The technology changes have become really frequent and disruptive nowadays. Small business owners cannot engage and retain customers without integrating conventional and next-generation marketing channels. They need to look for innovative digital marketing strategies to increase online sales and remain profitable in the longer run. They need to prepare and implement a robust digital marketing strategy according to both existing and emerging trends in digital marketing. Also, they have to implement various digital marketing best practices efficiently to reach out to more customers and achieve higher conversion rate. Here are 7 digital marketing strategies for small businesses and startups in 2018.
7 Digital Marketing Strategies For Small Businesses in 2018
1) Email Personalization
Several studies show that emails are still more effective than social media in impacting buying decision of customers. But the small business owners can no longer seduce customers by sending promotional emails. They must take advantage of open web technologies like HTML and CSS to make the emails interactive. The emails must allow recipients to place orders directly and perform pre-purchase research quickly. The interactive emails will further help the entrepreneurs to increase click through rate and boost online sales.
2) Triggered Emails
Like interactive emails, triggered emails will also help startup owners to accomplish higher click through rate. Unlike marketing emails, transaction emails are generated and delivered automatically based on specific customer action or behaviour. The entrepreneurs can use specialized tools to create and deliver personalized emails to customers based on specific actions like shopping cart abandonment, order placement, and payment processing. They can even use the triggered emails as a promotional tool to boost online sales by suggesting relevant products to customers and personalizing shopping experience.
3) Mobile Ads
According several studies most users nowadays spend more digital time in mobile devices and mobile apps. The startup owners must consider launching mobile apps to connect and communicate with customers more effectively. They can opt for custom mobile app development so that the app should have all the required features. At the same time, they can also consider promoting their products or services by delivering mobile ads. It is also important to optimize their websites for mobile devices and explore ways to improve its mobile experience. The digital marketing strategy must focus extensively on mobile devices to improve customer engagement and boost sales.
4) Social Media Marketing
Major social networking platforms helps businesses to stay connected with customers by providing a number of options. The small business owners can easily accomplish higher conversion rate by focusing on specific social networks like Facebook and Pinterest. Facebook enables entrepreneurs to promote their products and services by creating dedicated pages, sharing content, and posting promotional videos. Also, the entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Facebook Live to promote their products or services through Q&A sessions. Likewise, they can promote their business and products effectively on Pinterest by pinning images frequently, making the images searchable by embedding the right keywords, and communicating business story through boards.
5) Promotional Videos
The short videos are more effective in keeping customers engaged than text-based content. The short promotional videos will help small business owners to accomplish more shares and likes on various platforms within a short amount of time. The entrepreneurs can easily boost online sales by creating product demos and explainer videos. They can post the videos on popular video sharing platforms to reach out to more customers. Also, they can accommodate these videos in their social media campaigns to boost customer engagement and increase sales. However, they must keep in mind the viewing preference of most users while creating these promotional videos.
6) Search Engine Optimization
Major search engines like Google and Bing keep updating their search algorithms frequently to deliver relevant and updated information to searchers. Each search algorithm update compels business owners to promote their websites ethically. The entrepreneurs can easily divert more search engine traffic to the website and accomplish higher conversion rates by implementing latest search engine guidelines. For instance, they can increase the search engine visibility of the website simply by making it mobile-friendly and increasing its loading speed. At the same time, they need to focus on the quality and authenticity of the website content to keep the visitors engaged and persuade them to purchase.
7) Emerging Technologies
Many large enterprises nowadays take advantage of emerging technologies like big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence to automate their digital marketing campaigns fully. The question is, should small businesses adopt marketing automation services also. While preparing digital marketing strategy, the small business owners must explore ways to leverage the emerging technologies to target the most relevant customers and personalize their shopping experience. For instance, they can use machine learning tools to personalize the digital marketing campaigns according to choices and preferences of individual customers. The digital marketing personalization will help them to keep the digital marketing strategy simple, while implementing the relevant digital marketing practices more effectively.
However, the trends in digital marketing keep changing frequently. The small business owners must keep the digital marketing strategy flexible enough to accommodate the emerging trends and implement new digital marketing practices. Small businesses also need to leverage the benefits of web analytics, review the effectiveness of the digital marketing strategy periodically. They should accommodate the changes required to reach out to more customers and drive online sales.
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