In today’s digital world, the scope has been levelled and SMEs have also been given an opportunity to compete with the larger organizations on a global scale. With the right strategies, SMES can overcome the traditional obstacles and attain new levels of success. With the help of digital technologies, these SMEs can increase their overall visibility, control website traffic, generate leads and also increase their revenue. We are going to highlight some of the digital strategies that the SMEs can use to boost their growth and succeed in this digital driven era.
First, know your target audience: this involves carrying out market research in order to identify the ideal customer interests, behavior, and demographics. This can also include analyzing the competitor’s audience so as to utilize the loop holes with in the market and fill them in. “According to a report by Hootsuite, a staggering 4.2 billion people across the world use social media which is about 54% of the world’s population. This indicates that situating your business in the right digital position will definitely boost your profits.
Whether you’re kicking off a new campaign or looking to revamp your strategy, the lessons you’ll learn will be universal to all small business email marketing.
MailChimp is an email marketing service provider founded in 2001. It has 9 million users that collectively send over 15 billion emails through the service each month.
Hootsuite
Have a website: an SME should develop a visually appealing and user-friendly website that displays the business brand and offerings. This website should be fast and mobile friendly. It should also be optimized for the different search engines for example google, Bing, yahoo and many others with relevant keywords and tags. Research shows that SMEs with a website experience an average increase of 18% in sales (source: Gartner 2020). The website will increase the business’ global reach and presence.
Zuktech.com
Make use of Social Media : this involves choosing relevant social media platforms that are in line with the business target market. Platforms such as linked in, Facebook, Instagram, twitter. Businesses will then create engaging content that matches with the type of audience being targeted and also utilize the paid social media paid ads to reach a wider audience. It has been seen that 85% of customers search online before making purchase (source: HubSpot, 2020). This shows that businesses should utilize their online presence very well in order to reach a wider market view.
Email marketing: businesses should start utilizing email marketing by sending direct email messages to their individual customers’ inbox informing them of the available services offered by the business. Businesses should create targeted campaigns based on customer behavior and preference. These targeted campaigns increase efficiency by targeting specific audience and preventing wastage of resources on uninterested people. Businesses can also utilize automation tools to personalize and optimize email sequences. These automation tools are very time saving as they can automate repetitive tasks and also streamline processes by making them more efficient.
Content marketing; This involves coming up with a content strategy that addresses the customer interests. Coming up with a content strategy involves defining the business goals, knowing one’s audience, conducting a content audit which assesses the existing content’s performance and relevance, creating a content calendar and many more. Content marketing also involves creating various content types for example videos, blogposts, eBooks, infographics and so many more. This enables the business to cater for different learning styles, showcase brand versatility and improve engagement. Businesses should also repurpose content across all the social media platforms in order to increase reach.
Leverage customer reviews: businesses should encourage customers to leave reviews on their websites and social media pages. These reviews serve as social evidence for building up trust with potential customers and also greatly influence the purchasing decision of the customers as it shoes that 80% of customers online trust business reviews and make their decisions based on them. Business reviews also increase the competitive advantage of the business as businesses with higher ratings and reviews are highly competitive. Businesses should also be in position to respond to the negative reviews made and use them to better their services.
Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising; This involves choosing platforms such as google ads, Facebook ads and should create targeted ads with relevant and compelling copies and keywords. PPC is such a measurable and trackable means of advertising as it for example shows the ranking of your ad as compared to other ads and also the percentage of people who see and click on your ad. The business should also set budgets and bids based on the business’ Return On Investment.
In today’s digital world, businesses need to be very flexible, customer centered and data driven for them to succeed. By using the above strategies, businesses are in position to create a powerful marketing success formula that ignites growth, return and long term success. Don’t just be competitive, keep ahead of the curve and watch yourself thrive in this digital era.
