- Google vs Microsoft
Is your small business struggling to meet its potential through traditional marketing? Consider trying a new digital strategy. Digital marketing has exploded in the last decade as customers move online, so a solid digital marketing strategy is a must-have for any small business looking to expand, boost sales, or remain competitive.
Below are three of the best digital marketing tools to implement in your marketing strategy.
Thanks to the explosion of e-commerce in the digital age, physical stores are rapidly overshadowed by digital formats. E-commerce has become an integral part of the shopping experience for many people, especially during the pandemic; online sales made up over a third of all UK retail sales between March 2020 and 2021.
So, to make sure your business reaches this branch of customers, invest in a quality website. Only having an e-commerce platform often isn’t enough; your customers want a user-friendly interface and an easy-to-use system, so devoting time and money to your website development will pay off in the long run.
There are three main ways to build your website: hire a website designer, build with WordPress, or use a website builder like Wix or Squarespace. Each has its benefits, costs, and uses, all of which depend on your business type and customer base.
Hiring a web designer is the best way to get a highly professional, perfectly functioning website to cater to customer needs. Hand-built by professionals to your exact specifications, a site built by a web designer can revolutionise your digital performance, but it’ll cost you. Professional web builders can charge anywhere upwards of £4000, so it’s a serious investment.
However, a digital marketing strategy is not a short-term plan. A quality website that appeals to both your current and potential customers should deliver you a positive return on your investment. You could look at finance options to cover the upfront cost initially to enable the long-term gains from a professional website and e-commerce set-up.
WordPress
WordPress is a content management system or CMS. This system allows you to customise your website more than a site builder but at less cost than outsourcing to a web designer. WordPress is also customisable in how much you want to pay; the domain name and hosting are the only fixed monthly costs. Beyond these, it’s up to you what else you pay for. WordPress sites can be customised with themes, plugins, and apps, all of which can cost money depending on how specific your requirements are.
Depending on how tech-savvy you are, you may also require support from a developer if anything goes wrong, so you’ll need to factor this cost in too; tech support can cost anything up to £150 an hour, so it’s something to consider.
A domain and hosting can cost as little as £27 per month, so if you want affordability and flexibility - and don’t mind the extra work to build the site yourself - WordPress is a great option.
Website Builders
This is usually the cheapest way to build a website since the features are the most basic and generally are much less customisable than building a WordPress site or hiring a web designer. However, they’re much quicker to make and require very little technical knowledge.
Although most website builders offer free plans, these come with many limitations, some common ones being:
• Adverts displayed on your site
• A non-custom domain
• No e-commerce features
Since most businesses will want to give customers the ability to purchase from their site, a free plan is usually not your best option. However, paid plans are still much cheaper than paying for a website designer if you want an easy-to-build website quickly and for a low cost.
The cheapest paid-for Wix plan that allows e-commerce costs just £13 per month, while Squarespace’s e-commerce plans start at £15 per month. The low prices reflect that you won’t achieve the same level of customisation as you would using WordPress or a website designer. Still, website builders are an excellent option for getting a foothold into e-commerce while you work to finance a more extensive website.
Shopify is also a valuable option for a site geared towards e-commerce since it was created as a system entirely for this purpose. In contrast, Wix has developed selling features more recently on top of its content-heavy origins. Shopify plans start at £20 per month, similar to Wix and Squarespace but have a system tailored towards e-commerce.
SEO (search engine optimisation) is a digital marketing sector that ranks your website on search engines like Google or Bing. Many large organisations have departments devoted to SEO research and best practices, so it’s worth investing time and money to grow your business.
For businesses that don’t have the workforce to create an SEO department, there are platforms to help. SEMrush is an all-in-one tool suite for all things SEO and digital marketing; the platform allows you to analyse keywords, competitor research, social media marketing, and PPC strategy in one place, meaning you can apply the data and reap the rewards.
There are some ways to improve your SEO - the general aim is to rank on the first page of results for your search query, which can be achieved in several ways, shown below.
Blogs
Search engines will rank websites higher if they have internal and external links leading to them; it shows that your website is a trusted source of information. Creating blog posts is a great way to boost ties to your site for minimal effort.
Writing blog posts for your website with organic links to your other pages will improve the overall reputability of your site, pushing up the page rankings. In the same way, getting posts onto other blogs that link back to your site will help you rank higher. You could write a post for a site that caters to your industry, referencing your site as a trusted source to help search engines recognise the value of your content.
To save time, we recommend outsourcing blogs - paying someone else to write blog posts to improve your page rankings. While this costs, it gives you time to work on other aspects of your business. Plus, a higher ranking site will drive more traffic to your site and boost your customer base, so the investment is worthwhile.
Keyword Research
Another big part of SEO is keywords; these are words and phrases to use in your content that make it easier to find your site via search engines. By figuring out what words your customers are using to find businesses like yours, you can focus your content and rank highly in the searches of your demographic.
Tools like SEMrush gather keyword data to identify keywords you should be using to reach your customers, so it’s essential to put effort into proper keyword research.
Analyse your competitors' digital content, see whose sites are ranking highly, and check out their content. What words and phrases do they use? Chances are, these language choices contribute to their high ranking, so try using similar language.
Want to try SEMrush for free?
Click the SEMrush image below to create a free account.
(Or Scan this QR code to get started)
Another way to improve your digital marketing is by using a platform like Google Ads or Microsoft Ads. These are pay-per-click online advertising platforms that allow you to display your ad at the top of a search engine results page. You can pay to appear at the top of the results page for specific search terms to drive traffic to your website based on your chosen keywords.
The CPC (cost per click) depends on several factors: your industry, chosen search terms, competition, and business niche can all impact the amount you pay. Competition for high ranking search terms can be extremely high; the cost will reduce if you select less common searches. However, this will impact how often your keyword is searched for.
On average, the Google Ads CPC is £1.95 on the Search Network, compared to £1.25 for Microsoft Ads. Campaigns on Microsoft Advertising face approximately 36% less competition than Google Ads, which can have a considerable impact on your CPC. It is also worth noting that Bing accounts for 6.7% of the global search market, while Google takes 86.6%.
Google has calculated that for every $1 a business spends on Google Ads, they generate an average of $8 in profit, so it's worthwhile setting aside a budget for ads. The average SME spends up to £8000 per month on Ads; again, we recommend looking into finance options to cover the initial cost, but the data points to a positive return on your investment as a result.
With the right strategy, digital marketing can revolutionise the success of your small business. Although the outlay may seem extreme, you could see a return on your investment almost immediately by following our marketing ideas for small businesses.
If you’re ready to take the next step to grow your business, Love Finance can help. We offer instant business loans to small businesses; click below to get your quote.
{{cta('78ded5af-923e-47f0-aee2-260c27ae3448')}}
Website hosting:
£156 - £324 a year
Website development:
£4,000 average for a professional high converting website.
SEO / Keywords:
Free SEMrush account (£80-£400 per month for pro accounts)
Adwords:
Average spend of £8,000 per month*
£1.95 per click (£195 for 100 clicks) (Expected return of around £1560)
Microsoft advertising:
£1.25 per click (£125 for 100 clicks) (Expected return of around £1000)
Total Cost:
You can expect to spend around £4000-£5,000 for an initial website investment for a high converting website. The rest of the spending is up to you. The average SME spends £8,000 per year on advertising but hopes to make £60,000+ back from their investment. Of course, this all depends on how well each marketing element is executed. But it highlights just how important it can be for your bottom line.
Interested in financing your marketing efforts?
We offer fast unsecured business loans to small businesses to help you secure your growth plan.
