The Dos And Don’ts Of Digital Marketing For Small Businesses
Digital marketing practices follow the age-old saying, there are two sides to a coin.
What is basically means is that the two sides (of a concept) although closely related, are completely opposite in nature.
There are some best practices in digital marketing that you should definitely embrace to establish your online presence. Contrarily, you should be aware of some unethical – rather undesirable – digital marketing practices that may diminish your online prominence.
Before you chart the digital marketing plan for your business, have a look at the dos and don’ts of digital marketing. It will ensure you are on the right track from the beginning.
The Dos Of Digital Marketing
When it’s about the dos of digital marketing, the focus is not on the techniques but on the fundamentals that ensure the success of an online marketing campaign. Let’s explore some of these concepts in detail.
1. Focus On The Website Design
It’s surprising to hear that it takes only 50 milliseconds for a visitor to form an opinion about a website. Further, 94 percent of the visitors form the first impression solely based on the website design, not the content.
As you can see, the website is crucial because it’s your home on the Internet. For spectacular website design and structure, focus on the following aspects:
- Use two-three color combinations throughout the design
- Incorporate a lot of white-space
- Define a clear navigational structure
- Use large font size (16 pixels is ideal for paragraph text)
- Build a responsive layout
- Share clear call-to-actions
- Put some thought in the design of the header and footer
- Ensure fast page loading speed
You can use this website planning guide to design a great website for your business.
2. Adopt An Omnichannel Approach
Omnichannel marketing can lead to an engagement rate of 18.96 percent instead of 5.4 percent in the case of single-channel marketing.
Using multiple channels for marketing gives multiple touchpoints between you and your prospects, resulting in increase website traffic, more interactions and better chances of conversions.
Your omnichannel digital marketing strategy could focus on:
- Communicating via email
- Interacting over chatbots installed on the website
- Retargeting on social media
- Sales reps contacting via calls & messages
- Scheduling in-person meetings
3. Personalize At Every Level
80 percent of shoppers will prefer buying from a brand that offers personalized experiences.
Personalization can have a massive impact on your sales conversion rate and customer loyalty. You can use this technique for both new and existing customers.
Follow these tips to personalize your campaigns:
- Use smart tags to address your customers. For example, using the first name whenever you send an email, push notification, or a message.
- Send personalized messages on anniversaries and birthdays, offering a special discount
- Send recommendations based on previous purchases
- Show content based on customers’ browsing history
4. Embrace Content Marketing
Content marketing produces results, and that’s the reason why 60 percent of B2C marketers are committed to it. You create content and distribute it on various channels to drive traffic, engagement, and conversions.
It may not produce significant returns in the short run, but it will help you grow your business exponentially in the long run.
Your content marketing strategy could revolve around:
- Creating a blog on your website and publishing informative content in various formats
- Making videos and sharing them across YouTube, Vimeo, blog, and social media
- Using content to grow your email subscribers list
- Communicating with subscribers via push notifications and chatbots
- Creating and distributing visuals in the form of infographics, GIFs, presentations, and more
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5. Keep Up With The Latest Trends
Digital marketing is evolving every day. You must keep up with the latest trends so that you don’t fall behind your competitors.
However, it’s not necessary to adopt the latest digital marketing strategy just because it’s producing results for others. Understand what’s suitable for your business and then make a decision.
Some of the hot topics trending right now in the field of digital marketing are:
- Using chatbots, integrated with messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, for customer service. According to estimates, chatbots will power 85 percent of customer service by 2020.
- Customizing content for voice search because 20 percent of all searches are voice and by 2020, it will be 50 percent of all online searches.
The Don’ts Of Digital Marketing
There are hundreds of digital marketing strategies on the Internet and not all of them are applicable to your business. While it’s important to follow the best practices, you must steer away from the don’ts of digital marketing.
1. Don’t Focus On Quantity (Focus On Quality)
There is a misconception that more content means more traffic and increased revenue. However, sharing 50 articles that do not satiate visitor’s expectations are a waste of your efforts and resources.
Instead, focus on sharing quality content. The quantity may vary, depending on your capabilities, but quality should be stellar.
Adopt the following strategies to produce quality content:
- Aim at creating blog posts comprising more than 2000 words, preferably 2250-2500 words
- Produce guides, ebooks, video series, and other types of content that cover important topics in detail
- Email content and social media posts should provide value rather than just fluff
- Delight users by delivering more value than expected
2. Don’t Ignore Existing Customers For New Customers
It costs more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. Still, most companies focus more on acquisition than on customer retention.
Spend time improving customer experience to increase retention, loyalty, and lifetime value.
Use these tactics to retain existing customers:
- Schedule free training, events, and other programs for them
- Personalize conversations and content specifically for them
- Suggest products or services based on their previous purchases
- Express gratitude to them to build long-lasting relationships
- Provide extraordinary improving customer experience at all times
3. Don’t Neglect Analytics
A study reveals that only 22 percent of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates. The other 78 percent are dissatisfied.
One of the reasons for low conversion rates is lack of knowledge. Analytics helps you understand how your content is performing, what’s working and what isn’t.
Not studying them regularly can lead to poor marketing strategies and poor results. Here are a few aspects that analytics can help with:
- Target audience: It helps you understand your target audience, their buying behavior, and helps in creating an accurate buyer persona.
- Content marketing and SEO: Helps you identify what kind of content is working and what isn’t.
- Email marketing: Helps you gauge the performance of your campaigns.
- Social media marketing and PPC advertising: Helps you identify your winning ads and campaigns.
- Website performance: Helps you identify the traffic sources and best-performing pages.
Final Thoughts
If you are not getting the desired results, you are either missing something or doing something wrong. It’s up to you to study and tweak your strategies for optimum results.
Subscribing to top industry blogs and websites is the most practical way of learning about the best digital marketing practices. You can receive the notifications via email, social media, and YouTube.
Dedicate an hour every day to read the latest blog posts and watch videos to equip yourself with the best industry knowledge.