Marketing is hard, but it doesn’t have to be. As a small business owner, you know that the playing field can be uneven. Your resources are limited and the odds are stacked against you. But the rewards can be great if you take the time to develop your digital marketing strategy correctly.
The key is knowing what common challenges could derail your efforts and how to prepare for them. Let’s dive into the top five digital marketing challenges facing small business owners today, and how to overcome them. We’ll also discuss why working with a digital marketing agency is often the smartest solution. Whether you’re just starting out or looking for ways to take your company to the next level, read on to learn more about leveraging digital marketing tools!
Lack of Expertise and Resources
One of the biggest digital marketing challenges that small businesses face is a lack of expertise and resources. Even if you have a small marketing budget, it’s essential that you invest in hiring someone experienced and knowledgeable in digital marketing, or work with an experienced digital marketing agency to get the best ROI.
Small business owners often don’t have access to the same tools, tactics, and best practices that larger companies do—but working with an agency can bridge this gap for them. They can provide insights on the latest trends and technologies available that can help you more effectively reach your target customers. And since they already have a deep knowledge base on digital marketing strategies, they can easily help adjust your strategies as needed.
Limited Budgets and Funding
Let’s face it, SMBs don’t always have the budget to support their marketing efforts. But there are thousands of grants, loans, and programs available to help them cover costs. For example, the Small Business Digital Marketing Grants Program provides access to digital technologies and services in order to increase awareness of small business products and services. Similarly, Business Marketing Loans can help small businesses effectively market and advertise their products or services. If you look around, there are likely 54 grants, loans, and programs available to benefit small businesses in some way or another.
If you don’t have the budget for any of these options, there are tons of free or low-cost marketing ideas you can use – like 27 of them! With a little self-discipline and commitment, your business can manage a marketing budget that gives you something for nothing. And if you need additional bits of help along the way, agencies like Basilisk SEM are here to assist you every step of the way.
Reaching the Right Audience
No matter what you’re marketing, you need to reach the right audience. Otherwise, your message will be lost and your efforts are likely to be wasted just like the estimated $37 billion spent annually in ad spend. That’s where audience targeting comes in.
Audience targeting involves understanding who your ideal consumer is through demographics, interests, and lifecycles. With this information, your ads are more likely to hit the mark because they are shown to people who are most likely to want what you have to offer.
Personalized Email Marketing
No doubt email remains a powerful tool in digital marketing and personalized emails can go a long way in reaching the right audience. You can target specific individuals with tailored messages that speak directly to their needs and interests, allowing them to feel more connected with your business.
Email marketing also has a high return on investment (ROI), which makes it a great choice for SMBs looking to maximize their digital marketing dollars. It’s easy to set up, track performance and measure the success of your campaigns. Plus, email allows you to reengage with customers and build relationships over time, which can be incredibly rewarding.
At the end of the day, digital marketing can be a great way to reach potential customers and successfully promote your business. By understanding the common challenges that SMBs face and the solutions available, you can make the most of your digital marketing strategy and take your business to the next level.
Search Engine Optimization & Pay-Per-Click Ads
For those looking for a more technical strategy for reaching the right audience, SEO & SEM are great choices. Search engine optimization can help bring potential customers directly to your website organically by improving your ranking on search engine results pages for relevant queries. Additionally, using pay-per-click ads allows you to target users based on their search behavior so that you can capture their attention when they are actively looking for services like yours.
By using SEO & SEM together, SMBs can maximize their visibility and reach a large, yet targeted audience. SEO & SEM also provide valuable data that can be used to further refine your digital marketing strategy. By analyzing search queries and user behaviors, you can better understand your audience and tailor your content and campaigns accordingly. Additionally, SEO & SEM can help you keep track of your ROI and determine the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts.
To ensure your digital marketing strategy is successful, it is important to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing. Staying informed about the different strategies available and adapting your approach as needed can help you stay competitive and reach your target audience.
By understanding the challenges SMBs face and leveraging available strategies, you can effectively use digital marketing to reach the right people and promote your business. With a successful digital marketing strategy, you can tap into a large potential customer base, build relationships, and strengthen your bottom line.
Keeping Up With Changes in the Digital Landscape
Did you know that the digital landscape is changing all the time? It’s true—it felt like just yesterday that everyone was talking about influencer marketing, but now the hot topic is educational content. The rapid changes in the digital space can be overwhelming for small businesses, and it’s difficult to keep up with it all.
But don’t worry—staying ahead of the ever-changing digital landscape isn’t impossible. You just need to make sure you have the right strategy in place. Here are a few tips:
- Always do research on the latest trends in your industry.
- Take advantage of different kinds of automation to make your life easier.
- Develop a plan and stick to it, no matter what changes come your way.
- Work with an experienced digital marketing agency that can stay on top of these changes for you and ensure your business stays competitive and successful in this constantly evolving world of technology and marketing strategies.
Keeping up with trends can be challenging–but with a strategic plan in place, you can rest assured that you’re staying one step ahead of the competition and taking advantage of every opportunity for your business to grow!
Generating High-Quality Content
Generating high-quality content is one of the biggest challenges small businesses face in digital marketing. Why? Because it’s not enough to just have any content. Your content has to be targeted to your niche customer base, telling a story and grabbing their eye. It needs to be written with the reader in mind, not just the writer — readable, engaging, and up-to-date.
But you can’t do this alone. And you don’t have to! By partnering with a digital marketing agency like Basilisk SEM, you can focus on generating great content that will help build trust and loyalty for your company.
Here are some tips for creating high-quality content:
- Rely on user-generated content (UGC) — invites users to create and share content that reflects your brand values. Content can come from customers in the form of reviews or sharing their experiences with your brand or product on social media.
- Keep an eye out for new trends and topics in your industry, keeping your content fresh and relevant.
- Use analytics tools like Google Analytics or Ahrefs to better understand what kind of content resonates best with readers—and use that information to shape future strategies and plans for your business’s digital marketing efforts
Measuring and Optimizing Campaign Performance
It’s not enough to just set up a digital marketing campaign; you also need to constantly measure and adjust it to ensure your campaigns are running optimally. After all, setting SMART goals is essential if you want to be able to track if your campaigns are meeting their objectives. Plus, measuring and monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) is necessary if you want to know how successful your campaigns were.
Thankfully, there are plenty of tools available that can help you measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and optimize them for better results. You can use eight major KPIs—Reach, Total Impressions, Cost per Click (CPC), Cost per Acquisition (CPA), Engagement Rate, Click-Through Rate (CTR), Conversion Rate (CVR), and Return on Investment (ROI)—to help determine the success of each campaign.
By implementing a system for regularly monitoring and adjusting your campaigns, you can maximize their results. You’ll also be able to easily identify any potential issues or opportunities for improvement before they become major problems. Working with a professional digital marketing agency like Basilisk SEM will ensure that you have access to the expertise, resources, and technology needed to ensure that all your campaigns are running smoothly and achieving the desired results.
Conclusion
All in all, small business owners face a lot of digital marketing challenges. From limited resources to aggressive new competition, it can be tough to get your digital marketing off the ground. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
By investing in the right strategies, you can overcome these common digital marketing challenges and find success. For the best results, work with a professional digital marketing agency like Basilisk SEM—we have the skills and expertise to help you maximize your marketing efforts and get the results you want. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business grow!