A decade ago, digital marketing was sold to small business owners as an extremely cheap and remarkably easy way of gaining visibility and connecting with consumers — and that might have been true a decade ago. These days, however, digital marketing is a much more difficult endeavor, requiring incredible skill, ample time and sky-high budgets. It is hardly surprising to learn that more than a third of small businesses outsource digital marketing.
You can still do your own digital marketing in the 2020s, but you need to focus on acquiring the right skill and knowledge to make your marketing matter. Here are a few tips for improving your digital marketing ability and seeing better results.
Learn How to Find and Use Data
No one uses the term “Big Data” anymore, but that doesn’t mean data is any less important than it was a decade ago when that term was in fashion. These days, data is fundamental to any digital marketing effort; it guides marketing decision-making and helps to optimize brand communications by leveraging information about audiences, platforms, content and more.
Unfortunately, many aspiring marketers struggle to understand what the right data to collect is, let alone where to find it and how to use it. You should consider enrolling in a digital marketing course to learn more about the benefits of data analytics in digital marketing, which is a relatively tough subject that is difficult to parse on your own.
Leverage as Much Tech as Possible
It doesn’t take much to become overwhelmed by digital marketing details, like posting schedules, keyword research, graphic design and more. While important, these details shouldn’t take up the bulk of your day. Fortunately, there are more tools than ever to make digital marketing faster and easier, especially for business leaders like you.
You should take advantage of tech, so you can spend less time managing the minutia of your digital marketing campaigns and more time with big-picture ideas and analyses. Some popular tech tools available to small business owners include:
- Hootsuite
- Google Analytics
- Buffer
- SproutSocial
- Unbounce
- Canva
- BuzzSumo
- AdRoll
Appreciate Paid Social Advertising
Though touted as the easy and free digital marketing solution, social media marketing isn’t for the faint of heart. It is incredibly difficult to get the right content, tone and audience to align perfectly to see social media marketing success. It is far easier to rely on paid social media advertising to take advantage of the large consumer base on social media platforms. Most social platforms leverage their extreme amounts of data to ensure that your ads are seen by the right viewers, so all you need to do is come up with the right content to use as an ad for your business.
Invest in Email Marketing
It is hard to believe that the oldest method of communicating online, email, remains a viable marketing strategy in 2021 — but email marketing is, in fact, still one of the best tools for small businesses when it comes to generating leads, communicating with customers and keeping up a loyal community. Fortunately, email marketing tools have evolved with technology; now, you can use services like MailChimp to create and schedule marketing emails with ease.
Continue to Use Content
Content has been king since the 19th century, when businesses used magazine mailers to stay in touch with their customers across the country. Despite the rise of social media — or perhaps because of it — content should still very much be a vital component of your digital marketing strategy. You need on-site and off-site content to help your small business’s domain rank on search engine results, and you need content for social media to build your brand. Ideally, the type of content you create these days should be diverse, ranging from longform text blogs to TikTok videos.
Connect With Digital Marketers
It doesn’t hurt to be part of the digital marketing community. You might sign up for a digital marketing newsletter or join a digital marketing group on social media, where you can learn the cutting-edge tips and tricks for finding success with your digital marketing campaigns.
Digital marketing can be affordable and accessible to the average small business owner, but only if you know how to make the right choices, use the right tools and invest your time in the right platforms. The more you can learn about digital marketing, the more control you will have over your company’s marketing success.