If you are a busy mum running your own business as well as a family you may not have had the chance to explore all the different ways you can market your business online. You have probably concentrated your efforts on 1 maybe 2 social media platforms (my guess Facebook and Instagram) and are trying to post regularly but you are often not sure what to say to grow your business and increase your sales.
This is where understanding what digital marketing is and how to use it effectively can not only help you save time but reach a wider audience and grow your business online like never before
What is Digital Marketing?
Ok, so what is digital marketing? Let’s first get started by explaining that digital marketing is not just social media, it includes all the different ways you can connect with your current and potential customers and promote your products or services online. This could be through email marketing, websites, content marketing such as podcasts, blogs or videos and search engine optimisation (SEO)
Before you stop reading, thinking that’s great to know but with running a business and family life I don’t have time to do any more, let me assure you that understanding and using digital marketing effectively can actually save you time and help you to grow your business. Because digital marketing looks at all of the areas you can market your business online you can focus more on what’s working and less on what’s not.
Digital marketing can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be, let’s look at the 4 most used digital marketing tools.
The 4 common digital marketing tools?
Are you using these 4 common digital marketing tools in your business?
Social media marketing
Ok, so I said it’s not just social media but the fact is in 2023 there is no getting away from having your business on social media. Social media can be great for showing people more than just the products or services your business is all about, it is a way of growing the all-important know, like and trust factor and giving people a glimpse behind the business into what makes you unique.
But there needs to be a goal for being on social media, a purpose to your posts.
What is also important to remember is you don’t own your social media platforms, and will the constant updates and changes to the platforms to protect your business you need to have somewhere you can lead potential customers to or a way of capturing their email addresses so you can then contact them outside of social media.
Another reason to focus on digital marketing as a whole and not just social media is that most of the other areas of online marketing can be automated which means they will work by themselves without you having to constantly engage and be online. That way if you get that call from nursery or school that your small person has a temperature or even worse chicken pox, (which is exactly what happened in our house 2 weeks into the new school term!), your business can still be working away in the background while you focus on your family.
A platform that is often overlooked that can be automated and works to grow the other areas of your business is Pinterest. Actually, Pinterest isn’t social media at all its a visual search engine. If you are ready to “unlock the power of Pinterest” I have another blog post you can read more about it here. But before you do let’s look at the 3 other key areas of digital marketing.
Emails and email marketing
There is a difference between your emails and email marketing.
Emails would be where you email customers directly usually on a 1:1 basis. This would be for things like confirming books, sending invoices and answering questions or queries. Ideally, this would be done through a business email address something like hello@yourbusinessname.com to separate any personal emails from those relating to your business and also appear more professional.
Email marketing is where you use an email service provider to send regular emails to all or a section of people all at once who would opt-in to be part of your email list. To get people onto your email list you would offer an incentive, if you sell products this would usually be a money off vochure or a free gift. If you run a service business this could be a free guide or checklist that helps people save a problem relating to the service you provide.
Email marketing is an effective tool for promoting your business. By building an email list of interested customers, you can send targeted emails that promote your products or services, share news or promotions, and provide valuable content that your subscribers will find useful. The best part is that you can schedule your emails in advance, so you don’t have to worry about sending them out in the midst of your busy day.
What is even more important to note is that email marketing is 4x more effective than social media at making sales. That’s because people who have signed up to your email list are already interested in the products or services you provide and so are much more likely to buy.
To get people onto your email list you need to send them to a website or landing page to sign up. So let’s look at that next.
Websites and landing pages
A website is your digital home, the area of online marketing that you have full control over the content. Where you can provide details of your products or services, testimonials from clients, where people can learn more about you and most importantly make contact or make a sale.
If you don’t have a website yet you can start with a single webpage page, usually called a landing page. It can still include the above information but in more bite-sized sections.
A landing page is also where you would send people to sign up for your email list to get the freebie you would offer as part of your email marketing.
Can you see how all of this is starting to connect now? How your social media is how you promote your business you would then lead potential customers to your website or landing page to then get them onto your email list.
The final piece of the puzzle is to use keywords in all fo your content to help your potential customers find you. This is also referred to as SEO.
Search engine optimisation (SEO)
SEO is another important aspect of digital marketing. SEO involves optimising your content so it ranks higher in search engines and shows up on people’s social media pages. You do this by using specific keywords relating to your products and services across all your content that potential customers are likely to use.
It’s your initial SEO research that’s the magic that will help people find your business in the background and leave you to focus on the main areas of your business and your family.
The next step is the tech
So hopefully by now, you know what 4 digital marketing tools can help busy mums with running their business, the next question is how do you set it all up and make it work for your business?
I’m not going to hide the fact that there will be a little bit of time needed to set all this up and connect it all to each other, but once you have an effective system in place most of your digital marketing can run automatically. Freeing you up to concentrate on the main products or services of your business and giving you more precious time with your family.
If you are excited with all these ideas to grow your business but setting up the tech scares you then you could hire a tech VA to do it for you, if your not sure ‘what is a tech VA?’ I have a blog post that explains all here.
If you would like to discuss how a tech VA can help you grow the digital marketing of your business have a look at my Tech VA services page or you can book a FREE Discovery Call by clicking on the button below.
Don’t let the fear of tech stop you from growing your business today!
Have a great day
Nicola – New Wisdom Design and Digital
