Let’s talk about digital marketing services for a small business. Who needs them, why do they need them, what are the benefits to reap, and who to call for your digital marketing needs?
If you have questions – we have answers.
Today, we’ll break down exactly what digital marketing services are, how they work, and how they can help your small business grow.
What Are Digital Marketing Services?
First things first – what are digital marketing services and what do they entail?
Before we answer that, let’s take a closer look at digital marketing itself. Digital marketing is a type of marketing that involves using a suite of tools, strategies, and methods to increase a business’s online presence.
It is typically an umbrella term that encompasses many different services in the digital space. These can include social media marketing, content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), web development, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, lead generation, and more.
A business will often hire a digital marketing service provider to help them increase their presence, gain more followers, drive more traffic to their website, attract more customers, and turn visitors into customers.
Who Needs Digital Marketing Services?
Now, who exactly needs digital marketing services?
The short answer is – everyone.
In today’s digital landscape, a business, no matter its size or industry can’t really thrive without an online presence. Those who want to attract more customers online can greatly benefit from digital marketing services.
That said, here are some types of businesses that seem to benefit most from digital marketing services for a small business:
- E-commerce
- Auto Dealership
- Restaurants and bars
- Law and insurance firms
- Medical and healthcare
- Contractors and construction companies
- Online service providers
- Retailers
- Local businesses
The Benefits of Digital Marketing Services for a Small Business
According to research, the global digital advertising marketing industries are set to reach $786.2 billion by 2026. That is to say that the industry is here to stay and it’s one that’s now irreplaceable.
Failing to see the potential benefits of a solid digital marketing strategy could result in your business suffering and missing out on opportunities for growth. To help you and your business thrive in the digital space, here are the top benefits of digital marketing services for a small business.
Global Reach
Many traditional advertising and marketing efforts like billboards, TV ads, and cold calls limit you geographically. With those types of traditional strategies, you can only reach a narrow audience.
However, with digital marketing, you can tap into a global audience across many locations and time zones. No matter the size and location of your business, you can now get your services or products in front of a much wider and broader audience.
With a larger pool of potential customers, you’ll find it easier to scale up your efforts, build your brand, and ultimately increase sales.
Cost Efficiency
Another downside to using traditional marketing efforts is that they’re typically very costly. Having your product featured on a billboard or running a local ad can eat away at your budget very quickly.
As an up-and-coming business, you’re probably more focused on investing in your product and services. However, that doesn’t mean that your marketing efforts should suffer. Fortunately, a good marketing strategy can make the most out of even the smallest of budgets.
In fact, most digital marketing services for a small business have a low startup cost. Even with paid marketing, digital channels typically don’t have minimum budget requirements for buys on social media platforms.
That is all to say that whatever your budget, with a little help from an experienced digital marketing agency, like Guru SEO Services, you can create campaigns that perfectly target potential clients. What’s more, you can easily set a spending limit so you don’t spend more than your budget allows.
Measurable Results
In addition to being more affordable than traditional marketing, digital marketing is also more easily measurable. Older channels like TV, print, and radio, albeit still effective, are pretty challenging to track and measure.
However, you can track almost every point of contact with digital marketing services for a small business. Whether it’s social media, organic page views, email opens, ad clicks or anything else in between – every aspect of digital marketing is trackable and measurable.
Not only that but with this type of marketing, it’s much easier to show your return on investment. Also, it helps you better understand the results you’re generating, what’s working for you, and how to improve your efforts.
Effective Targeting
Traditional marketing structures give you little to no control over who will see your message. Even with targeted ads in niche publications, there’s no way to guarantee the right people are seeing your brand.
However, with digital marketing, you can pinpoint the best audiences for your messages using target information. What’s more, you can collect data from your digital campaigns to see which content works best and where.
Flexibility
With digital marketing, you can be more flexible in choosing different channels and strategies. You can also adjust your approach over time as you learn what works best for your business and brand.
There are several types of digital marketing strategies to choose from:
- Video Marketing
- Influencer marketing
- Search engine marketing
- Email marketing
- Local search
- Remarketing
- Social paid ads
- Forum engagement and more
In addition to the suite of digital marketing services for a small business, there are also many different types of content to choose from. Content can take on many different forms, including:
- Blogs
- Podcasts
- Emails
- Ebooks
- Guides
- Quizzes
- Social media posts
- Videos
- Infographics
- Webinars
Types of Digital Marketing Services for a Small Business
There are many different types of digital marketing services a small business can utilize to stand out in the digital space. Let’s take a closer look at some of them.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is an integral part of any digital marketing strategy.
It describes the process of optimizing a website to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). It’ll also help get more organic traffic from search engines toward your business. The process of SEO involves optimizing website content, structures, and on-page factors.
SEO is incredibly important as it helps improve your visibility on search engines and gives you the exposure you need. If you have a website for your business (which you absolutely should), you’ll want people to find it.
With SEO, your audiences will find you when searching for relevant keywords or terms.
Content Marketing
Content marketing refers to a strategic marketing approach that focuses on creating and distributing content. That content has to be valuable, relevant, and consistent so it can retain and attract a clearly defined audience.
Through content marketing, you won’t be overtly selling or pitching your products. Instead, you’re making sure to give relevant and useful content that will help potential customers solve their problems.
There are many benefits to using content marketing, but perhaps most importantly, it will boost your SEO efforts and bring more traffic to your site. What’s more, it will also help you build trust with your audiences and position yourself as an authority within your industry.
With content marketing, the most important thing to remember is the E.A.T. acronym, which stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trust. It essentially describes what Google and other search engines want to see from you to be able to give you a boost in their rankings.
Social Media Marketing
When you implement social media marketing, you’re using social media platforms as your digital marketing channels. You can buy ads to reach out to a new audience and be visible and present on relevant platforms where you can showcase new products, sales, or content.
The social media platforms you end up choosing will depend on many factors, mainly on the audiences you’re trying to reach. For example, platforms like Instagram and TikTok are geared toward younger audiences, while Facebook performs best with those over 65.
Through social media marketing, you can multiply your efforts, reach a wider audience, and get your content in front of the right people. What’s more, you can improve your engagement and conversion rates, giving your platform more visibility.
Local Search
Local search marketing consists of offline and online tactics used to promote a brick-and-mortar business/one that serves customers face-to-face. The purpose of local SEO is to have your business show up in local results when your target customers go online.
The practice is essentially all about showing up on maps in the local pack, as well as in the localized standard organic results. What’s more, with local search, you can:
- Improve customer satisfaction
- Improve your reputation
- Boost traffic
- Increase visibility
- Improve conversion
- Boost revenue
Email Marketing
To this day, email is an incredibly powerful marketing tool to help you promote your products and services, all while incentivizing customer loyalty. Email marketing is a form of marketing that can make the customers on your mailing list aware of new products, discounts, services, and more.
What’s more, with email marketing, you can educate your audiences on the value of your brand. You can also keep them engaged and in the loop between purchases.
One of the reasons email is such a popular marketing tool is that it forces the end customer to take some kind of action. But more than that, it will help you build a relationship with your audience. Finally, email marketing can drive traffic to your blog, social media, or any other platform.
That said, like all other types of digital marketing services for a small business, email shouldn’t be overused. Doing too many email campaigns can label your brand as spammy and your emails not worth reading.
Lead Generation
Lead generation is the process of gaining the interest of potential customers to help increase future sales. It’s a crucial part of the digital marketing process and one of the best ways to help your business grow.
Lead refers to any person who’s shown interest in a company’s products or services, but hasn’t yet bought anything. They’re potential customers with whom you haven’t done business yet but have given reasons that they might want to in the future.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
PPC advertising is a model of digital advertising for which the advertiser pays a fee each time someone clicks on one of their ads. With PPC, you are paying for targeted visits to your site, landing page, or app.
When done right, the click is always worth more than what you pay for it.
PPC ads come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and forms, and can be made up of text, videos, images, or a combination. They can appear on search engines, social media platforms, websites, and more.
One of the more popular forms of PPC is search engine advertising, which allows advertisers to bid for ad placement in a search engine’s sponsored links column. With this type of PPC, their brand will always show up on top when someone searches for a term related to their business offering.
Website Development
Web development is the process of creating and maintaining a website and it involves a wide range of skills. To successfully create and launch a website, you need to know web design, coding, content creation, performance optimization, and user experience.
With an expertly designed website, your goal is to increase traffic to your site, improve user experience, and convert visitors into customers. A well-designed and maintained site will also help improve your brand image and make your business look more professional.
Without a website, it’ll prove to be impossible to establish an online presence or attract customers. That’s why having one that looks professional and makes sense with your brand is going to be key.
The Cost of Digital Marketing Services for a Small Business
Now, the cost of comprehensive digital marketing services for a small business will vary greatly. They will depend on many different factors, including the services you need, who your marketing provider is, and your personal budget.
That said, depending on what you end up doing, you can expect to pay between $300 to $10,000 per month for your digital marketing services for a small business. What’s more, depending on the services needed and the marketing agency you’re working with, you might be paying by the hour or by the project.
If you’re still figuring out your budget and are unsure what your starting point should be, don’t worry. As a rule of thumb, a small business should spend 7–8% of its revenue on marketing, and that number grows the bigger the company is.
What’s more, how much you allocate for digital marketing might also depend on the industry you’re in. For example, consumer services typically spend most on marketing, with their budgets being around 20% of their revenue. However, manufacturing seems to spend the least and only 2% of their revenue goes toward the marketing budget.
Final Thoughts on Digital Marketing Services for a Small Business
When done right, digital marketing services can make a world of difference for any business, big or small. A combination of services will help you bring in more people to your site, give you a higher ranking, and build more leads, all resulting in higher revenue.
At Guru SEO, we are committed to providing high-quality services to all of our clients. What’s more, we offer a suite of services, designed to help your business expand and make a mark in the digital world.
If you want to learn more about our digital marketing services for a small business and how we can help you grow – contact Guru SEO Services today!
