“So is digital marketing for small businesses worth it?” As a Digital Marketing expert in Hertfordshire it’s a question I’m often asked by business owners. Let’s face it, whether you are digitally-minded or not, it’s a topic on the agenda for many businesses.
The big question is, as a small business owner are you a ‘digital ostrich’ when it comes to investing in Digital Marketing? As someone who’s worked in Digital Marketing for over 8 years, it’s true I’m biased when it comes to my opinion on whether investing in Digital Marketing for small businesses is worth it – of course it is I’ll say, what other marketing channel can you track if your investments are working hard enough for you?
Let’s take Jane. Jane has a professional training company based in Hertfordshire. At the moment Jane is growing her business, she’s a one man band and responsible for running her business, training her clients and marketing. Jane converts 1 in 5 enquiries and would ideally like 10 enquiries a month to bring in the revenue she needs. Life for Jane is pretty hectic. 80% of her business comes from networking, she has a website and places ads in the local newspaper but most of her work comes from networking where she knows she’ll meet the right people. The trouble is, lack of time. Wouldn’t it be brilliant if Jane’s website worked harder for her to generate enquiries so she could focus on the core of her business … corporate training?
You see the beauty of Digital Marketing is not only that you can you set up Digital Marketing in the right channels and target it to the right audiences, you can measure and monitor pretty much all of your activity and investments too: how much website traffic is coming through to your site? Where is your traffic coming from? From your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign how many visitors came to your website and made an enquiry? Based on how much money you spent on your PPC campaign what’s the return on investment (ROI) per click?
So is Digital Marketing for small businesses worth it?
Here are my top three common misconceptions from small business owners…
1) “Digital Marketing for small businesses is expensive”
Digital Marketing for small businesses doesn’t have to be expensive. First things first, decide on your overall marketing budget and how you want to split this between Traditional and Digital Marketing. Do you know where your customers are? If you know they’re online it might be that you want to dedicate a greater proportion to Digital Marketing spend e.g. 80:20.
Talk to a Digital Marketing agency. As long as you know what your key objective is, they should be able to guide you in terms of the right digital marketing channels to help you achieve this. If conversions are key then SEO and PPC may be the best route for you – if it’s engagement you’re looking for then Social Media could be your best bet. If you’re reaching out to a specialist agency for Digital Marketing for small businesses, through their expertise and channel research on keyword competitiveness they should also be able to guide you on not only how much to invest in each channel but when to invest, to ensure your budget is working hard enough for you.
2) “To invest in Digital Marketing for small businesses you need to be an expert”
If you don’t have the resource or knowledge within your business for Digital Marketing I would really recommend outsourcing to a certified Digital Marketing agency. Whilst you will pay for their services, in the long run having experts on board from the start should ensure you are optimising your budget and results are turned around efficiently. Yes it’s true anyone can set up a Social Media channel or run a PPC campaign for their business, what’s not so easy is implementing the technical knowledge and expertise to fully optimise and manage these channels effectively to ensure you’re achieving your business objectives and money is invested wisely.
3) “Digital marketing for small businesses can wait”
They say time waits for no man and in the world of Digital Marketing it’s certainly true. If you’re not online or even more importantly not showing where your customers and potential customers are online, in the longer term it could have a detrimental effect on your business as chances are your competitors are already in this space and vying for their attention. Even if at this moment in time you can’t afford an all-singing-all-dancing Digital Marketing strategy for your business, prioritise the most important channels and focus investment there. For example if you’re looking to generate 10 new enquiries a month through your website you might want to put your initial investment in SEO. Once this goal is reached and you can increase your budget, further investment might be made in Social Media or Email Marketing depending on your business’s growth plan.
Have you already asked yourself the question “is digital marketing for small businesses worth it?” Now might be the time to take action. Give us a call on 01992 582824 or fill out our Contact form – the team at Cariad Marketing would love to chat about how we can help accelerate your business online.
