Although it is true that each business has a different need that influences when setting its medium and long-term objectives, in general, the annual digital marketing plan of an small business is characterized by the incorporation of strategies that can help increase web traffic and customers, and to improve the opinion of users regarding their products and services. Do you need help in assessing what strategies can help you with these goals? Don’t worry, because here I present the most important ones for 2021.
Table of Contents
The key digital marketing strategies for small business in 2021
1. SEO
The SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) is responsible for the strategy to work organic positioning of your website. That is, it is the process of optimizing your website so that it appears in the first results of the search engines and thus you have a greater possibility of increasing your online traffic. Thus, SEO aims to make your website get more organic visits from search engines like Google, thanks to the optimization of the different pages that make up the website.
Anything that makes it easier for the engines to work will help your small business website to get more traffic and, therefore, more potential customers. Therefore, it is also important to take into account the local SEO strategy , to position your company based on your location.
However, although SEO has always been focused on optimizing pages around keywords or search terms used by users. Today optimization is more than that, especially since search trends can change and engine updates have “forced” us to improve the quality and relevance of content on each web page, in addition to its authority through an intricate network of strategically designed links.
This, as then, implies knowing well your potential clients and what their search tendencies are when they consume content on the Internet. Today to position the content (which we will talk about below) it is necessary to think about specific topics and rank the pages based on their relevance to enable internal link building (or inbound links).
2. Content strategy
With the huge amount of information available in different formats, it seems difficult to stand out from the competition and, although the SEO positioning strategy is essential to attract the right niche of potential clients, it is also essential that there is remarkable content that is worth consuming. and support the rest of the strategies to be implemented.
In content creation, one of the most important aspects is its value. As we have commented in the previous section, quality is essential to improve positioning, for this reason you should ask yourself if your content: does it benefit your potential customers at all? Does it meet your needs? Is it the most suitable format for them? Are you posted on the channel where you spend the most time consuming content?
On the one hand, the content must be worked on different channels regardless of the format (text, image, audio or video). This should not be limited to your business website, but should be worked on in your blog posts, on your social networks and in the preparation of the emails you send. Everything must be related and you can always bet on recycling content when it is still relevant.
On the other hand, the content must be worked from the perspective of a cluster or themes, which not only organize the relevant information for your potential clients, but also support your SEO strategy, as you can see in this video:
3. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Also, if you were already familiar with Inbound Marketing or Growth Marketing methodologies, you knew the concept of conversion and its importance for businesses with an online presence. However, the truth is that most small business still consider it only important to increase web traffic (even obsessively) and obviously improve conversions.
In other words, many small business overlook increasing the number of leads and buyers with the traffic they already receive , which is ultimately key to improving business profitability. For this, in digital marketing, we have strategies such as CRO ( Conversion Rate Optimization ), with which 72% of companies that implemented it, according to a study carried out by TrustRadius, managed to increase their income by up to 50%.
And it is that the CRO is based on data and analysis work to improve web conversion either in the purchase process or in the contact request section. The CRO is not only a list of techniques to improve the usability of the site , which also relies on different analysis tools to check what internal factors (of the website itself) and external factors (such as the source of traffic). or the competition) influence conversion.
For example, through Google Analytics, once the steps that the user takes to reach the desired conversion have been configured, we can analyze the factors that influence the conversion thanks to the data provided by the ‘Conversion Funnel’ graph and reports such as ‘Flow of objectives’ and observe where are the obstacles that make you abandon the conversion process and that prevent you from reaching the goal set.
Then, once the analysis of internal factors, but also external factors, which may affect the desired conversion, is carried out, a strategy is redefined based on the available resources. Sometimes, it is even necessary to redefine objectives (if these were not relevant to the business) and then implement the different actions, perform A / B tests and analyze the results to improve what can be improved and repeat what works.
4. CRM and Marketing automation
Then what can you continue to do with the contacts and clients of your small business? Can they help you to keep improving your products or services and optimizing your strategies? The truth is that more and more data, especially the data that tells us what is the behavior of our potential customers and the relationship they have with our business, are essential to improve day by day.
A CRM ( Customer Relationship Management ) and the strategy linked to it allows you to manage the relationship that your company has with all the contacts in your database, whether they are leads or customers, so that you have a record of invaluable information for development and the implementation of online actions. A CRM is not only a tool, but also implies carrying out a business strategy that allows you to understand your customers, know and anticipate the needs and achieve the objectives of your company. Of course, the software is what allows you to visualize all that data and actions.
A CRM tool allows you to join the marketing and sales efforts of your business , and segment your potential customers to manage content and communication with them. In this way, it is easier to satisfy the needs of your contacts, your sales opportunities, and analyze the information that the tool updates about them.
On the other hand, CRM is closely linked to automation tools that make it possible to make the most of time and resources. With automation software you will be able to carry out processes in a more efficient way and with greater control of specific tasks: generate automatic responses to new sales opportunities, inform, schedule or send content in different channels, etc.
Thanks to the automation of the different marketing actions that you must carry out, you have more time to analyze, plan and anticipate the responses of your company in order to improve the conversion of your sales opportunities and the reconversion of your customers, according to the products and / or services offered by your small business.
5. Online reputation
Another of the honorable mentions among the most relevant digital marketing strategies for small business is online reputation. Caring for and improving the reputation of an small business brand is essential so that all the marketing work that has been carried out is consolidated. Reputation is what allows your marketing plan to unite.
And it is useless to improve traffic and conversions if you neglect the reputation of your brand and this causes a rebound effect, which negatively affects the acquisition of your products and / or services. That is, the idea is that by consolidating your reputation on the Internet, improving it day by day, this can be the necessary support for your other strategies.
So what you should do to not neglect it is to guarantee the continuous flow of quality content. The publications on your blog and social networks must not only belong to a cluster (as mentioned above), but must also provide a service, they must be educational. The quality and relevance of your content depends on the interest it arouses and the help it brings to your users.
On the other hand, you must take into account what is the integrated experience of your customers. That is, what is the opinion and feelings they have throughout the purchase process. This feedback that you can receive from your consumers will not only improve the customer service you are offering, but it will also help you to improve the conversion process of your website and, in addition, get positive evaluations that encourage other potential customers to carry out the purchase of your products or services.
Read Also: 10 Tips to Start a Marketing Strategy in Your Startup