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With the COVID-19 unlock protocol in action, the small and medium business organizations have already started to adapt. Most of the small and medium business organizations have figured out ways to stay afloat because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the lack of physical options, at present more and more companies are using the digital landscape.

During the downtime of Coronavirus, the small businesses have had the opportunity to figure out what digital marketing strategies would actually work. Even though this is still a bit of a challenging time, this can be a good time for the business leaders to take a hard look at the digital marketing techniques.

Digital marketing has entirely remodeled the way in which Micro; Small & Medium Enterprises engage and connect to their customers. There is no doubt in it. Digital marketing is here to stay. Business enterprises, be it micro, small, or medium, should think of ways to operate around it. Also, the number of small to medium businesses rising up is increasing every year. The competition is literally cut-throat.

Under such circumstances, there are certain ways with which SME’s can manage their digital marketing inventory.

SL.NO.	Digital Marketing Elements	Statistics
	Email Marketing	Welcome emails have an average open rate of 82%.
2.	Social Media Marketing	More than 55% of the buyers do their research on social media.
3.	E-Commerce	43% of the e-commerce traffic comes from organic Google searches.
4.	Mobile Marketing	93% of the millennials compare online deals using mobile phones.
5.	SEO	72% of the marketers describe online content creation as the most effective SEO strategy.
6.	Online Shopping	More than 1.66 billion people shop online every year.
7.	Video Marketing	Having a video thumbnail in the search doubles the search traffic.
8.	Content Creation	Content creation leads to 434% more indexed pages than websites without updated content.
9.	Online Ads	Global digital ad spends will reach $389bn in 2021.
10.	Omnichannel personalization	Omnichannel campaigns offer a 250% higher purchase rate.

 

What are ways SME’s can use the digital marketing inventory in 2021?

1. Enhance your brand visibility

Content marketing, social media, and search engine optimization are some of the most important elements of digital marketing inventory. If a small or medium business can keep its website optimized, share relevant content with the users and build up a positive brand image on social media, it can draw the attention of the target audience. Also, this will help in drawing up new business opportunities.

The majority of people search online before making any purchase. Thus, most of the customers think that if the company is not available on Google, then probably it is not a worthy/reliable company. Thus, Google offers businesses the option to interact with a wider array of audiences that are otherwise difficult to reach through traditional marketing. With almost five billion people having access to the internet today, there are a plethora of opportunities that small businesses can use to grow.

2. Everything starts with awareness, no shortcuts there

There is no denying the fact that we cannot change something that we are not aware of. Every successful brand/business strategy starts with developing brand awareness. Yes, it will take some time, but it will be worth it. Also, the good news is, through social media for small businesses, you can increase the reach shortly. With the right targeting, you will be able to promote your business and product at a much faster pace.

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Thus, take a moment to set up your company profile and account on different social media platforms. You will be surprised to know that a lot of pages don’t even have their website linked with their social media pages. Sometimes there are broken links to one of the social pages. This is something that any business organization has to avoid carefully. As an emerging business, you have to create a spider web of links from one account to the other.

3. Consider the reviews

It is highly unlikely that the shoppers of the present day will purchase a product blindly without checking any reviews. Consumers rely heavily on online reviews and they have the same role and importance as a recommendation from a friend. Did you know that 84% of consumers consider online reviews as important as personal recommendations?

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Thus, make sure you show off your online reviews. Because sharing positive customer reviews will do more than just show people are satisfied with your services. It will also enable them to trust you and your brand to get the job done for them. They will trust your brand to bring the same positive results. Thus, for any digital marketing inventory, the reviews and testimonials are powerful assets.

4. Create a CRM for added personalization

Social CRM is a concept that has not been around for too long. The social customer relationship software will merge the social data along with the traditional CRM entries like email and purchase history for offering a thorough overview of the individual’s online profile. This will allow you in seeing the customer’s interactions along with your brand on any channel and offer you better insights into who they are.

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This will also enable you in encouraging a customer to buy more products and services. Personalized experience and suggestions according to the individual’s purchasing behavior will show the customer that you care about their exact requirements. Investing in the relationship with your consumer will increase the chances that they will also show interest in your brand.

5. Keep creating live videos

You cannot ignore the live sessions on the different social media platforms. The live video sessions have been there for a while. Did you know that Facebook live video offers 6 times more interactions than traditional videos and 80% of the users are interested in watching a brand’s live sessions?

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The point is live video on Facebook or Instagram is a great way of capturing attention and drawing the viewers to your message. In a live video, one expects the raw behind-the-scenes footage of any company. This is the “real image” of your brand. When you offer a true taste of your small business on social media, it adds authenticity to the content and helps in bringing the element of trust.

6. Be responsive and engaging

Now, this is something that every brand has to do in its own way. Yes, it is true that a lot of well-known brands have their own ways of engaging the audience. However, that doesn’t mean you cannot come up with your ways. Remember, social media never sleeps, even for a small business. Thus, you have to interact and be responsive towards your audience. A lot of consumers love to communicate with businesses through social media because it is quick and convenient.

As an SME it is very important to interact with your audience because it will position you as a brand that cares and takes time to reply quickly. Also, remember that people love to do business with real people, irrespective of the size of the business. Also, customers expect quick responses. Thus, it is important to make sure your business is responsive enough to offer quick solutions.

7. Listen, really listen

It is important to remember that a lot of conversations happen outside of the channels you use. Listen to your audience because it is all about them. This is one of the key factors while using digital marketing strategies for SMEs. Social listening is a reliable source for picking up the most relevant social media chatter about your brand or your competitor’s brand.

This helps in modifying and strengthening your online presence accordingly. The present mindset is people are more interested in companies that have an ulterior mission. For instance, they want to see the mission behind the pictures of pizza that a brand shares! Social listening is also something that you can use to find inspiration from your competitors in your domain.

8. Invest in local marketing

If your business is operating in the local market, it is important to take advantage of the digital marketing strategies that appeal to and relate to the audience. Along with creating a Google My Business listing, you can also edit your business listing on other local search directories. These include Bing or Yelp. Also, you can consider other local marketing strategies as follows:

• Create Google Ads or social media ads targeting a specific geographic area.
• Create a direct mail campaign in the local area.
• Host or participate in a community event or webinar.
  

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Yes, some of these strategies might fall outside the purview of digital marketing but you can tie them in by adding your business’s website and social media handles to the materials or information that you offer around a local community.

9. Create a reliable email list and leverage email marketing

This is one of the most effective digital marketing tactics out there. Email marketing will not be out of date. Even when we are approaching 2021, email marketing has proved to be one of the most effective digital marketing strategies for small and medium business organizations. Whether it is a consumer or a buyer, regardless of their age, email is checked by everyone. Thus, you have to take advantage of the possibilities of email.

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Build a reliable email list and then you can send out a monthly email newsletter or send out regular messages with special offers, discounts, news, and more. However, you have to have a strong target audience. Email marketing is highly effective but if you don’t have the right people to email then it is not worth it. You can use different types of emails like transactional emails, promotional emails, and relational emails.

10. Increase the use of AI

Yes, it is true that a lot of businesses don’t use AI and machine learning internally, a lot of them will use it as an external service because it is a major part of organic and paid search. It also offers a lot of help in customizing Google Ads.

Source – Statista

You might have seen the SMART prefix attached with more and more Google Services. The goal is to help SME’s to deal with the complexity of the ads and increase ROI. For instance, Smart Goals in Analytics, Smart Campaigns in Google Ads, Smart Bidding, and more.

A lot of people might think that automation might reduce control. However, it is better for SMEs if they embrace AI and ML. For instance, the Smart Bidding feature of Google can help in managing the bidding throughout large product inventories in Google Shopping.

11. Ad Optimization Testing

In 2021, Google Ad optimization testing will become more sophisticated. More than 2/3rds of the ad spend is now going on Google and Facebook. Thus, optimization on these platforms has become more and more important.

Only 9% of the marketers can predict the impact of a 10% shift in the marketing spends. Thus, using creative optimization is more important for understanding the complex customer journey throughout mobile and desktop devices.

For instance, on Facebook, an ad can appear in different placements like Facebook News Feed, Instagram Stories, Reels, or on Instant Articles. Thus, a lot of companies are working on ad optimization using Facebook’s new ad placement customization for reaching their goals.

12. Change in Visual Designs

Throughout any communication channel, the first impressions are important. Thus, the trends in visual and graphic design will have an effect on developing likeness for a brand. Anyone can call out a dating website these days. Therefore any small or medium business company should consider using visual designs of popular sites with which the audience is familiar. The design patterns that will be trending in 2021 are as follows:

• Muted color palettes
• Color gradients
• Abstract & dreamy illustrations
• Bold/heavy yet simple fonts
• Flowing lines and shapes
• Use of stock photos
• Minimalistic design for the landing pages
• Better animations for branding

13. Consider innovations with more interactive design and video for more conversion

SMEs’ can use the following interactive design techniques for more engagement and conversions.

• Use micro-interactions – interactions apart from simple clicks on the static links to other pages
• Animated illustrations
• Use Neumorphism – Design elements created in a realistic way for matching real life
• 3D graphics for web and mobile UI
• Use of more AR & VR
• Asymmetric layouts
• Visual storytelling – using the brand names as much as possible in a blurred format

14. More use of targeted influencers

Influencer marketing is on the rise because it is an organic opportunity for better content distribution. Also, influencer marketing has the potential for better engagement, more endorsements, and recommendations. Influencers can be content creators, social influencers, event speakers, industry analysts, brand employees, other brands, media houses, and publications. With more focus on performance and ROI, influencer marketing tools will also continue to evolve.

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15. Consider the sophistication of website personalization

72% of the customers only engage with personalized or tailored marketing messages. Also, 86% of the consumers are concerned about data privacy. This is why it is important to explain the value proposition of data collection to ensure customers about their privacy. This makes them feel valued.

Apart from retail and transactional e-commerce, the use of personalized content is low but this will increase because platform providers are making things easier. For instance, Hubspot’s Smart Content Criteria helps in personalizing web pages and emails.

16. Omni-Channel marketing along with social commerce

• 87% of e-commerce shoppers believe that social media helps in making better shopping decisions.
• More than 80% of the SME’s use Facebook for selling and promotional purposes.
• More than 40% of the merchants make use of social media for generating sales.
• 30% of the consumers say that they would purchase directly through social media platforms.
  

Source – Statista

Thus, it is pretty clear that social commerce is increasing and will continue to grow. For SME’s it is imperative to make use of multiple social media platforms for business growth.

17. Improve customer communication for increasing loyalty and advocacy

SME’s need to increase the use of techniques for understanding and improving customer journey. A/B testing is a great way to support conversion. However, most business organizations don’t use techniques for assessing the voice of the customer.

18. Using the micro-communities

A lot of small and medium business organizations don’t use the communities effectively. There are a lot of online communities where digital marketers think that they would learn a lot from each other. However, the reality is, online communities are quite different from what they promise.

Either the groups become inactive once the members realize that they have very little in common, or they stay active but end up in a stream of nothing more than self-promotions. There are groups on Reddit that don’t indulge in topics of discussion because they are held back due to miscommunications among different participants.

Instead, the micro-communities are on the rise. As an SME you can choose one or two other companies and colleagues, choose a few mentors outside of your bubble, and then build your own sounding board if you want to have an honest and in-depth conversation.

19. Improve email personalization through lifecycle and behavioral segmentation

Personalized email marketing delivers more relevant communication through the customer lifecycle. Most businesses are using email marketing automation for quite some time now. However, ‘Lifecycle Email Marketing’ is the new talk of the town. This is the trend that integrates different channels with email marketing to prospects and customers. Thus, Lifecycle email marketing is treated as the better and more integrated version of social, web, display, and personal ads.

20. Use Machine Learning for creating more engaging communications

Along with the targeting techniques, machine learning has got a major role to play. It increases relevance and offers a more personal tone. Machine Learning is used by digital marketing companies all over the globe as it increases personalization.

Customers want to feel that the brand is speaking directly to them. Also, it helps in optimizing content. Machine learning helps in crafting content that resonates better with the audience. Machine learning helps in smart bidding and using chatbots in the best way as well.

To sum it up, these are the best ways for SMEs to use digital marketing strategies for their business. The good news is, these are not something extraordinary or expensive. Thus, if you are a small or medium business organization facing budget-constraints, still you can create effective digital marketing strategies to transform your business.