With the intense nature of competitive business practices increasing day by day, small businesses are now relying on advertising their products and services more than they ever have before. Whether your small business has been in operation for years or just launched recently, applying an appropriate marketing strategy is critical for success. To use advertising effectively, small businesses must ensure they are creating effective strategies so that their limited resources are used to the maximum extent.

So, what are the most effective ways through which a small business can advertise its product or service? In terms of marketing strategies, digital advertising is probably one of the most effective forms of advertising for small businesses. As a small business owner, you must understand that digital marketing practices now complement traditional marketing practices – together they can help you create an integrated marketing campaign, comprising of a mix of elements. Through a single digital marketing campaign, your business is likely to reach a large audience, although this of course depends on a number of factors such as budget and targeting. The most effective digital marketing strategies will take account of the geographical location of the business as well as the demographics within this location.

Perhaps the first step you can take as a small business owner looking to advertise your business is to understand and map out the different channels available for you to build your brand. In addition to having a website for your business, there are several other tactics you can use to maximize the reach of your online advertisements. The six most commonly used online marketing tactics are social media advertising, content marketing, video marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), and email marketing.

Social media marketing is now the number-one, most commonly used marketing strategy by most businesses. Staying up-to-date on your social media platforms will help you to target customers more effectively as American research found that at least 77% of Americans are now spending the maximum amount of their time on social media. Similarly, sharable digital content such as blog posts, eBooks, white papers, and videos – i.e. content marketing and/or video marketing – is a highly-used strategy through which advertisers attract users to view content and take an action. Your business website may have articles with a call-to-action feature, such as contact forms or purchase links.

Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, has been a highly popular marketing strategy in recent years. As the reliance on online shopping increases with more people shifting to online-based lifestyles, it is now more important than ever for businesses, especially small businesses, to invest in SEO services.

SEO services is a continually evolving scientific practice that incorporates trends and patterns to make the best use of your investment. SEO is key to driving organic traffic to your website. It works by ranking the business’s website in search engines, so that the website is among the first few results, within the organic search results, that the user or consumer will click on. For small businesses, this is highly beneficial as it is likely to lead to higher sales leads for the businesses. SEO is worth it for small businesses when the business starts seeing results in terms of new revenue generation. It is essentially a strong indirect driver which can help generate new business revenue opportunities.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, on the other hand, refers to those digital ads which appear when a user types a term used in the ad on a search engine. The advertiser pays only when someone clicks on your ad – hence, it is called pay-per-click advertising. The most common channel for such ads is Google. Advertising on Google through PPC campaigns is worth it for small businesses as these allow the business to reach targeted audiences and track their ROI.  These campaigns are effective in generating traffic. By choosing the right keywords and budget, it is possible for a small business’s ads to appear higher up in the search results. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is essentially a combination of both SEO and PPC. It helps to increase the visibility of a business in search engine results, primarily through paid advertising.

Lastly, email marketing is used widely by small businesses, as it is a quick means of reaching a large portion of the business’s target audience. As people increasingly use email apps on their phones, this form of marketing makes it easier to reach consumers at all times of the day. The key takeaway for email marketing is to ensure that the emails are short and include a clear call-to-action. The email must also be designed in a way that makes it look neat and easy to navigate through – users dislike ‘cluttered’ email ads.

So, how effective is digital advertising? Small businesses are increasingly moving to digital advertising as a means of advertising their products and services, as this form of advertising strategy helps them to reach and engage their target consumers online more effectively. With all the advancements in technology and the leap toward online shopping, small businesses must be nimble and implement digital advertising strategies. An effective digital marketing strategy helps to identify consumers, build the consumer base and finally, maintain the consumer base. It can be used to maintain relationships and continuously gain feedback as well. An omnichannel digital advertising strategy leverages all the above methods and can help your business accurately target and retain customers.