Digital Branding Tips for Your SMB
in Marketing by David Nartin
- Make a Website That Is Easy to Use
The logo is your company's visual identity, and the website is your company's digital marketplace. Your visitors anticipate a simple, pleasant experience when they visit your website. For consistency, your website should have the same color as your logo. To make it easy for users to navigate your website, the design should be basic and appealing, and the navigation should be straightforward. You can also perform the following to make your website more user-friendly:
Accelerate it.
Enhance the design of your website.
Make sure your CTAs are easily visible on your page.
Ensure that your material is distinctive and appealing, and that it can be indexed by search engines.
- Fine-tune your brand's message
To reach out to potential customers and stand out from the competition, your company requires powerful brand message. The messaging for your brand should be clear and consistent.
- Promote Your Business on Social Media
Because social media is used by 53% of the world's population, you can't afford to ignore its reach and impact when it comes to digital branding. Because a large portion of your target audience is likely to learn more about your business through social media, you want your small business to remain visible on major social media networks. Here are some ideas for how your company might use social media to make a name for itself.
Make your profiles and sites appealing to the eye.
Determine your competitors' social media presence by conducting a competition study.
Create a calendar to organize and share your posts, and stick to it.
Make use of videos and photos to increase the visibility of your postings.
Make use of hashtags to market your business.
To save time and effort, use social media marketing tools.
Ensure that your brand's messaging is consistent across all social media platforms.
- Use SEO to boost your online visibility.
SEO is a critical component of successful digital branding, particularly for small and medium businesses. Your firm will be easily visible on search engines if you have a good SEO strategy in place. To improve your web presence, follow these guidelines:
Determine the terms that bring in the most traffic.
When developing your site, make sure to follow Google's Webmaster Guidelines to make it easier for Google to find, index, and rank it.
Use proper schema markup to define your content and publish original, compelling, and engaging material.
Optimize the best-performing content; Google considers age as one of the variables in determining search rankings, thus an item that appears on the first page of search results today may decline in rankings after a few months. Make sure you update and republish content on a regular basis.
Make sure your site is mobile-friendly and that all of your pages have the appropriate meta tags.
Make your CTAs more conversion-friendly.
- Make your website mobile-friendly.
There's no denying that mobile marketing is more important than ever, with an increasing number of consumers exploring and making purchases on their smartphones and tablets. Although investing in mobile-specific marketing might be costly, especially if you're just getting started in digital marketing, you can take the first step by making sure your company's website is mobile-friendly.
Deborah Sweeney, CEO of MyCorporation.com, clearly summarizes this tip:
"Make sure you have an updated, mobile-friendly website with a modern, clear design that is easy to access across all devices."
Fortunately, most website builders, such as Squarespace or Wix, and specialist ecommerce systems, such as Shopify and BigCommerce, have already done the legwork for you. Themes and templates that are already mobile-friendly are usually available using these tools. All you have to do now is make sure you're using one of these templates and test how things look and work on a mobile device as you add or alter your website.
Furthermore, if you've already invested in a website builder or ecommerce platform, this is a very low-cost digital marketing strategy. You'll only have to pay more if you want to use a paid theme or other features that aren't included.
- Connect with Customers Through Email Marketing Campaigns
While some may argue that email marketing is no longer effective, the majority of small businesses still utilize it to maintain personal relationships with their customers.
In 2020, more than half of small firms (54%) intend to employ email marketing as part of their overall digital marketing strategy.
According to HubSpot, 80 percent of business leaders feel email marketing helps them retain customers. According to the State of Email Marketing survey, nearly 60% of respondents claim marketing emails influence their purchasing decisions.
"Email marketing is critical for customer retention," said Ryan Masten, the founder of Earn2Trade, a small education and financial firm. "Because you're connecting directly with your customers, there's a lot more possibility for personalization and customisation with an email."
Customers return because of the personalisation.
Email marketing has an influence that extends beyond a clogged inbox. It's a crucial piece of digital marketing equipment for small firms trying to broaden their brand's reach and influence.
Lauren Herpich, the owner of Local Culinary Adventures, a food tour company in California, had planned to increase her Google and Facebook advertising prior to the COVID-19 stoppage.
"However, in order to cut marketing expenditures, I'm putting more emphasis on my email list and making that monthly Mailchimp subscription work harder for me," Herpich explained.
Herpich is focusing on email marketing rather than paying for Google and Facebook ads.
Herpich just sent out an email announcing the launch of the company's newest incentive, the Local Love Gift Box, which includes a variety of her culinary favorites from the Oakland, Calif., food tours.
People can purchase the boxes and eat the food while staying put. A dollar from each transaction goes to a local food bank and a nonprofit that provides food delivery.
Herpich's email list has proven to be an efficient means of spreading the message.
"I had my first order from someone on my mailing list within 32 minutes of pushing send," Herpich said. "It's easy to make it a more one-to-one communication channel since I can tailor the messaging using merge tags in the subject line and in the email copy."
During this moment, a lot of things aren't going as planned for businesses. Email, for example, can create a sense of stability while yet serving as an urgent communication method.
