It’s a fragmented world in marketing these days. SEO. Pay per click. Email. Social media. Where to even begin?
Most small business owners begin a marketing conversation with, “We need leads and sales.” Then, the conversation quickly evolves to, “We need SEO, PPC, email, social ... we need it all.”
But does a small business really “need it all”? Or, is a plethora of marketing activities just a checklist of items that may or may not be necessary to reach the end goal?
Based on my experience in digital marketing, here are five questions that will help small businesses narrow down the marketing tactic(s) that will drive leads and sales. Each question seeks to understand where there is momentum in your marketing efforts — and what can be built off of that momentum.
Do you have 12 months to wait for results?
SEO can help build a predictable flow of inbound leads that enables a small business to grow in a sustainable, organic way.
If that sounds too good to be true, it is. SEO takes time: about 4 to 12 months, in my experience, depending on factors such as the competitiveness of target keywords and industry.
But good things come to those who wait. The benefit of SEO is that each lead is organic, meaning you didn’t pay for each click (other than your investment in SEO), and more searchers click on organic results over sponsored ads.
If you are patient enough to wait, SEO is the marketing tactic that will help produce ongoing inbound leads at a low cost.
Do you have an email list?
Does your business have thousands of email addresses that you’ve collected over the years from sales and sign-ups? If so, email marketing may be an advantageous tactic to reach your customers on a frequency tuned to each stage of the customer life cycle.
Email marketing is mathematical. I’ve found that the average open rate on an email campaign is about 20%, while the average conversion rate is about 2%. So, how many subscribers do you need to make email work for your business?
If the math produces a favorable return on investment, then email marketing may be a dependable lead source for your small business.
Do you have social media followers on platforms that matter to your business?
Generating a social media following is much tougher today than it was 5 or 10 years ago. The competition for attention is intense, and as a result, there’s a fallout of follower fatigue that impacts small businesses looking to carve out space on social platforms.
In other words, if you don’t have a significant social media following of a few hundred or more followers, then an investment in social media will fulfill customer reference checks — very similar to the purpose of a website — and little else.
However, there’s an alternative: Use your personal social media accounts to market your business. Many business owners have more LinkedIn connections than followers on their company accounts. Posting business updates on your personal profile enables you to market your business to a greater audience.
What’s your expected cost per lead?
Paid advertising costs money. If you’re a personal injury lawyer, you could be paying upward of $150 per click to advertise your keywords on Google. If you’re selling custom denim jeans, you’re probably paying something more down to earth like $3 per click. Regardless, paid advertising requires a budget — and some calculations behind it.
For example, let’s assume a conversion rate of 5% (meaning that 1 in 20 people who click on your ad will result in a lead or sale). If you’re a personal injury lawyer, are you able to pay $3,000 per month for one lead? If you’re selling denim jeans, how much will paying $60 for one sale cut into profit margins?
Calculating your expected cost per lead will help your business realize if paid advertising has the potential to drive results.
Where do you have marketing momentum?
All the questions above aside, determine where the momentum is in your business to identify the best marketing tactic.
For SEO, that momentum metric is usually tied to “domain authority,” which tells you how much of a foundation you have to support an SEO campaign. Anything over a 10 usually indicates that SEO might be a good investment.
For email and social, those metrics are the number of subscribers and followers you have. If you don’t have a following, there’s not a significant audience to receive your message.
If you have a brand-new website, no social media accounts and no email list, then paid advertising is for you. It’s the quickest way to build momentum for your business.
SEO takes months to see results. Email requires a list. Social requires a following. Paid advertising requires money.
Which tactic is best for you? You likely don’t need it all. Start small, and build momentum with the right marketing method. Then branch out to other methods to diversify your efforts.
