A moment has been reached where every business, small and large, local or national, commerce or service, should be using digital marketing to prospect new customers and engage old ones. Today’s digital marketing techniques allow businesses to use minuscule daily budgets to hyper-target current customers and prospect new ones.
For 6 consecutive years there has been increased ad spend in the Mobile, Display, and Adwords sectors according to AdAge. This increase is not only fueled by large corporate entities, but also by a continued trend in increased Google and Facebook Ad Spend by small businesses.
Why Digital Marketing Is Effective for Small & Local Business
The key to growth in SMBs spending on digital media is the ability to use any size budget to promote anything, anytime, and to anyone. As a result, small businesses are continuing to turn to Google Adwords, Facebook, and Display Ads to fill “market demand” for products. No longer throwing TV, Print, & Magazine ads into the wind, companies have learned that a market exists for product online.
Pocket Sized Ad Budgets
Digital Advertising is one of the few ad mediums which a business can run on a minimal and specified budget. In extreme cases a business can spend $1 per day, and drive sales or conversions. No longer is ad spend set in stone, but can vary depending on promotions, business down-time, or effectiveness.
Geographical Targeting
Not all markets are equated equal. Both Google and Facebook allow a business to target down to zip code and radius. If overspend is a concern, limiting geography is a great way to reduce impressions and increase conversions.
Audience Differentiation
There are now hundreds of ways to target the ideal customer, and many of these methods can be overlaid with one another and done on the same minimal budget. Some of the best opportunities include:
- Age
- Gender
- Facebook Fans of Your Page
- Website Visitors
- Facebook Fans of Other Pages
- Interests
- Marital Status & Children
How Your Business Should Setup Digital Marketing
There are only a few steps your business needs to setup a digital marketing campaign. We would recommend trying both Facebook & Google Adwords to get started. All you need are a few quality images and credit card.
Define a Daily Budget, Audience, & Geography
To get started, define your budget, whether monthly or daily. A good minimum to start with can be $5-10 per day or per promotion, via each vendor.
From there choose who you want your audience to be. This can be people of certain ages, gender, or interests in specific things. The more specific you are with targeting, the less people who will reach, but the more targeted your ad will be.
Lastly, set your geography. For some this will be the United States or even the world. For others, this might be a Zip Code, County, or State. Again, the more specific you are, the more restricted your ads will be.
Install Tracking Tags for Facebook & Google on your Website
One of the best advantages of digital marketing over other forms, is your ability to track the conversions directly from your ads. Both Google and Facebook allow tracking of ecommerce, form submissions, phone calls, and other key actions performed after a user clicks on your ad.
This part can be a bit tricky to setup, and typically requires some coding knowledge, so I would recommend contact a website developer for some help on the setup of these tags.
Setup Your Marketing Creative
The final piece is creating your actual campaigns will be your creative. Already we’ve defined budget, audience targeting, geography, and now its time to decide what will be displayed after all this work.
For both Facebook & Google display all you will need are a few quality photos, and a few lines of well written text. These can then be used to create various, beautiful looking ads which can be served over mobile devices, desktops, and tablets.
With these few simple steps, your business can finally catapult into the digital age.
