What is digital marketing for small businesses? A definition and 5 types
As the name implies, online marketing is a broad category that represents any type of marketing activity that takes place through digital methods. Anything from an optimized website to a paid Facebook campaign to emailing customers for reviews.
In essence, marketing is your overall approach …
Although they’re often treated interchangeably, advertising is part of a marketing strategy—a subset of tactics designed explicitly to drive action; namely, generate leads or sales.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s break small business marketing into the following five online types:
1. Search engine marketing (SEM)
Imagine you need some home repairs done. What do you do? Take out your smartphone and Google “handyman near me.”
Do you see the little green boxes that say “Ad”? That’s search engine marketing (SEM) at work—more accurately, Google Ads (Google Adwords).
Using this tactic, businesses pay to have their company displayed on the search results pages, with the goal of getting more people to visit their site and, hopefully, buy their products or use their services.
You’ll also hear it referred to as paid search marketing or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising because how much you spend typically depends on how many clicks your ads generate.
A free search engine tactic is to claim your Google My Business listing. This allows you to update and verify the information that users see when they search for your business (including Google Maps).
2. Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is closely related to SEM. The difference is that SEM requires direct dollars (CPC or PPC), whereas SEO centers on behind the scenes tactics to increase your website’s organic ranking on what are called SERPs (search engine results pages).
SEO still costs, but they’re indirect dollars either in the form of your own time or hiring a specialist.
The basics of SEO involve keyword research and keyword placement into your website so that search engines can tell what your small business is about.
For instance, if you were looking for a place to grab a coffee in Appleton, WI, you’d Google “coffee shop Appleton, WI.”
Yelp and TripAdvisor come up first—and you should be on those platforms, too (more on that in a following section). Below them, we see results for local coffee shops—like Tempest Coffee, All Seasons Coffeehouse, and Copper Rock Coffee Company.
All of these businesses have optimized their websites, likely using both short-tail and long-tail keywords. What are those?
- Short-tail keywords: One-to-three words that capture the core of a business’ products or services: e.g., “coffee shop.”
- Long-tail keywords: Three words or more that are detailed, specific, and will return more targeted results: “coffee shop in Appleton, WI.”
Optimizing your site for search engines is typically considered one of the basics of digital marketing, as even small changes can help you win more traffic and, ideally, new customers.
3. Social media marketing
Research shows that the average person will spend nearly two and a half hours on social media every single day.
That’s why more small businesses are investing time, energy, and money into their social media marketing channels than ever before. Networks like:
- Facebook
- Instagram
- TikTok
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Pinterest
- And more
It’s likely you already have one or more social profiles set up for your business. If so, before launching paid campaigns, it may be time to clean up your social presence.
The popularity of social media has resulted in the emergence of a fresh approach known as influencer marketing. This involves collaborating with individuals who have a significant number of followers or a specific target audience, in order to advertise a business, product, or service to their personal fan base.
4. Content marketing strategy
Nielsen estimates that the average adult spends over 11 hours per day interacting with media content—whether it’s watching, reading, or listening.
That’s why more and more businesses are focused on content to engage their customers, foster loyalty, and grow brand awareness.
But what exactly is “content marketing”?