If you are like most small business owners, you have to be strategic about how you spend your marketing dollars to get the best bang for your buck.

Just because you don’t have Samsung’s yearly advertising budget doesn’t mean you can’t leverage digital marketing to grow your business.

Read on to learn six awesome, affordable ways to promote your business online.

Do Your Keyword Research (Free)

It’s always good to stay on top of your search engine optimization game, and the best way to do this is through frequent keyword research. We often turn to Google Ads Keyword Planner to get started with this.

To use this tool, go to ads.google.com and sign into Google.

Once you’ve signed in, go to the Tools & Settings option, then under Planning, click Keyword Planner.

Next, click on the Discover New Keywords box and follow the prompts to find relevant keywords. You might be surprised at some of the higher-ranking keyword phrases related to your business!

Now, armed with this information, it’s time to put those keywords to work. Update your website content by strategically placing those keywords. Focus especially on using them in your titles, descriptions, and headings.

Don’t overdo it though. Your keywords should always make sense where they are placed and shouldn’t be overused. Search engines don’t like keyword stuffing, and it looks spammy and off-putting to humans.

Repeat your keyword searches often, and update your content to stay on top of any new keywords that you can use to get the leg up on your competition.

Start or Maintain a Business Blog (Free or Paid)

Remember those valuable keywords that you just mined? It’s time to put those little gems to work in a powerful way—through business blogging (*collective sigh*).

We know, writing is probably one of your favorite things next to cleaning out the gutters. And more time consuming. We actually had a client tell us that it was physically painful for him to write.

But never fear, there are freelancers and blogging services that can handle this for you. The price point will vary depending on the service. In general bloggers spend about three hours per post (depending on the topic and amount of research needed). If you go this route, look for a writer that knows how to use your keywords to create valuable posts that engage readers and enhance your SEO efforts.

If you don’t mind writing or have a staff member who will do it, aim to blog on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Be sure to utilize appropriate keywords in each post, including in the title and headings.  Also, include links within your content to other pages of your website and even outside sources. For example, if you are a caterer in Boston, you might write a post on tips for a great catered event. Within the post, link to your catering page to encourage readers to click through.

Here are some additional blogging tips to help you get the most from your blog.

If you need help getting your blog set up, we are happy to assist. Click here for a free online quote.

Blogging is the foundation for many online marketing opportunities, so the sooner you can get started on this, the better.

Utilize E-Mail Marketing Campaigns (Free or Paid)

You probably already have a list of customer emails stored somewhere. Put them to use by sending out periodic email campaigns highlighting special offers, useful information, and more.

 Most marketers agree that email marketing is a top way to generate leads—even more than social media posting.

It’s estimated that for every dollar spent on email marketing, the average ROI is around $32 (Oberlo). Not too shabby.

Use your website to collect emails through forms, newsletter/email signups, content giveaways, and the like.

Check out our recent post, Tips To Make Your Email Marketing Campaigns More Effective In 2020, for more helpful information on running your email campaigns.

Leverage Video Marketing (Free)

Video marketing is huge right now. Check out some stats on this:

• In a 2018 study, Animoto found that consumers prefer video to other types of content produced by brands they follow on social media.
• According to research by HubSpot, 54% of consumers say they want to see more videos from brands they follow.
• Around 75% of all internet traffic is video and videos are shared 1,200xs more than text and links (Infographic World).
• According to research by Search Engine Journal, YouTube is currently the world’s second largest search engine behind Google (which owns YouTube). It currently plays over one billion hours of video each day.
• Video placed on a landing page results in 80% more conversions (EyeWideDigital).

Take advantage of this opportunity to reach a new audience by highlighting your products or services, offering helpful tips, or providing other valuable information to viewers and posting them to YouTube. You can also share your videos on other social media channels and embed them on your website for greater reach.

SEO TIP: Be sure to fill out your video description completely, using the keywords that you have found, for added SEO benefits. See how Neil Patel takes advantage of this area (below).

And contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to hire a videographer. Just a phone and possibly a stand will get the job done in most cases. Here are some additional tips for video marketing.

Stay Active on Social Media (Free)

Your customers are likely on social media, so it makes sense that you should be there, too. Having social media profiles gives you the opportunity to increase brand awareness, grow a loyal following, and increase website traffic.

You can use social media channels to post helpful tips, coupons or special offers, videos, share blog posts that you’ve written, and more. Social media gives you a unique opportunity to interact with potential and current customers.

Not every social media channel works for every type of business. For example, B2C businesses will enjoy a more robust Facebook following, while B2B businesses often benefit more from LinkedIn.

We recommend trying out a number of social media outlets by staying active on them for a month or so. From there you can determine which ones resonate best with your audience and focus your time and effort there.

You can try out tools like Hootsuite if you want to automate your social media posts.

Set Up and Monitor Your Google Business Page (Free)

Your Google Business listing is an important part of your digital marketing strategy. It appears this way to searchers:

Your listing shows the following:

• Where you are on Google Maps
• Google reviews and reviews from the web (ex. Foursquare, Yelp)
• Address and phone number
• Website
• Business hours
• Business photos
• Q&As
• Business posts
• More

When you have a Google Business listing, it essentially gives you free advertising space on Google and allows you to show up on Google’s local results and in searches done on Google Maps. It’s also good for your SEO.

Make sure you have claimed or created your Google Business listing so you can keep this important information up-to-date, respond to online reviews, create posts, and more.

If people are searching for you, this is likely the first thing they will see, so fill your information out completely and check back frequently to see your Google reviews and make sure your information stays current.

Click here to learn how to set up your Google My Business listing.

 Concluding Thoughts

Now you have six affordable (or free) digital marketing tactics to grow your small business in 2020 and beyond! If you need assistance, OpenVine can help you with a powerful online marketing strategy tailored to your business goals. To learn more about how we help small businesses succeed, contact us today!