Effective Digital Marketing Strategies for Local Businesses

In the realm of business, different enterprises have unique marketing needs. However, there exist a few fundamental tasks applicable to all digital marketing efforts. This functions as a primary blueprint that start-ups and businesses looking to embed digital marketing in their complete marketing scheme can use.

Three key considerations when crafting a digital marketing strategy are:

Your campaign components should be low-risk, entailing a low cost with a high rate of success. This could involve constructing a website, launching an SEO or PPC campaign, and more.

Your campaign components should be scalable, meaning they can expand alongside your business growth.

Any component of your campaign should be easily terminable. This ensures you avoid getting trapped in an extended contract for a solution that doesn't yield results.

You must monitor the components of your campaign to compute your return on investment (ROI).

An effective digital marketing plan should be cost-effective, have the flexibility to expand with your business growth, allow performance tracking, and offer easy exit options. Your marketing plan is pivotal for the two-year survival rate of your enterprise.

Low risk, high ROI digital marketing plan

A website is essential. If you already own one, it might need redesigning to enhance its mobile-friendliness feature, become more resourceful and compete favorably with rival websites. When scouting for designers, it's prudent to examine their portfolios and discuss with their clients to identify the most affordable pricing. Prices vary significantly among design firms – higher costs don't always translate into superior websites. A basic 20-page website requiring minimal programming should cost below $3,000. It's critical that the chosen design company is reliable.

Once you've selected a design company, next on the list is an SEO agency. Some businesses wait until their website design is finished before seeking one, but this can be counterproductive. An SEO agency ensures your new website has optimum search engine friendliness to avoid costly and time-consuming mistakes. Avoid website design companies who claim SEO expertise but don't prioritize it in their service offerings.

Selecting an SEO agency requires due diligence as most of them are either unscrupulous or incompetent. About one in ten boasts true proficiency. Engage with their clients and ask for search ranking examples. Seek technical details beyond sales pitches to ensure competence hire. This effort would pay off – mastering SEO, which offers the highest overall ROI among digital marketing components, is crucial for your digital marketing strategy. It's important to note that it may take several months before a new website or business starts gaining traction.

Google AdWords-driven PPC Campaign should be your next consideration. While Google AdWords can drive substantial business your way, it can also deplete your finances if not properly managed; hence, engaging a professional is advisable. PPC serves two primary purposes: instant business generation and growth management – while SEO can be slow to take off, PPC offers quick results.

Your primary digital marketing components should be SEO and PPC; if effectively harnessed, these two elements will guarantee success for your enterprise. Mastering these solutions first before exploring other tasks is highly recommended.

Higher Risk Digital Marketing Tasks

Upon mastering the search component (organic, PPC), additional digital marketing options become available for exploration. These include Social Media activities, ReTargeting techniques, Banner Advertising (Display ads), and Blogging – all of which have promising potential when executed correctly.

Blogging/Content Marketing – Blogs broaden your website's footprint, increase visibility, and help establish your online authority. High-quality content is essential for this purpose. If a business owner or key employees can generate content, it adds authenticity. However, outsourcing to a company that can produce high-value content for visitors is also an option.

Social Media – Success stories of social media campaigns are few and far between. Although there's considerable hype around social media, its effectiveness is not universal. For instance, in the case of a plumbing emergency at home, people are more likely to Google for a plumber than follow one on Twitter. Social Media does offer certain advantages like enabling customer interaction and referral of satisfied clients to enhance online reputation. We recommend either engaging a high-end social media agency or managing it in-house with active posting (minimum twice a month).

ReTargeting works best for complex sales cycles in large corporations with strong brands – not so much for small or new businesses. While ReTargeting can supplement growth beyond what PPC offers, remember that PPC typically delivers higher ROI.

Display Advertising - Historically, CPM-based banner ads have underperformed significantly. It's unlikely to sustain a profitable campaign through this method alone – larger businesses with well-known brands have the edge over smaller ones with new brands in this area. For those interested in display advertising, we recommend using Google AdWords where payment is on per click basis rather than per impression basis – ensuring trackability and RoI calculation on each display network used.

These form the principal components of your digital marketing strategy – while numerous other options exist, it's best to start with proven technologies before trying out new ones. With time you'll master these components and gain insights into what works best for your business.

LocalCity Exchange stands ready to assist you if you're yet to establish a digital marketing business.