It’s hard for us in the digital marketing industry to comprehend, yet there are still many businesses who rely mainly on traditional marketing initiatives – print, radio, TV, and even word of mouth – to attract new business. Digital marketing can be expensive and results are not always immediate. Cost is the reason most often stated by companies that haven’t gone digital as yet. So what can you do to incorporate some digital marketing into your traditional marketing to remain competitive?
A Responsive Website
Although many small businesses have websites, the sites are typically older and haven’t been updated in years. Spend some money and update your site. Modernize the design and add some fresh and useful content. Even if you can’t update the site as regularly as you would like, it needs to give a basic overview of your business, your products and/or services. Your site also needs to be responsive. That is, it needs to be able to fit any size screen that it’s displayed on, as mobile browsing and buying have recently overtaken desktop browsing.
A Social Media Presence
If you want to establish a digital presence for free, Facebook is the first stop. While not every company needs to have a presence on every social media site, having a company Facebook page is almost like having a website. Besides, when you do get to update your site content or have an in-store sale, Facebook is the perfect way to make your followers aware of your site updates.
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An Engaging Blog
Blogs are a great way to add some new content to your site on a regular basis and build an audience of loyal followers. Do you have a restaurant, cafe, or other food service website? Blog about interesting recipes or seasonal foods. Are you in the insurance business? Blog about different kinds of insurance or ways to keep costs down. The point is, make your blog interesting and relevant. This way, people will keep coming back. They’re also a great way to boost your website’s SEO, as new relevant content is something that Google loves.
Email Marketing Campaign
Reach customers effectively and build a loyal following with an email marketing campaign. If you own a brick and mortar store, you can have people sign up as they check out. Send them newsletters with information about the store, any special events that you might be having, new products, sales and coupons, etc. The possibilities are limitless. Using your email open rate, you can learn what kind of topics and events are relative to your audience and adjust your marketing to target those individuals.
As you can see, there are many different ways to reach out and incorporate digital strategies and tactics into a traditional plan. If you are considering a local SEO campaign for Long Island or New York City, you would want to take advantage of these tools and market specifically to your local customer base. Long Island SEO tactics differ from tactics used for national campaigns. While ads in local publications can be a good way of getting exposure, you don’t know how many people actually saw your ad. An email marketing campaign, however, will tell how many people know about your latest in store promotion. Whatever your annual marketing budget, there are cost-effective ways to integrate the strength of digital marketing while still retaining some of your proven traditional marketing methods.
