Do Small, Local Businesses Need a Digital Marketing Strategy?

Digital Marketing for Small Businesses

So many small businesses wonder if digital marketing is worth it or wonder if it even works for their size business. How will we even compare next to larger-scale companies? Will people even be able to find us online? What would I write about or put on my website? These are all valid questions. If you are a small, local business owner that has ever thought about any of these questions, we are here to tell you that you are not alone and we are here to help. BMG is a small business ourselves so we know exactly what you are talking about and all the concerns you have. We are here to tell you that 100% yes digital marketing is crucial for small business marketing. You might not be able to compete with huge corporations, but you can make sure your business is out there for people to find. Yes, digital marketing will help people find you online and as for the content creation, we can help with that if you are unsure. 

Here at BMG, our unique selling proposition (USP) is that we take an objective approach to business with entrepreneurial like characteristics, creating and executing real marketing solutions and providing great value. We feel that is what separates us from other marketing companies and why we feel we can help small businesses with their digital marketing strategy. If you are on the fence about digital marketing for your small business, we recommend at least reading the rest of this blog to help you learn more about digital marketing for small businesses specifically! 

THE INTERNET IS EVER GROWING

First and foremost, the biggest reason digital marketing is key for small business marketing is that the internet is continuing to grow immensely. We have access to the internet on our computers, laptops, iPads, and phones. Our entire lives practically revolve around these small devices. If they get lost, we are lost...literally.  And with that being said, the internet is used for so many different things. If you want to read an article, where do you go? You probably go to the companies website or maybe even their social media accounts. If you want to read reviews for a restaurant or a clothing brand, where would you look? You would probably look online to see reviews for a company.

Any question you have, you can get the answers online. Now, for any business this is great, for small businesses in particular. Having an online presence allows you to get your name out there and compete with the big dogs. Your customers & your competitors are those people that are online blogging, using social media and leaving reviews. If they are online, you need to be online.  

YOUR WEBSITE IS FREE ADVERTISEMENT

In today’s world, the days of old school marketing tactics like flyers and billboards are behind us. We just talked about how everyone and everything is online. With that being said, people are surfing the internet at all hours of the day. Your website is constantly up and running, so why not treat it like a free advertising tool? No matter what point during the day someone ends up on your website, they have full access to your content where they can get educated on your company and even decide if it’s a good fit.

This is why you want to make sure both your website and any social media platforms you have are ready to go and full of useful information for your audience to read. Utilizing your  keywords is crucial in this process. Those little keywords are how you are going to rank and compete with the big corporations and it’s how your audience is going to find you online. To put it simply, you want to try to be the answer to whatever problem or questions your audience is trying to figure out.   

DIGITAL MARKETING ALLOWS YOU TO REACH AS WIDE OR TARGETED OF AN AUDIENCE AS YOU WANT

When you look at those older marketing tactics like handing out flyers or posting billboards, they might not reach your target audience. They are only visible to a certain group of people and are just there in hopes that people will see it, read it and then act on it. That’s a big hope that might not have a high return, because it’s hard to track your ROI using these tactics. That’s why digital marketing is a much better approach. You can reach a wide target audience and aren’t limited to one group of people. You can create different forms of content that are specific to a specific audience. You aren’t limited to one group of people the way you used to be. You can track your ROI using unique URLs, google analytics, and other tools. Not to mention, being able to reach a wide target audience allows you to optimize where you spend your budget. 

A huge benefit of digital marketing for small businesses, in particular, is the fact that you are now able to track your performance and measure your results, which you couldn’t always do. With digital marketing, reaching a wide audience is easy because you have so many different platforms and types of content you can create and utilize. Whether it’s blogging, social media, or your website, you can reach out to whoever your target audience is and let them come to you. This allows your audience the opportunity to tell you what kind of content and things like would like to see or wouldn’t like to see you create. You can even figure out who the key influencers are in your industry or your audience and reach out to try and create a relationship with them. With digital marketing, you are able to track performance and results more accurately.     

DIGITAL MARKETING ALLOWS YOU TO SHOWCASE YOUR BUSINESS AND YOUR BRAND

Like we have been talking about this entire blog, digital marketing is so cool because it puts you out there for the world to see. Having an online presence requires different kinds of writing and content and utilizing them on different platforms allows, which in return allows you to show all sides of your company and who you are as a business. 

You can use your content and your online presence to show your audience what the brand of your business is and what the culture is like. You can show off your style of writing and give your audience a taste of your personality, while still being informative and educational. This allows your audience the opportunity to learn about you and your company to help them decide if it would be a good fit, even before they even meet with you.  

HOW BMG CAN HELP YOU

If you ask BMG, we would say those are the main reasons why digital marketing for a small business is so important. So now that we have that out of the way, your next thought might be how the heck do you get that done. If you are worried about coming up with a digital marketing strategy or you are concerned about creating the content itself, we can help you. Like we said earlier, we are a small business ourselves and our clients are all small businesses who work in vastly different industries, so we get it. We understand why the digital marketing strategy for a small business is going to be different than the digital marketing strategy for a large business. We got the process down to a T and we’ve got your back. 

We start by learning and figuring out your business from you. We don’t want to create or execute anything until we feel confident we know who you are and what you want. Once we know the tone and the brand of your business, we can help you create your strategy and even help you execute it. Our processes are simple and we work with you to ensure you get exactly what you want. We do keyword research for your industry and make sure your content is filled with them where appropriate. We make sure your content, your website, and your social media all reflect who you and your brand are. 

That’s why Digital Marketing is so Important for Small Businesses

There you have it! Big corporations aren’t the only people who should be using digital marketing. BMG would go as far as saying digital marketing is more beneficial for small businesses than it is for large businesses. It’s a simple and affordable way to get your name out there and next to those big businesses.

Digital marketing allows your audience the opportunity to find your company and learn about your business. We hope we answered any questions you may have had or eased any of your doubts about why your small business should have a digital marketing strategy.  If you have any further questions or comments, please comment below, we would love to hear from you and talk about this further, because it is a topic we could go on and on about. Or, if you are interested in working with BMG on your small business marketing strategy, give us a call today!