6 Digital Marketing Strategies to Help Your Small Business Thrive
Whether you already have an online presence or not, these 6 digital marketing strategies are worthwhile during this COVID-19 pandemic. While much of the United States is adopting shelter-in-place and other social distancing practices for the spring and summer of 2020, it is more important than ever to build a strong online presence. And not just now, but in the foreseeable future as well.
Your customers still have access to the internet. They are turning to digital solutions more than ever for the goods and services they need. These customers are forming long-lasting consumer habits, making the internet an increasingly lucrative channel for marketing opportunities.
Make time to build your business now. Being knowledgeable about world events, reevaluating messaging, and making clear the benefit of your product or service can remind your audience that life must continue despite going out less. Start by picking your favorite digital marketing strategy to focus on. Then, create a personal challenge to implement them all.
1. Reevaluate Current Digital Marketing Strategies to Meet the Changing Economy
First, tell customers about your safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This type of message is a top priority. If you own a business where you have personal contact with your clients, add a notification to your website advising your potential customers about the precautions you are taking to ensure their health and safety.
If you haven’t already communicated with your current audience about the safety measures your company is taking to ensure client health and safety, do so as soon as possible — especially if you live in an area that has started shelter-in-place and other stay-at-home community notices. Do you currently have a webmaster that can help you with adding a banner like the one depicted? Fill out this form to contact us.
Adjust your marketing offer based on changing consumer demand
Do you offer a deal for your product or service already? For this marketing strategy, try increasing the value of that deal to encourage new clients to redeem your offer and do business with you. Those affected by the pandemic may feel hesitant to sign up for new services, but some services are essential to the season or are more essential now that people are spending more time inside their homes and online.
For example, since many employees and students have transitioned to operating out of their homes, the need for a reliable internet connection has skyrocketed. Many internet companies began a “get 60 days free” special offer to encourage new sign-ups for their monthly wifi service.
The internet companies won’t see the revenue benefits of these sign-ups for another 2 months. However, the customers they convert with a little barrier of entry now will become an influx of new paying subscribers then.
Reevaluating their introductory offer early, during a time when the typical spending habits of the public are changing, puts them ahead of their competition and will probably lead to a stronger end to the year. When the needs of possible new subscribers change, the introductory offer should change as well.
Restate the benefits of your business and business practices
The best example of restating benefits is with one of our current clients. His landscaping service has always been online-only with no-contact service visits. Now, the owner is making sure potentially new customers know this about his business practices with new content videos and messaging in his social media posts. The benefit of easy online sign up has always been an attractive draw. Now the benefit to his potential clients is updated to the situation most prevalent in his audience’s mind.
2. Increase Your Presence on Social Media
Increasing presence on social media is no longer a suggestion. Americans are turning to social media to stay connected, find solutions or resources, and discuss current events. The most valuable digital marketing strategies for discovering more about your potential customers involve social platforms. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, and Linkedin are where the traffic is located, especially while social distancing is encouraged or even demanded. Executing this digital marketing strategy will also help build your brand’s voice.
This Facebook post is a good example of how a Texas law firm decided to promote their branded koozies. Since the branded koozie was a free product with a relevant message for current events, people shared the post or tagged friends. This engagement increased the reach of the post with each share, like, and comment.
Have you tried social media marketing before that didn’t lead to any tangible results?
The goal of an effective social media marketing strategy is to provide value to your ideal audience with your posts to build trust and improve conversions. Your inbound marketing social media posts should be scheduled in-between curated posts about related content. Share content that reinforces the benefit of your service, or is helpful to your audience’s goals.
When posting content on social media, is it more important to write an impactful message or post during the best times? You need both for the best reach within the algorithm. The more eyes that see the message, the larger the number of leads your business can gain. That is, depending on the attention-interrupting strength of the graphic or video attached to your post.
Social media traction can take time, but when done with best practices it is well worth the results!
What are the recommended amount of social media posts per day for best results?
We recommend starting with at least the minimum of the following frequency:
What are the best times to post on social media?
Best post times depend on your audience. There are general guidelines for best times to post on social media depending on if your message is about consumer goods, industry news, or educational materials. SproutSocial details which hours are best for engagement in their blog.
To understand the best schedule for your business based on your audience’s analytics, gather data by scheduling the proper weekly and daily frequency for each platform. After you have enough data (at least 30 days), it will become clear which times your channel receives the most engagement with your social audience.
Do you think social media is the last place possible for your company to break through the noise and reach potential customers?
When active and optimized, social media is your tool to communicate company values and gain profitable online reviews. While other digital marketing strategies are less hands-on, investing in a social reputation creates another highway for organic traffic.
The success of any digital marketing strategy depends on proper execution. Paid social media ads are an inbound marketing option that grows with popularity each year, and a decent ROI depends on everything from compelling ad copy to a properly targeted audience. Paid ads also depend on someone knowledgeable to closely monitor and optimize for best results. If you have run a Facebook Ad campaign and were not satisfied with the results, reach out here for a free Facebook Ad Evaluation.
3. Make Use of Trending Topics to Increase Web Traffic
Most digital marketing strategies need to be reviewed often and updated regularly. Checking trends daily takes time, but this strategy can produce incredible results for brand awareness. Up until recently, our twitter account always produced a pitiful amount of engagement compared to our other channels. We never seemed to get any decent traction on Twitter with the same content that attracted leads on other platforms. That changed after we started using the trending topics in our content!
Our #QuarantineAndChill tweet referenced a relatable experience for many people. To our surprise, the tweet took off compared to other posts of similar subject matter from that same day without the hashtag.
How to find top trending phrases to use in your digital marketing:
Our favorite free tool to research phrases is Google Trends. It’s how we saw that “shelter-in-place” gets significantly more search traffic than “shelter-at-home” or “stay at home.” Google Trends’ data confirmed that we should try to include one long-tail keyword over another in our content.
For those that have the time for Twitter, the daily trends area of their platform is a great place to see what may be on the mind of your potential customers. (March 12th, 2020 trends pictured). Use a platform’s trending topics area to gain ideas for your social media marketing strategy.
Another digital marketing strategy to increase click-through rates to your website is to use the data already gathered by any paid campaigns you are running or have run in the past. A well-trained paid media specialist analyzes search data to find more high-value keywords to include in your campaigns and improve lead generation over time.
4. Clean Up Digital Content That Ranks Poorly in Search Engines
This strategy is perfect for the business owner that wants to get the most out of the content marketing already created. Do you have a blog or pages on your website that do not receive as much traffic? Now is the perfect time to upgrade the content of those pages.
Upgrading old content on your website can increase the rank of the page in google searches. Improving SEO can improve lead generation for your business. If you are familiar with search volumes for keywords and how to update content for search engine optimization and would like to upgrade content yourself, we recommend Neil Patel’s easy to follow guide.
Identify which blogs and pages on your website have dismal traffic with tools like Google Analytics. If you don’t have GA or a similar tool for tracking website traffic attached to your website, link one immediately so visitor behavior can be properly tracked and analyzed to improve lead generation. If this step seems daunting, contact us to receive a free consultation call. You’ll learn more about how local SEO and other digital marketing strategies can help grow your online visibility and improve lead generation.
5. Offer a Free Digital Download in Exchange for Contact Information
Has your business created a free download or worksheet with valuable information for your ideal audience? Now is the time to promote digital copies of that value in exchange for an email or a message. While your competitors scramble, you’ll work to grow your marketing audience during a time of economic uncertainty. You’ll create goodwill with leads by giving away something that doesn’t have an upfront cost. Like many digital marketing strategies discussed in this article, understanding what your ideal audience finds valuable is key.
In addition to seeking entertainment, people who are stuck at home are also craving educational material to fill the hours. Most in-person seminars and industry events are finding ways to host online. Depending on your ideal audience, the type of digital download or subscriber entertainment you provide can be anything as long as it adds value to your audience’s life. The more relevant the offer and the better the value, the higher the conversion rates!
Your business has an incredible opportunity to create something of value people will gladly exchange for their email, or connect with a message.
Once your audience knows who you are, they are more likely to trust you and do business with you. Later, that opt-in list will be a perfect audience to market your offer to — at a later time when it is more likely to have success.
An example of a free webinar we created for Real Estate Investor lead generation
We filmed an evergreen lesson before the pandemic began, so now it’s the perfect learning tool for entrepreneurs that want to attract leads from social media during this time. This free training also serves as a way our company can build our subscriber list while real estate investors are safeguarding their businesses.
One free download we haven’t seen an example of (so this is an incredible free idea to whoever wants to implement it) is a meal prep cookbook to use during the coronavirus pandemic! A lot of canned and shelf ingredients are in people’s kitchens at the moment. It’d be interesting to see a business in that space put together a free download to benefit families while they shelter at home. If your business is a nutrition or health-related industry, a cookbook specific to the moment could be a useful lead-generating piece of content.
Give your free digital asset away on your website, your blog, your social media channels, in an email, and wherever you communicate with potential customers.
6. Utilize the Power of a Digital Marketing Agency
You can hone digital marketing skills yourself, test various ideas in campaigns, and probably see some results, but the amount of time in a day is the do-it-yourself type’s worst enemy. After running a campaign you designed yourself, you’ll always wonder “how can I achieve a better cost per lead?”
DIY types tend to forget about asking for help, and during a mentally exhausting crisis, a level-headed partner could be exactly what you need to improve your business while your competitors falter.
Partnering with a digital marketing agency means saving yourself the time and effort of staying a cutting-edge digital marketer. You’ll also access the talented staff we’ve trained to find quality leads for your type of business.
Gain Digital Marketing Tips in a Free Consultation Call
When our team sees that a campaign is working well for one of our clients with a similar audience, we study how that success can be replicated for you. We’ve found talented people that take pride in their skills, ranging from search engine optimization to web design, keyword research, and paid media. We focus our days on bringing value to our clients’ campaigns.
While your competitors waver, Everyday Media Group will win you the visibility you need to succeed and be in a better position in these unprecedented times. Please contact us to discover exactly how our team of digital strategists can put together a tailored digital marketing strategy to help your business today.
Share these 6 digital marketing strategies with any small business owner that will focus on thriving during an economic downturn.
