Summary: When it comes to getting your business to the success you want and securing customers and reaching as many of your target audience as possible, marketing is going to play a huge role in that. Small business online marketing is a key strategy, but there is more to it than just having a website or a Facebook Page. Without proper online marketing it can be hard to reach many people and even get your business off the ground, but where should you start? If you are looking to market your small business but you are unsure where to start or what marketing may suit your business best, then these few tips should help you to understand what sort of small business online marketing you could use.

Three Tactics for Successful Small Business Online Marketing

From social media marketing in small business to Over-The-Top digital advertising opportunities, there is no shortage of options for the small business owner to consider. The few tactics below are some of the best I recommend for getting started in small business online marketing.

Social Media Marketing

Social media has become such a huge part of a lot of people's lives that it is of no surprise that social media marketing has become such a popular type of marketing. With social media you can reach millions of people with the right marketing, with your followers sharing it with their followers and so on. The trickle down effect can be huge, and it is a great way to reach direct audiences you are looking to market to as long as you know what platforms they tend to use. Whether you are using YouTube, Facebook, or one of the many other social media platforms that allows video content, you could be doing videos on your products or services, and if you need webcasting tips there are plenty around. You could just be posting specific content on Instagram or Facebook, there are so many options these days when it comes to social media and how you market on there.

The most important thing to remember is that social media marketing is best used at the top of your sales funnel. Social media marketing is great for brand awareness and brand reputation building. Don’t expect on Day One to be selling products or services via social media sites. It takes time, so it is important to start with a strong social content strategy and focus on engagement with your audience.

Digital Advertising

With digital advertising this is where you are going to need to spend a little money to market your small business when compared with social media marketing where you do it yourself you can do it for relatively cheap. However, with digital advertising you usually have to pay for the space you are advertising too.

There are several options when it comes to small business online marketing when it comes to digital advertising. One option is to do paid social media advertising, where you place ads on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Your ads show up in the feeds of users of those platforms that you want to target. Social media advertising can be extremely effective in that the cost is relatively low compared to many other small business online marketing tactics.

Another option is doing paid search campaigns. This is where you pay money to show up as one of the top results of a particular keyword search on a search engine, like Google or Bing, for example. If you setup a paid search campaign to target the keyword phrase “small business online marketing”, whenever someone searches for that, you have the opportunity to show up at the top of the search results page. Google, for example, offers a variety of different ways to show up across their search results, so you can really run some comprehensive campaigns based on your goals. Setting up paid search campaigns are a little more difficult than paid social media campaigns, but with some testing, it can be a very powerful digital advertising option.

Finally, you can also look for other platforms to do digital advertising. Want to get in front of your target audience on TV? Well, TV advertising might be out of your budget right now, but on demand providers like Hulu offer options that are more affordable and offer more targeting options than traditional TV.

Content Marketing

One of the best options for small business online marketing is building a library of digital content. Content marketing is a great option because it is free and accessible to just about every small business. I say free, but I am not taking into account the time it takes to create content, which is a real thing. Good, quality content takes time and effort to create, but besides the time required to create and promote content, blogging platforms and video hosting platforms (like YouTube) are free.

Like social media marketing, content marketing is a a longer-term play. The power of content on a blog or website is when the content starts showing up in Google search results, driving traffic to your blog or website. I have found content marketing to be very much like a snowball rolling down a hill… it becomes bigger and faster as it rolls down the hill, becoming almost impossible to stop!

Small Business Online Marketing and Kaizen

If you are looking to market your business but you are unsure where to start or you are looking for ideas then these few tips should help you to get started. A great small business online marketing practice requires trying different things, testing, and measuring results. This will help you determine what works best for your business.

I specialize in helping small businesses improve on their marketing efforts through a practice called Kaizen. Kaizen is a practice of continuous improvement of your core activities. I believe Kaizen is important in small business online marketing efforts because you have to work on it every day to get just a little bit better. There are lots of resources and content I offer around small business improvement, so to learn more, make sure to subscribe to my “Return on Improvement” newsletter.