Digital Marketing for Small Businesses: Tips for Beginners

Splash! Did you just take the plunge and open your small business? Your business website is coming together, and you’re probably thinking about how to get the word out to as many people as possible—fast! While we’re not a genie in the bottle, our top tips on digital marketing for small businesses will help you.

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing, or internet marketing, summarizes various methods that promote your business online. It makes your products or services so irresistible that no one can refuse and must subscribe, order, or buy.

Most well-known marketing strategies include SEO, e-mail marketing, influencer and affiliate marketing, content writing, social media, and paid advertising. These strategies help establish a strong online presence and boost conversions.

Benefits of digital marketing for small businesses

Compared to traditional marketing, like brochures, print ads, radio, or TV ads, online marketing has a much more global reach and is a powerful tool for the growth of your small business. Making yourself known online will help build your brand so that people recognize you, your service, or your products.

Digital marketing lets you:

• Maximize your global reach. You can try to reach everybody or just a small clan in Tahiti. The world is your oyster.
• Measure your results better because, unlike a printed newspaper ad where you can’t track how many people saw or reacted to it, a Google Ad allows you to see exactly how many people clicked on it.
• Spend less money because SEO is free, plus a well-budgeted PPC campaign will boost your ranking for less than a costly radio ad or hiring an entire billboard.  
• Know your target audience inside out. When you distribute flyers or place brochures in mailboxes, you rarely interact with the people receiving them. With social media advertising, people can engage with you directly, and analytics provide valuable insights into their preferences.
• Combine methods easier. Social media posts can be planned and scheduled alongside Google Ads, and ad copy can be reused and updated quickly. Short videos can also be shared across multiple platforms. Now, try creating a print ad for a magazine and an audio ad at the same time—much harder, right?

We highly value word of mouth—there’s nothing more persuasive than a friend’s recommendation. That’s why we suggest spreading the word about your new business and investing time in traditional marketing by attending events or getting featured in niche print magazines.

However, with search engine ads and regular social media posts, you can reach far more people than traditional methods alone. So, let’s kick off your online marketing strategy the right way from the start.

How to start digital marketing?

First, your website is your online presence you have the most control over. Think of your main page as your handshake to close a deal. Here are some tricks for how to create a website with no experience.

Next to this first impression, your website performance is crucial. It needs to run fast on all mobile devices and its content should be fully optimized for search engines. Here you can find more information on how you can improve technical and content SEO on your website, blog, or e-commerce store.

Ideally, all your business profiles—whether on Facebook, Google Business, or LinkedIn—should be also optimized for search engines, with a consistent message across all platforms. Once that’s done, you can begin your digital marketing efforts.

Define your target audience and understand it

Know your potential customers, and you’ll truly understand your product or service! This goes beyond just demographics—it means understanding your customers’ online habits. When are they online? How do they browse? Are they casually window shopping, carefully researching, or making impulse purchases?

By knowing your audience, you can wisely invest in the right marketing campaigns and focus on the platforms where they’re most active. Unsurprisingly the top platforms for sales are Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

SMART goals

Another buzzword: SMART, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. Setting clear goals using this method can help your small business grow. For example, a SMART goal might be: “Increase the customer base by X amount in X months.”

Lay out a digital marketing plan

Building on the example above, the next step to growing your customer base is to figure out how to achieve it—this is where a marketing plan becomes essential. Your plan should outline key milestones, like launching a new product or holding a winter sale. With your goals in mind, you can then plan each campaign. For now, let’s focus on increasing your customer base:

Build your contacts: email list

If your goal is to gain more customers, an email list is a great starting point for building loyalty. Use a paid social media ad to encourage your target audience to subscribe to your newsletter. Then, keep them engaged by sending valuable content, such as previews, vouchers, or useful tips. This will help maintain their interest and build a lasting connection.

Promotions

Create irresistible, one-time offers for new customers that make them feel like they’re gaining an exclusive advantage. The psychology of sales can help inspire attractive ideas for these deals. Be sure to highlight on social media that this promotion is available only to those who subscribe to your newsletter.

Retain & Reviews

Would you hire or buy from someone who has no reviews? Probably not. When it comes to deciding which product or service to buy, the number of positive reviews is the clincher. Encourage your current buyers to leave a review. Simply ask for it and link to your Google Business Profile, Amazon account, Trusted Page, or other review sources in your “thank you for your order” e-mail confirmation.

The customer relationship begins with the first purchase. Offer customer support and keep in touch.

What are the best online marketing strategies for small businesses?

Online advertising has many advantages and many options can be marketing budget-friendly.

SEO

Without SEO (search engine optimization), your online presence lacks value. Optimizing your website for search engines is essential. By tailoring your content and tone to match your target audience’s search intent, you ensure the right people can find you more easily.

Content Marketing 

While SEO involves including the right keywords and phrases in your written texts, content marketing goes a bit further than words:

• Keywords in the right context will perfect your SEO.
• Valuable content from which users can profit without reciprocating will be more tempting than a discount.
• Entertain and entice the reader with a story so that your mission is understood and can be supported.
• A balanced mix of short easy digestible text, eye-opening infographics, explanatory images, and quick informative videos make your web content a joy to follow.
• Introducing yourself, your story, and the mission behind your brand lets people believe in you.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is not just Facebook and paid ads, it also covers activities on other social media platforms such as:

• Regular posts on all your social pages (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X, Pinterest, etc.)
• Continuously carrying your brand (logo, motto, and tone of voice) throughout the account pages
• Consistent activity as a business on related pages or groups in the form of comments or likes.
• Same topic for one post on all media
• Keep up with your followers by replying to comments or engaging with them through games and polls.
• Adapting your social content to changes in the market and the habits of your followers.
• Encouraging your followers to share your content with others.

If you are just starting, we recommend beginning your activity on only one platform and extending this to a second one (preferably in the form of a video) later. Make sure it is one where you easily repurpose content, such as Facebook and Instagram.

PPC Campaigns/Google Ads

Google Ads are a form of paid search engine advertising where you pay for each click on an ad that features specific keywords frequently searched on platforms like Google or Bing. This is called a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign.

Modern advertising platforms use AI and smart bidding to optimize your campaign. They automatically adjust your budget to display your ad at the right times and places based on the keywords you select. This helps run campaigns efficiently while minimizing the risk of overspending.

E-Mail Marketing 

Having someone’s email address is having half the deal done. Once you have a person’s contact information, you can work on building a relationship that will make this person a loyal customer.

E-Mail marketing essentially means marketing through a newsletter. It also includes abandoned cart emails and maintaining regular, helpful, and informative contact with customers to keep them engaged.

The 3 most important things to keep in mind for successful email marketing are:

1. Always have a contact form on your website
2. Ask for permission to take people’s email addresses for marketing purposes on your site->GDPR
3. Utilize social media to reveal exclusive deals or news for your subscribers only, of course with the link to subscribe to your mailing list

Affiliate Programs

Letting other people advertise for you on their website or social media pages is what is known as affiliate marketing. With this, affiliates receive a specific direct link to your website or product, which they can integrate into their content. This link tracks everyone who clicks on it and later makes a purchase on your site. In return for bringing you a new customer, the affiliate receives a commission.

There are many affiliate programs for different markets and companies, such as Amazon Associates for almost everything, Template Monster for software and apps, or Teachable and Skillshare for online courses and education.

Did you know that Webnode has also an affiliate program?

Influencer Marketing

Getting prominent personalities to endorse your products and services is no easy feat but it can catapult you to big success.

Influencers can be classified into nano, micro, macro, mega, and celebrity influencers, with additional categories such as brand ambassadors and industry experts. For simplicity, let’s focus on what is realistic, the nano to macro influencers. Anything else is perhaps too big of a fish when you’re just starting out unless you already have great connections.

Nano influencers have fewer than 10,000 followers but are very engaged and loyal to their audiences, and thus ideal for niche markets or specific communities.

The micros have 10,000-100,000 followers on their channel and are often seen as experts or enthusiasts in their area of interest, whether it’s fitness, beauty, tech, or fashion.

Macro influencers have above 100,000 and up to 1 Million followers. They are usually well-known across multiple niches or even to the wider public, such as popular bloggers or YouTubers.

How would you get in touch with them? Befriend them on their channel by showing true interest and directly asking them if they would be interested in a collaboration. You should focus on reaching out to influencers who complement your market niche.

Measure and optimize your online marketing efforts

This is why you made SMART goals. Remember our example of a customer base of x in x month? Was it reached? And if yes, how? Was it a gradual increase or overlapping with your campaigns?

You will also want to measure how your followers on social increased and how many people left you a review after you sent them a thank you email. All of these numbers are KPIs (key performance indicators).

Collect Data

Each platform provides you with data, be it social media with social insights, Google Ads reports, your e-mail marketing software statistics, or your website through Google Analytics or Google Search Console. It’s important to regularly monitor this data to see trends and developments.

Optimize Ad-Campaigns

By optimizing each of your campaigns using methods like A/B testing or proven strategies (as discussed in our psychology blog post), you can determine which campaigns are more successful. For A/B testing, make sure to change only one element at a time—such as the headline or image—while keeping the ad text the same. This approach allows you to accurately compare the results and identify what works best.

Digital Marketing Loop

Online marketing is an ongoing process. From your perspective, it involves continually managing relationships with customers and partners. Globally, it is always evolving due to changes in Google algorithms, advancements in AI, and actions by competitors.

Keep an eye on these factors and stay updated with market trends. Remain flexible to adapt to any changes that come your way.

Understanding the best digital marketing strategies and how to implement them as a small business will help you stand out to the right audience searching for you online.

Explore also How To Use Content Marketing for Your Small Business