Which digital marketing tips for small busi­nesses actually work?

Online marketing can be an at­tract­ive ad­vert­ising solution for small busi­nesses. Even with a small budget, many potential customers can be reached through online channels. The scaling of costs works very well. Our tips reveal the most important channels and how to use them.

Tip 1: Use your website as a digital business card

Your own website is prac­tic­ally the hub of all your small business online marketing efforts and is often the first point of contact for potential customers who have questions about your products or business. When creating your website, it’s essential to consider whether you’re operating an online store or providing purely in­form­at­ive content and always take into account the ex­pect­a­tions and desires of your (potential) customers. Almost all possible online marketing measures lead users to your website, which is why it plays a key role.

Why is your own website so important?

The company website provides all the key details about the business for those who are in­ter­ested. At the same time, it can be a powerful tool to drive sales. Many busi­nesses choose to integrate their online store directly into the homepage. High­light­ing current in-store pro­mo­tions there can also help boost revenue.

How do you create a good website?

Your website must appeal to your target audience—both in design and content. To help consumers find your site through search engines, you should also research industry-specific keywords and in­cor­por­ate them into your website.

Are there tools for creating your own website?

Even beginners have plenty of options to set up a website quickly and af­ford­ably. Using a content man­age­ment system (CMS) like WordPress, a website builder, or a static site generator, creating an im­press­ive website is achiev­able for novices.

Tip 2: Engage target audiences via social media

The most promising strategy is to reach people where they already are: on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, and similar networks. However, these platforms differ, and so do their target audiences. While there is overlap, not every customer is active on every platform. Using social media marketing ef­fect­ively means primarily un­der­stand­ing your target audience ac­cur­ately. Are your audiences more at home on Facebook or Instagram? To minimise wasted efforts in your marketing activ­it­ies, you should address questions like these upfront.

What potential does social media marketing offer?

Every marketing team dreams of their campaigns on social networks going viral. This means the ad­vert­ising message is shared by users them­selves—without ad­di­tion­al costs or effort. To achieve this, the content must appeal to the platform’s users enough for them to vol­un­tar­ily share the post (be it an image, video, or text) with friends, family, or ac­quaint­ances.

How does good social media marketing work?

Honesty and an un­der­stand­ing of the target audience are fun­da­ment­al for suc­cess­fully executing online marketing for small busi­nesses and medium-sized busi­nesses on social networks. Engaging deeply with the community is mandatory. Social media should not be viewed as a one-way street: companies should strive to respond ef­fect­ively to the audience and any feedback expressed, instead of just sending ad­vert­ising messages to the target audience without ad­dress­ing possible questions. In­ter­ac­tion with the audience strengthens customer loyalty and provides valuable in­form­a­tion. In social media, you get direct feedback that would be difficult to solicit in other areas.

Are there tools available for social media marketing?

When managing content across multiple platforms sim­ul­tan­eously, it’s easy to lose track. With the right social media tools, your workload becomes sig­ni­fic­antly easier because you can schedule posts in advance, monitor reactions, and com­mu­nic­ate with the community more ef­fect­ively. Many tools also make teamwork in social media marketing easier.

Tip 3: Authentic ad­vert­ising through in­flu­en­cer marketing

In recent years, the already dynamic ad­vert­ising industry has been sig­ni­fic­antly trans­formed by in­flu­en­cer marketing. While brands used to primarily rely on well-known movie and TV stars as brand am­bas­sad­ors, in­flu­en­cers are now in­creas­ingly becoming part of online marketing—and are very in­ter­est­ing for small and medium-sized busi­nesses (SMBs) as well. Their fans usually perceive them as very authentic, which is why their ad­vert­ising messages are con­sidered highly credible. When in­flu­en­cers promote products, their fans, followers, or sub­scribers generally believe in the in­flu­en­cer’s genuine en­thu­si­asm for the product or brand.

What makes in­flu­en­cer marketing so valuable?

In­flu­en­cers are typically digital natives: they’re at home on social media and know their audience inside and out. As a result, they often hit the right tone for the target audience more ef­fect­ively than any marketing de­part­ment could. Ad­di­tion­ally, the in­flu­en­cer’s positive image is trans­ferred to the promoted brand or product.

How does good in­flu­en­cer marketing work?

The most important success factor is selecting the ideal brand am­bas­sad­or. For nearly every market segment, there are suitable in­flu­en­cers. While they might not have as large a reach as the biggest social media stars, they do have a dedicated fan base with an interest in a specific subject area. Col­lab­or­a­tion with so-called micro-in­flu­en­cers is generally more af­ford­able than with the major industry stars—but it can still have a sub­stan­tial impact if it allows you to precisely reach your target audience.

Are there tools available for in­flu­en­cer marketing?

In­flu­en­cers handle the majority of the work them­selves—and that’s how it should be. These social media celebrit­ies know best how to reach their audience. If you set too many guidelines, the campaign might not work, or the in­flu­en­cer may not agree to the col­lab­or­a­tion or end it early.

Tip 4: Create value with content marketing

In content marketing, companies create their own content perceived by readers as helpful or en­ter­tain­ing. An own blog is ideal for this: Companies can publish targeted content for their specific audience. Instead of pushing a specific product with direct ad­vert­ising messages, content marketing increases brand awareness over time and con­trib­utes to a positive company image.

What are the strengths of content marketing?

Content developed within a content marketing campaign should offer genuine value to the target audience. When this is achieved, it resonates pos­it­ively with the intended readers—an im­pres­sion that reflects well on the entire company. Moreover, strong content marketing attracts sig­ni­fic­ant traffic, bringing more visitors to the website and ul­ti­mately boosting the like­li­hood of con­ver­sions.

What makes good content marketing?

Creating content for suc­cess­ful online marketing involves con­sid­er­able effort, but even small and medium-sized en­ter­prises (SMEs) can manage it. Quality should always be pri­or­it­ised. It’s better to write fewer, but more polished texts. Fur­ther­more, content marketing is a great tool for Search Engine Op­tim­isa­tion (SEO). Therefore, it’s advisable to conduct basic keyword research before creating content, to in­cor­por­ate common search terms into it. For SMEs with retail locations, Local SEO is par­tic­u­larly in­ter­est­ing because it can also boost offline sales.

Are there tools available for content marketing?

While content marketing itself doesn’t require tools, content marketing tools can sig­ni­fic­antly simplify the process. For those without extensive IT knowledge, using a Content Man­age­ment System (CMS) is re­com­men­ded. This allows editors to quickly and easily integrate content into their own website.

Tip 5: Increase teach through display marketing

Among the oldest online marketing strategies is display marketing: ad­vert­ising through graphic content on websites. Although ad banners and pop-up windows have lost ef­fect­ive­ness in recent years, they should not be com­pletely ignored. A well-placed and at­tract­ively designed ad can still be very efficient.

If you want to engage in display marketing, you’ll need to book ad spaces. Payment is usually per action—either per click (CPC), per lead (CPL), or per sale (CPS). Booking is typically done through networks like Google AdSense and similar al­tern­at­ives and is executed via Real-Time Ad­vert­ising.

What can be achieved with display marketing?

With ad banners, pop-ups, and layer ads, you generally advertise a specific product, service, or offer. The ad aims to prompt your website visitors to click on the ad and, after being re­dir­ec­ted to the offer, ul­ti­mately make a purchase.

What is the key to suc­cess­ful display marketing?

Online ads should primarily grab attention and fit the brand. This may require pro­fes­sion­al help from graphic or video spe­cial­ists. Banner Blindness—the fact that many users no longer notice ads—is a real issue. If an ad isn’t well-designed, the in­vest­ment won’t pay off.

Are there tools available for display marketing?

In display marketing, it’s important to dif­fer­en­ti­ate between creating and pub­lish­ing the ad. While creating and designing require ap­pro­pri­ate image editing programs like Photoshop, there are special online tools for pub­lish­ing ads provided by specific ad networks.

Tip 6: Strengthen customer loyalty with email marketing

Email marketing is a cost-effective form of online marketing for small busi­nesses. If you have the cor­res­pond­ing email addresses and the consent of the in­di­vidu­als, you can send messages directly to each user. News­let­ters and follow-up emails allow you to inform previous customers about your offers or your business—and do so on-the-go and in a timely manner. This makes email marketing suitable for direct ad­vert­ising messages with a Call-to-Action as well as a special form of content marketing, providing your target audience with valuable in­form­a­tion.

What can be achieved through email marketing?

On the one hand, email marketing aims to strengthen customer loyalty; on the other, it’s designed to trigger pur­chas­ing decisions. A typical news­let­ter might include company or product updates. It can also highlight limited-time offers and pro­mo­tions, en­cour­aging quick action from re­cip­i­ents.

How does effective email marketing work?

The most crucial part of email marketing is ensuring your emails are not perceived as spam—either by automated filters or by the users them­selves. This means you must be thought­ful both when creating content and choosing the sending frequency. Send only emails that provide real value to your customers and avoid sending mails too often. Moreover, you must ensure com­pli­ance with current privacy laws. Therefore, include only those in­di­vidu­als in your dis­tri­bu­tion list who have agreed to receive your news­let­ter.

Are there tools available for email marketing?

If you want to reach several thousand users (or more) with email marketing, you’ll need email marketing software for managing addresses. Online, you’ll find various platforms to create pro­fes­sion­al campaigns, design emails, and perform analyses.

Ad­di­tion­al tips and tricks for SMBs and online marketing

Aside from the outlined dis­cip­lines, there are essential online marketing tips for small busi­nesses to consider. Following these tips can sig­ni­fic­antly ease your marketing efforts. As a startup founder, you already have your hands full. So, take into account the following tips to develop suc­cess­ful marketing campaigns in a short time:

• Mobile first: Ensure that all your marketing efforts are fully effective on smart­phones and tablets. This Mobile-First approach is par­tic­u­larly important in designing ads and content.
• Observe the industry: To achieve success, it’s often helpful to review how com­pet­it­ors conduct their marketing strategies and build their campaigns.
• Analyse impact: Don’t choose and implement online marketing actions solely based on instinct. Instead, con­sist­ently evaluate which strategies have proven suc­cess­ful and might work again, which need im­prove­ment, and which have brought no success at all.
• Com­mu­nic­ate with the community: The internet gives every customer the op­por­tun­ity to express them­selves. Regularly evaluate these opinions and respond ob­ject­ively and rel­ev­antly to negative reviews.
• Hire pro­fes­sion­als: Even with a small budget, consider seeking help from pro­fes­sion­al marketing experts, designers, and community managers. Instead of spending time and money on numerous in­ef­fect­ive strategies, you can focus on at least one online marketing channel ef­fect­ively with pro­fes­sion­al help.