In the past, small businesses relied mainly on traditional marketing methods, such as coupons and print ads. While these businesses can reach their target market, it’s only limited to people who physically receive or see the marketing materials. With the pandemic, traditional marketing is not the best marketing method since the customers have gone online to purchase basic needs.
Due to this, small businesses should consider implementing digital marketing campaigns to increase their online presence and increase sales. To increase the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, small businesses should take into account the following digital marketing trends to help increase sales.
Personalization
To stand out from the crowd businesses should personalize their marketing campaign so their target market will notice them. This is particularly true as more small businesses are going online to reach their market.
When businesses personalize, they focus their marketing efforts on their audience. They should provide a customized experience to their market, which can pique their interest. After businesses pique their market’s interest, they can increase the chances of engagement. Engagement is necessary to encourage the audience to purchase from the business.
Business can personalize their digital marketing efforts by using the name of their customer on emails, sending content based on their interests through email, and providing relevant information based on their location.
The audience will feel valued by the personalized digital marketing campaign. The audience will also feel that the business cases about them. With this, small businesses should focus on personalizing their campaign to increase their online presence and connect with their target audience.
User-Generated Content
User-generated content or user-created content is text, images, or videos created by individuals rather than the business. It is a great marketing tool since it endorses the product or service the business offers. These recommendations normally convince more people compared to business-generated advertising.
User-generated content also has a similar impact as product or service reviews. Potential customers normally check these types of content when they’re thinking about buying products online. If the business finds user-generated content, they can get in touch with the creator so they can get permission to reshare it through their website and social media pages.
Paid Advertising
Paid advertising is one of the most valuable digital advertising tools small businesses can use to reach their audience. It forms an integral part of a digital marketing campaign since it connects businesses to potential customers who are looking for products and services that are similar to what they are offering in the market.
Businesses can use pay-per-click (PPC) ads or social media ads. PPC ads come out on top of the search engine. They normally appear when people search for something related to the ads. Small businesses have to bid on relevant keywords so their ads will appear on the search results. To reach a specific target audience, they should use long-tail keywords when making their bid. Aside from reaching a specific target audience, businesses will have fewer competitors when they’re bidding for long-tail keywords.
Similar to PPC ads, social media ads also connect businesses with their audience. While PPC ads come out on search engine results, social media ads appear on social media pages. Using images when running social media ads get better results since the visuals can pique the interest of its audience.
Paid advertising means the business should set aside a suitable budget to ensure they can launch a long-term advertising campaign. To control expenses, opening a separate bank account for paid advertising is advisable.
Shoppable Posts
Another way to use social media for marketing is to create shoppable posts on Instagram. These posts allow businesses to promote their products and services to their followers on social media. It’s much easier for businesses to sell through these posts since their followers are already interested in the products and services they are offering.
Aside from posting pictures of the products, businesses can tag the post and put a link leading to their websites where customers can purchase the product. Shoppable posts are great for increasing the sales of a business.
Chatbots
Chatbots are also important to increase sales online. They allow businesses to communicate with their customers when no one is available to answer their questions. Chatbots are also useful in providing real-time customer service for the business. This is particularly true if the customers have simple and common questions about the product or service offered by the business. If the inquiries are complex, the customers to leave an email address so the business can work with them once someone is available to answer their questions.
Increasing online sales is challenging, especially for small businesses. But they can surpass these challenges if they take into account and utilize the latest trends in digital marketing.
