Best Digital Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

People spend roughly seven hours online every day. Meanwhile, time spent watching TV has been decreasing in the last few years. In 2021, Americans only spent approximately three hours watching TV per day. There’s a clear shift in consumer behavior, and businesses need to adjust in order to stay afloat. Fortunately, digital marketing outshines traditional marketing by a long shot. In addition to being cheaper, it’s easier and quicker to reach people through social media, messaging apps, email, and informative blog articles. Plus, businesses can put themselves in the spotlight by collaborating with influencers, perfecting SEO, creating engaging content, and more. And the best part is that there are various affordable digital marketing tools to help you out.

How To Create a Budget-Friendly Digital Marketing Strategy

Traditional marketing is gradually declining as companies are shifting their focus to digital marketing. First of all, most people are ditching cable for streaming services to save money. Secondly, producing TV commercials and getting them to run during prime time is overly expensive. In the meantime, reaching potential customers through videos uploaded to the internet is completely free, as creating an account on YouTube and social media platforms doesn’t cost a dime.

But standing out in such a saturated industry is challenging, and a carefully planned strategy is necessary. Since digital marketing allows for precise targeting, it’s essential that you have a well-defined buyer persona. After that, it’s time to check the landscape. This means finding out which websites your target audience uses, as well as what they search for. Additionally, you should go over your competitor’s digital presence to know their game plan. Then, it’s time to set up clear goals and build your strategy and marketing tactics accordingly.

Finally, remember to evaluate what’s working and what isn’t. If an email marketing campaign is not yielding the desired results, go with another tactic. Nothing is permanent in the digital world, so be ready to adjust your marketing strategy in real time.

Recommended Digital Marketing Tools

Pairing a rock-solid digital presence with creative content is key to successfully market products and services online. Customers value the online activity of companies, but a business also needs to resonate with them. Fortunately, building a digital marketing campaign catered to specific customers is made easier by the various tools available.

Email Marketing Software: AWeber

Some people underrate email marketing due to how old-school it is. This is a rookie mistake because emails reach everyone regardless of their age. AWeber lets businesses customize their email marketing campaigns in various ways. The software offers signup forms and editable newsletter templates, but what really sells it is the drag-and-drop editor. Combined with its fully customizable templates, it’s easy to design aesthetic business emails. There’s also a feature to segment customers based on demographic factors and build targeted email campaigns, not to mention that you can preview and send three versions of the same email to know which one works best. Although the price for the service increases depending on the number of subscribers, it’s still very much affordable. But if nothing else, the 30-day free trial will most likely convince you to give the service a chance. Read our AWeber review.

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Webinar Marketing: LiveWebinar

An informative webinar where you showcase a product in a fun and informal style can be the push your prospects need to go all in on what your business has to offer. This is where LiveWebinar drops in – a browser-based webinar platform that lets users sign up and start broadcasting without having to download a specific plugin or application. There’s no limit to the number of presenters, so your entire team can join in. The solution comes with several features to make your webinars more engaging, such as breakout rooms, polls, Q&A, and a whiteboard. Additionally, it’s possible to record your session and email it to your attendees after the presentation. LiveWebinar is available for free but only supports a maximum of five attendees. So, subscribing to a paid plan is worthwhile. The best part is that you can test all additional features for 14 days at zero cost. Read our LiveWebinar review.

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SMS Marketing: TextMagic

While email and social media marketing are effective, it’s impossible to ensure that your customers will see your messages. That’s where SMS marketing comes in, which provides a more immediate interaction and a higher open rate. TextMagic may be the perfect addition to your mobile marketing campaign, offering the ability to contact clients in a more timely, selective, and personal manner. Whether you’re just starting out or have been around the block a few times, this SMS marketing service will save you time and trouble. TextMagic offers bulk SMS, SMS-to-email conversion, message templates, contact subscription management, and more. It also comes with SMS automation, allowing you to create rules for keywords that perform certain actions depending on the client’s response, such as adding them to a newsletter list if they reply to your text with ‘subscribe’. Plus, more advanced users can opt to integrate the service’s SMS API with their own system. The cherry on top is that TextMagic provides a 30-day free trial and a money-back guarantee, meaning anyone can try out the service risk free. Read our TextMagic review.

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How To Grow Your Business With Digital Marketing

Digital marketing connects businesses to customers wherever they may be. It increases the brand’s visibility, which helps generate leads and increase sales. There’s a whole world of online marketing tactics waiting to be explored, and it’s more than possible to promote a business free of charge. Before anything, make sure your business has a website. Many website builders provide their services for free, allowing you to have a professional webpage to share with your customers. Of course, this is where SEO comes in, and writing content containing the right keywords makes a big difference.

Moreover, remember to create social media accounts for your business. It costs nothing to sign up, and you’ll immediately open another gateway for customers to interact with your brand. Email marketing is another way to connect with customers, but you’ll have to build an email list first. Although it takes more time to get noticeable results, email marketing is still the one with the highest ROI.

If you don’t mind spending a bit of money on digital advertising, PPC (pay-per-click) ads are definitely worth exploring. Customers see your ads, but you only pay based on whether they click on them. Collaborating with micro-influencers in your niche is also ideal, as it allows your business to reach users who are already interested in the kind of product or service you offer.

Additional Digital Marketing Resources

Digital marketing is here to stay. New marketing tools are launched every day, so it’s important to know how to promote a small business online to flourish in such a competitive market. Another way to reach buyers globally is by setting up an ecommerce store that allows customers to purchase products online, all from the comfort of their homes. Finally, there are plenty of tools to help you implement a winning content marketing strategy and increase your customers’ engagement.