Digital marketing is one of the fastest growth areas for business owners to leverage, and many think they have to spend a lot of money in order to make it work for them! However, you can make a significant impact in the digital world without having to spend a fortune. Gone are the days of having to spend tens of thousands of pounds on marketing campaigns like what was necessary for traditional media.

There are 5 main keys to leveraging the power of social media and the trillions of pounds that are currently being made in sales online every year. In 2017, e-commerce was responsible for £1.74 trillion in sales, a number that is expected to nearly double to £3.41 trillion by 2021. WOW!! A reason to be online if your not already!

Here’s how to use digital marketing strategies without investing big bucks!

Build an audience on social media
Set up business pages on two key social media platforms (if you haven’t done so already) — choose out of the ‘big three’, being Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Start growing your audience. You can invite your current customers to ‘like’ your page and ask them to invite their friends.

You could even do a low-end advertising campaign starting from £3 a day in order to grow your followers.

Know your audience and know them well
Many business owners know their clients, and know them well, however, they don’t tend to communicate this in the marketing they do. Most deal only on the surface level content rather than taking a deep dive and really talking to their audience.

Take a kitchen company, for example. You know that your clients are passionate about the kitchen they want to intall, yet there are many considerations they simply aren’t aware of, that can create stress in the middle of the night when they’re looking at extending, renovating or building.

What are their worries, fears, dreams and desires at a really deep level? And what would the completion of the project mean for them in all areas of their lives?

Share regular, original and educational content with your audience
Your audience wants to feel like you understand them and that you care. By sharing regular hints, tips and advice on ways that they can shortcut or solve potential issues that may come up, you start being seen as expert online.

For example, if you’re an estate agent, you might give some advice on preparing a home for an open inspection or educate them on industry speak. Tell them how if they do this, it will help their home sell faster, they’ll usually get a better offer if it’s positioned correctly and this can alleviate a lot of stress and tension for them.

When this is combined with step two, it really helps your company and your products be seen as unique and different. 

Offer your audience free, relevant resources in exchange for getting them onto your email list
This is a big one that many business owners miss. It’s crucial that you start building your database of people — with their permission.

With social media newsfeeds becoming more and more full and curated for the individual, you don’t want to miss out on being seen by your audience whenever you can be.

By giving them something for free — ideally digitally — you can then communicate with them in their email inbox. Someone’s inbox doesn’t get filtered the way that social media does so it gives you the opportunity to still be seen, to add value and build relationships with them.

Let them know how they can purchase from you
It sounds obvious, however, it’s a step many miss. By providing people with a call to action, it leads them step by step to buying from you or reaching out and getting in touch with you for more information.

Do this regularly so that people don’t need to go hunting around in an effort to work out how to give you money. Make it easy for them.

Rinse and repeat!
Keep using steps over and over again to continuously build your presence and your digital footprint.

When you do things in this way, you’ll find that as people get to learn more about you over the course of time (some will buy quickly but some will take their time and need to see more content from you!), you’ll start building relationships with them online, much like you do offline.

When they are ready, you’ll be the first to mind and they’ll buy from you.

If you don’t have the time to execute all of the above then you know where to find us! This is what we do and love to do for our clients 
Connect with us @infuse7