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Small businesses are becoming increasingly internet savvy. A small business can drive traffic, increase conversion rates, and increase their bottom line if they implement a few key digital advertising strategies.
Digital advertising has become one of the most effective ways to reach customers, with the average global digital ad spending expected to reach approximately $646 billion by 2024. The reason is simple: consumers are very connected to the digital world, where they can access information in a matter of seconds.
While digital advertising is considered a necessity in today's marketing age, it can be difficult to know where to begin, or even if it's the right strategy for your business.
If you are just getting started on your digital marketing journey or want to reach more customers, here are five digital advertising strategies worth investing in.
Start with PPC (pay per click)
Look at narrowing down the keywords and phrases your target audience would most likely search for in order to find your product/service on search engines. From there, implement research to understand the search volume and relevance that it has on what you have to offer.
Next up, you’ll be able to test different messaging and landing pages to further gauge which offerings drive more awareness, website traffic, email subscriptions, and ultimately, sales.
Utilize social media platforms
Social media is arguably one of the best digital advertising platforms for small businesses.
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all great places to promote your business. You can use a combination of paid ads and organic posts to increase engagement with your brand and share news, events, and promotions.
More specifically, the ability to target down to the demographic you are going after is so robust, you’ll be able to narrow down by interests, age, gender, location, and much more.
Implement an email marketing strategy
Email marketing is still one of the most effective channels to couple in with your digital advertising strategies for small businesses. When done correctly, it can increase brand awareness and customer engagement, as well as drive sales.
By creating a mailing list, you can send targeted messages to your customer base and increase conversion rates. In fact, 51% of consumers said they prefer to be contacted by brands via email to other forms of advertising, including social media and direct mail.
Here are some key tips to follow:
- Segment your email lists. Know who is ready to purchase and who is more interested in learning more about your offerings.
- Create engaging content that isn’t just focused on selling as the primary message.
- Look at leveraging exclusive referrals through email to drive more sales.
Look to additional third-party platforms and sites
Consider places where you might not think that your presence could have an impact such as Quora, Reddit, Spotify, and Pandora. These aren’t the most popular avenues that many small businesses think of when they implement an advertising campaign; however, the ability to expand your reach while pushing for more engagement is always an avenue worth exploring.
Make sure that before you spend any money, you create a specific strategy that includes the following:
- How will you measure success?
- What are the top KPIs you will be tracking?
- What is the main goal you want to achieve?
Use influencer marketing to increase brand awareness
Expand your reach and connect with like-minded individuals who already cater to the same target audience that you are going after as well. Doing so will ensure that you position your product/service in front of those who have a high likelihood of becoming customers.
Influencer marketing involves paying or otherwise compensating a professional influencer to promote your brand on their social media accounts or in their content. The goal of influencer marketing is to increase the awareness of your brand or a specific product/service by having these influencers share it with their audience. This puts your brand in front of an audience you may not be able to reach on your own.
Influencer marketing is great for small businesses because many smaller influencers will work for a free product or similar compensation instead of requesting a set price per post.
Leverage video marketing
Diversifying your advertising assets between display advertising well into video will help you navigate the competitive landscape and clearly see what drives the most engagement as well as sales with your target demographic.
For example, studies show that 94% of businesses agree that video content has helped increase user understanding of their products/services, while 78% reported that video marketing has improved their bottom line.
Boost your digital advertising strategy by getting BBB accredited
As a small business owner, you are likely on a tight budget. That's why it is beneficial to get your business listed on the BBB. By becoming accredited with the BBB, you are not only increasing your visibility amongst consumers, but you are also increasing your brand awareness.
BBB Accreditation is a great way to build trust, a key component of any successful digital advertising strategy.
Get accredited by the Better Business Bureau today.