It’s not always easy for a small business to succeed in a highly competitive world. However, we are living at a time when creativity, when done right, can outweigh large budgets. When a small business realizes the opportunities inbound marketing may offer, a whole new world opens.

Inbound marketing allows a business to:

  • Engage with existing clients
  • Attract a wider audience
  • Approach prospective clients
  • Showcase authority
  • Drive sales
  • Explore new business opportunities

It surely takes dedication and time in order to create an effective inbound strategy, and sometimes you may need an expert’s help, but still, the return on investment may be significantly higher than any other promotional or marketing tactic.

Set Your Goals

First of all, before creating your marketing strategy, it’s important to set clear goals.

What are you expecting to get from your marketing efforts?

  • Are you looking for new clients?
  • Are you trying to serve as an industry expert?
  • Are you trying to expand your business?
  • Are you seeking for an engagement boost?
  • Are you trying to increase your leads?

It’s okay to have more than one goal, but you still need to be aware of the requirements for every goal, as each one of them needs a different approach. For example, if you’re looking to engage with your existing audience, you may start building your email list by sending interesting content and offers, but if you want to boost your online presence, promote your business and lead prospects to your site, then posting to Facebook might be a good place start.

Analyze Your Audience

Before you delve any further into an inbound strategy, you need to learn more about your current and desired audience, in order to understand them and reach them in the best possible way.

These ideal customers, also called buyer personas, will help you answer questions like: Where is your audience? What would they like to see from you? What’s the best way to approach them?

Explore Your Niche Industry

You also need to analyze your industry to see how your competitors are using digital marketing to reach their goals. This research will also help in deciding which social platforms and publishing tools to use.

Pick Your Weapons

Digital marketing is becoming more complex as new tools and platforms emerge, but you can still pick what works best for the goals you have set. Some of the available tools include:

  • Blogging
  • Social Media
  • Email marketing
  • Video
  • Site reviews
  • SEO
  • Mobile apps
  • Paid advertising

You don’t have to try them all at once. Use your initial audience research to find out where your target audience is, go where they are, and use the tool that will best reach them.

Think Outside The Box

There’s no need to do what everyone is doing, as this won’t be appealing to your target audience.

Experiment with all the types of marketing the world wide web offers. But, it’s important to take time to evaluate your efforts. If something is not working the way you expected for your business, then don’t be afraid to try something else. It’s time to think outside the box.

Turn Clients Into Ambassadors

Influencer marketing is on the rise and social media is the right way to embrace it. As you engage with potential customers on social media, you can attract them to your website and eventually turn them into customers and advocates for your business. A happy customer may bring you better results than any digital marketing campaign! Always keep a  focus on your existing clients, as they are the ones who will stay loyal to your business!

Set Your Budget

Promoting your business online doesn’t always come for free. You cannot effectively boost the online presence of your business or gain new clients solely organically. You should plan to including money in your budget for social advertising, as most social platforms are embracing the “pay-to-play” mentality. To really get the reach that you want, you’ll need to spend a little bit of money.

Invest In Content

It’s not just about investing in a budget for digital marketing, it’s also about investing in content. Content is vital to your inbound marketing strategy, so you should never be afraid to try new ideas and new types of content. Instead of posting another blog, how about creating online videos, podcasts, infographics, or even ebooks? All of these forms of content will prove how your business serves as an expert in your industry and your prospective clients will appreciate it when examining their options.

Get Local

Your business can benefit from incorporating local promotion into your digital marketing strategy. In fact, digital channels have become the best option to approach your targeted local audience through social media, paid advertising and all the opportunities they can both include. What’s more, mobile marketing may contribute to the digital success of your business, as mobile users are more willing to hear from a business that is relevant to their interests.

It may seem complicated at first, but following these steps is the best way to find success online. You don’t have to go it alone, either! Let us do the hard work for you – contact us today to see how we can help!

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