Latest Digital Marketing Trends for SMBs

Digital marketing for small businesses has never been so important. Consumer buying habits have changed, and they continue to be further influenced by the products and services they see online. In fact, ThinkWithGoogle estimates that 58% of purchases are triggered by something a consumer has seen online, and this number will only continue to grow.

However, as you might expect, the influx of consumers in the online space has also seen an audience of businesses placing more importance on digital marketing, meaning there is a tremendous amount of competition for small to medium businesses. Furthermore, with logistics and infrastructure improvements, many product-based businesses now face competition from the world over, not just within their town or city. That being said, leveraging the latest digital marketing trends could help businesses expand their target audience, create greater brand awareness, and generate revenue like never before.

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Influencer Marketing

The rise of social media has seen the introduction and astronomical ascent of influencer marketing. Nearly all generations now use these platforms to create content, engage with others, and most importantly, seek opinions. Younger generations are more susceptible to being persuaded by influencer marketing, and according to Forbes, Gen Z now makes up 40% of consumers. 

Marketing and advertising have changed. Nowadays, audiences seek people they can relate to that use, review, and recommend products that will benefit them. Influencer marketing gives businesses exclusive access to engaged audiences, who trust the person on the other side of the camera to provide valuable and honest opinions. 

While it may not be feasible for a small business to work with influencers with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers, there is an abundance of smaller accounts ready and waiting to work with you. The best part about influencer marketing is that it benefits both the business and the influencer – it can also be incredibly cost-effective.

Social Media Stories

Most, if not all, social media apps now offer some form of “stories, or short video content – if this isn’t part of your SMB digital marketing strategy, it should be. The reason stories have become so powerful and prevalent is because they are the first item everyone sees when they open their preferred social platform. Clearly highlighted with your profile picture, they immediately notice you, and it’s the first port of call for many social users. In addition, you’re likely to expose your brand to people who are unlikely to visit your profile. 

This highly cost-effective platform is an amazing way to leverage social media, increase engagement for your profile, promote your products, and push people to your website. 

Voice Search

Rapid advancements in smart speaker technologies such as Amazon Alexa, Siri, and Google Dot have seen the quality of voice searching improve tremendously. As talking to our smart devices becomes the norm, it’s expected that even more people and future generations will fully adopt this method of search. Any SMB marketing strategy should include optimizing all platforms for voice search, making your website stand out amongst your competitors before they have the chance to get one up one you.

Optimizing For Position Zero

As we said, the digital space is becoming incredibly competitive. Attempting to battle for organic SEO rankings with businesses larger, more established, and that have a better online presence is often a losing battle. However, the emergence of position zero gives small business marketing teams the hope of sitting at the top of Google searches for competitive terms. A fantastic strategy to achieve position zero is to answer a question relating to the search term. For example, appearing in search for digital marketing is unlikely. However, if you create an article entitled, ‘What is digital marketing?’, You might have a better chance.

Artificial Intelligence

This is an incredibly broad term that can be applied to every area of digital marketing for small businesses. Utilizing AI not only gives you the ability to automate processes, but it also gives you access to (and the facility to) process and understand data like never before. One AI-powered technology, in particular, will begin to have even more impact – bot-powered online chat. Up until recently, bot chats were clunky, repetitive, and quite obviously a bot. Now, with great advancements in language processing and response, we’ll see many businesses opting to use AI chatbots over employing staff members to do the job for them.

Virtual Reality

What seemed like a technology that wouldn’t come to the masses until the distant future is rapidly becoming adopted. The digital world is upon us, and early adopters will reap the greatest rewards. The introduction of the Metaverse – where people will essentially lead a digital life alongside their real life, will begin to gain traction. Many product-related businesses, such as Nike are already creating digital fashion that can be worn in the metaverse – can your business fit into this niche too?

Social Media Automation

A digital marketer's job continues to include more responsibilities. Social media automation makes one element of a digital marketing strategy much less time-consuming. Platforms that enable you to search for content inspiration, schedule posts and stories, and allow teams to collaborate in one space will empower smaller marketing teams to streamline their processes, making social media much easier to manage. 

There are many benefits to digital marketing for small businesses, and it’s time for you to start utilizing the tools to help your business reap the rewards. If you feel like you need further guidance or an expert to do the work for you, reach out to our Las Vegas digital marketing agency, and we’ll happily collaborate with you to create a killer strategy.