No matter the size, digital marketing is now a necessity for every business. Maintaining these relationships becomes even more important for small businesses since they don't have the same budget and resources that big corporations enjoy. Digital marketing isn't only more cost-effective for these businesses but also allows them to reach customers in all corners of the world.
As Pierre Omidyar, former chairperson of eBay, puts it,
"We have the technology, finally, that for the first time in human history allows people to really maintain rich connections with much larger numbers of people."
Below, we take a look at the top digital marketing tips for small businesses. While some of these are generic, others incorporate advanced technologies like AI to step up your digital marketing game.
16 Digital Marketing Tips for Small Businesses:
What Is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is a broad term that encompasses all online marketing efforts. It includes various strategies like search engine optimization, content, social media, paid ads, and email marketing.
In fact, us writing this article is an example of digital marketing, content marketing to be specific. Similarly, Depop, a peer-to-peer fashion marketplace, posts content on Instagram to reach its audience. That's also digital marketing.
Digital marketing can also be paid. For example, Baker Tilly and George Pecherek & Associates, P.C. are running Google Ads to target people searching for 'law firms in Chicago." Regardless of its type, digital marketing is instrumental to modern businesses.
KB Marketing Agency explains it quite well by saying,
"Ignoring online marketing is like opening a business but not telling anyone."
We live in a world where 5.3 billion people access the Internet. In such times, digital marketing allows you to be accessible to most, if not all, of your customer base.
What Is a Digital Marketing Strategy?
A digital marketing strategy is a plan of action that outlines how a business will use digital channels to achieve its marketing goals. It usually has multiple components, such as:
- Target audience identification
- Selection of marketing channels
- Content strategy creation
- Budget allocation
- ROI analysis
Kim Walsh, CEO of Practice Better, really puts the aim of a digital marketing strategy in perspective by saying,
"The modern marketer is an experimenter, a lover of data, a content creator, a justifier of ROI."
So, a digital marketing plan is a blend of innovation, data, content, and revenue generation.
Types of Digital Marketing
Digital marketing has evolved over time to include various tactics and channels. For example, influencer marketing and UGC content are relatively new additions to the digital marketing mix. Let's look at the main digital marketing types.
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing (SEM) comprises all marketing efforts to increase website visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). Its objective is to help your business reach more potential customers by increasing your website's visibility and traffic through both paid and unpaid efforts.
For example, Parenting Science, a parenting blog, optimizes its blog content to rank for keywords like "newborn sleep" and "homeschooling."
Search Engine Marketing Strategies
Some common SEM strategies include:
- Optimizing website content and structure
- Using pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
- Conducting keyword research
- Creating high-conversion landing pages
You can learn more in our guide: What is search engine marketing?
Content Marketing
In content marketing, brands create content for their website, blog, social media, podcast, webinars, or other formats. The goal is to attract and retain an audience by providing them with information or value.
For example, TechCrunch is a popular technology news and media blog that reports on the business of startups, Silicon Valley, venture capital funding, and technology. They also post news tidbits on Instagram, ultimately directing followers to full articles on their website.
Content Marketing Strategies
Some common content marketing strategies brands use are:
- Blogging regularly
- Hosting podcasts or webinars
- Sharing content on social media platforms
- Collaborating with influencers to amplify content reach
Check out our content marketing guide for more information.
Email Marketing
We've all received an email from a company either informing us of a sale or just reminding us that we left items in our online shopping cart. This is email marketing. Email marketing means sending targeted emails to current and potential customers with the goal of driving sales or maintaining customer loyalty.
For example, a fashion brand like Everlane may send weekly newsletters to inform subscribers of new product releases or promotions.
Erik Harbison, a marketing coach, emphasizes the importance of email marketing by saying,
"If social media is the cocktail party, then email marketing is the 'meet up for coffee.' The original 1 to 1 channel."
Email Marketing Strategies
Brands use various email marketing strategies, including:
- Segmenting their email list based on demographics or behavior
- Personalizing email content and sending times
- Including CTAs to drive action
- A/B testing subject lines and email content
- Sending welcome and follow-up emails to new subscribers
We have a thorough guide that covers more email marketing strategies.
Social Media Marketing
With over 5 billion people using social media, it's understandable that it's a component of digital marketing. Social media marketing comprises using social media channels like Facebook and Instagram to promote your brand. Like SEM, this may be organic or paid.
Businesses create a wide variety of content, including images, videos, text posts, stories, polls, and ads, for social media. For example, Pepsi posts fun content and recipes incorporating its product on TikTok.
@pepsi Who says you can’t put Pepsi ON the grill? Try this Pepsi Can Chicken for your next Grills Night Out and tell us how it goes 🍗Visit our IG for the full recipe or screenshot at the end of the video #PepsiGrillsNightOut #Grilling #BetterWithPepsi ♬ original sound - Pepsi
Social Media Marketing Strategies
Here are some popular social media marketing strategies:
- Posting content on multiple platforms
- Engaging with followers through comments and DMS
- Collaborating with influencers for sponsored posts
- Hosting contests or giveaways
Use our guide to create a social media plan.
Pay-per-Click Advertising (PPC)
Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) involves paying for each click on an ad that leads to your website. Search engine platforms like Google Ads and Bing Ads offer PPC advertising opportunities. You can also place display ads on other websites through a network like Google's Display Network.
Small businesses often have a hard time getting customers organically since they're competing with the big fish. Paid ads help bridge the gap between small and big businesses by making the former more visible. For example, Amazon runs paid Google Ads for its products, such as the Harry Potter books.
PPC Strategies
The most common PPC strategies are:
- Bidding on keywords
- Running ads on multiple platforms
- Running video ads on platforms like YouTube
- Retargeting ads to users who have visited your website
Check out our guide to find a PPC agency for your paid campaigns.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing involves collaborating with popular individuals on social media to get the word out about your brand or product. Depending on their follower count, influencers may be mega, macro, micro, or nano.
The objective of influencer marketing is to build trust around your brand. Since people are more likely to trust recommendations from their favorite influencers, you can use these creators as advocates for your brand. For example, Honey Maid partners with influencers like Claudia Walsh to promote their graham crackers.
@iwantcandy77 #Ad Our S'mores date wouldn't be complete without the @Honey Maid ♬ Killswitch Lullaby (Slowed + Reverb) - The Lonely Tree
Influencer Marketing Strategies
Here are some standard influencer marketing strategies:
- Creating a unique hashtag for your campaign
- Providing influencers with free products or services to review and share with their followers
- Collaborating with influencers on sponsored content like videos or blog posts
- Hosting a giveaway or contest with an influencer
Use the insights from our Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report to guide your strategy.
16 Tips on Digital Marketing for Small Business Success
Now that you're familiar with the types of digital marketing, let's look at some tips on digital marketing for small businesses. You don't have to incorporate all of them right off the bat. Start with the basics, and gradually implement more strategies as you grow your business and have the resources to do so.
1. Conduct Market Research to Create Customer Personas
For your marketing campaign to be a success, you should know who you're marketing to. So, market research is the first step in digital marketing. Use your findings to create customer personas, which are detailed profiles of your target audience.
HubSpot has a persona generator to help you with this. Simply collect data about your target customers and put it in the generator. It will provide you with customer personas.
You can also bring AI into the picture by using relevant tools for market research. Isabella Bedoya, founder of MarketingPros.ai, explains,
"My favorite use case for AI in digital marketing is how accurate it is with creating audience personas, which allows you to craft content strategies and content pieces that actually feel relevant to your target market."
Plus, use your social media pages' analytics to learn more about your customers. You can also employ social listening tools to keep track of brand sentiment and hear what customers are saying about you. With 20.7% of businesses spending up to $100k on social listening tools, they're definitely worth the investment.
2. Optimize Your Website for SEO
According to Ruth Everett, technical SEO analyst at DeepCrawl,
"It's important to look beyond rankings and rather ensure a website is usable for everyone."
Simply put, focus on user-friendliness just as you do on search engine friendliness.
For example, optimize the URL of web pages to match their primary keywords. In the same vein, keep page titles concise and descriptive and include keywords that users enter into Google as queries.
Link your website internally to help search engines crawl your site more easily and understand its structure. Also, get backlinks from reputed sites in your industry to improve your website's authority and credibility.
3. Build a Social Media Presence
In today's world, a social media presence has become somewhat mandatory for business. Even if not all major platforms, you should be present on at least one. Bryan Weiner, CEO of Digital Agency 360i, explains the reason,
"Social marketing eliminates the middlemen, providing brands the unique opportunity to have a direct relationship with their customers."
One way to build your social media presence is to hire a social media marketing agency. The experts at these agencies will take care of all social media aspects while you handle other business operations. Alternatively, you can do social media marketing in house. Here are a few tips.
Identify the Platforms Where Your Customers Are Prevalent
Managing multiple platforms, especially if you're just starting, can be overwhelming. Start by identifying where your target audience is and establish a presence there.
Publish Audience-Centric Content
Post content centered around your audience. Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia, says:
"Social media requires that business leaders start thinking like small-town shop owners. This means taking the long view and avoiding short-term benchmarks to gauge progress. It means allowing the personality, heart, and soul of the people who run all levels of the business to show."
For example, if you're a moving company that specifically caters to college students, your content should relate to college life, moving tips for students, and other topics that would interest them.
Engage With Your Followers
Follow the drill: respond to comments, answer DMs, hold polls, and run hashtag campaigns for your audience to participate in. Take Poppi, the beverage brand, as an example. They respond to top Instagram comments in their girly-pop voice. Due to this, their posts get hundreds of comments.
Use Video in Social Media Marketing
Video has made its way into pretty much every social media platform now. That's why 34% of marketers create video content for social media, according to a Wyzowl report.
There are many ways to use videos on social media. For example, you can create everyday content in the form of Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikToks. For longer-form videos, you can use YouTube or Facebook. Add live streams to the mix, too, since the same report found that 48% of companies create live-action videos.
Types of videos companies create
4. Personalize Your Marketing Content
Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's Mad Money, has already given his verdict:
"Digital personalizations are no longer merely an option; they're a necessity."
And we agree with him.
In a world where more and more people want to feel connected and seen, personalizing your marketing strategy can be extremely effective. For example, you can use subscribers' names to address them in emails. Similarly, show dynamic ads based on the website visitor's purchasing history and behavior. You can even create personalized landing pages for different audiences and target them specifically on social media platforms.
A company that does personalization well is Duolingo. The language-learning app sends personalized emails to users based on their language progress and goals. It also shows dynamic content based on their behavior, such as if they're losing their streak or completing a milestone. Duolingo also created a personalized Spotify Wrap-like feature where users can see their yearly progress and share it on social media.
You can use AI tools like Dynamic Yield to personalize customer experiences online. Another good tool is Personyze; it shows your audience product recommendations based on their personas. Plus, it allows email personalization. We have a guide on creating a personalization strategy that you'll find helpful.
5. Use Predictive Analytics for Targeted Marketing
Predictive analytics means using data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning to identify the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical data. You can use AI predictive analytics tools to optimize your campaigns, set dynamic pricing, and forecast market trends.
As Brooks Bell, Founder and CEO of Brooks Bell, puts it,
"With 5+ experiments that can support it, a customer theory then becomes a key insight."
Nowadays, many brands are using these experiment-driven insights to drive sales.
Dan Wegiel, Chief Growth and Strategy Officer at Panera Bread explains why
"Data…allows us to really customize how we talk to customers. That's going to be a hallmark of where we go next in our marketing, communication strategy, and loyalty strategy."
For example, Nike used data from IoT devices such as Fitbits to understand customer purchasing behaviors and habits. The company's data analytics partners, Zodiac and Celect, personalized product recommendations in the Nike app using this information.
6. Use AI for Conversational Marketing
According to Robert Grams, an AI marketing consultant,
"The future of content marketing is not just digital; it is conversational, personalized, and powered by AI."
By conversational, he means chatbots will likely run the show.
As a small business, you can delegate some of your tasks to chatbots. For example, chatbots can assist you in providing customer support by answering frequently asked questions. They can also generate leads by engaging website visitors and providing personalized product recommendations.
Take Hubspot as an example. As you land on any page on their website, a chatbot appears. It can provide customer support and answer sales queries, both of which ultimately lead to retention and conversions.
You can follow suit with a tool like Persado that generates the highest-performing marketing messages for your audience. The AI tool cuts your marketing team's time and budget spent on creating different versions of the same message for different consumer segments.
7. Create Cross-Platform Content
You don't always have to create entirely new content for each platform. Instead, repurpose your content on multiple platforms. Just make sure you customize content based on the platform's dimensions and trends.
For example, if you have a blog post that did quite well, you can convert it into a video using an AI tool like Lumen 5. Similarly, an X post can become an Instagram post caption. You can also post Instagram Carousel posts as TikTok photo posts. The options are endless.
Repurpose.io is another helpful AI tool that lets you repurpose content from YouTube, Zoom, Google Drive, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and even audio podcasts. You can also publish content directly on social media platforms with the tool.
Glossier does a great job of content repurposing. Although they create Instagram feed posts specifically for the platform, most of the Reels they post there are actually TikTok videos.
8. Automate Email Campaigns for Customer Journey Stages
Email marketing is just as important for small businesses as it is for bigger ones. To hit the message home with your email campaigns, segment your audience based on their purchasing journey.
For example, you can create segments like onboarding, re-engagement, upselling, and special occasions (birthdays and anniversaries). Personalize the email message, subject line, and visuals based on the segment you're targeting.
For example, for onboarding, you can add a welcome note in the message and a 10% discount for the first purchase. For re-engagement, send a personalized email reminding the customer about their abandoned cart. You can also automate these campaigns using email marketing software programs like Omnisend and Campaigner.
For example, The Cake Stored, a bakery, used Omnisend to create an automation flow that sent email reminders to subscribers before their upcoming celebrations. Thanks to simple automation, the company made $37,000 in sales.
9. Use Video In Your Marketing Strategy
We already touched on this earlier. Video marketing is all the hype these days, as audiences find them highly engaging. You can create different types of videos, such as TikTok videos, Reels, client testimonials, video ads, and product tutorials.
According to Wistia's Video Marketing Report, instructional and educational videos account for 47% of all marketing video uploads, while product-focused videos make up 33% of the total. It's up to you to test and decide which types of videos your audience wants to see.
James Wedmore, a business performance coach, says,
"Stop thinking of video marketing as this separate entity that is optional for your business. Video is an effective form of communication that needs to be integrated into each and every aspect of your existing marketing efforts."
Hotels by Travly's video marketing efforts are in line with Wedmore's views. The company posts Instagram Reels to show off the amenities and overall experiences of its best-rated and most picturesque hotels.
However, aesthetics are not a prerequisite for video marketing. Clorox, the good old bleach product, creates educational videos around cleaning and household hacks.
10. Conduct Competitor Research for Insights
Your competitors can be a source of great inspiration for your digital marketing efforts. Look at what they're doing and incorporate what works into your strategy.
Sarah Blocksidge, marketing director at Sixth City Marketing, suggests this:
"It's important to do manual research and see for yourself what types of pages Google is ranking. Do thorough competitor research and see for yourself what types of pages are ranking well."
Based on this information, you can then optimize your own marketing plan to be in line with what's already doing well.
Take your pick from our selection of competitor analysis software tools to simplify this process.
11. Partner With Influencers
Having an influencer marketing strategy is important in an online space where brands are competing for consumer trust.
Todd Cameron, head of content in a reputed firm, explains,
"Influencer marketing is the first real consumer-driven marketing channel. It's real people talking to real people."
You need to leverage this consumer-driven conversation for your small company's benefit.
We share a ton of insights in our guide to influencer marketing on Instagram that you can use to get started. You can run product launches or promotion campaigns to bring your product to the attention of the influencers' audience. Also, run giveaways with influencers for better participation.
Being a small business, you should opt for micro-influencers and nano-influencers since they are low-budget but high-conversion. Take Lacroix Water as an example. The company partners with micro-influencers to promote its new flavors.
12. Use UGC to Supplement Influencer Content
In addition to influencer content, you can also throw UGC into the mix. It serves as social proof since its content is created by your customers, not you.
There are many ways to run a UGC campaign. You can simply use a social listening tool to find posts created by your followers. If you have to budget, look for UGC agencies to collect and manage UGC content for you. Or ask people to submit their content through a branded hashtag.
Jason Miller, a small business marketer, suggests,
"You could start a branded hashtag if you don't have one. You can also run contests and giveaways. And every time a customer mentions you on social media in any UGC, share those videos on your Instagram or Facebook story."
ASOS is a good example. The apparel brand runs a #AsSeenOnMe campaign on Instagram. Its customers share photos of them wearing ASOS products, and the brand features these photos on its website and social media accounts.
13. Create a Google Business Profile
For local SEO, it's important that you have a Google Business Profile. It's the listing that shows up on Google when someone searches for your business.
The profile includes important information such as your address, phone number, website, and reviews from customers. Make sure you enter all this information along with pictures of your store or products.
Take the example of Diamonds Direct Virginia Beach. They have a complete Google Business Profile with website, directions, operational hours, photos, service options, phone number, and street address.
14. Invest in PPC Marketing
PPC marketing helps small businesses appear higher in SERPs and on social media even without a solid organic foundation. Think of it as a shortcut to the top.
You can run paid ads on platforms like Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Write a keyword-rich and compelling copy for your ad, include good visuals, and select the platform where you know your audience spends most of their time.
For example, Zapier runs an ad on YouTube. The copy is concise yet has an impactful CTA: connect your apps in minutes. Similarly, the meta description is as simple as "Zapier empowers you to automate your work across 5,000+ apps." It's short yet conveys the brand's unique value proposition.
15. Use AI to Drive Insights and Make Decisions
HubSpot's State of AI Marketing Report found that 65% of business leaders believe if fully implemented, AI could help their companies see unprecedented growth. The sentiment seems to be the same across the board since most marketers have realized the potential of AI in driving insights and making data-driven decisions.
How business leaders feel about AI’s potential
Ryan Bezenekopens, vice president of IT at Ariat International, says,
"It's about making connections through the data that you might not have made as a human being. AI has the uncanny ability to tease out things about the consumer you might never think about."
AI can tell you things that you may have missed about your customers. For example, it can analyze customer data and behavior to identify patterns, preferences, and segments that you may not have noticed otherwise.
That's exactly what Image Business Development did by using Seventh Sense, an AI predictive analytics system. The company's email engagement was quite low, at an open rate of 20% and a click rate of just 2% to 3%.
When the company started incorporating insights from Seventh Sense into its email marketing strategy, the email open and click rates doubled. Plus, the conversion rates increased by 100%. That's what AI can accomplish for your business, too. Learn how to use AI in data analysis in our detailed guide.
16. Incorporate AI Into Marketing Strategies
Decision-making is not the only use case for AI. You can also use it in other marketing strategies, such as content generation, sales forecasting, customer journey mapping, ad targeting, and sentiment analysis.
Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, says,
"Artificial intelligence and generative AI may be the most important technology of any lifetime."
We have to agree. With new tools coming out daily, there's an AI tool for pretty much every use case.
In the HubSpot report mentioned above, 33% of marketers said they use AI to create content outlines. Similarly, 45% use it for data analysis, and 48% use it for conducting research. Many businesses are already capitalizing on AI's potential.
How marketers use generative AI
For example, Wowcher, a deals platform, uses AI to personalize Facebook ad copy. The company has seen a 31% decrease in cost per lead (CPL) by using Phrasee's AI copywriting tool.
Parry Malm, the CEO of Phrasee, explains how his tool's tech works. He says,
"Our tech generates never-seen-before language, then predicts its effectiveness at scale."
That's just what AI is required for in digital marketing for small businesses.
Master Digital Marketing With These Tips
Digital marketing keeps changing every day. New platforms and trends emerge, requiring marketers to adapt and adjust their strategies. The digital marketing ideas we've discussed in this guide will keep your strategy covered for quite some time.
We've also mentioned insights from industry experts and examples of brands that are already implementing these tips effectively. Use them as inspiration to optimize your own campaigns.
Most importantly, be innovative. Use AI in marketing, experiment with new content types, branch out to new platforms, and learn from your competitors. All these tactics will help you find the exact digital marketing recipe that works for your business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is digital marketing important for small businesses?
Digital marketing helps small businesses reach a larger audience,build brand awareness, engage with customers, and compete with larger companies in an effective and cost-efficient manner.
What are some effective digital marketing strategies for small businesses?
Some effective digital marketing strategies for small businesses are email, social media, content, PPC, influencer, and SEO marketing.
How much should a small business spend on digital marketing?
There is no set amount for how much a small business should spend on digital marketing. The budget can vary depending on the specific goals, business reach, target audience, and available business resources.
How can small businesses measure the success of their digital marketing efforts?
Small businesses can use social media analytics tools and Google Analytics to measure digital marketing performance. Some metrics to track include website traffic, conversion rates, engagement on social media posts, email engagement, and influencer marketing ROI.
