How ToEmpower Your Small Business through Digital Marketing?

03 June 2019

Ten years ago, if any small business wanted to promote itself, chances are that there were not many credible platforms around. Credible in terms of affordability and ensuring definite ROIs. For small businesses with low budgets, competing with big brands and Above The Line (ATL) advertising, was simply not possible.

However, in the past few years, the surge of the digital revolution meant that small businesses could make their presence felt in this world. As digital becomes a part of human existence, digital marketing has emerged as a reasonable, definite and direct marketing tool to help small brands.

From a brand website to Social Media Marketing, small brands have embraced the digital revolution wholeheartedly. This has helped them-

Drive traffic to their website
Make more sales conversions
Increase their revenues
Build an online community
Reach out to newer consumers

In this article, we look at the top 3 digital marketing strategies that are being used by small brands to help them grow their businesses.

1. Brand Website:

Let us start with the foundation of digital marketing. A brand website is like an online address for your brand. In many ways, it is similar to the physical store that the brand may or may not have. By being on Google search, every brand improves its chances of being discovered.

This helps more and more people know about the brand. By climbing the search pages, small brands vie for more clicks and revenues. This also opens up different avenues of growing businesses. Like an e-commerce store, Google AdSense revenues, collaborations, and other sources.

A brand website is a first and foremost thing that a small brand should invest in. It does not require huge investments or technical know-how. By outlining your major products and services, small brands can attract a huge consumer base.

2. Social Media Marketing:

When social media burst onto the scene, no one had expected it to have such a great impact on human civilization. As human beings spend more time on social media than on any other life activity (apart from work or sleep), small brands have flocked to the medium aggressively.

The most attractive proposition that drives social media is good content. In addition, the medium is free, unless you want to promote yourself in a paid fashion. By maintaining social media presence, brands have been able to reach out to newer audiences and build engagements and communities.

From Facebook to Instagram, from Snapchat to Pinterest, small brands are competing aggressively with big brands. When it comes to social media, great content and strategy take priority over outright infusion of money. You can learn more here about ways of using digital marketing for social effectively.

3. Google My Business (GMB):

Like social media, Google My Business has helped small brands integrate their online-offline presence. In other words, GMB helps local businesses find audiences by linking them to local populations and geographical locations.

For example, if anyone Google’s ‘Cake Shop’, Google located the person’s GPS and shows him the nearest cake shops in the area. If a small cake shop maintains its GMB page and is active on it, GMB will show that establishment right at the top.

This is one of the best digital platforms for small brands to maintain their online presence. Not only is GMB free, but it is also very credible and effective. All small brands need to do is maintain a thriving GMB profile.

Conclusion

Gone are those days when hoarding, billboards and TV primetime were the only ways of reaching audiences. The digital transformation has made digital marketing a potent force for small brands to excel. By maintaining an online presence, small brands can transform their businesses completely.

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5 Types of Digital Marketing

Marketing is an ever-changing aspect of a business. In the past decade, we’ve seen how modern technology has completely revolutionized the way businesses promote and sell their products and services. In fact, a 2013 study conducted by Adobe noted that 76 percent of people think that marketing has changed more in the past two years than it did the entire 50 years before. This is even more pronounced today as the Internet becomes more pervasive. Indeed, the Internet is a game-changing technology with a tremendous impact on modern marketing. Alongside its ubiquity is the rise of online marketing, which many consider having replaced traditional marketing channels, such as TV, radio, and print ads. More and more businesses now adopt this form of marketing. Statista projected that global spending on digital marketing would reach 306 billion dollars in 2020 and account for the majority of marketing efforts. But while digital marketing has enabled businesses to reach their target audience more readily, the rapidly changing technology and marketing trends have brought in some confusion, especially for businesses that are not well-versed with online marketing. Today, there are numerous digital marketing trends available to marketers and brands. Each of these methods has its unique uses, as well as, pros and cons. For many businesses, deciding on which digital marketing strategy to take is not easy. To help you choose the best direction, an expert from a digital marketing agency, Warroom Inc., explains to us the top five time-proven and tested digital marketing types. Email Marketing: Email marketing is a time-tested type of online marketing. This has been around far longer than other digital marketing techniques. While there have been many changes in the way this campaign is done, it remains very useful. With this strategy, marketers have full control of the message. Email marketing is different from the regular emails you send to a boss or a friend. Marketers use available data regarding a user to come up with carefully crafted and targeted messages based on the recipient’s position in the sales funnel. These emails can range from informational email to product update email to welcome email and many other types. Email marketing not only gets your message across. You can also gather relevant information about your target audience through emails. With this data, you can come up with a more calibrated and more successful marketing campaigns. Content Marketing: Content marketing is considered the foundation of all other types of digital marketing. With content marketing, you need to regularly produce relevant and interesting contents such as social media posts, videos, articles, blogs, and other creative. Quality content is crucial in bringing across your message and keeping your audience engaged. Content marketing is a tricky endeavor. There are a lot of things to consider such as grammar and spelling, effective use of keywords, proper messaging, use of graphics, persuasiveness, etc. Keeping the content relevant, unique and fresh is also crucial in a successful content marketing campaign. Social Media Marketing: According to the 2018 Global Digital suite of reports from We Are Social and Hootsuite, there are 3 billion social media users worldwide. This makes social media a very effective platform for advertising and promoting your brand to consumers. Since users are hooked to social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on a 24/7 basis, it makes it a perfect place to market and sell your products and services. Aside from the millions of users connected to social networking sites, it is also a cost-effective digital marketing strategy, especially when you’re able to hit the right buttons. The proper use of social media marketing techniques can help ensure that you’re reaching the right audience and get them to use your brand. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Marketing: SEO Marketing is an essential marketing tool that every business needs. The goal of this marketing campaign is to increase your website’s visibility by placing it on top of search engines, such as Google and Bing. For example, if a user is looking for a dog grooming kit, you want to place your brand on the first page of Google’s result. You need to know what customers are searching for (keyword research) and optimizing your website around those keywords (keyword optimization). This helps boost traffic to your site. Link Building: Among the earliest digital marketing trends, link building can help increase the number and quality of inbound links to your website. This can help improve page views and visits, and ultimately, website or webpage ranking. If you want your product to be easily searchable in search engines, then you need to implement link building strategies. These are just five of the many types of digital marketing out there. Each of these techniques has its own uses that can help you promote and advertise your business. Read Also: Essentials For Digital Marketing The Importance Of SEO Based Digital Marketing Services 7 Proven Marketing Tactics To Increase Your ROI In 2018

How Promotional Merchandise Can Change the Way You Do Marketing

Promotional merchandise has had a long history in brand marketing. Companies from all over the world see the impact and effectiveness of this useful tool to create and promote their corporate identity. If you are looking for a way to enhance your business, you can use promotional merchandise to boost and revitalise your marketing initiatives. You have a wide array of choices when it comes to deciding what kind of product you want as promotional merchandise. You can use wearable items such as caps and shirts, or you can use non-wearable ones such as calendars, pens, and umbrellas. No matter what your company does, or where it’s located, you can benefit from promotional merchandise. There are a variety of ways you can use these items to your advantage. Here are the ways it can change your business: Different Ways Promotional Merchandise Can Change The Way You Do Marketing These are some of the factors you have to take care off while you want to increase the promotional merchandise of your marketing technique. Do not make your choices in grey while improving your organizational status. 1. Increase visibility You will have a broader reach by using promo merchandise because you will be calling attention to yourself. It will lead to an increase in visibility,and it will undoubtedly result in increased brand awareness. Hence, by using promo merchandise, you don’t need to resort to advertising or more expensive marketing gimmicks to attract new clients. 2. Promote your brand Promotional merchandise will give your brand a stronger image and identity. You will gain more credibility and generate brand love faster with these on hand. 3. Build loyalty Who doesn’t love freebies? Promotional merchandise will earn you the devotion of your past customers and potential clients. It is no secret that every customer wants to feel special. When you make them feel valued by trying your best to give them the royal treatment, they will come to love and rely on your brand to provide them with what they need. 4. Make effective sales Promotional merchandise gives you the chance to communicate with potential consumers effectively since you have their complete attention for a short while. You can make your sales pitch without boring them or losing their interest with promo merchandise as giveaways. 5. Increase market demand There will be a surge in sales since promotional merchandise increases brand love. You can expect that you will get a lot of pre-orders when you start rolling out your promotional merchandise. 6. Increase customer base Promotional merchandise can guarantee that you will have a wider market share. Since you are going to be more visible, you will become more well-known and popular than your competitors. 7. Increased profit and business growth Of course, when you are gaining more attention, you will clearly see an increase in your earnings. Promotional merchandise is worth the cost to have it made. And, since the items are cheap, they won’t put a big dent in your wallet. If you are experiencing a business slump, it might just be the answer to your problems. It can guarantee your business success in your field. These are the ways promotional merchandise can directly impact your marketing initiatives and make them more efficient than ever before. Using this marketing tool will give your business the boost it needs. Read Also: Why Do Entrepreneurs Put Up Their Drop Shipping Websites For Sale?

Shouldn’t On-Demand Workers Get Workers’ Compensation?

Things have changed significantly for American workers in recent years. More and more Americans are working not as employees, but as independent contractors. Some people call it contracting or freelancing, but the implications are always the same - a worker is hired for a particular service and is paid a rate (hourly or per job) for that service. While working as an independent contractor might be the preferred choice of some workers, it is more often than not an arrangement born out of necessity, facilitated by a growing sea change in the relationship between labor and business. Contractors might have a bit more freedom in the way they do their jobs but, as many freelancers have discovered, there are plenty of drawbacks to working as an independent contractor. They pay their own taxes, lack many of the benefits associated with full-time employment and - perhaps most concerning - they aren’t protected when it comes to injuries suffered on-the-job. It’s this lack of compensation for workplace injuries that brings us to a growing discontentment for a large subset of independent contractors - on-demand workers. What is an On-Demand Worker? On-demand workers are the people who pick us up when we hail a ride with Uber. They are the workers who come clean our house or fix a leaky pipe when we book someone on our Handy app. In short, on-demand workers are those that spring into action when we request a service from a company that relies on freelance labor. The “Ride-Share” Economy’s Impact on Workers Every few weeks or so, you’ll find a news story or press release about another company that wants to become the Uber of something. Handy wanted to become the Uber of household cleaning. Cargo wanted to become the Uber of shipping. The list goes on and on. The financial success and the immense popularity of ride-share services have prompted companies to look for ways to incorporate the ride-share business model into other services, and many of them have been successful in doing so. These “on-demand” services are not just popular in the business community, they are popular with consumers, too. In many cases, the services offered by the new breed of businesses are more affordable and, in some cases, more responsive to a customer’s needs. It might be tempting for consumers to think of these services as a much more direct way to communicate with someone who is providing the service they need. The truth, however, is a little more complicated than that. The driver who picks us up, or the handyman who comes to fix our sink, is working on contract through the business who runs the app we use to summon them. The money that we pay that worker is divided between the worker and the business they work for. Many of these businesses have requirements that their workers must meet before they can do their job. Workers don’t have the level of control over their jobs that one would typically associate with an independent contractor, yet they are provided at the same level of benefits. In other words, they are provided with no benefits. Read also: Making Your Office Safer for Workers No Security for On-Demand Workers On-demand workers can suffer injuries just like any other subset of workers. A high percentage of workplace injuries are transportation-related. Many workers suffer injuries while moving goods or traveling for work. When you consider the fact that on-demand workers spend a good deal of their time in transit from one job to another (or, as is the case with drivers for ride-share services, all of their time in transit), it’s no surprise that these workers face just as many, if not more, hazards while on the job as those who are considered to be employees. To zero in even more on just how dangerous some of these jobs can be, let’s look at taxi drivers and chauffeurs, whose jobs are virtually identical to Uber and Lyft drivers. Taxi drivers and chauffeurs have fatality rates five times those of the average worker. On-demand drivers face the same risks - vehicle accidents, violent attacks - yet they aren’t given the financial security that other workers receive. If an on-demand worker is injured on the job, the company that they work for will not be held accountable for the injuries of their workers. That worker will be left without the security that so many of us enjoy as a fundamental right. They work just as hard. They observe the requirements set out by the company that employs their services, yet they are guaranteed nothing when something goes wrong. Contractors “In-Name Only” Understandably, many on-demand workers are growing increasingly dissatisfied with their classification as independent contractors. This is evidenced in a number of lawsuits in which workers are seeking to be treated with the same rights and benefits as other types of workers. This has been happening in the trucking industry for some time, an industry that has shifted from one heavily reliant on employed drivers (who used to be more likely to be union members) to one of the independent workers, and this industry suffered major labor shortage as a result. In one high-profile lawsuit, an appeals court found that FedEx incorrectly classified their drivers as contractors, despite the fact that FedEx required workers to wear FedEx uniforms, drive FedEx vehicles, and groom themselves according to the standards of FedEx. While on-demand workers face slightly different requirements from their companies, the principle is very much the same. The question is: How much can a company ask of you before they should give you the same rights as their “employees” are afforded? The answer is that you can ask only so much from a worker before they are essentially a contractor "in-name-only.” It’s becoming clear that companies are taking all of the advantages they can out of the “contract” relationship they have with workers while providing none of the benefits that they would give their employees. Unfortunately, this means a lack of workers’ compensation benefits for on-demand workers. The Implications for Consumers On-demand services might seem like a great thing for consumers, for now, but there are many ways in which the relationship between workers and their companies will begin to seep into the quality of the services consumers are currently enjoying. If companies providing on-demand services fail to provide workers with adequate benefits, they will face the same challenges as the transportation industry, which is struggling to keep high-quality workers who will find more benefits and security in other labor markets. In other words, on-demand suppliers will eventually get what they pay for and, by extension, so will consumers. In that respect, the lack of protection for on-demand workers is bad for business, not just for the workers themselves, but for consumers as well.