Choose the best digital marketing solution for your business

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Apr 19, 2019 / by
Choose the best digital marketing solution for your business

In recent years, the business landscape has changed immeasurably and the marketing sector has done so in kind. The traditional marketing methods that were relied on as the bread and butter of countless companies just a few years ago (from TV and print to physical ‘snail mail’) might still be utilised by some larger brands, but many simply won’t be as effective as they once were.

The internet, meanwhile, has opened up a number of exciting avenues and opportunities that are often more flexible, more affordable and more trackable. Here, we’ll put the microscope on a few of the more popular digital marketing solutions for small to medium (SME) businesses.

Social Media

As far as modern, flexible and cost-effective marketing channels are concerned, social media marketing can be a powerful tool for SMEs. The amount of popular sites and apps to choose from, each offering a slightly different demographic, also means that there is bound to be at least one social media platform that suits your businesses goals/brand and target market.

However, social media marketing has been overhyped when it comes to what it has to offer small businesses – particularly for businesses engineered towards an older clientele – as it doesn’t drive sales as strongly as other channels.

That being said, maintaining a strong social media presence is still crucial in boosting your overall online real estate and it’s still free to sign up to the vast majority of sites, so what do you have to lose? The tools each will offer can also be tailored to your individual needs, with Facebook particularly offering a range of flexible options for businesses with pockets of all shapes and sizes.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click)

This is a way of delivering targeted traffic to your site with potential customers that have been selected due to their online activities and how these activities relate to your brand and what it has to offer.

The PPC marketing method can prove expensive and not every click will lead to a conversion (sale), but it’s certainly worthy of an investment if you’re keywords are well optimised and you remain within a self-imposed spending limit without going overboard.

Email Marketing

e-mail marketingThe death of email marketing has been greatly exaggerated. Whilst it’s indeed true that there has been a great influx into the social media space in recent years, studies have shown that 44% of users actively check their emails for deals and 86% of marketers still feel that email marketing is important to their business. Email marketing is a more reliable marketing channel that is still one of the most effective ways to promote your business and your brand.

Emails can be used either to upset products and services to existing clients and inform them about upcoming events and stories or generate new leads. Of course, the only major thing that has changed in recent years regarding email marketing is that your emails are all GDPR compliant. Otherwise, email marketing has been proven to be at least 10x as effective as social media marketing, though it is more time consuming and expensive.

Affiliate Marketing

Working with affiliate marketers means effectively syphoning off a portion of the marketing responsibilities to a third-party, who will then ask for a commission based on how many sales their marketing leads to.

With affiliate marketing spend expected to reach $6.8 billion by 2020 in the US alone and the 2017 Internet Advertising Bureau’s annual report showing that the commission value of affiliate marketing stood at £1.6 billion, now is certainly a good time to get involved.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Whilst email marketing might be seen by some as a little ‘old hat’, SEO is still a cornerstone of many business’ marketing strategies. Indeed, with 93% of online experience happening via a search engine (most often Google), SEO has arguably never had more power. However, it is an ever-changing beast that all marketers should keep an eye on if they want to really make the most of its potential.

Good SEO means keeping up to date with the latest Google algorithm changes, knowing the best keywords to use in the right situations and building organic links to authoritative sites. Ultimately, however, it will mean next to nothing if the content on your site isn’t engaging, which is why SEO marketing strategies should always be focused squarely on your best and most clickable content.

Utilising a mixture of these digital marketing strategies should help you to scale your business effectively as long as you’re willing to approach them with a fair amount of patience and make sure you have a cohesive brand vision. These are all strategies that can be easily scaled too, so there’s no good reason not to get cracking today!

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