3 Digital Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses That Work

7 min readSep 7, 2024

As a small business owner, other business owners often ask me, “ How do you find new clients.”

While I certainly focus on finding new clients, my main focus is helping my ideal client find me through my online presence.

If you want to enhance your online presence and attract more customers, you’re in the right place. Digital marketing might sound complex, but fear not; some simple strategies can significantly impact your business.

Let’s get started!

Get Social with Social Media

Social media isn’t just a platform for sharing cute cat videos or keeping up with friends-it is a potent tool for connecting with potential customers. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter(X) empower you to engage directly with your audience, showcase your products or services, and build a community around your brand.

Start Small: You don’t need to be on every platform. Choose one or two where your target audience hangs out the most and focus your efforts there.
Tell Your Story: Share behind-the-scenes looks at your business, customer testimonials, and success stories. People love to see the human side of a brand!

How to Determine the Best Social Media Platform for Your Business

Choosing the right social media platform for your business is crucial for effective marketing and engagement with your target audience. The decision should be based on understanding your audience, defining your business goals, and analyzing data.

Here’s a guide on determining which social media platform will work best for your business and the data you need to collect, empowering you to make confident and secure decisions.

Steps to Determine the Best Social Platform Fit for Your Business

Identify Your Target Audience

Understanding your audience is not just a step; it’s the cornerstone of your platform choice. By gathering demographic information such as age, gender, location, interests, and online behavior, you create a detailed profile of your typical customers, making them feel truly understood and catered to. Different demographics prefer different platforms. For example, younger audiences may be more active on TikTok and Instagram, while older demographics might prefer Facebook.

Define Your Business Goals

Aligning your business goals with the strengths of different platforms is a strategic move. For instance, Instagram is excellent for visual storytelling and brand identity, while LinkedIn is suited for B2B networking and professional content. This alignment will make you feel more goal-oriented and strategic in your approach.
Clearly outline what you want to achieve with your social media presence. Goals include increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, generating leads, or providing customer support.

Research Platform Demographics and Usage

Analyze each platform’s demographics and user behavior to see where your target audience is most active. Platforms like Facebook have a broad user base, while others like LinkedIn cater to professionals.
Consider how users engage with content on each platform. For example, Instagram is highly visual, whereas Twitter is more text-focused and suitable for real-time updates.

Analyze Competitors

Conduct a competitive analysis to see which platforms your competitors use and how they engage with their audience. This can provide insights into what works well in your industry.
Look for gaps where your competitors are inactive, which might allow you to stand out.

Assess Available Resources

Consider the resources you have available for managing social media, including time, budget, and personnel. Some platforms require more frequent updates and engagement than others.
Ensure you can create content that aligns with the platform’s strengths, such as videos for YouTube or images for Instagram.

Data to Collect

Audience Demographics: Age, gender, location, interests, and online behavior.
Platform Analytics: Engagement rates, reach, and demographic data are available through platform-specific analytics tools like Facebook Insights or Instagram Analytics.
Competitor Analysis: Research platforms competitors use, types of content posted, and engagement metrics.
Performance Metrics: Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as engagement, reach, conversions, and ROI to evaluate the effectiveness of your social media strategy over time.
By following these steps and collecting the necessary data, you can make an informed decision about which social media platform(s) will best support your business objectives and effectively connect with your target audience.

Content is Still King for Small Business Marketing

Creating valuable content is one of the best ways to attract and retain customers. Whether it’s blog posts, videos, or infographics, providing helpful information helps establish your business as an authority in your field

. Know Your Audience: Understand what your customers are interested in and create content that addresses their needs or solves their problems.

Educate and Entertain: Mix informative content with entertaining pieces to engage your audience. Think of how-to guides like ‘How to Choose the Right Product for Your Needs’ and tips like ‘5 Ways to Improve Your Business Efficiency ‘.
SEO Basics: SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a set of practices that help your content rank higher in search engine results. It’s not as complicated as it sounds and is crucial for making your business more discoverable online.

Creating Content for Your Small Business:

Answering Customer Questions and Solving Problems

For small businesses, creating content that resonates with your audience is critical to building trust and establishing authority in your industry. A cornerstone strategy for content creation is to focus on answering the questions your customers frequently ask and demonstrating how you solve their problems. This approach attracts potential customers and positions your business as a helpful resource.

Steps to Create Effective Content

Identify Common Customer Questions

Start by compiling a list of questions your customers frequently ask. You can gather these from customer service interactions, sales inquiries, social media comments, and online reviews.
Use tools like Google Autocomplete, AnswerThePublic, or social media listening tools to discover additional questions your audience might have.

Understand Customer Pain Points

Dive deeper into understanding the specific problems or challenges your customers face. Understanding Customer Pain Points requires empathy and active listening.
Conduct surveys or interviews to gather insights directly from your customers about their biggest challenges related to your products or services.

Create Content That Provides Solutions

Develop content that directly addresses these questions and pain points. Share your solutions through blog posts, how-to guides, video tutorials, FAQs, or infographics.
Ensure that your content is clear, actionable, and provides real solutions. Use examples and case studies to illustrate how your products or services have successfully solved similar problems for other customers.

Utilize Various Content Formats

Different customers prefer different types of content. Experiment with various formats like videos, podcasts, articles, and social media posts to see what resonates best with your audience.
Visual content like infographics and videos can be particularly effective for explaining complex solutions in an easy-to-understand manner.

Optimize Content for Searchability

Use SEO best practices to ensure your content is easily discoverable by those searching for solutions. Incorporate relevant keywords, meta descriptions, and alt text for images.
Structure your content with clear headings and subheadings to improve readability and search engine ranking.

Benefits of Answering Questions and Solving Problems

By focusing on answering customer questions and solving their problems, your small business can create content that attracts and retains customers and strengthens your brand’s reputation as a helpful and knowledgeable resource.

Email Marketing for Small Business

Email marketing is a tried-and-true method for reaching your customers directly. It’s a great way to inform them about new products, special offers, and company news.

Don’t Buy An Email List

Legal Risks: Purchasing email lists can violate privacy laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the CAN-SPAM Act. These laws require explicit consent from individuals to receive marketing emails, and using purchased lists typically does not comply with these requirements. Non-compliance can result in hefty fines and legal repercussions.
Poor Engagement and Deliverability: Email addresses on purchased lists are often not targeted to your specific audience, leading to low open and click-through rates. Additionally, these lists may contain outdated or inactive addresses, resulting in high bounce rates. This can damage your sender’s reputation, causing your emails to be marked as spam and reducing overall deliverability.
Ethical and Brand Reputation Concerns: Sending unsolicited emails can harm your brand’s reputation. Recipients who did not opt-in to receive your emails may view them as intrusive, leading to negative perceptions of your company. Building an organic email list through voluntary sign-ups is a more ethical approach that fosters trust and engagement with your audience.

Your business must organically build an email list, ensure compliance with legal standards, and maintain a positive brand image.

You now have three digital marketing strategies to help your small business thrive online there. Remember, you don’t have to do everything at once. Start with one strategy, get comfortable with it, and then expand your efforts.

Originally published at https://www.analyticsthatprofit.com.