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Digital marketing has been a major factor over the last several years in many companies’ strategies. However, practice makes perfect. There is always room for improvement. A very necessary tool is using a CRM, well, a very customizable and all inclusive CRM, like Soffront. Other things that small businesses should concern themselves with are email marketing, social media, and search engine optimization (SEO).
Website
We’re talking about being digital, right? Your company better have a website. Unless you’re catering to a very local and niche market, you need to have a website. Everybody else does. Not only that, but your website needs to be an up to date website. Often, clients first investigate a business through its website. A prospective customer can be anywhere. Having a website that is built for desktops and mobile platforms is a must. Keep a few things in mind while building it:
- Keep your colors consistent, it’s part of your brand.
- Make sure the website is easy to navigate. Nothing drives people away faster than not being able to find something on your website.
- Make sure you have key words throughout your website that search engines can find. If your business sells sports memorabilia, then key words would be the names of the teams. Search engines can find these words and then it pops up when customers search for it.
- Make sure you update your website on a regular basis. Don’t update it for the sake of updates; make sure they are quality updates.
Email is Not Dead
Email, another form of digital marketing, still plays a large role. Small businesses should definitely take advantage of it. It’s more cost effective than direct mail. According to survey, quoted from a study out of the University of British Columbia, 92% of people communicate through email. Many check their email upwards of 15 times a day. Also, according to Jay Bear’s research, 44% of customers who received a promotional email bought at least one item from it.
Stay relevant to your customers. Don’t reach out to them every day, but keep them apprised of your promotions. Reward their loyalty with something every now and then.
Use That CRM!
A very good CRM is extremely important in helping small businesses succeed. This should be your number one tool for digital marketing. For one thing, it will help you automate the email practices that I just discussed. Here are a few other things that a CRM will help you achieve:
- Log/track all customer information including calls, requests, complaints, etc.
- Generate your sales process through a workflow.
- Track your key performance indicators.
- Reporting.
Social Media
This shouldn’t be shocking, but social media can be huge for you, or it can do absolutely nothing. However, once you get customers to follow your business on social media, things can take a big upswing. Take a gander at these statistics from last year on Marketing Tech Blog:
- 46% of web users look to social media when making a purchase.
- 70% of business to consumer marketers gained customers from Facebook.
- #1 reason consumers follow businesses on social media are for promotions and discounts.
Don’t discount social media in your digital marketing campaigns.
Track Your Results
Track your results, look at your ROI. Find out what is working and what isn’t working. After you analyze your reports, adjust as you see fit. These tools will help your small business thrive.