LIKE A ROAD MAP.
This, is the first part of a 3-part series of articles. It will look at how to develop a robust and deliverable marketing strategy for your business in 2024.
Check out 5 of the best ways to update your marketing strategy in the list below. Get yourself a great digital marketing strategy for your small business.
CONTENT IS KEY FOR ALL BUSINESSES OF ALL SIZES, WORDS, PHOTOS, AUDIO AND VIDEO, IT ALL COUNTS
1. Content Marketing
Content marketing could be the most important marketing strategy for success.
It certainly helped my business during the really slow and tough periods. It has also given me continuous content to use on social media, blog posts and even an ebook.
To create content that is relevant for visitors to your website. A blog section or an on-site article directory is an excellent idea. The content should be new and unique. It also needs to be helpful and informative and engages people. This helps you to build trust as well as being viewed as authority. It can also attract genuine enquiries and help convert them into sales.
Repurposing great content will make people consume it more. A collection of blog posts can be converted into an eBook. A webinar can be turned into a subscriber-only video. The possibilities to be creative and generate content are endless.
Guest blogging is also a good option to reach, inform and connect with new prospects. Having guest blogs on your site create an added strand of information for your visitors. Guest blogging on other sites provides reach into new audiences and potential customers.
Meaningful blog commenting on other sites also gets you more traffic, free links and many new friends as well.
VIDEO CONTINUES TO BE THE FASTEST GROWING CONTENT STREAM, YOU HAVE TO GET VIDEO INTO YOUR DIGITAL ASSETS.
2. Videos and Visuals
Being in front of a camera is nerve wracking for anyone (except TV & movie professionals). However, video and visual content marketing has had an unprecedented growth in the last few years. Businesses and brands are now looking to employ ideas that go beyond the traditional corporate/company introduction. They now want to enrich their digital storytelling to market their products and services.
Photos, videos and infographics are also important to bring experiences to life to create interest and engagement with potential audiences. Infographics on your website are a good way to build external links. Which in turn, are excellent sources for driving more traffic to it.
Using visuals – photos, animations, gifs, infographics when used correctly can help ensure greater engagement and wider reach.
PODCASTS ARE A GREAT WAY TO REACH A WIDER AUDIENCE. PEOPLE AREN’T ALWAYS LISTENING TO MUSIC WHEN THEY HAVE THEIR HEADPHONES IN.
3. Podcast Marketing
As a way to market your business, podcasting can be extremely helpful. With the investment of little time and energy, your small business can build a following that is enough to leave your competitors behind. Podcasts allow you to talk directly with your audience. This then paves the way for you to forge deeper and personal connection with them.
A podcast is essentially a way for you to tell your business story and create interest and engagement with potential customers. Additionally, it can be of interest to other similar businesses like yours. Which can then lead to collaboration, a sharing of ideas and ultimately new opportunities.
Podcasts also don’t need to be expensive on an equipment front. Sure, a decent microphone and headphones will be needed. However, it is more of an investment of time to generate the content and record it.
A TRIED AND TESTED DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY, BUT IT IS WHOLLY DEPENDANT ON YOUR DATA.
4. Email Marketing
Email marketing has and continues to be an effective form of marketing for reaching out to your potential customers. It is an easy way to inform a lot of people quickly about a new product or service or highlight an offer, a free giveaway.
The key to successful email marketing is the data. Accurate data which is used well can help you refine your message and make a much more targeted and smaller campaign that will deliver better results.
To improve your email marketing, you need to segment your email lists, based on key factors around your products and services. Age, gender, interests, birthdate products they have purchased etc. These all enable you to segment your database and then subsequently design your emails by keeping the content simple, compelling and most importantly relevant.
You only get one chance of a first impression and you must create a first good impression with your content marketing campaigns, in terms of look, feel and relevance. Also you need to consider optimising your website and the respective landing pages you are driving traffic to.
LOVE IT OR LOATHE IT, SOCIAL MEDIA IS A MASSIVE PART OF A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE PRESENCE, YOU NEED TO BE PART OF IT.
Social media and its impact on businesses and their marketing strategies has been phenomenal. Every business now needs to be active on at least one or two platforms. Many choose to be active on several. Having active social media accounts is a necessity and key digital marketing strategy for small business.
To effectively market your products and services using social media, you need to use different ways, like adding visual appeal, use of catchy headlines, customization according to the platform. Each platform has its own tone and you need to adapt your social content accordingly. Also sharing at just the right time, when you know your potential customers are using the platforms and also posting multiple times, and in multiple groups or communities. Do not simply use one post and share it – people are now starting to see this as spam. Recreate the post for the relevant groups you want to engage with.
The other key to social media is be active and engaged. If you want results from a particular platform or group then you need to like or comment on other peoples’ posts. Social media is a 2-way street, but too many see it as a one-way system.
