Tag Archive for: digital marketing for small business

Why Digital Marketing is Crucial for Small Businesses

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Effective Digital Marketing is paramount in helping small businesses learn the online habits of customers – which in turn they can better target their ideal customers. Here, we have listed the benefits of digital marketing strategies for small businesses to help them market their products or services with the right digital media planning. 

When small businesses get started, their main focus is how to attract customers to shop at their store and how to get them to utilize your services. Most small businesses may rely on traditional forms of advertising, such as print ads and mailers. Small business owners have a tendency to believe, if they offer a good product or service, it’s only a matter of time until new customers find their way to them.

While this strategy may bring in some business, there is an easier route to take. Small businesses should consider the marketplace of prospects that are available online. Small businesses, no matter how new to market, should never overlook the opportunity that digital channels can bring. This is a way to generate leads and convert interest into customers. Here’s a look at the benefits of digital marketing and the ways online platforms can be used to help grow your business.

Online Marketing & Its Benefits

With endless opportunities, digital marketing can seem intimidating if you’ve never used it for a business before. There are many different social media platforms and marketing terms that may make it seem like a bigger project than it is. It’s easy for small businesses to believe they don’t have the time or money to compete online. As a result, many take things slowly and stick with one or two forms of traditional advertising, assuming that their business will evolve as time passes.

The marketplace is competitive and while word of mouth and customer recommendations can help drive traffic, customers will struggle to find your business unless you show up in the places they spend time. Delaying building a presence online is not an effective approach. The best way to ensure success is to promote your business is to use target marketing to attract customers that are interested in your specific service and/or product. 

You can find an excess of potential customers online. It’s a larger group than you’ll ever be able to attract only locally. Using digital marketing techniques, you can reach a global audience in a way that’s cost-effective, scalable and measurable. Some of the benefits of using Digital Marketing tactics include:

  • Target the right audience at the right time – personalization is simpler with digital marketing.
  • Get to know your audience and drive engagement to create brand loyalty. Get some inspiration by creating a customer loyalty strategy. 
  • Track and monitor responses to your marketing efforts easily and instantly (i.e.) any social media platform which are typically free of cost. 
  • The ability to reach out to anyone and anywhere as there are no geographical boundaries with digital.

Get to Know Your Target Audience

One of the great things about digital marketing is that it allows you to engage with new customers. You can get to know them and their pain points, and in turn, provide them with a solution. Social media and blog posts are a great way to start a conversation. It’s important to make note of any comments or responses to your posts, it’s another great way to strengthen your strategy. Using digital marketing helps you stop wondering who your customers are so you can personalize communications and refine targeting. 

By doing this, you will build a relationship with your customers. You become more than a business, you become a reliable partner. Remember, people are also more likely to buy from businesses that they have already bought from and had a good experience with. When someone is interested in your business, whether it’s in your niche or they are curious about your brand, the first thing they will do is research online and see what they can find out about you. 

With today’s digital age, customers expect to find a business website or social media page easily. They also might be looking for reviews so they can learn what other people are saying about your company and whether it is a good place to do business. For local businesses, 87% of consumers read online reviews – a growth of 6% from 2019 to 2020.

So if a potential new customer can’t find you online, they may conclude that your business doesn’t appear to be legitimate. There is a very good chance that a lot of these prospects may decide not to take your business seriously and they will quickly take their business elsewhere.

Do More While Spending Less

Small businesses and start-ups are always trying to achieve as much as possible through their marketing on a budget. Advertising online can stretch your budget further and will allow you to refine your target audience. Social media is particularly good for this as it enables you to set a daily budget for a discrete audience that has an interest in your brand or ethos. Most importantly, it allows your business to exclude the people that would never buy from you – saving you time and money!

The key with advertising on social media is to select the platform that will work best for you and your brand. Don’t pick TikTok just because it’s trending or advertise on LinkedIn when you’re not trying to generate B2B interest. Research social channels, see which social media platform matches what you’re looking for and run some simple tests to see what messaging and content works. 

Last Thoughts

Ultimately, you are the one steering your business to success. Where do you want to go and what does success look like for you? Are you looking to develop a website that can generate leads? Or maybe you want to set up a Facebook campaign to see the results. The first step to achieving these goals is to develop an understanding of digital marketing and how it can have a positive impact on your business.

Onimod Global is your Chicago-based, in-house marketing team, your partner experts for specific marketing verticals or some nice balance in between. We excel in customer service and will teach you the most relevant and up-to-date digital marketing skills. From social media to SEO and paid search, you will have the tools to ensure your business succeeds online.  

Have questions about creating your online presence and need help strategizing? Contact us here today.

The Best Small Business Advertising Strategies

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First and foremost, a congratulations is in order to you and your business! The experts at Onimod Global commend you for researching the ways to grow your brand. We know you’re most likely looking for effective, low-cost solutions that will increase your traffic FAST. However, it’s also typical to have just one or the other; you’re unlikely to find a simultaneously effective and inexpensive channel for your ads. This is why we recommend to bring an advertising or marketing budget into play. This way you can obtain the results that your business wants, or increase the results that you already have. Since monthly spending will be the same, you will also be able to better measure the effectiveness of campaigns that you’re running. Here are a few suggestions to jump start marketing and advertising strategies your small business should be utilizing.

 

Unique Audience Targeting

We know it may be hard to believe, but it’s very rare for a product to suit every person to walk the Earth. This is where audience targeting is extremely helpful and one of the primary advantages of online marketing. Your business should have a primary customer profile based on store data, and with this information you can begin to tailor your camDEpaigns accordingly. When advertising online, make sure that your ad copy and any graphic or visual is reflective of the type of customer you want to work with.

 

Track Your Data

Fairly self explanatory, but there is obviously no point in collecting any customer data if you aren’t using any tools to track it. Online advertising platforms like Google AdWords and Facebook provide you with extensive stats related to your ads, and will help you determine what is working and what isn’t. Make this step easier on yourself by hiring us for all of your marketing services. Check out our custom digital synergy dashboards made with Google Studio!

 

Know When To Advertise

Spreading your budget out evenly throughout the year may seem like a wise decision, but we are here to tell you different. It’s very important to recognize your busy seasons and push heavy on your digital campaigns during this time. Depending on the type of business you run, Black Friday and Christmas have the potential to be very busy. Save some of your marketing budget for the year and dedicate it specifically to these busy seasons so you can maximize on potential customers.

 

More From Onimod Global 

The best part about marketing? You don’t have to do it alone. Onimod Global is here to help! Receive the most high-quality digital marketing services for an affordable rate.

Reach out to our marketing team and improve your small business performance by clicking here. We can’t wait to work with you!

The Final Results of Cyber Monday

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Since its beginning in 2005, Cyber Monday has grown to become the most profitable day of the year for many online retailers. This year is particularly special, because it marks the largest online shopping day in US history, according to CNBC.

By The Numbers

All of the following statistics have been reported by Adobe Insights, regarding Cyber Monday of 2017.

  • $6.59 billion in transactions
  • 16.8% increase year-over-year

Cyber Monday officially surpassed Black Friday this year, which only generated $5.03 billion in transactions. It is clear that purchasing decisions are changing.

A New Generation

A lot of this change in behavior has to do with changes in the consumer base. The millennial market is currently the largest living generation, and they are having a major impact on the world of products surrounding them.

Mickey Mericle, vice president of Marketing and Customer Insights at Adobe, noted, “Consumers are also becoming more savvy and efficient online shoppers. People increasingly know where to find the best deals and what they want to purchase, which results in less price matching behavior typically done on desktops. Millennials were likely another reason for the dramatic growth in mobile, with 75 percent expecting to shop via their smartphone.”

The Age Of Mobile

Adobe Insights also reported that 33.1% of revenue on Cyber Monday was brought in via mobile devices. The Onimod Global Content Team is always producing new material on this subject. A few of our favorite articles that discuss the many benefits of mobile shopping and advertising are:

These three blog postings highlight some of the key reasons that explain why mobile is such an important asset to any business. Visit our blog to learn more by clicking HERE!

Small Businesses Conquer

It is also important to point out that small businesses were significantly better at utilizing mobile marketing strategies than large corporations. Adobe reported that these small businesses doubled the amount of conversions generated by big businesses.