Regardless of your business type, digital promotion can benefit you and bring in new leads you otherwise might not have reached. Even local businesses can reach new customers through online promotions.
Thanks to Google’s deep-diving algorithms and Facebook’s customer targeting, you can reach exactly the customers you want where they spend the most time online.
In a survey of businesses with an online presence, 63 percent listed generating traffic and leads as one of their top challenges in marketing. However, online marketing isn’t quite that simple.
Benefits of Digital Promotion For Business Website
It isn’t just about traffic but about generating highly targeted traffic. If you’re considering digital promotions as a small business, there are some very specific things you’ll want to consider.
#1. Where Your People Are
The first thing you have to do is figure out who your target audience is. This can vary widely.
If you are a small pastry shop in Michigan, you must figure out where local people congregate online and how you can reach them.
On the other hand, if you own an eCommerce store, your audience base will be much wider. Once you have a firm idea of the typical person who patronizes your business, you’ll need to figure out where they hang out online.
This can include blogs targeting them through Facebook and Twitter or local online newspapers. Green Rat Pest Control is a service company with a specific locality and specialized offering.
Its target audience will be people who live in the Los Angeles area and, more than likely, those in urban locations where rats like to congregate.
One of the things this company does is to make sure its categories are correct on Yelp. Yelp is a review site based on locality and a great place to ensure you’re listed if you are a local business such as this one.
#2. Facebook Targeting
Facebook has over 2.13 billion monthly active users, but you need to be able to target the right ones. All 2.13 billion aren’t going to be interested in what you have to offer.
Fortunately, Facebook is a great place to advertise your company and reach the exact target you’d like. There are several ways you can sort your audience on Facebook, including by gender, age, location, and even the person’s interests.
You can also utilize Facebook for lead generation by utilizing its lead ads. These ads encourage the viewer to take action, such as signing up for your mailing list or liking your Facebook page.
#3. Online Specials
Another way to easily utilize digital promotions is to offer online specials and coupons for those who come to your business online. There are many strategic ways for your business to use coupons.
You can offer a discount to new customers, free shipping to repeat customers, and a discount for referrals to regular fans of your brand.
Using a coupon can entice the person to buy now instead of putting off the decision for when there might not be a discount.
Note that Hayne’s Plumbing offers a coupon to encourage you to replace your nonworking hot water heater.
The coupon is offered near the bottom of the landing page, but the orange contrast with the blue background draws the user’s eye.
There is also an expiration date on the coupon, which creates a sense of urgency for the consumer.
#4. Information for Free
One of the great things about the online world is that there is a wealth of information at your fingertips for no charge.
While people expect articles and short snippets to be free, they can be enticed to sign up for your mailing list if you offer something a bit more in exchange.
For example, an e-book on winterizing a home might be a good incentive for an HVAC company to offer in exchange for getting someone on their mailing list.
#5. Direct Email Lines
Suppose you can get your customers to sign up for your newsletter.
In that case, you open a direct line of communication that allows you to inform them of specials and new products, show them your personality, and let the consumer get to know you better.
There are billions of people around the world who use email every day — the number of people using email is expected to reach 3 billion by 2020.
Please look at the Birch Box report and how it reaches out to current customers via email. In this example, it uses a short note and also offers a special discount code.
This shows that current customers are more likely to buy something additional than people who’ve never bought from you.
#6. Tight Budgets
The internet is a great place to promote your business if you’re on a tight advertising budget. You can do some things that will only cost you your time and effort.
For example, you can build up a presence on social media and spend time posting snippets and interacting with customers.
You can give a chat on a website as a guest or create an online class for those interested in your product or service.
#7. Webinars
Speaking of online classes, offering a webinar is a great way to draw people to your website and encourage them to sign up for your mailing list.
A webinar must offer more in-depth information than you would normally provide in a blog post or short video. You can also create a series of videos and offer them as a course.
Look at how Dr. Eric Berg offers an education section on his website to draw new leads in. The information provided in his mini-courses is very in-depth.
Still, you do have to provide an email address to enroll in them, which he then uses to send you marketing messages and reminders about what he does.
In addition to offering these more in-depth courses online, Dr. Berg uploads short videos to YouTube, always including a link to his website.
A Wide Open Frontier
The internet is an ever-changing landscape where you can reach people from all over the planet. What works for you with your digital marketing today may not work again tomorrow.
The key is to stay involved in popular social media and networking sites. Pay attention to what is working for other businesses, particularly your competitors. Then, try new things and see where the digital marketing world takes you.
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