Effective Digital Strategies to Help you Expand Your Business

Four Digital Strategies to Employ When Expanding Your Small Business

In a world where everything is already in the digital space, it is important that entrepreneurs consider taking their business online. The most effective way to do this is by employing a digital marketing strategy.

A digital marketing strategy will not only enable you to have a better understanding of your customers but also provide you with an avenue to creatively share your stories and connect with customers, thus effectively taking your business to new heights.

In this article, we will delve into some of the most effective digital strategies that can help you expand your small business.

Assess your goals
Even if you have the best digital marketing strategy in place, you will not be able to make the most out of it if you don’t have definitive goals. As explained in our previous post ‘5 Important Steps for a Successful Digital Marketing Strategy’ assessing your goals should translate to analysing your previous marketing strategies and using that information to come up with a new set of achievable objectives. It’s also a good idea to use analytical tools to measure your progress and content mapping tools to aid you in identifying where to make improvements. Since customer behaviour can greatly affect ROI, it’s also important that you focus on getting data and statistics that will give you an insight into how customers behave.

Try out SEO
With over 93% of online purchases beginning facilitated by search engines, you want your company to be one of those brands that people see on the first page when they search about anything related to your products or services. The perfect way to do this is by employing an effective search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy that will bolster your business’ internet presence.

A comprehensive SEO strategy is more than just creating relevant, educational and engaging content, it also involves certain changes on your website which can help direct organic traffic to your website. Since SEO can be pretty overwhelming, especially for small business owners who don’t have a knack for internet-related marketing, you can choose to hire SEO experts or an agency. However, if this isn’t within your budget, you can choose to learn about it yourself through various courses that are offered online.

Fully embrace eCommerce
With eCommerce sales expected to grow to $6.54 trillion by 2022, it’s necessary that companies invest in various efforts that will help them fully embrace eCommerce, such as accepting digital payments. FIS Global explains how accepting different types of payment such as Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay have allowed businesses to take advantage of the security and convenience of smartphones, and the same principle applies to any brand that wants to go digital.

The growth of eCommerce has introduced a myriad of digital payment options, all of which come with their own pros and cons. However, customers certainly appreciate the convenience of being able to make purchases right from their phones and computers, without the need for stressful bank transfers and money orders. Investing in digital payment services may seem costly at first, but its long-term benefits will definitely be worth it. These platforms will enable you to enhance security by discouraging employee theft and providing improved payment security measures against data breaches and fraud. With online purchases slowly becoming the norm, a digital payment platform will also make your products and services more accessible to a wider market, which will, in turn, drive profits.

Expand your social media reach
There over 3.5 billion people using social media to keep up with the news, connect with others, demand political change and purchase products, based on the most recent statistics by Our World in Data. With this number, it’s no surprise that there are certain brands that are able to ascend and attain success by just relying on social media alone. When utilising social media, creating an account isn’t enough. You have to make sure that you post relevant content on a regular basis and use social media to creatively share your brand story and what differentiates you from other brands. It’s also a good idea to turn to social media to connect with influencers who will help build brand awareness. With social and community responsibility growing more and more important for customers, small businesses can turn to Instagram to show that their support for other local businesses and social causes that are important for the customers.

With almost everything already shifting into the digital space, employing digital marketing strategies is crucial in the growth and development of your business.

Assess your goals, embrace eCommerce, consider creating an Instagram account, having a digital payment platform and a SEO strategy, and utilise Facebook ads to provide your business with the edge that it needs to stay competitive.