As a local web designer, I can build an awesome website for your small business. But for your website to make you money, you need some form of digital marketing.
Digital marketing can help Mackay small businesses like yours to drive traffic and qualified leads to your local website. What is a qualified lead? Someone who is more likely to buy your products and services than you reach with old-fashioned mailouts.
Traditionally, digital marketing focuses on paid advertising. Common forms of digital marketing include:
- Pay Per Click (PPC) Search Ads
- Social Media Ads
- Email Marketing
However, digital marketing can also include:
- SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
- Content Marketing
Benefits of Digital Marketing
With digital marketing, you can use analytics tools to see how many people are visiting your site, what devices they’re using (mobile vs desktop), and from where they’re coming (Google, Facebook).
You can also use these tools to determine whether your efforts are paying off.
PPC Search Ads
Pay per click (PPC) is an online advertising method used by businesses to promote their products or services. This method involves paying a search engine company (e.g., Google) each time a potential customer clicks on their advertisement.
When Pay Per Click (PPC) is working correctly, the cost is trivial, because the lead can be worth more than what we pay for it. For example, if you pay 3 dollars for a click, but that click leads to a 300 dollar sale, then you’ve earned a pretty nice profit.
But a lot goes in creating a winning PPC campaign. From researching and selecting the right keyword, to organising those keywords in well-organized campaigns and ad groups, and finally setting up PPC landing pages that are optimised for conversion.
Social Media Ads
Social media ads are another form of digital marketing. They are paid ads that show up in people’s social media feeds. The first step is to choose a platform:
- Facebook and YouTube attract the largest audience of adults under 65
- Instagram also has a large audience of people under 30
- Other social networks attract niche audiences
Advertisers can use user demographics to target their ad campaigns. Social Media Targeting combines current targeting options to create detailed target groups. Targeting ads based on social media usage is different from targeting based on social networking profiles. Social media profiling allows advertisers to target specific audiences. Advertisers use social networks to create content and engage with followers. Social media advertising uses targeted ads to reach specific audiences.
Email Marketing
Email marketing involves:
- Building up a list of willing subscribers
- Emailing them with things that they find valuable
The first step often involves offering something valuable in exchange for their email address. This may be exclusive:
- Discounts
- Content (see content marketing)
The second step is emailing things they continue to value.
SEO or Search Engine Optimisation
SEO involves doing things that increase your chances of ranking well on Google for search terms relevant to your business. It is a form of digital marketing that can lead to ongoing, free leads.
When someone enters a search phrase in Google, Google wants to serve up the best results possible to the person doing the searching. How do they do this? Google and other search engines use automated algorithms and AI to make these decisions.
SEO involves 2 steps:
- Making your web page the most helpful resource for people entering relevant search phrases
- Helping Google to understand that your webpage is the most helpful resource …
In the long run, SEO is a free way to gain ongoing leads.
But you need to know what you are doing and then either invest:
- Time
- Money
Content Marketing
Content marketing involves 2 steps:
- Creating content that your ideal customer or client finds useful
- Marketing that content using any, all or a combination of the above methods
Content can include:
- Articles
- Videos
- Podcasts
- eBooks
- Infographics
- eCourses
- +More
Digital Marketing + Effective Website Design
Digital marketing helps drive potential customers to your website. Effective website design principles, such as using a visual hierarchy, help turn them into leads. It does this by making our calls to action visually prominent on the page.
For more see 14 Effective Website Design Principles.
Other Ways to Get More Business
Other than through digital marketing, other ways to get more business include:
- Networking (e.g. BNI, BX, Local Chamber of Commerce)
