Digital Marketing Trends for Small Businesses

As the global economy strives to recover from the devastation levied from the pandemic, many businesses are reassessing where their marketing efforts should prioritize in the new year. As a marketing agency, we are seeing digital marketing trends small businesses are showing signals of. Let’s discuss some measures we’ve noticed, and determine whether they are applicable for your firm or not.

Had you asked a few years ago, “can small businesses create effective digital marketing campaigns without a website?” The answer would have been a swift, “No!” However, in the era of social media, namely Instagram, Tik Tok, Pinterest, and Facebook– a company does not need a website to have an effective marketing strategy. There are many brands who sell plentiful because of the successful engagement of their social media channels- their websites are just a formality. We have even seen successful social media influencers who forego a website entirely.

Some Real-World Examples of Digital Marketing Trends

A great example is with, Creators Mag, a digital magazine for creatives offering highly inspiring stories. They may not generate a ton of traffic to their website according to our external auditing, yet they have a digital circulation of more than 30,000 monthly readers subscribing to their magazine. Their Instagram channel garners more engagement than their website.

One in three small businesses thinks social media is their most successful digital marketing channel. According to projection stats, social media sites capture top global traffic rankings as well as the most active user base. According to this SEO tool, social media sites have many placements in the top 10 rankings- some even beating out Google.com.

We have seen many brands and companies who are wildly successful on social media, and their websites do not match such stature. According to a study, 73% of small businesses consider social media one of their most successful digital marketing channels. There are a number of reasons why. If we narrow it down to a handful of reasons, they would attribute it to the lower barrier to entry combined with significantly lower costs. For example, it requires far more capital, expertise, and manpower to produce a news station than a social media news outlet. Whereas, just one viral post can catapult a social media influencer.

Small Businesses Will Reduce Video Marketing Budgets in 2021

There is data that suggests small businesses plan to reduce video marketing spending in 2021. This too can be attributed to some of the reasons previously mentioned. Furthermore, our society has adjusted to accepting lower quality video sources. This has paved the way for this reduction during Covid-19. We have become accustomed to seeing pixelated Zoom-like videos in mainstream media or shakey smartphone videos as long as we gain the information or entertainment value from it.

Small Business Disconnect With CRMs & Email Campaigns

There is a disconnect with small businesses leveraging the power of using CRMs for their email campaigns.

Primarily, small businesses lack the knowledge of pairing a CRM with their email marketing campaigns. And when they are aware of the benefits, finding budgets to justify the spend is the barrier. CRMs are best suited when a sales team and a marketing team have been established within the business to invest in CRM software. This way they share the benefits of the tooling.

Are Small Businesses Investing in SEO?

Some companies, in general, are not actively adding SEO to their budgets, however, they will eventually add it. Our agency is seeing an influx of clients with one of two dilemmas. First, those businesses that had not relied on online sales are shifting and struggling with the challenges of running their business mostly online. Second, those businesses need to pivot their core business model due to the negative effects of the global pandemic.

Instead of pitching them SEO services outright, we coach them into understanding “Content Marketing.” This allows us to use our SEO prowess to help our clients grow their digital marketing campaigns organically- for the long term using high-quality content.

If you have an in-house marketing team should you still outsource to an agency?

We may be biased here, but we think they should outsource at some level. Even if they have an in-house team, having a “fresh set of eyes” and different experience skill set can drastically help their marketing efforts. We have cases such as this, whereas, the internal marketing team have run out of ideas and need more creative approaches. Furthermore, an agency should have a variety of experiences with different verticals. The in-house team may only try ideas that are obviously logical to their vertical, while an outside agency can pitch alternative ideas that may have worked well in other industries. During this era of Covid-19, traditional marketing is outdated and new, creative, oftentimes drastic ideas are necessary.

Trends to Look For…

Tik Tok! It’s not to be mistaken for “that dance app the kids are doing.” But an emerging video marketing tool that will grab a nice chunk of their competitor’s market share.

In conclusion

If your social media presence is stronger than your website, we would encourage you to keep focusing here. Although some data may suggest a reduction in video marketing spends- this could turn on a dime as Tik Tok and their competitors battle for users’ viewership. Don’t be unprepared for this shift. This can be said for SEO campaigns. However, if you don’t know how to maximize organic traffic from content, it is best you consult an expert to show you how.

If you learned some digital marketing trends to look forward to this year in this article, how about you share them on social media? Seeking a professional agency to help guide your firm? Give us a call to discuss more.

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