Last updated on
November 20, 2023
Doesn’t launching a new business venture sound incredibly daunting? There’s so much to do, and so little money to spend. This is why so many people are afraid to dip their toes into entrepreneurship.
Working smart is so important when money is tight. And new businesses need new customers to survive the cut-throat competition in the market. But how do you get the word out on a budget?
The answer you’re looking for is digital marketing.
A lot of aspiring entrepreneurs shy away from digital marketing, thinking it’s a luxury that a young business cannot afford. That’s not true! If you play your cards right, you can market your brand and start getting conversions right off the bat.
So, let’s get right to it! Well… not exactly. Here’s everything you need to chalk out before getting starting with digital marketing:
Once you have this information on you, it’s time to start marketing.
Content marketing is one of the most effective and reliable ways to promote your business. This tactic promotes your brand organically and costs nothing in advertising money.
Modern companies publish articles teaching you tips and tricks relevant to their niche. By providing informational content, you can establish trust with your prospects and eventually lead them towards purchase. This blog post is also an example of content marketing.
So, how do you start?
First, understand who your target audience is and what problems can you solve for them. How can you use your expertise to impart knowledge? By answering these questions, you’ll know the topics you should target.
For eCommerce stores, you can also write engaging descriptions for your products and explain how they stand out from others.
Moreover, sharing brand stories and connecting with your audience also works wonders. This humanizes your brand and enables website visitors to feel a more personal connection with you.
Experts also recommend using visual content to breathe life into the blank text. If you’re explaining complicated concepts, lean on eye-catching charts or animations to break up big chunks of text. And feel free to mix it up! You can experiment with infographics, engaging videos, tabulated data, charts, and even memes!
Social media has been influencing our lives for nearly two decades. It’s where every internet user is at now.
Modern companies know this, which is why they maintain an active social media presence. This helps promote your brand and stay top of mind.
Before building a social media presence, you need to:
As an example, if you own shoe business, you’d want to target Instagram and Facebook as both these channels are popular amongst most consumers. Instagram in specific lets you showcase your catalog aesthetically so you should post pictures of your shoes and campaigns. You’ll also want to track likes to see how users enjoy your posts. You can also share blog posts on social media to post traffic to them.
Ensure that the content you share on Facebook and Instagram is eye-catching and attention-grabbing. Instead of wordy paragraphs that explain ten benefits of how your products can help, summarize the points in infographics, share these on your social channels, and add links to your blogs so engaged readers can go to your website to read more. And remember, pages that post regularly and engage with their readers get more visibility on social media.
Nowadays, most consumers use Google searches to seek advice and look for options before making a purchase. Some of these queries often have ads at the top of the search results with an ad label. The route to scoring this kind of visibility is through pay-per-click marketing (PPC).
PPC starts with finding the right keywords. It’s doable even if you don’t want to pay a single buck.
And that’s it! If your website is offering a quality product and offering an optimized user experience, even a little bit of PPC marketing will help you get conversions on a tight budget.
Email is another channel that can help you stay connected with your leads. Email marketing has the most ROI of any marketing strategy so a little investment here will reward you well.
Email marketing campaigns consist of emails sent out to an email list of your leads, nurturing them over time, and gently leading them to purchase. Companies send out seasonal updates or promotions via email and this works as most internet users check their emails every day.
You can use email marketing tools to design emails and send them in bulk. Tools like Mailmunch’s free email marketing plan help you do exactly this but you can also use your email client to send emails in bulk.
To track campaign performance, use metrics like open rates and click-through rates to see how effective your emails are. With advanced tracking, you can understand how many leads and conversions were generated from a specific email campaign. With accurate calculations and factors, it’s easy to estimate your returns on investment.
When crafting your email campaigns, one thing to be considered would be what kinds of content your customers and your potential customers would like to know more about. The tricky part is to give your readers adequate information to read, and they will want to learn more about the topics so they will have to click onto your website and find out more! Adding the right call-to-actions when finishing your emails always helps with drawing traffics and conversions from your email campaigns.
The great thing about using an email is, it’s like reading from a friend. Be friendly and genuine, so your readers will be able to connect with you.
The most fascinating thing about the digital world is the constant change. Thanks to the internet, keeping up can be less challenging with the resources you can find online. Being part of an online community and discussing with people with similar situations is always a good way to get help from others.
Apart from learning from the others, you can also make good use of the free resources on the internet, and learn different digital marketing skills that might help with your business and your campaigns. Of course, you don’t have to be an expert in the field to write blog content. Don’t be afraid of getting your hands dirty! Learn by doing, and do by learning!
Jump-starting digital marketing for your business also means that you have lots of chances to do test-runs and experiments with AI marketing platforms and search engines. Of course, there isn’t a definite model that would work out for all the business models and businesses out there. Don’t be afraid of doing test-runs and trials. WIth the a/b testings and campaigns, you will eventually find out more about what works for your business and what doesn’t.
As the owner of your business, you are the person that knows the most and the best about your company and your products. But certain blind spots might make you ignore small details on your website and in your campaigns.
Being reachable and interactive on social media and your website can help to get feedback from your customers. Especially for eCommerce, customers choose you over the others. Be interactive and find out why so you can retain the best quality of your products! Great feedback and experiences from customers can also be part of your product testimonials! This can help with building trust with potential customers.
Of course, there will always be constructive feedback and criticisms online, especially when you have official social media accounts for your business. Always being reachable and listening to others’ opinions definitely can help with improving! From the customer’s angle, getting replies from the company or a representative from the company can also help with building a stronger bond and relationship with your customers.
Digital marketing has not only become a trend, but also a field that business owners need to have a certain level of concepts and understanding. In this pandemic, being in the part of this digital world has its perks. Kickstart your first digital marketing campaign today and don’t be afraid of trying and testing! Remember, there is no right or wrong answer! Get your hands dirty and you can figure out what are the best strategies for your business!
Rukham is the Content Lead at Mailmunch. He believes trust should be the basis for all marketing communications.
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