Starter digital marketing plan for Small-sized Businesses

If given a choice, every business owner would like to have the full spectrum of digital marketing services. However, not every business can afford it, and it is not advisable to start every digital marketing tactic from the get-go even if you have no budget constraints.

Here is a digital marketing plan customized for small-sized businesses (2-9 employees) particularly when they have just started or when the company is at a nascent stage. This plan is highly efficient and has been crafted keeping in mind the various challenges small businesses face including limited budget, manpower, and experience in digital marketing.

This plan will help take your business to the next level. It will equip you to set goals and objectives for your company with confidence, should you plan to expand, and also help you hire the right digital marketing agency for your company’s long-term success and exponential growth.

This is a bunch of collaboration and productivity tools offered by Google that allows your business to operate effectively from any location, making sure you can access your data across different devices. This collection includes business version of popular applications like Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Calendar. Maya Studios can help you buy domain names, website design & development. Reach out to us here.

This is an analytics solution from Google that allows for the free tracking and evaluation of user traffic and behavior on your website. This is a great way to see how your customers interact with your business across multiple channels and devices. Hire an agency to set it up for you so that your customer data starts getting captured. Additionally, you can set one of the template goals for your business for the initial few months. Integrate GA4 with other services mentioned below for a complete view of your data.

This is for Google search and SEO insights.

This helps to track ad campaign performance.

This is to help local customers find your store or office and go through customer reviews to make a decision. This is a no-cost tool that shapes the way your business is presented on Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Shopping. Essentially, it will help your customers find your store or office and go through customer review to make the final decision.

For SEO, it is advisable to make a small investment with an agency. Hire them for a month so they can set up SEO for you and train you to carry out simple SEO tasks yourself. Maya Studios can help you with a one-time SEO setup without any lock-in period. We can also help you understand how to create SEO-optimized content.

For small businesses, particularly those operating with restricted marketing resources, online directories present a valuable and typically cost-efficient method for promotion. Some examples of local directories in Canada are yellowpages.ca, yelp.ca, 411.ca, bingplaces.com, etc.

Your customers are searching for your services on mobile devices. Ensure that your website design is mobile-responsive as this will affect your SEO score significantly.

Your customers are searching for your services on mobile devices. Ensure that your website design is mobile-responsive as this will affect your SEO score significantly.

Give more context

• Title tags
• Header tags
• Meta description
• Images
• Internal links

The more you address your customers’ pain points in your content pieces and the more value you give to your audience’s needs, the higher your online visibility. Aim for 100 content pieces (500 words each) in 6 months, which is 4 blogs a week on average. Use 2 of the content articles to create posts on social media and 2 as stories with a link to your website.

Start with a limited number of platforms. Aim for a minimum of 2 posts a week on each platform for 3-4 months. You can always repurpose your content articles to create stories as they have the added advantage of linking back to your website/lead generation page. As soon as you have about 50 relevant posts, you will start seeing positive results. Just make sure you have the brand logo on your social media profile pic and a well-written bio.

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn (in case of an information-heavy business like fintech, banking, remittance/loan/mortgage, educational institutions, etc)

Target 1-2 emails a month and share the following content with your customers:

• Your existing and best-selling service(s)
• Upcoming services (if relevant)
• Limited-time offers/deals/discounts
• Latest content piece plug-in

In short, SEO, content and email marketing, along with a one-time set-up is all you have to do when your business is in the initial stages. Once you have done this exercise CONSISTENTLY for 4-6 months, you will see the shape that your online business is capable of taking.

You will learn about your online audience and what works for you. This is also the right time to hire a full-time marketing agency, as you will have a much better idea of the goals and objectives you want to set for your business.

This plan will help you stay in control of your business and will equip you to take the next steps. Remember, this is just the beginning. Maya Studios is always there to support you and help you enjoy exponential growth. Reach out to us here.