A lot of small businesses are now choosing digital marketing as the main marketing strategy after knowing the cost-effectiveness and data-driven results of digital marketing.
Return on Investment is also a major part when a small business is considering it.
In this article, I will provide a step by step guide for a small business to get maximum results out of their digital marketing campaigns.
NOTE:- If you are looking for free traffic, cheap traffic or any hack this article is not for you. I will focus on the methods I normally use for my clients and that is bringing in more sales and revenue.
If you do not have a marketing budget or you do not know how to keep a separate marketing budget for each platform like Google, Facebook, etc then let me tell you that you must keep a budget to get results.
So let’s get started.
Digital Marketing for Products based Small Businesses:
When you have a product that you can show your target audience, things because quite easier for you to market your products using digital marketing.
So what are the techniques we use to market product-based small businesses? Here is the list to get started.
1) Facebook Page
2) Instagram Page
3) YouTube Channel
4) Google Ads Account
5) Website or Landing Page with payment gateway (Shopify will do)
6) Google analytics
7) Domain business e-mail for support or customer service
Building Digital Shop:-
It is not easy for small businesses to invest $100 thousands of dollars on mobile app development or website design.
The solution is simple. Use Shopify which is a ready-made e-commerce website creation platform. Normally they charge $25 a month which you can get back if you sell one item.
Once your website is set up with Shopify do not forget to add all your products with an about us page and privacy policy.
Once your shop is ready we can move to the marketing part.
Getting Marketing Channels Ready:
Once you are done with shop setup, go add all the marketing channels. Facebook, Instagram, Google ads, Youtube and Google Analytics if you want to track your visitors.
Before you start marketing, connect Instagram and Facebook pages add at least 9 products images on them.
Setup your google ads with local currency and timezone.
Do not forget to add Google Pixel & Facebook Pixel so that you can use the campaign level data to create better campaigns in the future.
Type of Ads to run with an example:
1) Facebook – Carmel, Video & Story
2) Instagram – Story, Video
3) Google Shopping
4) Google & Facebook Image remarketing
5) E-mail remarketing and newsletter
Once you have enough data in all your campaigns try creating remarketing and look-a-like audience on Facebook and Google.
Always try starting campaigns from 10-20$ budget and scale them once you see desired results.
If your country allows you to get clickable Instagram feed, do not forget to put links to your products.
Send recover emails to those who add something to the cart and forget to buy it. It is free and available in Shopify.
And before starting all these activities create a virtual image of the customers you are going to target. Let’s say I am going to sale handbags, I will target people who are already interested in handbag pages, brands or they are searching for it on google.
Marketing products is way easier than marketing services or doing b2b marketing.
You can convince someone by showing them a product and its features and yes, your customer will make decisions by checking the product.
But while selling services or doing b2b marketing your customer will take decisions by checking your past results, check testimonials and reviews;
they may also end up asking for a free trial which you may have to accept because the trial period can give you a long-lasting business.
Digital Marketing for Service-Based Small Businesses or B2B:
Always remember that free trials, past results, reviews, testimonials are must-have for such businesses.
Here are a few strategies and platforms you can use.
What do you need to get started?
1) Linkedin Page / Profile
2) Domain Email
3) Facebook page
4) Google ads account
5) Youtube Channels
6) Podcasts
7) Articles
8) A lot of patience
Yes serviced based products or b2b marketing takes a lot of patience. It can not be done alone. There must be a lead generation team.
A team that initiates the pitch and a team that closes the deal.
I tried to do a lot of b2b marketing alone. I failed again and again.
Then I focused on generating more leads of potential clients and gave it to a caller who can call and close the deals.
Eventually, it worked for me, I applied the same method to many of my clients and yes it works.
I have a lot of campaign reports that are proof. Till now I have generated 50000+ leads doing this strategy.
The Action Plan:
1) If you want to include Facebook ads, your offer must be very catchy or you may have to offer free trials.
2) LinkedIn is your best friend, use it correctly. Use sales navigator free month trial and try to get at least 100 prospects so that you can get five sales which will allow you to use sales navigator paid version forever.
3) Send 20-50 cold emails every day to your prospects, tell them how you can help them. It still works.
4) If you have a good marketing budget consider Google ads. Always remember that people come to social media to interact with friends.
If you are telling them about your product or services you are breaking their activity and pushing them to buy something they might like.
But with google ads, you can target people who are searching for your products or services. And the good news is Google ads are based on CPC. That means you only pay when you get clicks.
If someone will ask me which platform you would consider to marketing services, I would say Google Text Ads.
Google ads are way more complicated than any other ads platform to manage, but still, it is the most effective.
5) Do not forget to post videos related to your services on YouTube. Be more informative towards your audience.
Give them free information about your niche. YouTube is still the second biggest search engine after Google and it is anticipated that video content will dominate all form of contents by 2021.
6) Try to publish at least 1 podcast a week. Make the podcasts short simple and informative.
7) If you have a website and you have a blog in it then use it. And if you are still thinking to start a blog do it today.
Google is more likely to rank articles that are updated, genuine and adds value.
Consider publishing 4 articles a month at least.
After applying all these marketing methods, you must have a lot of patience.
Articles take time to get ranking, Videos on Youtube takes time to get a result, prospecting on Linkedin takes time, Cold emails take time.
Keeping this into consideration making your decisions.
And if you are busy in your life or you have no knowledge about digital marketing, outsource it to experts so that you can focus on your business with an automated marketing side by side.
Please share your views on this piece of article and do not forget to circulate among all small businesses.
I hope this article helps.
For any assistance on Digital Marketing CLICK HERE TO MAIL ME
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