SMBs Venture into New Territory with Digital Marketing

Eight Technologies Necessary to Boost Revenue and Market Share

An article in The Gazette made a vivid point about small to midsize business (SMB) marketing in the U.S.:

“… People still respond to marketing messages, but they want to consume them on their own schedule, tailored to their behaviors.”

And it’s true. In our own digital worlds, we each have our own patterns to our days and our own favorite social media outlets. As consumers, we want to be able to check our email on the go with our smartphones, check Facebook or Twitter on our breaks at work, or maybe settle down to our tablets or laptops with Pinterest or Vine videos in the evenings while relaxing. As the post describes, many Americans are “living a multi-screen life.”

The key for SMBs is to learn to adapt their marketing messages to fit into many formats and fill many screens. But this also requires the business marketer to really know the business. Knowing where and when to best send out your message to customers and potential buyers can be the difference between success and wasted time.

The Gazette points out three essential areas of successful digital marketing:

1. Having an online presence
2. Following SEO rules so your presence can be found
3. Constantly tracking and overseeing your digital reputation among online sites and platforms

The depth to which each point is relevant to your business also depends on what your business is and does. A small café might do well with a simple website with directions and menu plus a few posts on Facebook and Twitter and a thorough policing of customer comments on Yelp. However, a midsize retail store with an ecommerce site would likely require a bit larger online presence, and thus would also need a more dedicated staff to run the technology and marketing to complete the digital marketing campaign.

For the less-than-tech-savvy SMBs, though, many outlets offer services to help such smaller businesses launch their own digital marketing campaigns. Acxiom’s MyAcxiomPartner.com, Google My Business, and Facebook have all provided tools to help SMBs get their online marketing message on track and keep it there.

Kim Mays has been editing and writing about IT since 1999. She currently tackles the topics of small to midsize business technology and introducing new tools for IT. Follow Kim on Google+ at google.com/+KimberlyMays6 or Twitter @blumoonky.