How to Build a Dominant Digital Marketing Strategy for Small Business: 7 Steps for Success

Do not fall behind as your competition enhances their digital strategy and takes more of the market. So How do you build a dominant digital marketing strategy? We have laid out a quick guideline for you to make things easier.

The relevance of digital marketing is only increasing. Online time usage is increasing, and digital marketing continues to receive more of the marketing budget. It is simple to go into execution mode and just start acting when there are so many opportunities in digital marketing. One of the best methods to increase your digital return on investment is to invest in your strategy. A well-defined approach cuts down on waste, gives your job more concentration, and builds on what is already effective.

Step #1 - Understand Terms and Modern Processes

Let's face it. Putting together a digital marketing strategy can be cumbersome, time consuming and downright confusing. With the emergence of new technologies, new social media platforms, and the everchanging way customers interact with your business, it is imperative that you keep up to date with the landscape that is digital marketing. So what exactly qualifies as Digital marketing? Digital Marketing comprises SEO, PPC, Social Media Marketing, Marketing Analytics, Market Research, Design, copywriting, content creation etc. In other words, all marketing efforts that occur online/on the internet are considered to be digital marketing. The most important step in building a dominant digital marketing strategy is to Educate yourself on the environment around you. Now, we know this can seem like a daunting task. That is why Hermit Group is here to help you. Contact us today and we will help you get started today.

"A total of 5.03 billion people around the world use the internet today." – Statista.

Step #2 - Audit Existing Strategies, Presence, and Competition

It's beneficial to be aware of your progress, even if it's almost nonexistent. You'll learn what to work on in this step so you can accomplish your goals. First, you need to understand your main marketing channels:

• Your Website

• Social Media

• Email Marketing

• SEO

• PPC

Once you have done that, identify where you are getting the most traffic from. Scrutinize what's working for you, and what isn't. The next step is to know your competition. This step is easy as you can use online tools like SEMrush to extract that valuable data. Not sure how to analyze your current setup or make sense of the landscape around you? Let us handle that for you with a free consultation.

Step #3 - Understand your Customer and Create Personas

Become familiar with your customers. You can utilize Facebook Audience Insights, a free service provided by Facebook, to learn more about the size, demographics, activities, and interests of your audience. Another free tool to view popular search terms and historical search patterns is Google Trends. Once you have segmented your market and understand your customer, you can create buyer personas. Essentially create profiles of your ideal customers from each of your segments. Be specific, create a name for them, including interests and hobbies, input buying habits and more. This will be immensely helpful when you are crafting your content, setting up your PPC campaigns, or doing anything in the digital marketing scope. Understanding your customer is very important when building a digital marketing strategy for your small business.

Step #4 - Budget

In an ideal world, you would take advantage of all the strategies available to you so that you may build a dominant digital marketing strategy for your small business. But the reality is, a comprehensive strategy can become costly if you aren't smart with your approach. With the current state of things as well, you might not think it is vital that you need to spend more on digital marketing. By now though, if you have familiarized yourself with the importance of the aforementioned topics uncovered after conducting step 1. You know the importance of SEO, having a powerful user-friendly website, or PPC. Now you must consider your budget and examine how and when you will allocate your funds.

Step #5 - Goals, KPI, and Strategy

Time to be SMART. Set Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely Goals. Apart from that, set your digital marketing key performance indicators (KPI). Make sure you have an effective, real-time data visualization system. The digital world evolves rapidly, so you need to be on the lookout at all times to identify opportunities and room for improvement in an instant. In this step, you must create an actionable workflow and develop your funnels if you want to build a dominant digital marketing strategy for your small business.

"People with goals are 10 times more successful than those without goals." – Harvard.

Step #6 - Execute

Don't leave any stone unturned. You can find that you aren't getting the results you were hoping for if you skip any execution processes. Spend some time making sure you are adhering to best practices. Digital marketing is constantly evolving, so strategies that were successful one year may not be effective today. Remember that doing a few things well is preferable to doing many things poorly.

Step #7 - Analyze Results

The flexibility to change course and make adjustments is one of the things that makes digital marketing so effective. You are not required to make and follow a set plan. For instance, pause a campaign and test different creative if it isn't producing results. Run an A/B test with various calls to action if your website isn't converting visitors. For instance, you can compare the performance of a "sign up now" call to action and a "learn more" call to action. That said, once you know what's working for you and what isn't, you can discard what's of no use and keep what's helpful. If you aren't sure how to do any of this, the professionals at Hermit Group can help you on your journey in building a dominant digital marketing strategy for your small business.

Final Thoughts

And that’s a wrap on How to Build a Dominant Digital Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses. The tips above are proven to drive up your organic traffic and improve your strategy. It can be overwhelming without the right people in place. Not saying you can't take it on yourself, but you have a business to run. Let Hermit Group handle your needs for you. At the very least, get a free consultation today to see how we can help your business grow today!