The four digital marketing channels you need to grow your small businesses

It’s no secret that digital marketing is crucial for the growth of many businesses.

With so many marketing avenues to take and methods to try, it can be a minefield for those wishing to understand this sector to boost their business.

However, marketing your small business online is easier than ever thanks to the range of different technological platforms available.

We’ve outlined the four major digital channels used most commonly by small businesses. Could they be the game changer for your digital lead generation strategy in 2018?

Email marketing

The method behind email marketing is simple: create your campaign objective, choose your message, set your tone and deliver to your recipients.

However, compiling the perfect campaign and achieving successful click-through and open rates relies heavily on key components. These include:

• Accurate data
• A responsive design template
• A sales pitch or unique selling point (USP) that addresses your recipients’ needs

Many email platforms offer highly detailed and transparent reporting. These metrics give important insights into what actions your recipients are taking as a response to your email. This allows you to track and re-target those who have expressed an interest in your product or business.

Facebook

Armed with the ‘Insights’ tool, Facebook offers a wealth of advertising options to businesses that help you truly understand your audience.

This powerful data pool enables businesses to segment their target audience with thousands of lifestyle demographics to streamline your search. However, finding a balance between how granular you choose to target and how wide you cast your net will make a fundamental difference to the success of your campaign.

As a starting point, it’s worth using what you already know about your customers. Where are they based? Are they male or female? Do they have a particular hobby, interest or pursuit that is related to your service? Once you have established this, you will need to create your campaign:

• Choose your images
• Accompany them with eye-catching content
• Where possible, opt for video or carousel formats
• Install the Facebook pixel, which will enable you to track and monitor the success of your campaign

Don’t forget, Facebook may not be the right channel for your intended target. It’s worth exploring the plethora of social media channels available, and consider which ones your demographic are most likely to use.

Google Adwords/Bing

Pay per click (PPC) advertising enables businesses to purchase certain search terms relevant to their business.

The key player in the PPC arena is Google UK, who operate their Adwords platform with 84% market share. However, an alternative for businesses with a tighter budget or with a target demographic is Bing, who can offer more bang for your PPC buck.

PPC advertising can be particularly effective for local businesses who make use of their location to optimise their keywords. It works on a bidding basis and uses a complex but fair method of assessing which text ads deliver users the most relevant search results.

Many businesses see an increase in website traffic by using paid search strategies. Though in such a competitive digital space, it can be difficult to maximise your PPC budget. Therefore, many businesses looking to use paid search will choose a specialist digital agency to manage their campaigns.

Remarketing

Ever wondered why one of your previous search query results reappears in your Facebook feed, results page or on another site? Remarketing is a clever strategy employed by marketeers to encourage warm leads to convert to sales.

The principle of remarketing is to create an audience segment of customers that have interacted with any of your digital material in the past. This could include campaigns on social media, emails, clicks on your website and search advertising.

This audience will potentially provide your business with a higher conversion rate because they are already engaged with your content. A strong knowledge of analytics and a well-planned and times remarketing strategy will deliver excellent results.

Understanding your digital marketplace

Getting to grips with a broad spectrum of digital marketing channels can seem overwhelming, which is why it pays to identify the ones most relevant to your business and your target audience.

Without an in-house marketing team or trained marketing professional, the depth and breadth of digital marketing opportunities can make maximising your budget difficult, as so much can be lost through trial and error. This is why many businesses opt to outsource the management of their marketing campaigns to agencies. Their return on investment is consistently greater as their campaigns are managed to optimise conversions and maximise sales.

 You could earn 20% back in personal rewards on your business expenditure with ClickReach, in partnership with the CaptureHub UK Business network. Register today to start earning personal rewards on your business services. Digital marketing is just one of the many services available.  Click here to find out how we could help you grow your business, free.